Childhood Memories
It’s quite a while since I wrote one of my ‘Looking Back’ blog posts. As I’ve said before I do quite a lot of looking back and the older we get the more there is to look back on. My Wife always accuses me of being a creature of habit and I think that must stem from my upbringing because as a child our whole life was always dictated by the calendar. Our year always started at Easter whenever that happened to fall that particular year, the very first fair of the season was always Rivvington Pike in Lancashire on Good Friday, and we would take a nice slow pace on the journey from Leeds where we spent most winters across country into Lancashire.
It was usually a very hit & miss affair regarding the takings as it was only a one day affair for us and much depended on the weather which varied with the date Easter fell on, sometimes nice spring weather and other times Snow. After a long cold winter funds were running low especially if there had been much snow, which prevented the women hawking their wares round the villages, as this helped to eke out the money from the previous summer season this was very important fair for us.
From Rivvington PikeRipley we then set out for Huddersfield Easter Fair then on our yearly round of the fairs and carnivals in the UK which were almost always held on the same weeks every year, finishing up in October at Hull Fair in East Yorkshire (yes, I know it’s now called Humberside, but to me it will always be East Yorkshire). Then it was back across to Leeds where we stayed until the following Easter, so you see what I meant by our lives being dictated by the calendar. Although we did work at Bell View in Manchester occasionally when the Christmas Circus presented there.
They allowed a few stalls in the foyer to the circus and I remember my Mother and Grandmother sharing the fortune telling booth with my great Aunt Mona, she was the Fat Lady exhibit, then there was Professor Testo with his Flea Circus, yes they really were live fleas he had performing amazing feats in the miniature ring. There were various other stalls with goldfish, coconuts and the like.
Prof. Testo’s Daughter with the Flea Circus
But my favourite was always Hull Fair, mainly because it was the largest fair in England at the time and I think still is today. It was also the last one of the season so all the showmen and travellers were in a real good mood and enjoying themselves. There were so many attractions it could take one days to get round and see them all. One of my all time favourites was Fossetts Circus, which always featured at Hull back in those days. It was by watching this show so many times as a child and absolutely falling in love with it, later in life I spent 17 years travelling the world with my late wife Pamela as Circus Artistes.
There are one or two attractions from the old Hull Fair that still stir my memory from time to time including an old Gypsy lady who I only ever new as Mrs Dear, her and her husband lived in a most beautiful vardo (caravan). She was a fortune-teller with a difference, instead of the usual performance of reading hands, cards or crystal, Mrs Dear had a small cage standing on a table outside the caravan which contained a bright yellow canary. When someone wanted their fortune told she would dutifully take their sixpence then give a loud whistle, this was the signal to the canary who would hop off the perch into the bottom of the cage and pick up one of several small cards which were strewn on the bottom and take it back up on the perch. Mrs Dear proceeded to take the card from the canary’s beak and present it to the client. This fascinated me and to this day I don’t have a notion how she trained the canary to do it.
Old Mrs Dear with her educated Canary
Another one that sticks in my mind was ‘Syncopating Sandy’ who, it was claimed on the show front played the piano non-stop the whole week of the fair, yes, night and day. I have to admit as boys we were constantly trying to sneak a peek inside after everything was closed for the night to see if it was really Sandy, someone else or a record being played. Unfortunately, we never did manage to dodge the security staff who watched our every move.
Most of the exhibits were there year after year but there is one attraction I want to tell you about which appeared just the once. Mother had her usual pitch in Walton Street just outside the main fair entrance, where she rented a small front garden from a Mrs. Kershaw. The space was too small for the caravan so she did her fortune telling from a tent. Father was always one for trying something different with his pitch and this particular year was no exception, he decided he was going to exhibit ‘The Bearded Lady’. He commissioned some sign writer in Hull to paint the Flash as we call it, these are the boards advertising the attraction. They arrived in all their splendour, maroon background with the most ornate lettering and scrolls in true fairground fashion announcing First time in Hull ‘The Original Bearded Lady’ This is NOT a Wax works model, Yes she is truly alive, step inside and be amazed, She is as naked as the day she was born, don’t miss this wonderful sight.
The opening night came and father put out the boards and started spieling to the crowd, I can remember it like it was yesterday: “Step right forward now, we have a party of your friends on the inside waiting for you, tickets are not required (that’s because we didn’t have any!) Come and see the original bearded lady, this is the very first time she has been on show here at Hull Fair, Come and see for yourself, she’s as naked as the day she was born, it’s the best value for money at the fair, just sixpence (all the other exhibits were nine pence).
The public entered at one side of the exhibit tent walked round the bearded lady and exited the other side, as they came out they were in hysterics, and giving the thumbs up to their friends waiting to go in. What they didn’t do was to tell the others waiting what they had seen, I think partly because it was only sixpence and didn’t feel they had been cheated when most other things were nine pence or a shilling.
What did they see? The exhibit was our ‘NANNY GOAT’
Until next time ………………..
Category: Blog
