Bo'ness Fair Day Memories

I WAS born in East Castleoan, Bo’ness in February 1950 amongst the close knit community of hard working miners, their wives and families. Later I

IN April 1938 my family came to Grangepans from Dalkeith as my late father Jimmy Forrest had arranged to take over the Stag Inn from

ON being asked to write this article for the Fair Programme. I found myself reflecting on and over a period of 44 years. It was

FROM the industrial town of my childhood and of the earlier Fairs, to the town where ” Tourism, Heritage and Railway ” would appear to

LORD EWING got it right – Bo’ness is its people and its people are Bo’ness, and our Children’s Fair Festival is a public demonstration of

MY INTRODUCTION to Bo’ness Children’s Fair Festival was in the Old Kirk vestr. The late John Gilfillan, a real minister’s man if ever there was

READERS will have heard many times all the old stories told about the Bo’ness Fair, the most common one being of the two Bo’ness men

HOW MANY times have you heard it said that if you are not Bo’ness born and bred, no matter how long you have lived in

IN common with many other towns in Scotland who celebrate an annual festival or community event, such as Lanark with its Lanimers Day and Lerwicks

SINCE my school days I have always been involved with the Fair – from being a pupil and carrying the St. Mary’s School banner, to

What more can be be said regarding our Fair weather over the last few years. Where has Lady Luck been? Certainly not shining down on

” IF YER no’ a Granger, yer a stranger” or so the saying goes, I have to admit to being a bit of both. Although

HOW unfortunate with the weather we have been this past year or two and how disheartening it must have been for the Queen, her retinue,

IN 1960, or thereabouts, I used to visit all local primary schools in Bo’ness in my capacity as an itinerant Art teacher. Mr Alex Ritchie,

THE Band is now assembled into ranks of four abreast the road, just in front of Craigmaillen Church on Braehead. The Procession has already started

As most Bo’nessians will know, the town was once Scotland’s second port ( and reported as such by the 17th century novelist and English spy

THE crowd of ‘20.000’ packed the Glebe Park for the crowning ceremony and suddenly I was the focus of attention. Eddie Armit and I, in

FOR weeks now our news from home had been full of Bo’ness Fair. We were on first name terms with all the principal characters –