The ladle in a sling at York Dish Fair

18 October · York, Yorkshire

No longer kept

Yorkshire

On St Luke’s Day a fair for small wares was held in York, commonly called Dish Fair from the wooden dishes and ladles brought to it. By an old custom four sturdy labourers carried a wooden ladle slung between two stangs, each of them propped up by another man. The mock procession was thought to ridicule the cheapness of the wares and the little the labourers earned at the fair, which was held by a charter of Henry VII.

There was an old custom at this fair, of bearing a wooden ladle in a sling on two stangs, carried by four sturdy labourers, and each labourer supported by another.

From Hone's Table Book, vol. 2, col. 848. Read the original

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The ladle in a sling at York Dish Fair

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