Note E372 — 57.
Reading edition
"Stourbridge or Sturbich, the name of a common field extending between Chesterton and Cambridge, near the little brook Sture, for about half a mile square, is noted for its fair which is kept annually on September 19th, and continues a fortnight. It is surpassed by few fairs in Great Britain, or even in Europe, for traffic, though of late it is much lessened. The booths are placed in rows like streets, by the name[s] of which they are called, as Cheapside, etc., and are filled with all sorts of trades. The Duddery, an area of 80 or 100 yards square, resembles Blackwell Hall. Large commissions are negotiated here for all parts of England in cheese, woolen goods, wool, leather, hops, upholsterers' and ironmongers' ware, etc., etc. Sometimes 50 hackney coaches from London, ply morning and night, to and from Cambridge, as well as all the towns around, and the very barns and stables are turned into inns for the accommodation of the poorer people. After the wholesale business is over, the country gentry generally flock in, laying out their money in stage-plays, taverns, music-houses, toys, puppet-shows, etc., and the whole concludes with a day for the sale of horses. This fair is under the jurisdiction of the University of Cambridge."—Walker's Gazetteer, ed. 1801. See also index to Brand's Antiquities.
Camden says it was anciently called Steresbrigg, from the little river Stere or Sture that runs by it (in his Britannia, under Cambridgeshire). There have been many guesses at the name and origin of this fair, e.g. that of Fuller in his History of the University, p. 66, concerning the clothier of Kendal. The truth of the matter is this: King John granted Sturbridge fair for the benefit of the hospital of lepers which stood there (v. decretum Hubert. Arch. Cantuar. in Concil. Londinen. An. 1200. Regn. Johann.; Spelman, ii. 127): in the certificatorium we are told that the keeper of the hospital holds twenty-four and a half acres of land in the county of Cambridgeshire to maintain these lepers. The Vice Chancellor has the same power in this fair that he has in the town of Cambridge. The University is always to have ground assigned for a booth by the mayor. Midsummer Fair was granted to the Prior and Convent of Barnwell, for much the same reason that Sturbridge was to the Lepers,—ad eorum sustentationem. In the reign of Henry the Sixth the Nuns of St. Radegund had the grant of Garlick Fair for the same reason.
"Sturbridge Fair was formerly proclaimed by both the Corporation and the University authorities. Originally lasting six weeks, in 1785 it lasted only three weeks, and now it lasts but one week. A very amusing account of its proclamation by the Vice Chancellor will be found in Gunning's 'Reminiscences of Cambridge.'"—S. N. in Notes and Queries, Aug. 25, 1877.
"When th' fair is done, I to the Colledg come, Or else I drinke with them at Trompington, Craving their more acquaintance with my heart, Till our next Sturbridg Fair; and so wee part." —Brathwaite's Honest Ghost, 1658, p. 189.