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1973
UNKNOWN - "A 'Fair' Amount
Of Work"
As far as the thousands of
visitors who crowd into
Bo'ness every Fair Day are
concerned, Bo'ness
Children's Fair Festival is
an exciting one-day
spectacle, beginning with
the sound of the brass bands
in the early hours of Friday
morning and the ending with
the sound of the dance bands
in the wee sma' hours of
Saturday. But what many of
them fail to realise is that
to ensure that this day of
days in the Bo'ness calendar
goes off without a hitch
does indeed involve a "fair"
amount of work on the part
of a great many people
ranging from Fair Festival
Director Mr. George V.
Renton to well known "Fair"
hands such as Bobby Heath,
George McFarlane and Bill
McLucas.
Since the time when the Fair
represented the only holiday
which the local miners
enjoyed in the whole year,
it has been tradition in
Bo'ness that as soon as one
year's festivities are over
thoughts immediately turn to
making the following year's
celebrations even better
than the ones before, and
such is still very much the
case today. Throughout the
winter months plans are laid
for floats and tableau,
ideas are mulled over for
ever more original
presentees and fathers
tentatively pencil in
sketches of arches, just in
case their daughters are
chosen as fairies, flower
girls, or even ladies in
waiting when the annual
voting takes place at the
end of March.
The election of the Queen is
the signal for thoughts to
be turned into actions and
by the first Monday night
after Easter fathers are
busily at work in the shed
below Bo'ness Public School
at the first of what are to
begin with weekly sessions
and later become nightly
sessions to ensure that the
school's decorated float is,
as always, one of the most
spectacular in the grand
procession. These fathers
and the many others who
shortly afterwards begin
work on other lorries and
floats to represent other
schools, associations and
local works are in fact all
keeping alive one of the
Fair's oldest traditions,
for even in the days of the
miners' Fair it was the
custom for many Bo'ness
carters to bring up the rear
of the procession.
The reason that the carters
of Bo'ness were so numerous
and so well known, was that
they covered the whole of
Central and Southern
Scotland transporting loads
to and from the ships which
made Borrowstounness the
second most important port
in Scotland. No matter how
busy the harbour was,
however, the carters always
found time to spruce up
their big heavy wheeled
wagons to take part in the
Fair procession. Nor was it
only the carts which were
painted and decorated. The
horses, too, came in for
their "Fair" share of
attention and so elaborately
plaited were their manes and
so colourful the tassles on
their tails that they gave
rise to the old Bo'ness
saying, "She's all dressed
up like a Fair horse".
Today, sadly, the horses are
no longer a part of the Fair
scene but happily the local
haulage contractors still
sacrifice considerable
amounts of work to ensure
that Bo'ness bairns can
continue to enjoy the thrill
of a hurl on a decorated
lorry. While the haulage
contractors and lorry owners
contribute directly to the
Fair many other Bo'ness
businessmen contribute
financially, while local
electrical contractor Mr.
George MacFarlane leads a
varied assortment of Fair
enthusiasts whose Informal
Entertainments Committee,
during the weeks before the
Fair, organises a range of
events which this year
includes everything from the
very childish pleasures of a
gird race to the very adult
ones of a night out at "La
Fabrique", the town's new
luxury night spot, and from
dinghy racing to piano
smashing.
Whether the event is one of
the preliminary fund raising
efforts such as the clay
pigeon shooting or the
actual events of the Fair
Day, itself such as the big
parade or the afternoon
revels in the Douglas Park,
safety is, of course, all
important where children are
concerned and this is where
many more Bo'nessians could
help by working as
stewards. In addition, the
Fair is always an occasion
when the local members of
the St Andrew's Ambulance
Brigade are to the fore,
while several other public
spirited citizens help the
local police force by acting
as Special Constables.
Their duties range from
crowd control at the Glebe
Park to traffic rerouting
during the procession and
Police Inspector Meldrum has
great praise for the tactful
way in which these
volunteers help his men
handle the vast holiday
crowd.
The huge crowd also means a
great deal of work for the
Town Council's direct labour
force, for in addition to
erecting all the decorations
and platforms in the Glebe
and Douglas Parks they are
also responsible for all the
safety fences and crush
barriers which are required,
to keep back the adult
spectators.
