Saturday, July 19, 2014

St Boswells Fair/Gypsy Fair Exhibition - First Day (18 July)

This exhibition is in St Boswells Village Hall.

I'm happy to say that we were busy.

Though it wasn't meant to be open in the morning, people drifted in because the doors were open to receive exhibitors, and we were busy all day.
The organisers counted just under 200 visitors, including as we hoped, lots of gypsies.

Lots of interest in John McKale's books and paintings.




The children's table, where there is a competition in 3 age groups to win book tokens, was often crowded.


3 members of the gypsy Royal Family talked to us, and Davina took the family tree on display home to update it.

I met people who had come from south Yorkshire, Berwick, Glasgow, Fife, as well as various places in the Scottish Borders: Eyemouth, Gordon, Kelso, Lauder, Westruther, West Linton as well as St Boswells.

I was also introduced to Mary Hanson (and her husband, Keith) who has done a lot research into the gypsies and into Napoleonic prisoners of war in the Scottish Borders.

Unfortunately, we are limited by table space in the number of items we can display for sale and as luck would have it, there were a number of things we could have sold had we bought them with us.

Lots of the gypsies were interested in the Hawick Heritage Hub's photographs, some wanted copies, others identified family members.

If you come today (1pm to 7pm) or tomorrow (1pm to 4pm), make sure to fill in a feedback form to win a bunch of carved wooden flowers.

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