ACHRIS KOENIG falls under the historic spell of a former court house and lock-up in Burford

The Tolsey, in Burford High Street, was formerly used as a court house and lock-up. It is exactly the kind of museum I like best. Even the staircase leading up to the display from the street level area, where market stallholders regularly ply their trade, is of interest.

It is decorated with a large board containing the text of a message from Queen Elizabeth I to the Burford authorities, telling them that their Whitsuntide right to hunt deer in the Royal Forest of Wychwood was to be suspended that year (1593) to prevent the spread of disease.

And inside the museum proper, an array of curious nick-nacks is displayed. They range from Warren Hasting's shirt and shoe buckles to photographs of the so-called Mop Fair, held in the town every September 25 until that fateful year of 1914.

The point about Queen Elizabeth's edict, I gathered, was that the people of Burford were to be given two bucks from the forest that year to make up for the hunting ban. This led to the establishment of an annual forest fair — which for centuries was the highlight of Burford's social scene.

The Whitsuntide Fair was held until 1826 in Widford parish, near Burford, on a plain called Capps Lodge where there was a tavern on the edge of Wychwood Forest. It was a rowdy affair involving the selection of a lord and a lady from among Burford's lads and lasses — who then demanded the venison from the keepers of the forest.

The annual demanding ceremony continued until the disafforestation of Wychwood — which is odd since the Queen's proclamation made it clear that both the hunting ban and the grant of the two bucks applied to the year 1593 only. Be that as it may, the goings-on at the fair of 1784 were particularly unruly, ending with barman William Harding being shot in a brawl with two of the notorious Dunsdon brothers. The landlord was also shot — though a ha'penny in his waistcoat pocket saved his life.

The tearaway Dunsdon brothers terrorised the neighbourhood and openly defied the law. They thrived as highwaymen, taking illicit advantage of the recent construction of the turnpike, now the A40.

Tom and Harry Dunsdon (the third brother incidentally was called Dick, and a notice in the museum floats the notion that the trio were the original Tom, Dick and Harry) were captured in the general melee but had to be taken all the way to Gloucester by the constable, since Widford was then a detached part of Gloucestershire. The two captives were hanged and their slowly rotting bodies displayed in irons, suspended from an oak tree on the boundary of the parishes of Fulbrook, Widford and Shipton. The gibbet tree is still there, but on private ground.

As for the shirt and shoe buckles of the former governor-general of India, Warren Hastings (1732-1818), their presence in the museum is justified by the fact that he was born in nearby Churchill and succeeded towards the end of his life in buying back his ancestral home of Daylesford, which had been sold off before his birth thanks to various family misfortunes.

And as for the Mop Fair, it was held each year outside the Tolsey; anyone accepting a shilling from a prospective employer was then bound to work for them for a year.

On my Saturday afternoon visit, I was the only customer for about 20 minutes. Highly recommended.