The Menai Bridge Fair used to be known as the Bishop's Fair and was actually held over on the mainland. But they must have thought it was easier to keep the animals on the island because it was moved to Menai Bridge, and was actually held four times a year.
It was famous as a horse fair and I remember hearing about my husband's relative who bought a horse there, took it home, set it loose in his field - and never saw it again!
As well as being an agricultural show, it was also an employment fair. Local farmers would come to find maids and farmhands to work in their houses and on their properties. I'm in my 60s and I remember people talking about finding jobs at the fair, so it wasn't so long ago.
The fair has changed a lot over the years. When I was young, life had been drab because of the war and it was a time of great colour, noise and fun. I remember this game where you'd take a ticket with a name on it, then the machine would go up and down until it landed on a certain name. If that matched the one on your ticket you won a prize. Mam won a doll for me once and I've still got it to this day.
The students from the Normal College and the university at Bangor would come over and there was always a certain amount of competition between them. They didn't actually fight all that often, but they did get blamed for any trouble, whether they deserved it or not.
I was just speaking to my friend about the fair the other day, and we were recalling the striptease tent which was very popular with the young lads! I remember hearing the music playing loudly - Pretty Woman by Roy Orbison. The boxing tent was very popular, too. It used to travel from fair to fair, all over the country.
I remember riding on the hobby horses, which were so pretty, but very old-fashioned. I've been looking out of the window at them setting up the modern rides for the fair this year and they're so high tech these days.
I'm still very fond of the fair. As someone who runs a shop in town we do feel the loss of the car park for a fortnight and this does give an excuse for those who don't like it to speak out against Menai Bridge Fair.
But it's tradition. It brings a bit of colour and life to the village each year and that's a great thing.
Mary Lloyd Hughes
The man who tried to stop the fair.
Historic photos of Menai Bridge Fair on Lleol i Mi.
your comments
Phil from Exeter
I will never forget Ffair Borth as my late Nain & my Aunt used to, & still do, send me three sticks of no.8 Welsh rock. I look forward to it!
Mon May 18 10:56:53 2009
Phyl Barlow, Mold
I used to come up to stay with my grandmother at Llanfair PG for fair week. I loved the fair. I used to listen to all the barkers selling shoddy goods and work my way round all the little areas where the rides were set up. My grandfather used to talk about maybe getting me a mountain pony from the fair and keeping it at the top of the garden, but it never happened.
Tue Oct 14 09:25:28 2008
Grace E Roberts
Brings back memories as a child I can remember my late father always talking about it but would never take me there and even as a teenager I was forbidden to go there.He would tell me it wasn't for nice girls there were bad boys there, so in my innocence I just had to believe him.However it didn't stop him from going and he would always come back with something that he would have won on the shooting game there.
Two things I remember clearly that he brought home was a huge Teddy Bear that growled, it would have been about two foot tall. Another time he brought home a beautiful pair of ornaments in a dark blue color with nice pictures on them, today they would be worth quite a bit of money. I did eventually go to Ffair y Borth after I was married, but never did find all the nasties that my father told would be there, but I did get a few sticks of Number 8 Rock.
Thu Oct 25 11:37:35 2007
