I wanted to start with the story of the’Great British Boxing Booth’, an institution that was an integral part of every travelling fairground for over 200 years.
The first recording of a bare-knuckle boxing fight for entertainment was in 1681, and despite the bouts being illegal, the fights flourished on fairgrounds throughout the country. The fighters would fight for ‘nobbings’ - earnings from the hat passed around the crowd, the better the fight, the more money entered the hat…