A one-of-a-kind quintessentially English village fair with villagers dressed up in Medieval costume raising funds for local amenities and charities.
The Old Fair of Abinger has its origins in the churchyard fairs of the Middle Ages. St James' Church at Abinger Common was one of the main halting places for pilgrims following the ancient tracks of the North Downs. Travellers would be fed, watered and entertained by the villagers with minstrels and merriment.
"I know well that when divers men and women will go thus after their wills, finding out one pilgrimage, they will ordain to have with them both men and women that can well sing wanton songs; and some other pilgrims will have with them bag-pipes; so that every town that they come through, what with the noise of their singing and with the sound of their piping and with the jangling of their canterbury bells and with the barking of dogs after them, they make more noise than if the king came with his clarions and many other minstrels.”
