HISTORY
Hiring staff in Market Deeping, the swings and roundabouts “The Fair was now raging thick and loud. It was the chief hiring fair of the year and differed quite from the market of a few days earlier. In substance it was a whitey- brown crowd flecked with white - this being the body of labourers waiting for places. The long bonnets of the women like waggon-tilts, their cotton gowns and checked shawls mixed with the carters’ smock frocks; for they too entered into the hiring.”
This is how a Hiring Fair (also known as a Statute) was described by Thomas Hardy in The Mayor of Casterbridge, but similar scenes would have been seen in the Market Place here in Market Deeping. The Fairs took place in May and November and in May 1873 the Lincs Free Press reported that ’there was a large attendance of masters and mistresses seeking servants, and though there was a good number of servants the demand exceeded the supply. Extravagant wages were asked for and were given’. On the day of the Hiring, farmers and their workers would have the day off and come into Market Deeping to spend the day meeting friends, drinking and enjoying themselves while some went to find work or workers. The Market Place was ...continued >
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