extracted from the Appletree Press title Hiring Fairs and Market Places by May Blair. COUNTY LONDONDERRY Moneymore and Draperstown were once celebrated for two things – their fairs and their cleanliness. It was not always so. When taken over by the Drapers’ Company at the beginning of the seventeenth century, Moneymore was described as ‘but a collection of wretched mud cabins and crooked streets’. Draperstown was little more than a few scattered mud-walled houses at a crossroads, giving it the title of The Cross at Ballinascreen. In Moneymore the Drapers’ Company proceeded to build a castle overlooking the main street and lined the street on either side with six fine, two-storied thatched houses. Running water was installed (a very advanced amenity for those days). Pynnar described the castle as ‘one of the finest and most perfect in Ireland.’ However, like many others it was attacked in 1641 and disappeared altogether during the next century. During these years the settlers were learning to live with and obey the rules of their new landlords – the Drapers’ Company. Certain standards had to be met in their behaviour and in the tidiness of their houses. They were also bound by their leases not to cut or burn turf – this in an effort to make them cut down trees for fuel, so that the area might be rid of the forest that provided covering for the outlaws which still roamed the countryside. And outlaws were not the only ones lurking in the woods. Wolves abounded and there were some leases by which tenants were expected to kill a certain number annually. It was during this time that Good-Will Conyngham (a Scots Presbyterian who came to Ireland in the late seventeenth century) arrived in Moneymore with his sixteen-year-old bride Ann, and decided to build ‘a convenient dwelling house of lime and stone, two stories high, with necessary office houses, gardens and orchards.’ This was to be known as ‘Springhill’, and the Conyngham family and their heirs were to live there until it was presented to The National Trust by Captain W.L. Lenox Conyngham in 1957. The same served on the committee which had assumed responsibility for the affairs of the Drapers’ Company in 1904. Their main duties were to see to the continued upkeep of the Company’s property and supervise the sale of land to the tenants. To return to the early days: as it turned out the Drapers’ estate was leased to agents throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The Drapers did not take possession of it themselves until 1817. In 1818 the former Cross at Ballinascreen became known as Draperstown. From then on the aim of the Company was to educate and advance the district for the good of their tenants and the ultimate advancement of the estate. They built houses, dispensaries, market houses, corn stores, court houses, inns, schools, Presbyterian Meeting Houses, Episcopal Churches, and in Moneymore a stately Manor House. They contributed towards the improvement of other churches including the Roman Catholic Chapel. They made roads, built bridges, constructed mill races and planted trees. It was the Drapers who planted the trees around Lough Fea and in the intriguing and beautiful Reuben’s Glen (recently swept away in the name of development). They provided residences for, and paid the salaries of the teachers – £50 for the master and £35 for the mistress, with turf for a fire in both cases. They contributed £10 towards the salaries of the priest and the ministers of religion. Clergy were also presented with either the rent of their farms or their tithe and bog. The dispensary surgeon got 100 guineas, a house with a good garden and forage [grass] for his horse. Roads were cut through districts hitherto almost unknown. These were used by coaches travelling regularly from such places as Dungannon and Cookstown to Coleraine and Belfast. At the same time the Drapers were managing the tenant farms which paid rent to the company. This was collected by their agent Rowley Miller Esq. who lived in the Manor House in Moneymore. Small wonder then that a report based on an inspection by the Irish Society in 1836 advised that anyone visiting the County of Londonderry should make an effort to visit Moneymore and Draperstown to see for themselves the amount of work carried out by the Company.       Both towns had excellent fairs and markets which contributed in no small measure to the economy and social life of the people. Wednesday was market day in Draperstown. The first Friday in every month was Fair Day. Today sales are held weekly. Sheep are still sold in the open street but nowadays they are sold by auction. The Market House is now a library. The number of fairs in Moneymore increased to twelve early in the nineteenth century and from then on were held regularly on the twenty-first of every month. The markets were held at the front of the Market House, which was just one of a number of fine buildings built by the Drapers’ Company on High Street. The ground floor was used as a corn market until the new Market Yard and corn stores were built across the street. The first floor doubled as both town hall and court for petty sessions. Linen merchants used it on fair days to pay for their cloth. The new Market Yard had an impressive entrance off High Street and a second wider entrance on Market Street. These led to corn stores with cellars and overhanging balconies. Some grain went to local corn mills, one of which was conveniently situated by the creamery at the back of the Market House. Large quantities went to Gaussens, Huguenot immigrants who in 1788 built a pier and extensive stores in Ballyronan; also a brewery and distillery which manufactured grain into beer and whiskey. The surplus was exported via the lighters which plied regularly across Lough Neagh en route to Belfast and Newry. Local tradition has it that the last surviving Gaussen lost a fortune on the greyhound track. Although lighters had no regular passenger service, it is thought Ballyronan was the chosen point of departure for some Derry and Tyrone emigrants in the nineteenth century on the first stage of their journey to America. Hundreds of cattle were sold in both towns. Many of these were purchased at fairs in Connaught, brought north to be fattened and then sold to dealers who exported them on the hoof to Scotland and England via such ports as Larne and Donaghadee. They were then sold on at fairs in Dumfries and Carlisle and even as far south as Norfolk and Hertfordshire. Many Irish harvesters followed this same route in their search for seasonal work. With the coming of the steamship, Glasgow, Birkenhead and Heysham became the main points of entry to the mainland.       Extracted from the Appletree Press title Hiring Fairs and Market Places by May Blair. Previous extracts regarding County Derry/Londonderry: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 Forthcoming extracts regarding County Londonderry: Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13

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