Britain’s oldest fair still operates under the same royal charter granted in 1267, and the main event now involves several hundred people trying to pull the ugliest face in the world.
Egremont Crab Fair has been held in this small Cumbrian market town most years since 1267, when King Henry III granted it a Royal Charter. It has survived the Black Death, two world wars, and a pandemic without disappearing from the calendar. What it has not survived intact is dignity, because the fair’s headline event is now the World Gurning Championship, where competitors force their faces through a horse collar and compete to pull the most grotesque expression they can manage.
That combination, one of England’s oldest continuous public events built around a genuinely bizarre modern spectacle, is why the fair is worth planning a trip around rather than stumbling into by accident.
Event date: Saturday 19 September 2026
Location: Egremont town centre, Cumbria
Nearest town: Whitehaven, connected by regular bus service
Getting there: Stagecoach service 32 (Whitehaven to St Bees to Egremont) or by road via the A595
Admission: around £7 at the fair field gate in recent years, with most competitions including gurning free to enter (confirm exact 2026 pricing nearer the date)
Tickets: pay on the day at the fair field entrance, no advance booking required for general admission
Publish by: 22 August 2026, four to six weeks ahead of the 19 September event date
What Egremont Crab Fair Actually Is
Egremont Crab Fair takes its name from an old tradition of the Lord of Egremont giving away crab apples to the town’s residents at the annual fair, not from shellfish. The event dates to 1267, when Henry III granted it a Royal Charter, and it has run in most years since, with recognised gaps only for the world wars and the COVID-19 pandemic.
The fair grew a second identity over time. What began as a market event now runs alongside the World Gurning Championship, first recorded as an “ancient tradition” in written accounts from 1852, when it was described as “Grinn for tobacco.” By 1884 it was known locally as “Grinning for ‘bacca,” and the modern competition format, judged separately for men, women and juniors, took shape through the 20th century, with a women’s category introduced in 1978 and a junior contest following in 1979.
Royal charters from the 13th century rarely survive as living traditions rather than museum documents, and Egremont’s is one of the exceptions. Henry III granted a large number of market and fair charters across England during his reign, and most of them lapsed, moved, or were folded into larger regional markets within a couple of centuries. Egremont’s charter kept its fair running on the same ground, under the same name, through the Wars of the Roses, the dissolution of the monasteries, the English Civil War, and the industrial changes that reshaped the rest of Cumbria around it. That unbroken run is what earns it the title of Britain’s oldest fair, rather than simply one of the oldest. It never stopped, moved, or needed reviving.
What Happens
The fair runs across a weekend in September, with the main day and the gurning championship itself on Saturday. Saturday events open with the Apple Cart Parade around midday, when a cart moves along Main Street throwing apples into the crowd, a direct callback to the fair’s original name.
The World Gurning Championship is the event most people travel for. Competitors put their heads through a horse collar called a braffin and pull the most extreme facial expression they can manage, judged live before a packed crowd. Alongside it, the fair keeps its older traditions running: traditional Cumberland wrestling, market stalls, and a full day of street entertainment through Egremont town centre.
Cumberland wrestling runs through the afternoon on its own patch of ground, separate from the main stage. It is one of the oldest recorded wrestling styles in Britain, contested standing, chest to chest, with each wrestler gripping behind the other’s back and trying to force their opponent to touch the ground with anything other than their feet. The style predates the crab fair by some distance and still turns up at agricultural shows and traditional sports days across Cumbria, but Egremont remains one of the more established fixtures on that calendar, and the competitors take it exactly as seriously as anyone in the crowd takes the gurning.
The atmosphere shifts throughout the day, from a fairly ordinary market-town morning to a genuinely strange, packed evening once the gurning heats get underway.
When and Where
The 2026 fair falls on Saturday 19 September, the third Saturday of the month, in keeping with the fair’s usual pattern. Egremont sits in West Cumbria, on the A595, roughly ten miles south of Whitehaven. The fair itself takes over Egremont’s Main Street and the adjoining fair field, with the exact footprint of stalls and the gurning stage confirmed closer to the date on the event’s own site.
Getting There
Egremont has no working railway station. The town’s own station closed in December 1969 and was never reopened. The practical route by rail is to travel to St Bees, a stop on the Cumbrian Coast Line served by every train, and then take the Stagecoach 32 bus, which runs the short route from Whitehaven through St Bees to Egremont. If you are driving, Egremont sits directly on the A595, the main road running down the Cumbrian coast, with parking available in the town for the day.
