Cockermouth Fair brief history Taylor's connection

Cockermouth Fair

The fair which came to Cockermouth twice a year at Whitsuntide and Martinmas originated in the Hiring Fairs where farmers hired their workers. The Main Street was closed for two full days, Sunday and Monday and had to be cleared for normal traffic by midday Tuesday. The street was closed from Wordsworth House up to, and including, the Market Place. Sunday was spent building the rides and stalls and Monday everything was open for business through to midnight. Everything was dismantled, packed up and the main street was clear for normal traffic by mid-day Tuesday.

To all youngsters the coming of the fair was a major event but I had a special reason for looking forward to it.

Being related to members of the Taylor travelling showmen family I had "all the fun of the fair" on the cheap in fact I generally made a small profit as rides were free and I was given a ‘fairing’ by various relatives.

The giving of a ‘fairing’ to children was based on farmers giving their newly hired worker a small payment to seal the contract they entered into when they were hired at the hiring fairs.

The payment was usually a shilling worth 12d (old pence) or 5p (decimal pence).

Both faces of a George VI shilling dated 1950 .

One of my first memories of ‘Fair Day was seeing a huge showman's engine at the top of High Sand Lane powering my uncles Ark/Speedway at the bottom of Station Street. That engine was one of three owned by the Taylor Brothers Mattie and William. The only survivor is “The Busy Bee” . Follow the link at the top of the page for more details.

This old photograph showing several family members sitting on the steps of the Ark.

Their relationship to Rose Hilda is in brackets

The Taylors had two main rides, a Speedway/Ark at the bottom of Station Street and a set of Dodgems in the Market Place. The other big ride that came to Cockermouth was a Waltzer belonging to the Codona family. The Codona Waltzer with its sparkling clean paintwork always looked as though it had just left the factory. Looking at the Codona rides today on the Web shows the same attention to presentation. Positioned along the street were a collection of side shows, stalls, swing boats and children's roundabouts, candy floss and ice cream vendors.

In 1955 Mattie Taylor in the photograph brought his newly acquired dive bomber ride to Cockermouth which was the first time he built it up for public use. To save time he fitted the rotating arm while still on the car park.

Unfortunately the overall length only got into the market place from Kirkgate after several hours of very careful manoeuvres to avoid the arm going through a bakery shop window.

Once the ride opened it was clear the punters were very suspicious about it’s safety. The ride started with it rotating as shown in the photograph below and then tilting so the chairs passed horizontally round the top of the main tower.

Unfortunately its position in the market place meant that in the horizontal mode the cars passed through the branches of a tree.

Every time me and my friend passed the ride we were cajoled to get on and show how much fun and safe it was. It seemed to have worked because later in the day people were lining up for a ride.

Perhaps their bravado owed more to Jennings Brewery than our example?

This SPEEDWAY is almost identical to the one I remember as Taylor’s Ark / Speedway in the 1950’s.

It is set up as the Speedway with the the motorbikes on rather than the animals used when set up as the Ark.

This Photograph, and the Speedway photograph above,

are from the

National Fairground Archive,

Main Library,

University of Sheffield,

Sheffield, S10 2TN, UK,

Tel: 0114 222 7231

Which is a very good source of information on Fairground rides and Fairground history.

Mattie Taylor's Dive Bomber at Kirkcaldy in Scotland.