Now! Then! Primitive Methodists try to disrupt the traditional Maudlin Fair football match between Hedon and Preston (Holderness)

30 July 1820: Primitive Methodists try to disrupt the traditional Maudlin Fair football match between Hedon and Preston (Holderness)

John Petty. 1860. The History of the Primitive Methodist Connexion. London: R. Davies, Conference Offices. Get it:

Excerpt

This fair has been held annually in the month of August, from time immemorial. It probably had its origin in connection with some Popish ceremony in honour of Mary Magdalen. The Sabbath immediately preceding the fair was for generations spent in dissipation and vice. A football was prepared for the occasion, and became an object of fierce contention between the men of Preston and those of Hedon. It was tossed up in the field in which the fair was held, and then a bloody struggle began between the contending parties. It was customary for them to get their shoes toed with hard leather or steel for the purpose of striking more effectively against each other’s legs. Mangled flesh and broken bones, producing shrieks and groans from the injured parties, and exciting fiendish pleasure among others, were quite common. Brutal and cruel fights were often numerous, and the whole country was filled with most unhallowed excitement. Even women, forgetful of the duties of their sex, urged on the parties of their respective villages to strive for the mastery. While the air was rent with oaths and imprecations, female voices were heard crying out alternately, “Now Preston! Now Hedon!” The triumphant party kicked the ball into the village to which they belonged, and sent it through the window of the first public house which they found without the shutters closed. When the football arrived at Preston during divine service, farmers might be seen hurrying out of church to share in the foolish triumph; and even the clergyman, at the close of the service, would give the football players money for drink. It was among such half-civilized men, and on a Sabbath devoted to such cruel sports and godless practices, that the preachers and friends from Hull went to hold their first camp-meeting at this place. It required no little courage to carry the Gospel into the very midst of crowds of men so godless and desperate, but the faith and fortitude of the brethren were equal to the task. They came in a wagon, drove it into the field in which the fair was held, and boldly encountered the opposition which awaited them. A number of the rabble strove to the utmost to upset the wagon, and got under one side of it for the purpose. The friends did their best on the opposite side to prevent it. Between the two parties the wagon was, for some time, rocked like a cradle, or tossed like a vessel in a storm. The wicked, however, failed to upset it, and the brethren succeeded in holding a camp-meeting according to their purpose, though one of the preachers had his coat-laps torn off, which were thrown high up into the air. Many were convinced of sin, and a good work broke out in the neighbourhood.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Abbreviations

Comment

Although Mary Magdalene’s feast is conventionally 22 July, the Maudlin Fair was celebrated on and around 2 August on Magdalen Hill, Hedon. In 1820 the Sabbath preceding the fair was 30 July. John Nicholson, 70 years later, seems to suggest that it might not have been as unpleasant as the Methodist killjoys suggested:

As the Fair became of less importance, the tenant of the field tried to prevent anyone entering on the day appointed for the fair, and though sometimes unsuccessful, by dint of bribing and giving a shilling each to those desirous of entering, the fair was finally abolished about 1860. The following is a reprint of a song, descriptive of the fair in its best days:

Let lords in their bag wigs, and ladies in gauze,
At court strut and stare, or at balls seek applause,
Can such create envy, can aught give us care?
While pleasures invite us like Magdalen Fair.

No plotting ambition, no polished deceit,
No patches or paint, at this revel we meet;
Our greetings are blessings not purchased by wealth,
The smile of content, and the rose bloom of health.

Maidens long wishing for this happy day,
Pray old father time to pass quickly away;
To reach this gay scene, all contrivance they try,
And those who can’t get there – they sit down and cry.

Here damsels all beauty, enlivened by youth,
With eyes full of lightning and hearts full of truth;
Impelled by dame nature in spite of their dads,
Parade in their finest! and skyme [squint] at the lads.

And gallant young yeomen, our nation’s chief pride,
For such can be found in no country beside;
Each anxiously striving from notice apart,
To catch a kind look from the girl of his heart.

All sports and diversions for old and for young,
A medley of frolic is this jovial throng;
Shrill whistles and trumpets, bagpipes and gewgaw
Pots boiling, dogs fighting, and game of E.O. [badger-baiting].

Here’s wrestling and vaulting, and dancing on wire,
With fiddling, and juggling, and men eating fire,
Bold sergeants recruiting, lads ‘listing for life,
And family lessons from Punch and his wife.

Stalls hung with fine trinkets, before and behind,
Rich sweets for the palate, and books for the mind,
Famed singers of ballads, excelled by none,
And tellers of fortunes, who don’t know their own!

