Wayzgoose or Waygoose

The Event

A wayzgoose is a printer’s fair. It was initially held at the end of August around St. Bartholomew’s day (24 August) with a suggestion that this end-of-summer point was the time at which printers replaced paper windows, or started to work less hours in the day reflecting shorter hours of daylight.

It is also customary for all the Journey-men to make every Year new Paper Windows, whether the old will serve again or no; Because that day they make them, the Master Printer gives them a Waygoose; that is, he makes them a good Feast, and not only entertains them at his own House, but besides, gives them Money to spend at the Ale-house or Tavern at Night;

These Way-gooses, are always kept about Bartholemew-tide. And till the Master-Printer have given this Way-goose, the Journey-men do not use to Work by Candle Light.

Joseph Moxon, Mechanick Exercises on the Whole Art of Printing (1683-4)

The event was usually funded by the employer, and might cover talks or lessons; social gathering; feasting and drinking. Today we use the term for any event where printers get together and talk about and share admiration of our craft.

The Word

Moxon’s 1683 reference was thought to be the first time the word had been printed, but Barry McKay has found an earlier reference in local research in Appleby, where there is reference to a 1594 event offering one shilling towards a ‘servant’s wayzgease’.

There’s an element of retro-fitting the ‘z‘ in to the word. It’s initially spelled ‘waygoose‘, as above, but by 1713 a dictionary listed this as ‘wayzgoose‘ perhaps to backwards-engineer the meaning of the word to mean a goose fed on stubble.

An 1847 article in the Northern Star and Leeds General Advertiser suggests a goose feeding on stubble was the dish fed at a ‘fraternity of printers’, but this CPHC article makes clear that geese don’t feed on stubble, and there is no evidence of this type of feast, so it’s likely that the initial spelling — waygoose — is correct.

As an aside, Samuel Dyer’s Dialect of the West Riding remarks: “…that this word is not a Yorkshire word at all, but simply a compositors’ and printers’ term for an annual outing. I insert it in my book because, if it is not Yorkshire, it ought to be.”

Wayzgooses Today

Looking at the major UK gatherings, of any type, and their rough dates and contact details, we have a short calendar of UK Wayzgooses.

• March: Baskerville Wayzegoose, Hay-on-Wye
• March: Stroud Wayzgoose, every other year
• May: St Bride Wayzgoose, St Bride’s Library, London
• June: Shipley Wayzgoose, Shipley, Yorkshire

Please let me know of any other printers’ festivals that happen regularly.

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Location

Local and current wayzgoose: Shipley Wayzgoose, Kirkgate Centre, Shipley, West Yorkshire

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Header Image: Shipley Wayzgoose Poster, 2018 by the Print Project