Herring Girls - Scarborough, UK - Silhouette Public Art Sculptures on Waymarking.com

SCARBOROUGH FAIR; THE ORIGINS

Almost everyone knows the first line of the song 'Are you going to Scarborough Fair made famous by Simon and Garfunkel. This is old canticle, but Scarborough Fair is much older. The origins are medieval and based on the lowly herring. The vast shoals of these little fish, numbered in billions, migrate down the North Sea from North East Scotland in the spring and are found off Northumberland/Durham in June and July. In the first week of August into early September (approximately 40 days) the herring are spawning off the Yorkshire Coast.

In years past along with many local boats, catchers came from near and far to fish this abundant stock. These visiting craft, mostly from Scotland, East Anglia, Cornwall and the Low Countries, used mid-water drift nets each night to harvest the ;silver darlings'. This annual bonanza, the equivalent of a modern oil boom, continued for hundreds of years. The currency used when trading with the Low Countries was the 'Easterling', which was eventually shortened to 'Sterling'.

The huge wealth that this industry created each year attracted all the associated followers of the time, good and bad, drawn by the money generated. This seasonal gathering became 'Scarborough Fair'.

The catches were gutted, salted and barreled, mostly by 'herring girls' from the North East of Scotland. Some of whom lodged in this building during the season. The salted herring were sold and exported to ports all over Europe. Being preserved, as well as feeding the populace, the barrels of fish were also used to feed the armies and navies of many countries.

Herring were barreled in Scarborough up to WWII and were still caught in drift nets, landed each day and marketed fresh until the mid 1970s.

Large shoals of herring are still to be found off the Yorkshire coast in the season, but they are now caught in huge mid-water trawls by a few large Scottish and Dutch ship, which adhere to strict quotas. Scarborough Fair is now consigned to the history books.

'Herring Girls' created by Bill Cordaroy                       Narrative Fred Normandale

Enjoy taking your photos from varying angles to really show off the beauty of the piece. Please include your impressions of the piece.