Coming from the M6, leave at Penrith and cross to the coast via the A66 and A595, a drive of around 45 minutes once you reach the coast road. From Whitehaven itself, Egremont is a straightforward ten-minute drive south on the A595. Parking in the town fills up well before the Apple Cart Parade, so arriving by mid-morning gives you a realistic chance of finding a space near the centre rather than having to walk in from the outskirts.
Why It Is Worth Planning Around
Most events built on 750-plus years of continuous history lean hard on that history and forget to be genuinely entertaining on the day itself. Egremont manages both. The charter and the crab apple tradition give the fair a weight that a modern festival cannot manufacture from nothing, while the gurning championship gives it a reason to travel that has nothing to do with history at all. Families come for the parade and the market stalls. Wrestling fans come for the Cumberland bouts. A growing number of visitors now come purely because gurning through a braffin is one of the strangest competitive spectacles left in Britain, and Egremont has been running it for longer than almost anywhere else has had the chance to copy it.
Where to Stay
Taylor’s Blackbeck Bridge Inn, Blackbeck, just outside Egremont. A coaching inn on the A595 a short drive from the fair, with rooms and its own bar and restaurant, useful if the town centre is fully booked over the fair weekend.
Where to Eat and Drink
Blue Bell Inn, Egremont. A traditional terraced pub on Market Place, in the centre of town and a short walk from the fair itself, with the usual pub trade doing brisk business through the fair weekend.
Worth Knowing
- The fair has run under the same 1267 Royal Charter for 759 years, making it one of the oldest continuously recognised public events in Britain.
- Gurning is performed through a braffin, a horse collar, rather than freehand, which is what separates the competition from an ordinary face-pulling contest.
- Egremont’s own railway station has been closed since 1969, so anyone arriving by train needs to plan the St Bees to Egremont bus leg in advance rather than assuming a direct rail connection exists.
- Cumberland wrestling, contested standing and chest-to-chest, is one of the oldest wrestling styles recorded in Britain and predates the fair’s gurning championship by centuries.
Practical Tips
- Book accommodation early. Egremont is a small town, and rooms fill up fast around the fair weekend.
- Arrive by early afternoon if you want a good position for the Apple Cart Parade around midday.
- Wear comfortable shoes for standing through the grooming championship; the crowd around the stage gets packed, and you will be on your feet for the full event.
- Check the Stagecoach 32 timetable in advance if you are relying on the bus from St Bees; services thin out in the evening.
- Bring cash for stalls and the fair field gate; not every trader takes card payments at a busy outdoor event.
- Confirm the exact 2026 admission price and Apple Cart Parade time on the event’s own site closer to the date; both may shift slightly from year to year.
Responsible Visiting
Egremont is a working market town, not a purpose-built event venue, so park where directed and keep noise down if you are staying in nearby residential streets. The gurning championship draws a genuinely large crowd for a town this size, so be patient with queues and give stallholders and competitors space to do their jobs.
Reader Q&A
Is Egremont Crab Fair free to attend? Mostly. Most competitions, including gurning, are free to enter, though the fair field itself has a small gate charge, around £7 in recent years.
How do I get to Egremont without a car? Take a train to St Bees on the Cumbrian Coast Line, where all services stop, then catch the Stagecoach 32 bus, which runs between Whitehaven, St Bees and Egremont.
Is the fair suitable for children? Yes. The Apple Cart Parade, market stalls and the daytime programme are family events, and there is a dedicated junior category in the gurning championship itself.
What time does the World Gurning Championship start? It runs on the Saturday evening as the fair’s headline event, after the daytime market and parade activities. Confirm the exact start time on the official event site closer to 19 September 2026.
Can visitors enter the gurning competition themselves? Entry has traditionally been open to the public on the day. Confirm the exact 2026 entry process on the official event site rather than assuming it will work the same as in previous years.
Is there camping near Egremont for the fair weekend? Cumbria has camping and caravan sites within a short drive of the town, though none are run by the fair itself, so book independently and check availability well ahead of September.
The fair has outlasted plague, two world wars and a pandemic without losing its charter, and it will still be pulling faces through a horse collar on Egremont’s Main Street long after most modern events have come and gone.
Read more about England’s forgotten summer festivals, Youlgrave’s ancient well dressing custom, or browse our full Events category for more of Britain’s odder traditions.
