Windsor Street sees the most important events in Chertsey. St. Peter’s Church has weddings, funerals and Christian services and meetings in the hall at the back, Chertsey War Memorial commemorates Chertsey’s fallen, a marketplace is held on Saturdays, a fast-food shop, a Post Office, and an established public house still survive. At 33 The Cedars there is a distinguished small Surrey museum covering the Runnymede Borough, and at the end is the Chertsey Abbey Forefield which is the home of both football and cricket and outside events, and the annual most important event of Chertsey which is the main subject of this page.
The Black Cherry Fair has a remarkable history which can be traced back 581 years to 1440, when King Henry V1th granted Chertsey Abbey permission to hold an annual fair on St Anne’s Day, 26th July. Initially called St. Anne’s Fair, it soon changed name to the Black Cherry Fair and moved onto Abbeyfields from its first home on St Anne’s Hill. Thanks to the tireless efforts of local townspeople the fair survived for over 500 years, but World War II put a halt to such events. When the war ended rationing continued, and for many years the food and craft stalls were replaced by an annual sports day.
In 1975 Chertsey town organisations were inspired to start up some community projects. The Chertsey Chamber of Commerce were most keen to return the Black Cherry Fair to its former glory. Abbeyfield on Windsor Street remained the venue and Saturday July 10th, 1976 saw a modest start.
There was no parade that year – that was to start three years later. On the day, the Thorpe Players did a medieval costume turn, and there were children’s events and prizes, tug of war, etc, and a Black Cherry Princess.
Malcolm Loveday and other church volunteers of St. Peter’s opened the bell tower for a guided tour of the bells, and one could climb up inside and look down on Windsor Street and see and hear the Black Cherry Fair from the tower’s roof (“at your own risk”). All of these foundations were successful, and they have been built on in later years. Every year since the B.C.Fair has grown from strength to strength thanks to the total dedication and hard work of The Chertsey Rotary, The Chertsey Chamber of Commerce, local Councillors, and the affiliated organisations and societies of Chertsey who have rolled up their sleeves for more than forty years.
The large events in Windsor Street are the Black Cherry Fair parades from 1979 onwards which over the years the street has seen hundreds of thousands of people walk in the road in the parade and crowds following on down to the field. The myriad and mixture of wonderful floats, the Black Cherry Princess, the Mayor of Runnymede, etc, passes up the street with pavements lined with people putting money into the waiting buckets passing by. Awaiting them and the thousands following on to Abbey Field is the actual fair itself, with a fairground, live music, and all the other events improved over the years. In contrast is the peaceful and sheltered museum garden across the road, where afternoon live music is held and served with proper leaf tea and homemade cakes and real crockery.
First and last highlights of the parade over the years have been the world’s largest black cherry flan in 1979 made by baker Steve Pile before he gave up the white apron for the bell and three-cornered hat, and in 2019, The Curfews, Chertsey’s Champion Football team triumphantly parading in an open bus led by their young members in strip and surrounded by their cheering supporters. All this had been taking place in Windsor Street on the second Saturday of July without interruption until 2020 when the fair was forced to close due to the Coronavirus pandemic. But just as in 1975, the Black Cherry Fair will be back on Saturday 10th July, although only to Abbeyfields for 2021. The town procession attracts so many people that it will have to wait until 2022 to return and bring Windsor Street to life once more.