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‘It’s in the blood’: Burntisland Fairground is one big family to longest-serving showwoman Beryl, 80

Beryl Gamble's parents and grandparents were showpeople and her children were brought up in the funfair.

Beryl with husband Stanley. Image: Kenny Smith/DC Thomson.
Beryl with husband Stanley. Image: Kenny Smith/DC Thomson.

“I knew him when he was in a pram. I watched him grow up and his family grow up,” says Beryl Gamble.

She’s referring to a man at a fairground stall she can see out of her caravan window on Burntisland Links. He looks to be in his early 60s.

Beryl, 80, is talking about the showpeople who come year after year to trade at Burntisland Fairground, a funfair which runs throughout the summer months.

But none of them have come as long as Beryl herself. Her first season in the Fife town was as a two-year-old in 1946.

A long line of showpeople

Her parents were showpeople, as were their parents before them. Husband Stanley, 81, has a similar background.

And the couple brought up their three children in the showpeople tradition, gifting them their own rides when they were teenagers.

Son Stanley runs several rides and stalls at Burntisland Fairground.
Son Stanley runs several rides and stalls at Burntisland Fairground. Image: Kenny Smith/DC Thomson.

One of their sons, Stanley jnr, 60, still works in the fairground and has returned with his Jumpin’ ride and kids’ rides.

Their other son and daughter remain closely connected. Ervin owns the neighbouring ice-cream shop, Novelli’s, and Raina the Burger Island takeaway hut and nearby restaurant.

“It’s in the blood,” says Beryl.

‘It’s like one big family’

One of her grandsons, who has cafés in Glasgow, recently told her he wants to return.

She tells me: “I said to him ‘I don’t think you can get it out your blood’ and he says ‘Gran, it never goes’.”

“Everyone knows everyone; it’s like one big family.”

Beryl and Stanley with their family, including grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Beryl and Stanley with their family, including grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Image: Beryl Gamble.

It’s not just in the fairground that Beryl is known by all. She’s a well-kent face around the town.

As the fair spent so long in Burntisland when she was a child she attended the local school while her family was in town.

She still sees old school friends occasionally in the nearby Co-op. And everywhere she goes around the town people greet her by name.

Beryl and Stanley have lived permanently in Burntisland in the past but now call Glasgow home.

They returned to Burntisland in their caravan at the end of May for the 2024 season. Now retired, they see fair time as a holiday.

Burntisland since childhood

But Beryl keeps a hand in, running an ice-cream van, one of several stalls still in the family.

She says: “I can’t do nothing, I still like to work!”

And she has worked on Burntisland Links since childhood.

Burntisland Fairgound last summer. Image: Kim Cessford/DC Thomson.

As did her father William Irvin, who was born in the Wombwell and Bostock circus in Australia during the First World War.

He was only six months old when his parents sailed back to Scotland at the end of the war, spending six weeks at sea.

Beryl tells a legendary story of her grandfather crashing into the fountain, which now stands at the entrance to Burntisland Links.

She says: “As far as I know, my grandfather came down this hill (Cromwell Road ) when the fountain that is in the park was in the middle of the road where the roundabout is.

“The brakes failed on his traction engine and he knocked the fountain over!”

Coconut shy and roll-a-penny

Her father and mother Lena had various stalls, including a coconut shy which Beryl would help out on.

At the age of 12, Beryl was given her own roll-a-penny stall.

That’s where Stanley first clapped eyes on her 65 years ago, during a break from work at a funfair on Glasgow Green.

He said: “Burntisland was the only fair to operate on a Sunday then so me and my pals organised a bus trip to come here. That’s when I first met Beryl.

“I came strolling down the path there and saw her on the roll-a-penny stall and took a fancy to her right way.

“We were looking for the pubs and she was there with her apron on dishing out the pennies. That was me hooked!”

Burntisland Fairground behind the Highland Games arena in 1963, the year Beryl and Stanley married. Image: DC Thomson.

The pair were married in Falkirk in 1963.

Starting small they built up their presence in the fairground with roundabout rides including the Twist and the Swirl.

When their own children were old enough they gave them a start by gifting them their own rides.

One, the Big Apple mini rollercoaster, is still a regular at Burntisland Fairground but no longer belongs to the family.

Beryl said: “We purchased that for our son –  that has Novelli’s now –  24 years ago.

Today’s fairground ‘completely different’

“It came brand new in bubble wrap from Italy.

“It still comes every year and we get a wee tear in our eyes when we see it going up.”

Stanley is the only one of their children still working in the fair.

He spends 12 weeks each year at Burntisland and also goes to fairs as far afield as Inverness and Hull.

Life in the fairground is “completely different” today to how it was in her youth, says Beryl.

“There are a lot more big roundabouts now than when we were young; it was more side stalls then.

Burntisland Fairground in 1966 when Beryl was 22.
Burntisland Fairground in 1966 when Beryl was 22. Image: DC Thomson.

“It goes at a much faster pace now than it did then.

“When we were young you would maybe finish at a place on a Saturday night, there was no Sunday opening, sit there until Tuesday then go to another place for the weekend.

“But nowadays you finish at one place and travel through the night to the next.”

And it frustrates her to hear about people complain about paying £3.50, for example, for a ride.

She said: “Have they got any idea the expenses people have? The cost of fuel, it costs a fortune to have the rides tested to make sure they are in working order, to maintain them.

Burntisland Fairground in July 2021.
Burntisland Fairground in July 2021. Image: DC Thomson.

“They have staff to pay, rent to sit on the ground. Out of that £3.50 the operator will be lucky if they get 40p.

“Then there’s the weather. Yesterday was lovely but look at today.” It’s cold and windy as we talk.

“You take your chances and you can work all summer and finish up with hardly anything.”

Discrimination – but not in Burntisland

Show people can also face a lot of discrimination, says Beryl. But not in Burntisland.

“People seem to think if you don’t live in a house you’re scruffy. But this place is not scruffy, is it?” she states, indicating her beautifully decorated and immaculate caravan.

“In Burntisland you don’t get that feeling. Everyone knows us here.”

Proud of their family tradition, Beryl and Stanley say they have had a “marvellous life” as showpeople.

Beryl said: “It’s can be a very hard life. There are times the weather is atrocious and you’ve got to be out in the wind and the rain.

“But it’s a good life. It’s a great life for children.”

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