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extracted from the Appletree Press title Hiring Fairs and Market Places by May Blair.
COUNTY ANTRIMOur big horse Billy, a good brown bay,Farmers in south Antrim (like those in north Down) marketed much of their produce in Belfast, the only difference being that growers in north Down by and large specialised in growing potatoes and vegetables, while those in south Antrim concentrated mainly on dairy produce. Belfast as a market place goes back to the advent of Sir Arthur Chichester, Lord Deputy of Ireland in 1604, who for services to the Crown received a grant of the town, manor and castle of Belfast and adjoining territory forfeited by the O’Neills. The grant included provision for fairs and markets. Sir Arthur is said to have fostered the ‘little hamlet’, encouraged immigration and advanced the prosperity of the place so far that in 1613 the town received its charter of incorporation and the right to return two members to Parliament. It was still, however, only a cluster of straw-thatched mud hovels dotted about the site of the present Castle Junction and High Street (then called Front Road). The first Belfast Fair was held on 1 August 1604. Regular markets were established soon after and by and by a market house was built nearby. It stood at the junction of Cornmarket and High Street for the best part of 200 years until it was demolished in 1811. By 1660 Belfast was a compact town of 150 dwellings set in a rural area. The heart of the town was the River Farset (later culverted below High Street) which even then was lined on either side with shops. Traders, at their own expense, erected bridges across the Farset, the most prominent of which was the Stone Bridge. The commercial life of the town was within a stone’s throw of this bridge (slaughterhouses, tanneries, etc.) and markets and fairs were held in its vicinity until the nineteenth century. On market days there were stalls in front of the houses on both sides of the river. The Stone Bridge became a meeting place for unemployed men, and employers got into the habit of sending ‘to the bridge’ for a man. Here in fact was Belfast’s first place of hiring. By 1760 a new market had been established on the outskirts of the town at Smithfield. It was convenient to Hercules Lane (now Royal Avenue) known at that time as the street of the butchers, and was also close to the slaughterhouses situated in the corner enclosed by Hercules Lane and Castle Lane. Smithfield became a thriving market place over the next century, with an open market for miscellaneous goods, hides, wool, delph, farm produce, cattle, horses, mules, asses and much, much more. It had all the attractions of a country fair – amusement booths, Punch and Judy shows, ballad singers, storytellers. Fruit and vegetables were sold nearby in Castle Lane. The streets were busy, thriving places too; full of the traffic of carts and long-shafted drays piled high with unbleached yarn and linen. These would eventually find their way to the Brown Linen Hall, then situated on the site of the present St Anne’s Cathedral in Donegall Street. In those days farmers from south Antrim brought their produce to market via the Malone Road, passing the turnpike house as they approached Sandy Row. This led to the old Carrickfergus Road past the Pound, through Durham Street, Barrack Street, Millfield, Carrick Hill, North Queen Street and the Shore Road. Traffic heading to market could turn off to the right at the junction of Barrack Street and Mill Street (known as Watson’s Corner) which led straight down to High Street, or it could turn left off Mill Street towards Smithfield. At Watson’s Corner you would have seen a long line of carts piled high with hay and straw or fresh green vegetables, for here the weighbridge keeper had his hut and collected tolls from farmers as they passed by. These came from such places as Ballinderry, Glenavy, Hannahstown and Upper Falls to sell their produce wherever it fetched the best price. By 1820 yet another market had opened on reclaimed land by the River Lagan. It was used mainly for the sale of butter, eggs, potatoes and vegetables. By 1845 the need was felt for bigger and better markets. The Corporation of Belfast applied for and obtained an Act of Parliament giving the Town Council powers to borrow up to £150,000 for improving the town. The Belfast Improvement Act 1845 enabled the Corporation to purchase all the existing markets. Ground for new markets was purchased from one of the town’s chief magistrates (Stephen [later Sir Stephen] May) who owned meadows and fields (May’s fields) stretching eastwards to the river’s edge. From then on most of Belfast’s markets were held in this vicinity, the main market area being known as May’s Market. It was to this market that most of the flax, pork, butter, eggs, fish, potatoes, fresh vegetables, onions, straw, meadow hay, upland hay and unthreshed seed hay were brought from 1850 onwards. Seed hay was in great demand for feeding the carrier horses and (later) the horses that pulled the trams in the city’s streets. In 1893 the Belfast Tramway Company had a stable of 800 horses. Across the street in the variety market (St George’s) buyers could purchase butchers’ meat, poultry, fresh butter, cheese and eggs; also such things as tongs, a crowbar, outerwear, underwear, furniture (both new and second-hand) – in fact anything the then town of Belfast might ever need. The livestock markets and Fair Green were also situated in May’s fields and sold horses, black cattle, sheep, pigs and goats. In the early days poultry, cage birds, pigeons and greyhounds were also available. The new market heralded the arrival of a new system of selling (by auction) though selling at fairs, at the farm, and direct selling to shops was to continue for a long time yet. The main auctioneering establishments in those days were Robson’s Royal Victoria Bazaar, founded in 1842 and sandwiched between Victoria Street, Montgomery Street and Chichester Street, and John Colgan & Sons which was first established in Glasgow in 1850 and came to Belfast in 1900. Robson’s later moved to roomier premises just beyond East Bridge Street. In 1926 two of Robson’s employees, R.J. Allam and W.N. Orage set up their own auctioneering business in Oxford Street and these three (Colgan’s, Robson’s and Allam’s) dominated Belfast’s trade in cattle and sheep for many years. By then many animals were being transported by train. They were loaded onto wagons at stations and sidings all over the country, some even coming from as far away as Cork. In those days animals were hand reared and were much tamer and more easily handled than they are today. Even so, animals arriving in Belfast, never having seen anything in their lives but hedges and green fields, must have felt both nervous and bewildered on arrival in the city. Extracted from the Appletree Press title Hiring Fairs and Market Places by May Blair. Forthcoming extracts regarding County Antrim: Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 |
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