Custom · Cambridge
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Eight centuries of fair, opened with a cry and coins.
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The common is open public land by the river; the fair runs for several days around midsummer in June (19 to 22 June in 2025), with the proclamation on the opening Thursday morning.
Midsummer Common: for over eight hundred years a fair has opened here each June, with a proclamation and coins for the children.
In 1211 King John granted the prior and canons of Barnwell a four-day fair at midsummer, on common land by the Cam said to have had springs where midsummer festivities were already held. Control later passed from the priory to the town, and the fair became famous for horse dealing and as a great gathering of Travelling communities. It still runs on Midsummer Common every June, organised by the Showmen's Guild. Each year it is formally proclaimed: in 2025 the Mayor of Cambridge processed from Wesley Methodist Church to read the proclamation, followed by the traditional handing out of coins to children.