A definitive history of the Wanborough Show could easily fill a book in its own right, so rather than attempt to give 'chapter and verse' I've tried to capture the flavour of past shows, by recording memories from some of the people who have been closely associated with the show over the last 60 years.

The history of Wanborough as the site of a market and fair goes right back to 1252 in the reign of King Stephen, but the tradition of a show in August came down to us in the form of The Wanborough Feast. In his history of the village written in 1888, William Morris says

Wanborough Feast begins on the first Sunday in August, and is continued throughout the early pail of the week. "But the Feast is nothing now to what it used to be" the old people will tell you; when the old gamesters, and the young gamesters, and the wrestlers, and the boxers, both of the village as well as from the surrounding counties, would meet together on the Wanborough backsword stage, which used to be erected on the small triangular grass plot in front of the Inn at Upper Wanborough [The Calley Arms], and display their prowess in competitions for prizes in what were designated the fine old English Games and Sports