extracted from the Appletree Press title Hiring Fairs and Market Places by May Blair. COUNTY LONDONDERRY Both Moneymore and Draperstown had good horse fairs. At a fair held in Moneymore on 21 July 1836, for instance, 343 horses were sold at prices varying from three to forty pounds, also 675 cows, 283 sheep, and 117 pigs. Other animals included 17 goats and 47 litters of sucking pigs, none of which cost more than ten shillings. Thirteen asses changed hands at from fifteen to thirty shillings. At the same time, the market was well supplied with linen, linen yarn, flannel, stockings, shoes, gates, crocks, rakes, noggins [wooden container used for storing buttermilk], churns and a hundred and one other things probably sold in both places by the same people travelling from fair to fair. Bedsteads sold at six shillings and sixpence, gates at half-a-crown, wooden pig troughs at eightpence. Itinerants played their part by trying to persuade people that they needed clothes pegs, handmade tin-ware, wire toasting forks and even paper flowers.       Tobermore and Desertmartin had fairs but no markets. Local tradition has it that the fairs held in Tobermore were originally held at the gort beside Kilcronaghan old church. A gort was a portion of land attached to a glebe, on which in ancient times clergy kept a bull, a ram and a boar for the convenience of the farmers in the parish. It contained about four acres and was enclosed by stakes and brambles. Farmers brought their animals there when in season. In later years when the practice of bringing animals to the gort died out, it was used for fairs and as a place of safety for horses while parishioners were at worship. Since fairs were never held on the Sabbath, it would have served the dual purpose admirably. Tradition has it that long ago hangings took place at Kilcronaghan too, possibly for the theft of linen or sheep. Interestingly, when the old church was being taken down, the timbers used in its roof were of such good quality that local weavers purchased them for making looms.       The neighbouring parish of Desertmartin also had a patent for fairs, but these died out in 1821 when just two of the original eight were held. While the main support of the people was linen manufacture and trading in cattle, a considerable number were engaged in the lime trade, either in quarrying it or burning it, and some were employed in the numerous small shops which sold such things as tea, sugar and tobacco to cottagers. If the cottager had not the money to pay for his purchases the shopkeeper was quite willing to accept goods in kind – usually butter, yarn or raw hides.       The Dungiven and Brackfield areas were Skinners’ territory, while the Haberdashers under Sir Thomas Phillips held sway around Limavady. Both towns are beautifully situated on the banks of the River Roe. In the eighteenth century Dungiven had just two fairs, each of which was liable to last a week to the accompaniment of drinking, racing and cock-fighting. Limavady, or Newtown-Limavady as it was then known, had five. By the nineteenth century Dungiven’s fairs were being held regularly on the second Tuesday of every month, though the two old patent fairs were still held in May and October. Market Day was Saturday; in Limavady it was Monday. By the nineteenth century extra fairs were being held in Limavady to accommodate people wanting to hire. For some reason these were known in Limavady as the Gallop. They continued well into the twentieth century. The poem ‘Copper John’ captures the atmosphere. 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 | Part 8 Forthcoming extracts regarding County Londonderry: Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13

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