... Magdalen Hill, or down, on which a fair is held on the second of August, being the feast of St. Mary Magdalen, old style. On the hill, and within a furlong of the fair ground, stood, in antient times, the Hospital of St. Mary Magdalen, founded towards the close of the twelfth century, by Richard de Toclyve, Bishop of Winchester; and, to show the connexion of the establishment and the fair, it is only necessary to add, that the master of this charity, which still exists, though “curtailed in its fair proportions,” possesses certain rights in respect to it, but which are not now asserted.
Notes and Essays, archaeological, historical and topographical, relating to the counties of Hants and Wilts (1851) by Henry Moody.
books.google.co.uk/books?id=i-MMAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA30
Nice one Rhiannon. I believe there was an excavation of the hospital site a few years back. Bit too contemporary to have taken my interest really, but the area has long-standing healthcare-related links. There was until recently some sort of cottage hospital on the road out of Winch along the top of the hill. Regarding the fair, I have heard this described as being at St Giles' Hill, (all sorts of disputed theories about the name being a sanitised / Christianised version of Cheese Hill, hence nearby Chesil Street where I used to live). Before the arrival of the A31/M3 cutting they were one and the same hill. And where did the sarsen stones on the top come from???
Ooh all interesting. Actually that book has loads on the St Giles fair too
books.google.co.uk/books?id=i-MMAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA30
I was sorry that the barrows weren't on that hill instead - but you're right, before the motorway cutting they'd have been much the same hill. Weird to have two fairs really? Maybe you could never have too many fairs.