In 1752, the fair was moved back from St Matthew's Day (21 September) to the first week in October because of a revision to the British calendar. On that year, eleven days (3–13 September) were omitted altogether from the calendar so that Britain could finally adopt the Gregorian calendar (following the Calendar Act of 1750) to align with the rest of western Europe. Hence, the start of Goose Fair was shifted to 2 October and has remained on or around that date ever since.