A report in a local newspaper at the end of May 1906 gave a little interesting insight into the fairground which at the time was set up in Stonefield, Blantyre. Continuing our in depth look at 1900 – 1910, it read as follows:
At present the showground in Stonefield is inhabited by quite a number of travelling showmen, and the caravans, as well as the people themselves, seem to belong to a superior class of nomad. A birth and a death falls to be recorded among them during their their brief stay in our midst—the former being on Saturday last (19th May 1906). and the latter on Monday (21st May 1906). Something between the sublime and the ridiculous it witnessed occasionally on the showground when there is to be seen the somewhat incongruous circumstance of shows and a religious meeting holding forth at the same time!
Here we have the show people putting forth all their efforts with organ and voice to attract the people inside, and at the other end of the ground we have a band of religious workers from one of the churches standing singing, or speaking. Needless to say the nomads of the road secured the larger audience. We have yet some six days to go before the “flittin ” time, but already we notice a few of them on the move!”
Pictured later in the mid 1950’s is the former showground just off Auchinraith Road. Glasgow Road is in the foreground, the houses in the background Springwells.
