AGE-OLD TRADITION KEPT ALIVE

Decked with coloured ribbons and carried aloft on a pole the age-old symbol of a Scottish celebration forms the honoured centrepiece of a parade the first Friday of June.
The custom is unusual in itself, but the fact the talisman is a sheep's head makes it unique and peculiar to the most Scottish of occasions the Old Govan Fair.

The 'sheep's heid' is a symbol of the Govan of the past, when wool
underpinned the local economy and weavers looms clacked in every
house along Govan Road and down Water Row.The same prized relic belongs to the Govan weaver's society, one of the
oldest benevolent organisations in the country, and has pride of place and its annual general meeting, which takes place just prior to the public celebrations on the streets of Govan. The Meikle-Govan Fair as it was first called dates back to the foundation
of the society in August 1756, when the weavers became the backbone of the community spirit in wee area.

Nowadays the revived Govan Fair is the work of the Govan Fair Association and draws local people and hundreds whop have left the district for fresh woods and pastures new. But its centrepiece remains `The sheep's heid' a somewhat gory but a total authentic reminder of the glory days of this proud old burgh. Gone are the white washed cottages the green pastures where sheep might safely grace and the salmon fishing that provided the stable died
of the Govan weavers of the 1700's.But the tradition of the fair and the community spirit remains as a lively reminder of the Govan of the past.

There has been an original Govan Fair on medieval times but it had long fallen into absence when the weaver's society revived the name in 1756. The celebrations lapsed again to be revived 23 years ago when thepresent association was founded for the purpose. But govanites now in their 60's and 70's fondly recall the pre-world war fairs when Govan became a magnet for Glaswegians of all ages on the evening of the first Friday in June.

The original weavers society has had its purposes the relief of poverty in the burgh. Today's Govan Fair has a similar charitable object the provision of comforts for the patients of southern general hospital, where the sheep's heid, the banner of the weavers and the Sheriffmuir flag carried at that indecisive Jacobite battle by the men of the Govan volunteers who opposed the old pretender James Stuart in 1715, are kept safe keeping between one fair and the next.

It was 1930 that the custom began of choosing a Govan Fair queen tolead the fair celebrations. Since that time local schools have taken inturn to provide the queen and her attendants whose duties last throughout the coming year.