'Standing for Hire', Stratford-upon-Avon, said to be the largest fair in England, regarded by the agricultural class in the district as the chief holiday of the year. Annually in October, farm workers, labourers and servants, would attend the Mop Fair dressed in their Sunday best clothes and carrying an item signifying their trade in their buttonhole. Grooms carry a bit of straw, shepherds a twist of wool, carters a length of whipcord and servants with no particular skills would carry a mop head - hence the phrase Mop Fair, the custom was general at hiring fair.