Widdecombe Fair

Display in the window of the Old Pottery in Widecombe in the Moor

"The Story of "Widecombe Fair" is one of the quaintest of the Songs of the West, collected by the Rev. S. Baring-Gould, and the best known of them all among the Devon folk; indeed, it has bee termed the Devonshire National Anthem. It tells the tale of how Jan Pearce's grey Mare was borrowed by a friend,

For I wants to go to Widecombe Fair,
With Bill Brewer, Jan Stewer, Peter Gurney, Peter Davy,
Dan'l Whiddon, Harry Hawk,
Old Uncle Tom Cobleigh, and all.

But as neither the mare nor the party returned, Jan went to look after them, and -

When'e got to the top o' the hill,
'E see'd his old mare a-making of her will.

For the poor old mare "her took sick, and her died," and when you get to the top of the hill you won't wonder!  For steep and bad and stony is the way to Widecombe, long down, and oh, so long up again! But you want to stand in Dartmoor, so we will descend the hill...

...Widecombe Fair still takes place, a sheep fair held on the second Tuesday in September, and then Widecombe is a very stiring place indeed; and "you may see some proper ship (sheep) there," as an old farmer once said to me. They are mostly ruddled, that is marked with a red colouring; and, in pens, they fill up the green all round the church, where they stand and bleat until they are sold and driven off over the moor.  In the inn there is a grand lunch of cold meats to be had, and you may hear the finest Devonshire imaginable talked all round you; and if you belong to the county your tounge slips into the dialect quite naturally. You will most certainly meet "Bill Brewer, Jan Stewer, Peter Gurney, Peter Davy, Dan'l Whiddon, Harry Hawk,Old Uncle Tom Cobleigh, and all", ay, and recognize them too, with the grey mare herself."

Cresswell 1921

In the church at Widecombe in the Moor - a display about the song.

Map - Widecombe- in-the-Moor