Thursday, 14 May 2020

Cumnock Fair Days

Cumnock Fair Days  (date apparently not set in stone, judging by various newspaper reports)


These were big events, known as feeing fairs, where servants especially farm servants were hired for the next six months. Since a large number of employers and prospective employees came in to town from all around, other business was done and the were amusements in the Square. The  rates of pay achieved  for servants was often commented on in newspaper reports.

In the 19th century Cumnock had 4 annual fairs: February (or March), May (or April - spring fair)  July (Scythe Day), (Harvest or Hin Hairst fair) in  late October /early November (1861 1873 1881 1934 1937) and mentioned in Helen Steven's book of 1899.
also Dudd's day or the runaway fair, possibly after Harvest (maybe November or December) 1904 Chronicle but date not noted. Kilmarnock had one too in December:-
This being Dudd’s Day when many farm servants  not engaged at the feeing fair come to seek fee. The ladies connected with the U.F. Women’s Home Mission are again providing amusements, refreshments, and feeing facilities in the Agricultural Hall. - referring to Kilmarnock in Ardrossan and Saltcoats Herald - Friday 02 December 1904
John Warrick, History of Cumnock 1899 pp 304- 9
(Originally there were 3 annual two day fairs.)
At any rate it was arranged that, instead of these three fairs, four were to be held during the year, viz. :-the Race fair on the third Thursday after Candlemas O.S., the May fair on the Weduesday after the last Tuesday of May O.S., the Scythe fair on the Wednesday after the first Tuesday of July O.S., and the Harvest fair on the Wed­nesday after the third Tuesday of October O.S. Thus, while the dates of the original fairs were altered, an addition of one was made to their number. Moreover they were to last only for one day each. …
… Three of these statutory fairs continue to be kept. The Scythe Fair was given up for the first time in July, 1898, though it and the May Fair had long ceased to be well attended. The Race Fair and the Harvest, or Hin-Hairst Fair, alone are now of any importance, and their popularity appears to be on the increase. It is computed that over 2000 persons come to them from neigh bouring parishes. They are in large measure hiring fairs, at which servants chiefly for farm work are engaged. Much of the hiring or feeing is done at the registries which exist in the town. Formerly such business was transacted in the open street, by direct application on the part of the servants wishing to be engaged, or of the farmer needing a ploughboy or a dairymaid.
Shows of different kinds, shooting-ranges, swings, etc., offer their attractions at these fairs to the youthful crowd, while stalls filled with sweetmeats and toys, as well as with a great variety of small articles more or less useful in their nature, tempt visitors to purchase. The sale of cloth, books, kitchen and dairy recquisites, together with agricultural produce, has gradually died out. Cattle and horses, too, in course of time, ceased to be offered for sale. The institution of auction marts, now universally patronised by farmers at larger centres like Ayr and Kilmarnock, hastened their disappearance.

The Race Fair in Feb/ March
Warrick
A popular incident in the March fair is the horse race. So integral a portion of the day's proceedings is it held to be, that the fair is commonly known as The Race. It has been run for many years in a field belonging to the Dumfries Arms Hotel. Formerly it took place down the Ayr Road, the horses running a little way beyond Bankend farmhouse and back to the starting point close to the town. The high ground on the south side of the Ayr Road, then unbuilt upon, was always crowded with spectators, who watched the progress of the horses from their elevated position.


The Scythe Fair in June/July had sports and races. 

The British Newspaper Archive provided the following information. 


