The Onion Fair tamed. Len. The Fair But Not the Onions" (by C. H. Lea )
For several years the Onion Fair languished. It became the happy hunting ground of toughs and gangs who exacted tribute from showmen in return for not molesting them, and it seemed likely that the Fair would die the natural death prophesied for it in 1875. But Pat Collins was getting busy. In due time he leased the Old Pleck ground, and he has told the writer that friends thought he was mad! There was method in his madness however. He refused to deal with the Black Bands, the Stool Boys, or the Peaky Blinders, and when the Fair opened the roughs had some severe shocks. Police were in attendance, and the roughs were repelled. Pat Collins has told the writer: "At night along came two members of the gang. One greeted me familiarly and twitched my hat over my eyes. My fist shot out, and down went the man. His friend received a punch which made him sag at the knees." The defeat of the gangs was so spectacular that they never again gave any trouble, and the Fair began to regain its lost respectability. (Birmingham Gazette: 26 November 1935)