The area adjacent to St Martin’s church is called “The Hill”. This is not a topographical feature but a corruption of a Saxon word “Hal” meaning a meeting or market place. The nearby village of Stoke Ferry has a similar arrangement. It is therefore possible that this area was used as a market prior to the Norman Conquest.
There is no direct evidence that Fincham had a market during the middle ages, however this is not to suggest that villagers were starved of commercial opportunity. The oldest and most established market lay six miles to the west in the town of Downham. This market was in existence by 1050 and possibly much earlier, created probably by the monks of Ramsay Abbey. On 30 Jun 1178, Pope Alexander III prohibited the establishment of any new markets in the hundred and a half of Clackclose, in which Downham Market was situated, so Fincham went without. However, in 1260 the nearby village of Marham was granted a market by charter of Henry III and there was also a market in operation at Shouldham by 1334.
During the middle ages the position of the village on a main highway would always ensure that itinerant merchants with either pack horses or a pack on their back would pass through the settlement on a very regular basis. Whether or not these wandering merchants were always welcomed by the competing local tradesmen is of course another matter.
St Winnold’s Fair
The local economy received an annual boost from St Winnold’s fair. This was a three day livestock fair that began on 3rd March (St Winnold’s Day) every year. The site for the horse and cattle fair lay just over the southern parish boundary between Fincham and Wereham in the field of the ancient St Winnolds Priory. The 55 acre site was of sufficient area to allow livestock trading on a grand scale. Good water and grazing on common land adjoined the fairground, with Fincham Common (551 acres) to the north and Winnold Common (298 acres) to the South. To the east of the site was the woodland of Barton Leys. The fairground could be accessed from Wereham in the south via what is now the Fincham Road, equally a route from from the North could be accessed along the Boughton Road.
Perhaps the most widely used route was the now almost forgotten Barton Leys road from the west, this is an ancient drove road, a fragment of which now forms the Fincham Nature Reserve. The road ran west to a point where it meets the modern A134. It then crossed the A134 into Mill Lane which in turn intersects the Roman road (A1122) to cross into Fincham Road that leads to Stow Bardolf and hence on to the west. It is possible that this ancient trackway may predate the Roman road that was built following the invasion of 43 AD.
In the late 18th century the livestock fair moved from the field of St Winnolds Priory to find a new home first at Wimbotsham and then the Howdale at Downham Market in 1798. There are a number of potential reasons for the move to Downham Market. The horse fair was growing in size and beyond its capability to feed and water many hundreds of horses. The land of Fincham common comprising the 551 acres that adjoined the fairground to the north was enclosed in 1772, therefore the water and grazing that would have serviced the animals was no longer available. In June 1815 the land of Winnolds Common to the south would also be lost to enclosure. The opening of the Fincham to Downham Market turnpike road in that same year demanded the closure of what was known as the Barton Leys road, as a free drove road parallel to that of the toll collecting turnpike was considered distinctly undesirable by its promoters.
Fincham Local History Society 