Kingsbridge Fair Week’s traditional glove hanging ceremony took place last night, with the reading of the 500-year-old royal charter.

After our town crier Roger Pinder announced the arrival of the charter, District Councillor Keith Wingate affixed the glove to its rightful place on the Shambles and Cllr Chris Povey, Mayor of Kingsbridge, read the document in full, officially opening Kingsbridge Fair Week. The reason why it is a glove that is so significant seems to have been lost to the mists of time, but it signifies "free trade and clemency for its duration".

The charter, which gives Kingsbridge the right to hold weekly markets and three fairs a year, was, as Cllr Povey points out, a 500-year-old "right to party", in a time where people often worked seven-days-a-week, morning until night.

Kingsbridge Fair Week’s website explains: "Kingsbridge has had a long association with the Abbots of Buckfast, who were originally lords of the manor of Churchstow when Kingsbridge parish formed part of the manor.

"The then Abbot obtained the right to hold a weekly market in Kingsbridge in 1219, and later the Abbot John Matthew applied for a royal charter to hold an annual fair in the town. This was confirmed in 1461."

The charter has been read every year, in the same place, outside the town hall - now the Kings Cinema - for the last half a millennium.

How do you think Cllr Povey did with reading the charter?