National Fairground Archive

Women on the Fair

On the modern fairground, women can be found operating the rides, instructing in the planning of the fair and lessees in their own right. Travelling fairs have their own diverse and stratified culture and within the term travelling showpeople, the occupations range from owner of an adult or children's ride, proprietor of a fun house or novelty show, or being involved in the catering side by selling hotdogs and candy floss.

Since the establishment of the Showmen's Guild in 1889, fairground women have played an active role in the formation and organisation of showland society. Although there has never been a woman president of the Guild, women can be members in their own right, independent of their husband's concern. Sandra Wright was recently voted as a Committee member of the Yorkshire Section of the Showmen's Guild for the second year in succession, when she then became the first woman to be voted as a delegate to the Central Council of the Guild headquarters in Staines. During the Second World War, due to the absence of the men, women were also voted onto the committee, and Ray Armstrong of the Notts and Derby Section of the Guild is also on the regional council.

Duncan Dallas, in his account of the history of travelling showpeople, stresses the importance of show-women in the organisation of the society:

The wife is the pivot of the showmen's family. Her role on the fairground goes far beyond that demanded of her counterpart in the rest of society ... She is expected to be housekeeper, mother, secretary, accountant, worker and business partner.

Women were involved due to a range of factors; through necessity with the loss of the husband, through aptitude by showing a talent for a specific job, or purely through family involvement with a particular show or ride, which therefore provided the opportunity for them to participate in the overall running of the business. In the case of the Warren family from Lincolnshire, Lottie Warren became the main driver for the family traction engine. Indeed, three days after giving birth to her son, she drove the traction engine from Grimsby to Lincoln market.

Another example of family involvement is reflected in the story of Annie Hayes. Annie Hayes, nee Hickman, was born into the famous Hickman boxing family from the Black Country, in 1913. Her brother was Charlie Hickman, the Lonsdale Champion, and her great grandfather was Tom Hickman, a prominent prize fighter of the 1800s, who was known as the Gaslight Champion. The Hickmans travelled with Pat Collins in the Black Country and Annie was taught how to box by the fighters who toured with the family boxing booth. This is not a unique phenomenon: William Moore, who owned a boxing show prior to the First World War, had his license temporarily revoked in 1912 for allowing his daughter to box in the family show. In Scotland the Stuart family also allowed their three daughters to perform on the show. Polly Stuart went onto to run the boxing booth or manage the fighters in the 1950s.

The structure of fairground society allowed and encouraged women to perform whatever role they were accomplished at. This would include all the traditional male jobs such as driving and manual work, and was not necessarily limited to the family home. The women involved in fairground society had to know the business as thoroughly as their husbands, and that often included overseeing the building up and the travelling of the machine and equipment on the fairground route. As well as being involved in the business side of the fairground, the women also had to maintain the domestic side of the life of the fair such as child rearing and maintaining the family home.

Despite all the business activities, the show-women had to produce a sizeable family and to maintain the family home. Secondly they are responsible for the handling and upbringing of the children and laying of the groundwork for their education on the fairground. If a woman loses her partner and subsequently has to run the family business, it is her immediate family who provide the necessary support. With Lottie Warren, it was her sister who became the surrogate mother to her son:

Because me mother was always outside working, and me aunty was in the wagon when I knocked me head and all that, she was the one who put the sticky plasters on.

During the First and Second World Wars, fairground women were forced through necessity into providing the workforce and operating skills on the fair due to the shortage of men, and many firms continued and prospered due to the role played by the women when the men were away during the wars.

By the end of the Great War, the large mechanised roundabouts dominated the landscape of the twentieth century fairground. However, despite the changes in the working environment of the fairground, the use of women in the workforce or as employers continued. Lottie Warren, the Pullen family from Yorkshire and the Armstrong girls all had positions in the family firm which would not as been as prominent in non-traveller society at that time.

In the South Yorkshire region, one of the most famous rides was Waddington's Gondola Switchback. After the death of her husband Abraham Waddington, Hannah continued to travel the machine with her son. Her success as a machine proprietor can be gauged by examining her takings books from 1898 to 1908, and during the Christmas Fair held at Sheffield in 1900, her overall takings were well over a hundred pounds.

Another famous family of show-women were the Pullen girls of Yorkshire. Aaron Pullen owned a set of Steam Yachts and it was his children who provided the labour necessary to travel the equipment around the country, build up the ride and operate it while the fair was open for business. Aaron Pullen's three daughters had been taught to operate the family ride from an early age, a situation which arose out of necessity but proved to be very successful for the family.

This is only a small sample of the history of travelling show-women, but as such it represents the kind of life and work, which women in the fairground community were involved in then and now. The life was hard and the work was even harder, but with the showpeople often working a fourteen to sixteen hour day, it was love of the way of life that made them continue even during the lean years.