All the fun of the Fair

This weekend marked the start of the Greenock Fair – the traditional local two week holiday.  Back in the days of shipbuilding and sugar refining, all the local workers got their annual holidays at this time, so it was quite an event here in Greenock.  Nowadays it is very different.  It is an old custom, but every year a travelling funfair still visits Greenock at this time.  This year it is situated on some ground just to the east of the Beacon Theatre.  

By all accounts, the “Greenock Fair” of the mid 19^th century was something completely different.  The fair used to be held in various open squares in the town such as Westburn  Square or St Andrew’s Square and generally spread out to the surrounding streets.  Crowds thronged to see the attractions – Wombwell’s Menagerie, Waxworks, side shows of magic, musicians, food sellers, hobby-horses, merry-go-round – all the fun of the fair.  

Every one saved up for a couple of months before the Fair so that they would have some money to spend at the “shows”.  Huge crowds would attend.  Of course there was a down side to all this merriment!  Gaming tables would be set up and prove popular with young men.  John Donald, writing about this in his book “Old Greenock Characters” (1920, Milne, Tannahill & Methven, Perth) says that the call would go out –  “Stake your money while the ball rolls.  Two to one on the black, four to one on red or blue, twelve to one on the yellow, the crown or Prince of Wales feathers.  Now then gentlemen, make your game; stake your money while the balls roll.”  He notes that “Such invitations were readily accepted, and many a silly lad … moved away from the table with a still lighter pocket and a heavier heart.”  

Every years after the fair or “Summer Saturnalia” - as some more uptight citizens called it, there would be calls for the abolition of the annual fair because of all the drunkenness and petty crime that accompanied the annual event.  Some people went as far as to say that the people travelling with the fair were bringing disease to the town and this should be stopped.  Local shopkeepers resented the itinerant traders who were taking up space in the streets and spoiling their trade.  

Gradually the fair was moved further away from the town centre to places like Ladyburn and Princes Pier.  Writing about Greenock Fair in 1871 Robert Hutcheson Bowman ("In and Around Greenock in 1871", ed Leslie Anne Hendra, ISBN-10:1477462260) writes that it was very wet that year, but that it did not prevent the crowds from visiting the fair.  He and some relatives went along and he describes the children’s delight – “Every buffoon and mountebank, strutting before their booths, seemed to them to be supernatural, and it was quite exciting … Of course every puppet show had to be visited, and I was thankful when at last we got clear away from it all.”  

The family did not escape unscathed from the crowd – “Then Aunt Aggie discovered that she had lost her purse, - stolen from her pocket.  Although it contained only about 30/- she felt piqued that she had been less astute that she thinks herself.” 

Despite the downside, these were probably the best years of the fair.  Once it moved to the outskirts of town, it became less popular.  Excursions by steamboat were becoming more and more popular.  Lots of families saved hard and enjoyed a trip across to Dunoon or Rothesay on the steamer.  

These trips across the Clyde are still continued today.  The Waverley paddle steamer was boarding passengers at Custom House Quay on this Fair Saturday 2021, just a few yards from where the funfair was still proving popular with youngsters.   Some things don’t change!