 1834  Fairs in February
Cumnock on Thursday 27 February  (Aberdeen Press and Journal - Wednesday 19 February 1834)



1842
foreign tariffs causing problems -
Hereford Times - Saturday 19 November 1842
AT Cumnock Fair on Friday 19 November women's wages down to 35 s - 40s per half year (£1.50- £2)


1846 Fairs in February Aberdeen Press and Journal - Wednesday 04 February 1846

1846 Cumnock May Fair
selling cattle, hiring for the harvest Wed 17 Jun 1846 (Perthshire Advertiser - Thursday 18 June 1846)


1846 Fairs in June  Cumnock on Wednesday 10 Jun 1846 ( Aberdeen Herald and General Advertiser - Saturday 06 June 1846) (conflicts with previous entry)

1846 Fairs in October Cumnock on Wednesday 28th October 1846  (in Aberdeen Press and Journal - Wednesday 21 October 1846)

1849 Fairs and Markets in December Cumnock on Thursday 13 December 1849  (Inverness Courier - Thursday 06 December 1849)

 1851-2 The Ayrshire Directory: annually February May July October in Cumnock
In Auchinleck the only fair of consequence held in the village in the Lamb Fair which takes place on the last Tuesday in August
Two fairs are held in Ochiltree- the one on the second Wednesday of May and the other on the first Tuesday of November.
In New Cumnock a fair is held annually on the Thursday preceding Whitsunday chiefly for cattle. 
Cumnock is a market town


From The Ayrshire Directory 1851-52
https://digital.nls.uk/dcn6/8656/86562717.6.pdf accessesd 13 Jul 2020


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Sounds like good fun too........





1872 spring hiring fair  below (possibly in Ayr)
dairymaids £8-£10
country girls £3 10/- to £8
cotmen £24-£28
single ploughmen £10 -£14

20 April 1872 Cumnock Express



1872 Hin Hairst Wednesday 29 October 1872
married ploughmen £40-£41 per year
unmarried ploughmen £13-£15
halfins £6-£8
boys £3 - £4 10/- per half year
Females
dairymaids to take charge £20 - £24 per year
byre women £6 - £8 per half year
inferior from £5 - £7
girls from £3 - £4

Ardrossan and Saltcoats Herald - Saturday 02 November 1872



1879 Ayr Advertiser, or, West Country Journal - Thursday 30 October 1879
Cumnock Hairst 
dairy maids £20-23 per annum
byre women £7-9 per half year
ploughmen about the same as last year

Ayr Advertiser, or, West Country Journal - Thursday 30 October 1879

1902  Ardrossan and Saltcoats Herald - Friday 14 March 1902
dairymaids £26-£30 per annum
kitchen maids £10 to £10 10/- per half year
byre girls £9 0 £10 per half years
younger girls from £3 per half year
men from £12-16 per half year





1907 Cumnock Chronicle 








Ardrossan and Saltcoats Herald - Saturday 22 July 1871
SCYTHE FAlR.—This fair came off on Wednesday. For many years it was nowhere, but recently it has been revived, and in order to draw out the multitude, trotting matches and velocipede races, have been attached to it. The weather, though soft in the early part of the day, partially cleared up in time for the races, and not a few tuned ont to witness the sports. The trotting matches came off on the usual course adjacent to the Dumfries Arms Hotel, and the velocipede races on that portion of the highway between the above-named inn and Broomfield gate on Auchinleck Road The trotting inatclies were sorry enough affairs, and excited little interest. The first was won by Mr Probert, baker, Ochiltree ; the second by Mr John Crawford, flesher, unirkirk ; and the third by Mr Matthew Riggans, flesher, Cornflock. The velocipede race in two heats was keenly contested, and won narrowly by Mr Arthur, Kirkconnell. 

Scythe Day

CUMNOCK Old Fast Day holiday was held on 22 june 1916  in fine weather (Chronicle



Dudd’s day/ Runaway fair


1904






 The Scotsman - Friday 02 November 1934

Cumnock Annual Race and Fair  in March 


General business fair every Thursday in December 1879

1934 The Scotsman - Friday 02 November 1934
Cumnock Hin Hairst Fair Cumnock Hin Hairst Fair brought out a large number of young lads willing to fee , but the demand for that class of worker was not strong . Young girls received roundabout £ 14 , and good generals got £ 18 , 10 s . to £ 19 - ? There was no demand for married ploughmen . It is anticipated that feeing will be much more brisk by Dudd's Day.





Feeing fairs had died out by the end of 1940s
on
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