Description:This is Newcastle-under-Lyme’s oldest surviving charter.
A charter is a formal document granting rights given by a king or queen written by clerks in the royal chancery.
King Henry II gave Newcastle a ‘borough’ charter in 1173.
Medieval boroughs gained special privileges. It helped our town grow and flourish.
Newcastle's first borough charter is lost (we know about it from later charters and other documents).
By 1281 Newcastle was becoming an increasingly popular and prosperous market town.
The first three-day fair was granted in 1281, a 'Trinity Fair' was held over Trinity Sunday.
Trinity Sunday is a day to celebrate and give thanks to the Holy Trinity.
The Middle Ages saw a rise in these group feasts known as 'feasts of devotion' .
We are missing two charters relating to fairs from the medieval times.
One from 1336 granted by King Edward III, and another in 1438 by King Henry VI.
Both allow the town to hold more fairs.
Fairs were important events in the life of the town and attracted people from further afield.
The Trinity Fair charter is written in Latin, here is a translation:
‘EDWARD, by the grace of God, King of England, Lord of Ireland and Duke of Aquitaine, to the archbishops, bishops, abbots, priors, earls, barons, justices, sheriffs, constables, ministers and all bailiffs and his faithful subjects GREETING Know ye that by this our charter we have granted and confirmed at the request of our dearest brother Edmund to the bur-gesses and the present men of his town of Newcastle-under-Lyme that they and their successors, the men of the same town, may have in perpetuity a fair in that town during three days, to wit, upon the eve, the day, and the morrow of the feast of the Holy Trinity and so that such fair shall not be to the injury of neighbouring fairs. Wherefore we will and command for us and our heirs that the aforesaid burgesses and their successors, the men of the said town of Newcastle-under-Lyme, may have in perpetuity a Fair in the said town with all liberties and free customs to such a fair belonging.’
Translation taken from Medieval Newcastle-under-Lyme by Thomas Pape
Digitisation project supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund.