1750 Stourbridge Fair decline and eventual fall

By the mid 18th Century the Fair had passed its peak. Tax returns suggested smaller income for Town, though the social side unaffected.

Caraccioli wrote An Historical Account of Sturbridge etc in 1772, noting changing patterns in the fair, which now only lasted a fornight. The booksellers were gone, now presumably working through shops, and new marketing and banking systems made large fairs outmoded for commodities. In the 18th century a navigable river was less important than previously, canals and turnpike roads providing alternatives and opening up the increasingly important new industrial areas in the North and Midlands.

Henry Gunning reminisced about the Fair he use to visit in late 18th Century as a town official. He commented on the sale of cheese, which was mainly of local origin and being sold to London. The Duddery wool-market was still in existence, but beginning to decline. Hops and pottery still occupied a lot of space at the Fair. There was a row stretching from the river ferry crossing to Newmarket Road that included "silk-mercers, linen drapers, furriers, stationers, an immense variety of toys, and also of musical instruments". There were also "the usual mixture of dwarfs, giants, conjurors and learned pigs". Entertainment and food and drink were clearly important, and after 1740, following persistent opposition from the University, a theatre was permitted with "many respectable, and frequently excellent performers".

Towards the end of the 18th Century, Cambridge coporation was corruptly dominated by the Mortlock family. Booths became private property, depriving the Town from income. The civic procession at the Fair was abandoned in 1790s, and the theatre demolished as unsafe in 1803.

In 1811 the Stourbridge Fair fields were enclosed, and any land not controlled by the University proved to very valuable. Some of the ground previously occupied by the Fair was built on, and some quarried for bricks. The railway was built on the site of the Duddery. The Fair could still kept people entertained after the harvest, but it ceased to be of major economic importance. Town shops now looked forward to extra custom from the Fair, rather than fearing its competition.

Following enclosure, Victorian Cambridge expanded quickly, and the previously rural fair location became a rough area on the edge of the expanding town. The gentry were not comfortable in such an area, and the locals had little money. By contrast, Midsummer Fair, with its more central location, was much better favoured. The Fair now lasted only a few days, and consisted mainly of entertainment. By 1933, when the Fair was officially abolished, it had, unusually for one of the great fairs of the country, completly faded away.

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