On Water Row, sandwiched between Glasgow’s former shipyards and the dark waters of the River Clyde, it would be easy to miss the showpeople’s yards.

Look closely and you’ll see a carved dancing bear, chained to an old telegraph pole, or behind high metal railings the folded-up fairground rides waiting repair – tantalising snatches of “the shows”.

About 80% of Scotland’s remaining carnival yards, where approximately 4,000 showpeople live and store their rides, are in Glasgow. Many of these families can trace their heritage back hundreds of years.

But now some are saying the pace of 21st-century development is pushing them out of the city.

Showpeople say the pace of development in Glasgow, in particular around Govan’s former shipyards, is pushing them out of the city



Their concerns are focused around Govan, where regeneration plans are threatening two large extended families. Glasgow city council claims that proposals for Water Row will bring new housing, jobs, businesses and leisure facilities to the community, which undoubtedly needs investment.



To some, however, the proposals are hard to stomach as they will mean eviction. Teresa Johnstone was born on Water Row into the Wilmot family, a well-known family of Scottish showpeople. She married and raised her sons here, and has lived on this neat and tidy site for 29 years, paying rent and council tax. Now a £17m development is planned for the site of her home, so she will be relocated.

“I don’t want to give up this way of life but it is getting harder and harder,” says Preston Irvin

The council says it has been “in regular dialogue with the representatives of the families, offering the full support of the council to move to alternative and fully serviced sites in the local area and beyond”.

There is more protection for butterflies and crocodiles than there is for us Jimmy Stringfellow

Johnstone, however, says her family only found out days before the public announcement. It took months to get anything in writing, and though a potential relocation site has now been suggested, there is still no firm solution on the table.

Jimmy Stringfellow, who lives in the next yard along with his wife, Diane, their son and grandchildren, is also on tenterhooks. He is currently challenging an eviction notice he was served this year.

“It feels like a game of ping pong,” he says of the communication with officials over relocation. “And I can tell you it doesn’t half pong. We’re an endangered species but there is more protection for butterflies and crocodiles than there is for us. It feels like they don’t want us. We are being shoved out of the way and into corners.”



Jimmy and Diane Stringfellow outside their home in Water Row, Govan

in a few years. “People say it’s your choice to live in a caravan but it’s part of us, it’s who you are,” she says. “This would be a very different situation if it was tenement [flats]. But there is discrimination.”

Showpeople offer an important service, she says, providing entertainment at galas, fair holidays, fetes, festivals and firework displays, and that should be recognised.



“We are governed by the Showman’s Guild – we can’t just pull into derelict land, we’d get fined,” says Johnstone. “We pay council tax, we are regulated. And yet we are getting treated like second-class citizens. We should have equality.”

‘When we bought this land, nobody wanted it’

Follow the winding River Clyde a few miles east and you’ll get to Cuningar Loop, a gated site where rows of chalets with neat front gardens house around 100 people. Yard owner Norman Thomas claims the Govan situation has left people rattled. Thomas bought this land, next to a filled-in rubbish dump, 28 years ago. He worries that he doesn’t ultimately control it – a few years ago, South Lanarkshire council tried to move these showpeople to a new site. The plan was only abandoned due to rising costs.

We pay council tax, we are regulated. And yet we are getting treated like second-class citizens. We should have equality Teresa Johnstone

Fresh in Thomas’ memory, too, is a relocation programme prior to the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, when 22 yards in South Dalmarnock home to some 600 people, were earmarked for redevelopment.

After much consultation only 75 chalets were affected. The regeneration partnership, known as Clyde Gateway, says it is proud of the way it managed the programme to “ensure that every family or business affected would have options” for being rehoused. It developed two new yards and invested in improvements to existing sites.

“I would disagree with [the idea that it was a success], 100%,” says former Showman’s Guild chair Alex James Colquhoun, who lives in Cuningar. He argues that people only moved to the new sites because they were “desperate and didn’t have anywhere else to go”.

Alex James Colquhoun and Royce Thomas, two of the Cuningar Loop site’s residents

He and Thomas would like better policy to protect their land rights. “When we bought this [land], nobody wanted it,” says Thomas. “Now it’s sought after.”

Next to the site, Clyde Gateway has developed a popular woodland park, and recently the British Geological Survey put in planning permission for a geo-thermal research site. Both organisations are at pains to explain how carefully they have consulted with the community, but trust isn’t won easily here.

Those families have a claim to be there. They put a community in when there was nothing else Mitch Miller

“We were brought up to be proud that we are from an entrepreneurial background that goes back for generations, and that we are all very community focused,” says Thomas’ son Royce, who returned here with his husband after studying at university in London. “But there is stigma. So when we hear about what’s happening in Govan yes, we do worry.”

The community feels its entire way of life is under threat. In a wagon at the bottom of the site, Preston Irvin is painstakingly airbrushing a children’s ride. He loves this life, but says it is far from easy. There are ever-stricter licensing regulations and soaring costs; fairs are shorter and competition for punters fierce. In the winter, he takes on other jobs to help him survive until the season starts again.

“Years ago it was different,” he says. “I don’t want to give up this way of life but it is getting harder and harder.” He, too, fears for the future. “You’re think you’re settled. Maybe that could change. And not everyone is happy to have a fairground way of life on their doorstep.”

Mitch Miller, an illustrator, comes from a family of showpeople and lives on a site in Parkhead

A short drive away in Parkhead lives illustrator and researcher Mitch Miller. There are no development plans for his small, traditional site either, but Miller knows it is a precarious way of life. “What’s happening in Govan can happen anywhere.”

He moved back several years ago after living in a Glasgow tenement, where he missed the community. His father, who still runs hook-a-duck stalls and other sideshows, likes to tell stories of acrobat ancestors, boxing grandmothers and trick riding aunties.

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Miller is one of a small group of campaigners who have written to local politicians with their concerns about the lack of due process in Govan. He hopes a solution will help others fare better in the face of future development.

“We are not asking for the moon but for the procedure to be followed,” he says. “Those families have a claim to be there. They put a community in when there was nothing else.”

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