Huge giants, dwarf pygmies, wild beasts and wise ponies,
Rough bears taught to dance, with arch pug-macaronies!
Raree shows and safe horses, a penny a ride,
With grand entertainments, a thousand beside.

In words all the wonders would never be told,
The way to enjoy, is to come and behold;
The king’s coronation could nothing compare
To half the delights of the Magdalen Fair.

The badgers were obtained from the woods at Burton Constable, and were housed in barrels on the Fair ground. Sometimes there would be a dozen or more present at once. The man, who wished his dog to try conclusions with the badger, paid the owner of the badger sixpence; but the attempt to draw the badger not unfrequently ended in the death of the dog (Nicholson 1890).

How does “the game of E.O.” (evens and odds, an early form of roulette) come to be used for badger-baiting?

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Original

The Primitive Methodists first visited Preston towards the end of July, 1820. They preached in the street on returning from a camp meeting at Keyingham, occupying for a pulpit the cart in which they rode; when some mischievous person drew out the linchpin from one of the wheels, and thereby exposed the friends to considerable peril. The next Sabbath several preachers and friends came from Hull to hold a camp-meeting on what is called “Maudlin,” or “Magdalen Fair Sunday.” This fair has been held annually in the month of August, from time immemorial. It probably had its origin in connection with some Popish ceremony in honour of Mary Magdalen. The Sabbath immediately preceding the fair was for generations spent in dissipation and vice. A football was prepared for the occasion, and became an object of fierce contention between the men of Preston and those of Hedon. It was tossed up in the field in which the fair was held, and then a bloody struggle began between the contending parties. It was customary for them to get their shoes toed with hard leather or steel for the purpose of striking more effectively against each other’s legs. Mangled flesh and broken bones, producing shrieks and groans from the injured parties, and exciting fiendish pleasure among others, were quite common. Brutal and cruel fights were often numerous, and the whole country was filled with most unhallowed excitement. Even women, forgetful of the duties of their sex, urged on the parties of their respective villages to strive for the mastery. While the air was rent with oaths and imprecations, female voices were heard crying out alternately, “Now Preston! Now Hedon!” The triumphant party kicked the ball into the village to which they belonged, and sent it through the window of the first public house which they found without the shutters closed. When the football arrived at Preston during divine service, farmers might be seen hurrying out of church to share in the foolish triumph; and even the clergyman, at the close of the service, would give the football players money for drink. It was among such half-civilized men, and on a Sabbath devoted to such cruel sports and godless practices, that the preachers and friends from Hull went to hold their first camp-meeting at this place. It required no little courage to carry the Gospel into the very midst of crowds of men so godless and desperate, but the faith and fortitude of the brethren were equal to the task. They came in a wagon, drove it into the field in which the fair was held, and boldly encountered the opposition which awaited them. A number of the rabble strove to the utmost to upset the wagon, and got under one side of it for the purpose. The friends did their best on the opposite side to prevent it. Between the two parties the wagon was, for some time, rocked like a cradle, or tossed like a vessel in a storm. The wicked, however, failed to upset it, and the brethren succeeded in holding a camp-meeting according to their purpose, though one of the preachers had his coat-laps torn off, which were thrown high up into the air. Many were convinced of sin, and a good work broke out in the neighbourhood.

Mr. Clowes preached in the street at Preston some time after, when the singular circumstances occurred which he thus narrates in his journal:

I preached in the open-air from the words “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink; he that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” It having been a dry summer, and there being a great want of rain, an old woman who was standing by when I delivered my text, when she heard “rivers of living water” mentioned, ran down the village, and told the people that the waters had broken out against old Pallister’s house, and every body might have some. On this the people flocked up to see the wonder, but they found that the waters that had broken out were “living waters,” and at that time they were flowing very freely. Several were under conviction, and one man, lying on a heap of stones just by, was crying to God with all his might.

The “old Mr. Pallister” just mentioned, was a warm friend of the infant cause, and was made a constable before the next Magdalen fair arrived. He issued bills against the custom of playing at football on the Sabbath; and, as many disregarded his warning, he brought some of the ringleaders before the magistrates, and thus gave a check to the demoralizing practice. The Gospel, too, exerted an elevating and transforming influence, and gradually prepared the way for the entire abolition of the wicked customs before named, which took place some years afterwards, partly by the exertions of another pious constable.

We are chiefly indebted to the foregoing account to Mr. Peter Jackson, a well-known local preacher at Preston, who was present at the first camp-meeting held there, and witnessed all the scenes we have just described.

872 words.