The thrills and spills, Hereford’s Mayfair has been with us since the 12th Century. It started life as St Ethelbert’s Fair in 1121 and a street fair has been held in the city ever since. Each year, roads are closed off for three days in May to allow the event to take place. The fair has evolved to meet the needs of the modern consumer and today we have gravity-defying, scream-inducing rides, candy floss, deep-fried doughnuts, crisp chips, hook a duck stalls, and numerous opportunities to win fluffy giant pandas, giraffes, and animals of all descriptions.
There are many who still remember a far more colourful fair. Dancing girls, naked ladies, bearded ladies, ‘freak’ shows, and the boxing booth, were just a few of the entertainments long gone from the streets of the May Fair. It would have been impossible for a photographer like Derek Evans, whose studio was on Broad Street, to miss it this annual visual spectacle. His archive is testament to that.
Using the Closed Captioning (CC) facility in YouTube we can offer auto-generated subtitled versions of the 110+ oral history video interviews. Click on the link to access the May Fair Playlist. NB: To switch on the subtitles go to the bottom tab on the main image and click on ‘CC’ – to switch them off, do the same.