The Mop Fair shuts the A44 Market Place and part of High Street from 00:01 on 17 September to 04:00 on 20 September. Road-by-road list and the diversions.

Chipping Norton’s Mop Fair takes over the middle of the town this month, and the traffic order that goes with it is already sealed. Oxfordshire County Council made the Chipping Norton Mop Fair (Special Event) Order 2026 on 7 September 2026, and it runs from 00:01 on Thursday 17 September to 04:00 on Sunday 20 September.

That window is the one hard, published fact about this year’s fair. Everything about opening times below is flagged for what it is.

The closures, road by road

Taken from the order itself and the county’s order summary.

No vehicles at all:

  • A44 Market Place, the main carriageway from the junction with New Street (A44) to the junction with High Street (Topside).
  • The High Street link, from its junction with New Street (A44) eastwards to its junction with High Street north of the Town Hall.

One-way, including two reversals:

  • A44 main carriageway: no southbound traffic from London Road (A44) to High Street (Topside). Northbound only.
  • High Street: the one-way southbound section between Horse Fair and Boots the Chemist is reversed.
  • Albion Street: no northbound traffic from Burford Road (A361) to London Road (A44). Southbound only.
  • A361 Burford Road: southeast to northwest only, from Albion Street to West Street.
  • A361 West Street: northbound only, from Burford Road to Cattle Market.

No waiting:

  • High Street, east side, from Cattle Market to the A44 main carriageway near Horse Fair (Topside).
  • Cattle Market, both sides, from West Street (A361) to High Street.

The order also suspends the 2013 West Oxfordshire waiting and permitted parking order, the 2006 disabled persons’ parking places order and the 1999 Market Place traffic order, the last of these specifically to lift the existing High Street one-way so it can be run the other way.

The signed diversions

The county publishes both routes.

  • Northbound, coming off the A44 New Street: take the southern length of High Street, south, then east, then north into High Street Topside, on to High Street proper and out on to the A44 London Road.
  • Southbound, from the A44 London Road: Albion Street, west into Burford Road, north into West Street, back on to the A44 New Street.

Emergency service vehicles and event vehicles are exempt. So are vehicles setting up or dismantling the fair, and anything needing access to premises or emergency utility work.

When is the fair actually open?

Neither the organisers nor Chipping Norton Town Council publish opening times. The town council’s events page does not list the fair at all, and its only mention of it is a notice board post on 29 July 2026 reproducing the county’s closure list.

What the order implies is a Thursday to Saturday fair. The traffic management starts just after midnight on Thursday 17 September, which is when the showmen build up, and ends at 4am on Sunday 20 September, which is when they have to be off the road. That matches 2025, when the Banbury Guardian reported the fair running Thursday 18 to Saturday 20 September under an identical order.

Treat Thursday 17, Friday 18 and Saturday 19 September as the fair days, and expect the rides to run into the evening on each.

Why the road, and not a field

The county’s statement of reasons, dated 20 August 2026, is unusually direct about it. It calls the Mop “an annual Charter Fair attracting large numbers of visitors” and states that the council “is satisfied that, because of tradition and the nature of the event, it is not appropriate or practicable for it to be held other than on the road.”

Mop fairs began as hiring fairs, where people looking for work carried a symbol of their trade, a mop for domestic service. The Banbury Guardian puts the Chipping Norton fair’s origins in the 12th century and records that the Nichols family has supplied its rides for the past hundred years.

The order names the promoter as Justin Gargan of Ubico Ltd, care of West Oxfordshire District Council at Avenue 4, Station Lane, Witney.

Parking, and getting there from Witney

Cattle Market and the High Street east side both lose their parking for the duration, so the usual town-centre kerbside is gone. West Oxfordshire’s car parks are free everywhere in the district, Chipping Norton included, but they are small and they will fill: see our parking guide for how the district’s free-but-time-limited system works.

Coming from Witney, the A44 approach from the south is the one affected. If you are driving up for the evening, expect the last stretch through Market Place to be shut and the diversion to send you round Albion Street and Burford Road. Our roadworks and travel page tracks what else is closed across the district that week, including the seven-road Witney microsurfacing cluster that starts on 24 September.

Still to come

  • Opening times and the ride line-up, which no source publishes in advance.
  • Ride prices, never published.

Frequently asked questions

When is the Chipping Norton Mop Fair 2026? The traffic order runs from 00:01 on Thursday 17 September to 04:00 on Sunday 20 September 2026, so the fair days are Thursday 17, Friday 18 and Saturday 19 September.

Which roads are closed? The A44 Market Place from New Street to High Street (Topside), and the High Street link from New Street eastwards to High Street north of the Town Hall. Several other roads become one-way and two existing one-ways are reversed.

Can I still drive through Chipping Norton? Yes, on the signed diversions. Northbound traffic goes via the southern length of High Street and High Street Topside to the A44 London Road; southbound goes via Albion Street, Burford Road and West Street.

What time does the fair open? Not published. Neither the town council nor the showmen give opening times in advance.

Why is it held on the road? The county council’s statement of reasons says that, because of tradition and the nature of this Charter Fair, it is “not appropriate or practicable for it to be held other than on the road”.

Sources