Topsham Town Charter Day coming up

PUBLISHED: 15:30 23 August 2016

A town criers competition will take place in Topsham as part of Town Charter Day.

Archant

Town Charter Day will celebrate Topsham receiving its charter from King Edward I on August 22, 1300. “It granted the right to be recognised as a town henceforth,” says an event spokesperson.

Timetable

1.30pm: Topsham’s town crier will welcome the king and his knights (local schoolchildren on hobby horses) and everyone in town at Matthews Hall, Fore Street.

1.45pm: The king and his entourage and townsfolk will process along Fore Street, lined with “medieval” market stalls, to St Margaret’s Church green. Here, he will present a replica town charter to the present Earl of Devon, Charles Courtenay.

2pm: Medieval festivities begin on the green with traditional stocks, games and jousting. Throughout the afternoon and all over town – from the museum on The Strand to Matthews Hall green – you can follow the treasure trail, be entertained by jugglers, mummers and minstrels, and ‘eat, drink and be merry while feasting on local foods, ales and wines’.

2.30pm: The town criers’ competition begins in the courtyard of The Globe on Fore Street, a 16th-century coaching inn. Entrants, ‘dressed in fine lace, linens and colourful frock coats’, will test voices and verse in one-minute ‘cries’ on a topical theme for ‘much-coveted’ trophies, presented by the Lord Mayor of Exeter, Cllr Cynthia Thompson.

7pm: Join musicians at Matthews Hall and trip merrily down to the Quay for...

7.30pm: Dancing to a fabulous ceilidh band.

9pm: spectacular fireworks on the Exe canal conclude the day.

“Medieval costumes are encouraged, but they are not essential!” says a spokesperson for the new event. “There’s free parking at Topsham Rugby Football Club, or you can let the bus or train take the strain.”

n More details: Topsham Town Charter Day Facebook page.