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The present-day Warwick Mop is a funfair shoehorned into the market place and narrow streets of the Georgian town centre. Similar autumn fairs are held in many towns across the south Midlands. Warwick Mop dates back to a charter of King Edward III in the mid-fourteenth century. It was a hiring fair: employers could meet and hire labourers and servants in a social setting. The traditional date is the Friday and Saturday following the 12th October, which is believed to be the date by which the harvest was officially complete. The Runaway Mop, held on the following Friday and Saturday, was for parties on either side who had changed their minds. The funfair returns for those two evenings. There are always complaints from business people, shopkeepers and residents about noise, fumes from the generators and loss of trade. The Mop has been tried on other, more spacious sites but only the town centre can provide the atmosphere that visitors so enjoy.