Stow Horse Fair

Stow horse fair is held twice a year, in May and October, on a Thursday, in a field on Maugersbury Road on the edge of Stow-on-the-Wold. The old charter dates were 12 May and 24 October, but in 2026 the town council’s minutes recorded that the organisers intend to hold future fairs on the third Thursday of the month; the October 2026 fair was on Thursday 15 October. On that pattern the next fair would be Thursday 20 May 2027, but that date is still to be confirmed. The date can move and the fair can be cancelled at short notice. Dates are confirmed each time by Romany Heritage and listed by the Travellers’ Times. Check before you travel.

What the fair is

It is the Gypsy and Traveller communities' own gathering, part horse market, part family reunion. People come from across Britain and Ireland to buy and sell horses, to ride and drive them, and to see friends. Visitors may walk round; it is not staged for them, and the courteous thing is to watch, ask before taking photographs of people, and keep out of the way of horses being run up and down. The police are on site.

Getting there, and the town on fair day

The field is on Maugersbury Road, south-east of the Square, a short walk from the town centre. If you have come for the town rather than the fair, another Thursday will be quieter. The Fosseway car park by Tesco is free; the Maugersbury Road car park charges.

Where the fair comes from

In 1476 Edward IV granted Stow two five-day fairs a year, around 1 May and 13 October, in place of an older fair granted in 1330; the change of calendar later moved them to 12 May and 24 October. By the seventeenth century they were mainly sheep fairs; they became mainly horse fairs by the late nineteenth century, and moved from the town's streets to a field on its edge. Relations with the town have not always been easy, and the district and county councils, the police and a local working group now oversee each fair. The town's history, its church and its market are in the guide to Stow-on-the-Wold; the walk from Stow to Maugersbury goes past the edge of the town on a quieter day.