Seven and six? Cheap at half the price for a toll

SUCCESS following St Leonard’s Day Fair meant only one thing - time to cough up the shillings for the toll!

What toll you may ask? The Fair Toll of course, a once literal but now ceremonial custom whereby a payment was to be paid to the then authorities in exchange for permission to hold markets and fairs.

The charter of the St Leonard’s Fair is held by the Lords of the Manorial Borough of Newton Abbot and Newton Bushel, Keith Stokes-Smith and Major George Brendon, respectively.

A ceremonial payment of seven shillings and six pence was presented by the Portreeve Carol Bunday of the Manorial Courts to the Chair of TDC Cllr Colin Parker and thus the ‘Fairs Toll’ was duely paid.

The general custom of a ‘Fair Toll’ dates back centuries, roughly the 12th and 13th centuries when markets and fairs became a popular way for local people to buy and sell produce.