The Hoppings is an annual travelling funfair held on the Town Moor in Newcastle upon Tyne, during the last week in June. It is one of Europe's largest travelling funfairs. [1] [2] [3] In recent years, over the course of the nine days it is held, it regularly attracts around 300,000 visitors. [4]
'Hoppings' was a word for an annual mediaeval fair usually held at Whitsuntide. [5] Writing in 1828, Parson and White explain that: 'Hopping, in Durham and Northumberland, is a local term signifying a feast, merry-meeting, dancing or parish wake'. [6] In the 19thc. 'Hoppings' were also held in Blaydon, Swalwell, Gateshead Windmill Hills and Winlaton. [7]
Several origins have been suggested for the word, most of which relate to dancing. The name may simply derive from the Middle English word "hoppen" meaning to dance, hop, leap, bound or bounce. [8] Another idea stems from the clothing which the travellers used to wear; that being of old, sack-like tops and pants. Clothing often became infested with fleas from the animals that travelled with the fair. People were often seen "jumping" or "hopping" about itching from the bites which they received.
The modern fair began as a Temperance Fair in 1882. [9] However it continues the tradition of several much older fairs held on the Town Moor, The Lammas Fair (1 August, from 1218), The Cow Hill Fair (18 October, from 1490) [10] and Race Week (from 1721) during which the Northumberland Plate was awarded from 1833. [11] From 1751 Race Week was held in the week closest to Midsummer.
Race Week was accompanied by hundreds of booths, tents and stalls, and when the horse races moved to Gosforth Park Racecourse in 1882, the Newcastle Temperance Festival took over both the Town Moor site and the late June date. [12] The organisers wanted to provide local people, especially the pitmen, with an alternative to drinking and gambling at the horse races. The first Hoppings held in 1882 included the familiar stalls and fairground rides, but also putting the shot, running races, pole leaping, triple jump, running jump, tug-of-war, bar vaulting, bicycle races and skipping competitions for children. [13]
In 1908 a fountain was erected at the top of Forsyth Road Jesmond in memory of Alderman William Davies Stephens who, as chairman of the Temperance Festival Association, had led the move to establish the Hoppings. [14]
The fair took place at Jesmond Dene from 1914 to 1918 and returned to the more spacious Town Moor, just north of the city centre, in 1919.[ citation needed ] There was no Festival on the Moor between 1920 and 1923, but it returned in June 1924, where it continued annually until 1946; a non-Showmen's Guild Fair was held that year but proved to be unpopular.[ citation needed ] The Guild showmen returned in 1947 and the Hoppings was a success with a record attendance.[ citation needed ] In 1959 the Hoppings featured in an amateur short film, [15] viewable at the Yorkshire Film Archive.
In 1985, attendance dipped to 100,000 as the recession hit. The Hoppings was even at risk of closing, but after reducing policing costs and increasing the use of the car park, The Hoppings saw a great profit in 1991. To mark the end of The Hoppings that year, a firework display took place. [16]
In 2013 after a dispute between the Showmen's Guild and Newcastle City Council over pitch and rent terms, alternate fairs were held at Nuns Moor Newcastle upon Tyne and Herrington Country Park, Sunderland. [17] [18] [19] Newcastle council held an alternate event with "broader appeal" which included a funfair held on the Town Moor. [20] The Hoppings returned to the Town Moor in 2014 after the dispute was resolved. [21]
In 2020, the Hoppings was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, [4] the decision was taken jointly by Newcastle City Council the Freemen of Newcastle who manage the Moor. [22]
In 2021 Crow Events took over full management of the event from the Freemen of Newcastle. It was decided to move the date for this year only to the 19 to 30 August to allow for the government's 4-stage plan to ease Covid pandemic restrictions to be successfully rolled out. However the event was eventually cancelled in its entirety. It will return to the June date for future years.
In the 1970s, photographer Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen took a series of black and white images of the Hoppings. [23]
The Hoppings inspired the song "Katie Was There" by Eric Boswell which was part of his 1983 musical Katie Mulholland , based on Catherine Cookson's novel, staged by Newcastle Playhouse.
North East England is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. The region has three current administrative levels below the region level in the region: combined authority, unitary authority or metropolitan borough, and civil parishes. They are also multiple divisions without administrative functions; ceremonial county, emergency services, built-up areas and historic county. The largest settlements in the region are Newcastle upon Tyne, Middlesbrough, Sunderland, Gateshead, Darlington, Hartlepool and Durham.
