Mediaeval Fairs

Medieval fairs were held annually, usually on a particular saint's day or other special day in the church calendar. For general information on where and when medieval fairs were held, see The Gazetteer of Markets and Fairs in England and Wales to 1516, especially the Basic Introduction and, of particular relevance to Cadfael enthusiasts, the entry for Shrewsbury ( the list of abbreviations will be helpful in reading the entry).

Fairs were very profitable to the body running them, and so that new annual fairs did not interfere with local tradespeople's business too much or with other fairs nearby, fairs other than prescriptive fairs (those that had been held from time immemorial) needed permission from the monarch, usually issued in the form of a charter. Examples online in translation are for a fair at Ramsey granted to Ramsey Abbey in 1110 by Henry I (Matilda's father and Stephen's predecessor on the throne) and a fair at Cambridge granted to the citizens of Cambridge in 1201 by King John (Matilda's grandson).

Saint Winifred and Saint Giles

Two important saints in the Cadfael stories are St. Winifred and St. Giles. The first book in the Cadfael series, A Morbid Taste For Bones, tells how Benedictine monks from Shrewsbury brought St. Winifred's bones from Gwytherin in Wales to Shrewsbury. The Catholic Encyclopaedia has an article on St. Winifred (aka Winefride, Wenefride). St. Winefride's Well at Holywell in Flintshire, Wales, where St. Winifred was decapitated, still attracts pilgrims seeking cures. (clip art of St. Winifred courtesy of Two Hearts Design


Prior Robert, the leader of the Shrewsbury monks looking for St. Winifred's bones in Ellis Peters' book, was a real person and he wrote up the story of the monks' expedition. His account of St. Winifred's back story was probably the source for the account in The Golden Legend, a 13th century compilation of saints' stories, which was translated by William Caxton in 1483 (not as daunting as it may sound) - St. Winifred's life. Google books has made available Philip Leigh's 1712 The Life, and Miracles of S. Wenefride. Pages 114 - 134 (small pages, only about 100 - 150 words each) are said to be a translation of Prior Robert's work, but read more like a paraphrase. A scholarly translation of Prior Robert's account was issued in 1977, the same year A Morbid Taste For Bones was published.


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The Catholic Encyclopaedia and
The Golden Legend both also have accounts of St. Giles (aka Aegidius), the saint to whom the church in Shrewsbury Abbey's leper asylum is dedicated. The above map shows the Abbey church (A) and St. Giles's church (B) - picture here - in today's Shrewsbury. The picture below (public domain picture from wiki commons) shows a painting of an incident in the life of St. Giles, painted around 1500 by an anonymous painter now known as the Master of St. Giles, and now in London's National Gallery.

Shrewsbury Abbey and Shrewsbury Castle

Shrewsbury was built by the Anglo-Saxons near the former site of the Roman city of Viroconium. After the Norman Conquest, Roger de Montgomery, a close friend of William the Conqueror's and probably a relative was made Earl of Shrewsbury. He was responsible for two of the important landmarks in Shrewsbury in Cadfael's time parts of which can still be seen today, the Abbey and the Castle. The main surviving part of the Abbey is the Abbey church, while Shrewsbury Castle was extensively remodelled in the 18th century by Thomas Telford to turn it into a home for the Pulteney family.


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A well illustrated summary history of Shrewsbury can be seen in this .pdf file. Shropshire county council has a site including pages on the history of Shropshire.


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The above map shows the location of Shrewsbury Abbey church and (scroll rightwards) Shrewsbury castle. The BBC has a series of panoramas showing the inside of the Abbey church and exterior views of the castle. The BBC also has pages on the history of Shrewsbury abbey. The Darwin Country further education website has illustrations of the Shrewsbury Abbey church and Shrewsbury castle produced at various times down through the ages.