St Kenelm’s Fair at Clent

A fair was held in the field beside St Kenelm’s Chapel at Clent on the saint’s feast, 17 July, and was thought to have grown from the crowds who came to visit the shrine of the murdered boy king. Its tolls were granted to Roger de Somery, lord of Clent, and cheese was the chief thing brought for sale. Clent had been royal land, and by an old charter its people were free of tolls, even at St Kenelm’s fair and the Holy Cross fair, and sold ale there without licence. The account Brand’s editor printed, from a paper by J. Noake of Worcester, says the fair had died out about twenty-five years before.