Newcastle upon Tyne, or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is England's northernmost metropolitan borough, located on the River Tyne's northern bank opposite Gateshead to the south. It is the most populous settlement in the Tyneside conurbation and North East England.
Tyne and Wear is a ceremonial county in North East England. It borders Northumberland to the north and County Durham to the south, and the largest settlement is the city of Newcastle upon Tyne.
North Tyneside is a metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear, England. It forms part of the greater Tyneside conurbation. North Tyneside Council is headquartered at Cobalt Park, Wallsend.
"Blaydon Races" is a Geordie folk song of 1862, with lyrics by George Ridley written in a style deriving from music hall. It celebrates the horse races held at Blaydon in North East England that year, although mostly composed in advance of the event. The words were inspired by the American ballad "On the Road to Brighton", to the tune of which they are set. The song has become a local anthem, and is frequently sung by supporters of Newcastle United Football Club, Newcastle Falcons rugby club, and Durham County Cricket Club.
Showman can have a variety of meanings, usually by context and depending on the country.
The Northern Football Alliance is a football league based in the North East, England. It has four divisions headed by the Premier Division, which sits at step 7 of the National League System.
The Battle of Boldon Hill was a day-long engagement that took place in modern-day Tyne and Wear between English Royalists and an army made up of Scottish Covenanters in alliance with Parliamentarians from nearby Sunderland on 24 March 1644 during the First English Civil War.
The Town Moor is an area of common land in Newcastle upon Tyne. It covers an area of around 1,000 acres (400 ha), making it larger than Hyde Park and Hampstead Heath combined. It is also larger than New York City's Central Park. The Town Moor reaches Spital Tongues and the city centre to the south, Gosforth to the north and Jesmond to the east.
The Incorporated Company of Hostmen of Newcastle upon Tyne, often called the Hostmen's Company of Newcastle, is a company incorporated by royal charter of 22 March 1599/1600. Analogous to a livery company of the City of London, it still exists. It is best known to economic historians as a cartel of businessmen who formed a monopoly to control the export of coal from the River Tyne in North East England. They were so known from the medieval practice of "hosting", whereby local businessmen provided visiting merchants with accommodation and introduced them to local traders. The Hostmen acted as middlemen with whom the coal producers and those who shipped the coal to London and elsewhere were forced to deal.
Scottish Romani are the Romani people of Scotland. This includes Scottish Romanichal and Romani Lowland Travellers.
Summercourt fair is a charter fair held annually in Summercourt, a village five miles (8 km) south-east of Newquay in Cornwall, United Kingdom. The fair is held during the last week of September each year. It is one of the largest fairs in Cornwall and is over 800 years old.
Jesmond is a suburb of Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, England, situated north of the city centre and to the east of the Town Moor. Jesmond is considered to be one of the most affluent suburbs of Newcastle upon Tyne, with higher average house prices than most other areas of the city.
Below is a complete list of High Sheriffs of Tyne and Wear since the creation of that county in 1974.
Tyne and Wear is a metropolitan area covering the cities of Newcastle upon Tyne and Sunderland, as well as North and South Tyneside, Gateshead and Washington.
The Showmen's Guild of Great Britain exists to protect the interests of Travelling Showmen in Great Britain.
"Swalwell Hopping" is a Geordie folk song written in the 19th century by John Selkirk, in a style deriving from music hall.
James Horsley (1828–1891) was an Alnwick born songwriter, editor, and general handyman. In addition to his songs, he wrote many pieces of poetry about Jesmond. The most well-known of the songs may well have been "'She's sumboddy's bairn".
The North East Combined Authority (NECA), officially the Durham, Gateshead, South Tyneside and Sunderland Combined Authority, was one of the combined authorities in North East England. It was created in 2014, and consisted of the City of Sunderland; Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead, South Tyneside; and Durham County local authorities.
The ceremonial county of Tyne and Wear has returned 12 MPs to the UK Parliament since 2010. It was created under the Local Government Act 1972, which came into effect on 1 April 1974, comprising the urban areas around the mouths of the Rivers Tyne and Wear, previously parts of the historic counties of Northumberland and Durham.
Europe's largest travelling fair, the Hoppings, is a week of frenzied activity.
In terms of size Newcastle is perhaps the biggest fair in Britain, if not in Europe