The Fairs Act 1871This short title was conferred on this Act by section 1 of this Act. (34 & 35 Vict. c. 12) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It empowered the Home Secretary in the United Kingdom to, on petition, make orders for the abolition of fairs. Such provision was made at this time by Parliament because many fairs traditionally held in early Victorian England were, according to the preamble to the act, held to be
unnecessary, the cause of grievous immorality, and very injurious to the inhabitants of the towns in which such fairs are held
Fairs abolished under the act included Ickleton Fair in Cambridgeshire and St Matthew's Fair in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.
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