The Old Pateley Feast

Nidderdale Agricultural Show, Pateley Show, the Nidderdale Rant or Pateley Feast – call it by any of these familiar names and you will easily conjure up a picture of a very busy, thriving Show set in beautiful surroundings in the small market town of Pateley Bridge. The favourable position of Pateley Bridge led to a charter being granted in 1319 by King Edward II for a weekly market to be held. The grant was made to the then Archbishop of York, Primate of England, William de Melton, it stated that “that he and his successors forever may have one market every week on Tuesday (now held on saturdays) at his manor of Patheley Brigge in Nedredale, in the County of York, and one fair there every year , lasting five days to whit, for three days before the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and on the day and the morrow of the same feast”.

The origin of how the date of the Show became fixed in the calendar is itself a subject of interest often discussed among locals and visitors alike. References to this can be found in the writings of various local historians, all of whom recognise that the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which is a religious commemoration, fell on the first Sunday after the 17th September. This in its turn determines that the Annual Show should fall on “the morrow of the feast”. Thus Show Monday should never fall before before the 19th September.