Essentially, however, the
Fair is a Children's day and
it is the children whom the
crowds flock to see, but it
is well worth remembering
that the precision and
discipline of the children
taking part in the
coronation ceremony is most
definitely not achieved
without a great deal of
practice and rehearsal under
the direction of the
teachers of the Queen's
school. Areas of the school
playground and the school
hall are carefully marked
out with the exact
measurements of the platform
in the Glebe Park, so that
no matter what the weather,
the drilling of the
principal characters can
continue throughout the
summer term, until the Lord
in Waiting knows his every
step and the Herald every
syllable of his
proclamation.
For the remainder of the
pupils the Fair really comes
to life when the festival's
Musical Director arrives in
school to rehearse the well
known Fair songs. For
twenty-five years these
rehearsals were conducted by
Mr. James Cuthell until his
retirement in 1972. Now he
has been succeeded by two of
Scotland's best known brass
band conductors, Mr. Alex
Fleming of Kinneil Colliery
Silver Band and Mr. Joe
Hempstead of Bo'ness and
Carriden Band. It is indeed
fitting that such well known
musicians have been
entrusted with the Fair
songs, for there can be few
parts of the whole Fair
Festival which Bo'nessians
hold more dear and they have
been sung in all parts of
the world wherever
Bo'nessians meet and even at
Hampden Park when Bo'ness
United won the Scottish
Junior Cup. Originally the
Fair crowds used to sing
"Scots Wha Hae", "Three
Cheers for the Red, White
and Blue" and "Auld Lang
Syne", but shortly after
Provost Stewart completely
revolutionised the Fair in
1897 with the introduction
of a schoolgirl Queen, Grace
Strachan from the old
Anderson Academy, it was
felt that a special Fair
song was needed and so "Our
Festal Day", with the words
by Robert Fleming and music
composed by Mr. E. C.
Schofield, was introduced.
It proved so popular that a
few years later, in 1903,
"Hail to Our Queen", written
by well known Bo'ness poet
Hope Thomson and with music
by Mr. L. Dyer Appleby, was
added to the proceedings and
these two songs have been
sung at every Fair for the
past seventy years.
It is interesting to note
that such sentimental value
was attached to the Fair
songs that, even during the
years of the Second World
War, when it was impossible
to hold the Fair, the
teachers of Bo'ness ensured
that, towards the end of
each summer term the words
of "Our Festal Day" and
"Hail to Our Queen" were
still faithfully taught to
every Bo'ness boy and girl,
and many of these wartime
bairns still recall how they
made their own opportunities
to sing these songs by
holding an almost endless
succession of "Wee Fairs" in
various parts of the town
throughout the long stay at
home summer holidays.
With the wartime rationing
in force these back court
festivities must have taxed
many a mother's ingenuity
but home made iced Empire
biscuits and jam wafer
biscuits were produced by
the dozen and helped fill
the gap left by the
unavailable sweets and
chocolate.
Many Fair memories must
indeed be conjured up by the
mention of food from
strawberries and ice cream
eaten in a crowded
Serafini's while waiting for
the procession to pass, to
steaming hot steak pies,
which still make up the
traditional Fair lunch in
many homes. For the Fair
has always been a time for
family reunions with all the
work which they entail
before hand for local
housewives with "Fair"
cleaning every bit as
important as spring cleaning
in Bo'ness homes and huge
meals very much the order of
the day.
There can be few Bo'ness
homes in fact where many
members of the family get
much sleep o the Fair E'en,
with mothers putting the
finishing touches to
everything from fairy
dresses to jellies and
trifles and fathers working
desperately to complete
arches ready for the
breakfast time judging.
From making thousands of
paper flowers to decorate
arches and floats to making
sure meals are ready for
hundreds of hungry bandsmen
and from ensuring that every
sequin on a fairy dress to
ensuring that the "Royal
Command Performance" in the
Douglas Park runs without a
hitch does indeed demand a
"Fair" amount of work from a
"Fair" number of people, but
as the Town Hall clock
chimes eleven and yet
another Bo'ness Fair reaches
its triumphant climax, then
indeed does it seem so very
worthwhile.
UNKNOWN
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