'Hiring Fairs and Market Places' by May Blair, published by Appletree Press

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extracted from the Appletree Press title Hiring Fairs and Market Places by May Blair.

COUNTY LONDONDERRY

The market in Coleraine had been granted by charter (three to be held weekly), also one fair in the year to be continued for eight days, together with a Court of Piepowder. Markets of sorts were originally held in the townland of Roselick on the estate of Mark Kerr Esq. but these had petered out. Coleraine suffered greatly during the rebellion of 1641, but continued to hold its markets and fairs. Cattle fairs were once held at Killowen, then a village across the Bann in the Clothworkers’ Estate, but these died out while those at Coleraine prospered and increased in number. The town built by the Irish Society included a church, several meeting houses and other places of worship and 200 timber houses which were enclosed by an earthen wall and ditch. The Society also erected a bridge across the Bann and when this was swept away by floods in 1745, they replaced it with a new one at a cost of £2,050. They founded and built a free schoolhouse in 1705 (rebuilt in 1821). They gave £700 and 35 tons of timber towards the building of a Town Hall in 1742 and a further £200 for improvements to it in 1787. As far back as 1616 they offered £200 towards the building of a pier at Portrush – then a mere fishing station and a known haunt of pirates – if the people of the neighbourhood thought it worthwhile to do likewise. They did not, and it was not until 1827 (211 years later) that improvements to that harbour commenced. By then the cost was £15,000 which was met in full by the people of Coleraine. The townspeople also bought a steamboat for £10,000 to trade with England and Scotland. Exports were mainly dairy and other farm produce. Imports included horses, mares, geldings and Highland ponies.
By this time (the nineteenth century) Coleraine had both a good grain market and a good linen market. The linen market was held in The Diamond every Saturday. There were at the same time markets for butter, potatoes, corn and flax near New Row and one for yarn in Church Street. Cattle were sold in a field to the south of the town, also on Saturday. Grain was sold on Monday, Wednesday and Friday; pork and butter on Wednesday only.
It was around this time that the linen market began to decline and the grain market to improve. A new market place and grain store were opened in 1829 and a charge was levied by the Worshipful Corporation of Coleraine for customs and weighing. The charge ranged from a penny on a sack of potatoes, live pig, or sheep to fourpence on a sack of eels and tenpence on a carcase of beef. By this time the town also had a tannery, a brewery, a soapery, a chandlery and the usual scattering of corn and flax mills in the surrounding countryside. It had a thriving Farming Society which organised shows and an annual ploughing match. It also encouraged excellence by awarding prizes for good animal and crop husbandry.
Hiring fairs were held in May and November. When these began is uncertain but they lasted well into the twentieth century. On hiring day The Diamond was besieged by an army of showmen, hawkers and other catch-penny artists. The east end was monopolised by a Punch and Judy Show. At the entrance to New Row a preacher exhorted the Godless to ‘betake themselves to The Fountain of Living Waters’ where they might wash and be clean. Nearby the Salvation Army Band played sacred music. Many a courtship was formed on the day of the fair and if the couple hired in places far apart they would arrange to see each other again at the next fair. The usual meeting place was outside the second-hand clothes shop at Stone Row.
One of Coleraine’s many hirelings, David Given, was so happy with his lot that he wrote a poem in his master’s honour. ‘Hiring taught me a lot’, he claimed, ‘especially the important thing of fending for myself. Sammy Shaw was a good honest man and never asked me to do any work he wouldn’t have done himself, and his cottage was truly home to me.’ However, he didn’t really appreciate the farmer’s kindness until one day he decided he would like a change and set off for the fair. He was approached by a rough-looking farmer from outside the town. ‘Are you looking for a place, son?’ the farmer asked. ‘I am,’ said the boy. The farmer took a step back and looked him up and down as if he were appraising a cow and asked, ‘Have you got your character with you?’ (meaning a reference). The boy said that he hadn’t but promised to return with it in an hour’s time. The farmer agreed and they met again as arranged. ‘Good boy. You’ve kept your promise and come back. And have you got your character?’ he asked. ‘No, but I got yours and I’m not coming to you.’ However, by this time the boy had missed his hiring. After a few days wandering about the countryside he plucked up the courage to return to Sammy Shaw, who welcomed him back with open arms. Years later he composed the following poem.

On the road from Rasharkin that leads o’er the mountain,
And down through Duneaney, onward to the Main,
There stands a wee cottage by the side of the mountain
Which brings back sweet memories again and again.

’Tis forty long years since lonely I cherished
The glow of the fire, ’neath its roof thatched with straw,
For friends I had few and oft would have perished
Had it not been for the kindness of brave Sammy Shaw.

I being light-hearted and youth was adorning
I craved for adventure and in strange parts to roam.
But fate brought me back in the grey of the morning
To the cottage on the brae that I always called home.

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