extracted from the Appletree Press title Hiring Fairs and Market Places by May Blair. COUNTY TYRONE Caledon had two fairs, also great markets selling the usual produce (including linen) on the second Monday of every month. In 1770 its markets were attended by one hundred weavers. Later it had a general market on Saturday and a grain market every Tuesday. The Earls of Caledon were good landlords who not only distributed clothes and money to the poor but did all they could to benefit the village. By the nineteenth century it had two corn mills and a flour mill which ranked among the most extensive in the kingdom and was said to supply the country from Belfast to Lough Erne. The refuse of the grain was used as fuel – it was found that a ton of refuse equalled four hundredweight of coal.       The nearby town of Aughnacloy was also of considerable importance, though said by the Ordnance Surveyor in 1834 to be small and dirty with not more than four good houses. Linen to the value of £41,600 was sold there in 1803 but by 1820 the takings were down to £4,618 an indication of how the demand for linen slumped at that time. It also had a weekly market held on Wednesdays, a grain and a fruit market when in season, monthly fairs and twice-yearly hiring fairs. The latter died out about 1930 but left their legacy in a poem entitled ‘My Father’s Servant Boy’.       The usual tradesmen carried on business in the town including nailers, saddlers, leather workers, shoemakers, tailors, reedmakers, bakers, milliners and smiths. Almost every house was licensed to sell ale and spirits. No doubt these did a good trade on fair days when police were expected to remain on duty until all public houses closed and the people had dispersed. It was their duty also to patrol the roads leading to the fair. After the 1939-45 war boys and girls used to come across the border from Eire to Aughnacloy (quite illegally) to look for work on local farms. They congregated at the top of a side street leading down to the old railway station, sitting on the kerb until someone came to offer them a day’s work.       Carnteel was one of several places to have bishop’s fairs. Others were Armagh, Clogher, Dromore (Down) and Tynan. These date back to the thirteenth century and were literally owned and ruled by the bishop in whose diocese they were held. The Bishop of Armagh was granted two in Carnteel, each lasting two days, one on 15 August and the day after and the other on 8 September (the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary) and the day after. The town was granted to Sir Thomas Ridgeway in 1611. Ridgeway erected a bawn and established more fairs at that time making seven in all. Ballygawley was said to have a good fair which on hiring day was an excellent place to find a servant girl. They stood in a line, bundles at their feet, along the south-east side of the street and side-walk. Most came from the surrounding countryside but many came from Monaghan, Cavan and Donegal. Ballygawley was famous far and wide for its horse fair.       In the east of the county was the village of Moy – also famous for its horse fair, the action taking place in the town’s eighteenth-century tree-lined square. Horses were needed by the thousand in both town and country not to mention those needed by the cavalry and artillery regiments of the British army up to and during the Great War. Buyers came also from Holland, Belgium and Switzerland. The horses offered for sale in Moy were said to be of high quality and to have great stamina. If the buyer (usually an agent) liked the look of a horse he asked the seller to first walk him and then trot him for a short distance along the street so that he could watch his action first from behind and then again as he cantered back towards him. If this was satisfactory he proceeded with a closer examination. He looked at his teeth to ascertain his age. The army liked three-year-olds so he looked for four big teeth. He then checked that he was sound in wind and limb. A strong cough indicated strong lungs; a soft cough the opposite. Finally he ran his hand along each leg to check for side-bone growths which were a sign that the horse might later go lame. A farmer from Aughamullen near Lough Neagh reminisces:       'I went there with cattle. I always walked it. There were always horses in the Moy. Buyers came from all over the country. The English ones came over on a Wednesday and bought all the best horses for the army. They would be jockeyin’ horses and ridin’ horses. Then there was second-class horses bought for ploughing. There was a row of vits [veterinary surgeons] an’ when you bought a horse you could have him examined to see if he was soun’ for five shillin’s. There was nowhere better than the Moy, even for cattle. The butchers came there to buy first-class beef.' Moy in days-gone-by had the advantage of ‘cheap and ready transit to Belfast and Newry from the Quay, 150 yards distant from the market place by Blackwater River, Lough Neagh, Belfast Canal, Bann River and Newry Canal’. Towards the end of the nineteenth century competition came in the form of rail transport with ‘Cheap Inland and Through Rates for all descriptions of produce sold in Moy Market and transported direct from Trew and Moy station.’ The horses have gone and the cattle have gone but the memories linger on in this old poem entitled ‘The Moy Fair’. The author’s name is unknown.       Extracted from the Appletree Press title Hiring Fairs and Market Places by May Blair. Previous extract regarding County Tyrone: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 Forthcoming extracts regarding County Tyrone: Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12

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