Showmen's Guild: Midland Section
The Midland Section of the Showmen's Guild takes as its working area the historical counties of Stafford, Leicester, Warwick, Worcester and Salop.
Until 1907 the Guild was highly centralised, with a 28-strong Executive Committee and an almost equal number of vice-presidents and other offices. In that year it was decided to divide the Executive Commitee into seven divisional committees, each having responsibility for a particular region. Although there is no surviving definition of its boundaries it would appear that the Birmingham Committee covered the entire Midlands region.
Warwick Mop, Autumn 1993.
Ten years later the devolution of responsibility was made more concrete by the creation of eleven sections (later to be modified to ten, each with their own secretary and Committee). 1917 was a turning point in the history of the Guild. In addition to the establishment of a regional administration network, the Guild had been registered under the Trade Union Act.
The first secretary of the Midland section was William Savage, a member of the famous King's Lynn roundabout-manufacturing family. He was also chief of staff to the legendary Patrick Collins.
Based in Walsall, Pat Collins reigned supreme in the Midlands and beyond for most of the first half of the century. In 1909 he succeeded Lord George Sanger as president of the Guild, an office he held for a record 20 years. His name became synonymous with fairs in the Midlands. So extensive did his business became that at his peak he was running as many as four fairs a week apart from a chain of cinemas and skating rinks.
Pat Collins also achieved success in the field of public service: he became a councillor in his adopted home town, going on in 1922 to become Walsall's MP. Standing as Liberal he retained the seat with an increased majority the following year, but was narrowly defeated in the 1924 General Election. Late in life he was elected as the Mayor of Walsall and it is believed he was offered a Knighthood by Chamberlain, an honour he declined on the grounds that he had been born plain Pat Collins and would die the same.
One distinctive feature of the Midland Section is the number of fairs that are still held on the original town centre sites. Indeed, within the five counties there are more street fairs than in any other section, with around 20 fairs held by charter or ancient custom occupying market places and village greens. In the last two years the number has been added to by the return of fairground amusements to the streets of Wolverhampton, Worcester and Hinckley (the latter being under the control of the Section).
In some years the Midland Section can claim both to open and close the travelling season. When Easter falls at its earliest, the ancient Lichfield Shrovetide fair opens ahead of the season's customary curtain-raiser, the King's Lynn Mart. At the other end of the season, as winter begins to show its claws, the Loughborough November Pleasure is acknowledged to be last major extablished fair of the season.
[Graham Downie]
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