ABSTRACT
In praise of the adaptable pot-filling onion Allium cepa, the inhabitants of Newent in Gloucestershire celebrate an Onion Fayre every September. The fair, which is thought to be the largest British celebration of the common onion, dates back to the thirteenth century when Henry II granted Newent the right to hold a market and two annual fairs. One of these became known as the Onion Fayre because market gardeners from Evesham started to sell their onions to Welsh drovers who passed through Newent on their way to the celebrated Gloucester cattle market. The fairs also attracted people from the Forest of Dean. In the absence of trestle tables, cloths were laid over tombstones in the churchyard to make market stalls.
