extracted from the Appletree Press title Hiring Fairs and Market Places by May Blair. COUNTY ANTRIM One County Down farmer, who purchased three cows in Colgan’s mart for £30, with three ten-shilling notes handed back for a luck-penny, got more than he bargained for. On the ten-mile walk home one of the cows lay down by the roadside, having decided that the time had come to produce her calf. This she proceeded to do and the new owner, William Scott, had to leave mother and newborn calf with a farmer at Carryduff overnight. They completed their journey to the Scott farm at Carricknaveigh the next day.       Jim Scott was one of three sons in that family who set up in business in Belfast. Two ran a grocery business at 164 Shankill Road. The third, Jim, served his apprenticeship with W.J. Gordon, a provision merchant in Church Lane, before setting up as a butcher at 3 Lisburn Road. In those days pigs were butchered on the farm and Jim purchased his pork through an agent who either collected it there or bought it in the markets throughout the country. Beef and mutton were purchased at the livestock sales, usually Colgan’s or Allam’s. Selling was by then an efficient undertaking run by business people rather than farmers, who were by now educated to know the value of their stock. It was a far cry from the days when a farmer could spend all day trying to sell a cow. Most of the animals arrived by train, unloading at sidings and going into pens at East Bridge Street and Oxford Street. Animals purchased by local butchers went across to the abattoir in Stewart Street to be slaughtered. Those bought by farmers were penned prior to being walked or lorried out to the farm. The remainder went into lairage pens situated between Stewart Street and the Lagan, where they were examined by vets before setting off on the mile-long walk (along Laganbank Road, Oxford Street, Ann Street, Victoria Street, Corporation Street and Garmoyle Street) to the docks. Here they were again penned before being loaded onto boats destined for Glasgow, Birkenhead or Heysham depending on who had purchased them earlier in the day.       This journey from May’s fields (now called Maysfield) to the docks was a running sore with Belfast Corporation for many years, mainly because of the disruption to traffic but also because of perceived cruelty in that ash plants were used freely as sticks by the drovers who accompanied the animals. Police kept a lookout at the appropriate time each morning and evening in an effort to enforce a Corporation bylaw but it was impossible to watch all of them all of the time and lapses often occurred. A report in the Belfast News-Letter of 1 May 1931 stated that salesmen at Birkenhead were complaining of animals arriving with stick marks. This reduced their value.       Ministry of Agriculture figures for October 1931 state that 24,556 cattle, 19,796 sheep and 2,508 pigs passed through the Port of Belfast that month, most of these having travelled on the hoof along some of Belfast’s busiest streets. The Corporation felt that the problem could be solved by moving the auctioneers, lock, stock and barrel to Duncrue Street beside the docks. They succeeded in moving the abattoir but the auctioneers refused to move from their traditional site. However, changes were already taking place. The Pigs Marketing Board (established 1934) now controlled most of the pig sales. Cattle and sheep were being sold by weight instead of by the head. Marts were springing up in towns all over the North to conform to new regulations. The days of Belfast’s nightly ‘Wild West show’ were numbered and they came to an eventual end in 1968.       Extracted from the Appletree Press title Hiring Fairs and Market Places by May Blair. Previous extracts regarding County Antrim: Part 1 | Part 3 | Forthcoming extracts regarding County Antrim: Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13

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