Showmen will come from around the UK to the Irn Bru Carnival

Three generations of the Wilmot family have begun in this way: Richard and Violet passed a ride down to their son, also Richard, and he has now set up his son Mitchell in the trade.

The family has been operating rides for decades across Scotland and Ireland and were prominent at the Glasgow Christmas carnival, now the Irn Bru Carnival, in the city's Kelvin Hall and now at the SEC where it moved in 1986.

Richard and Violet had funfair stalls, a small kiddies ride and a duck stall.

When Richard junior married at the age of 21, his father gifted him two pieces of equipment and he and his new wife, who was 18 and also from a Showman family, started travelling with his family's equipment.

He said: "That was the same with my dad.

"When we got married we got the small penny ride to try and earn a living. Then you progress and you maybe expand.

"My dad's dad built a ride. He knew my dad would be getting married in a year's time and would need to have something to earn a living in the fairground.

"And the same thing happened to me - he passed on that same ride to me when I got married."

Showpeople families stick to tradition and so it was considered important to marry. Mitchell has swerved this tradition and, to the obvious chagrin of his grandmother, lives with his partner.

Richard said when he had two sons he began to prepare by slowly expanding the business so he would have equipment to pass on to the boys should they want it.

Mitchell is, his dad said, "fairground through and through" and has big plans for his future while his brother has no interest in Showman life.

Richard junior said: "I took my mum and dad's business on further because when you're younger you're adapting with the time but as you get older, you get less ambitious and more cautious.

"My dad kind of passed the baton on to me and said you're in charge. From their time to my time it's unbelievable the difference."

When Violet was a child both of her parents died and her mother's sister took Violet and her three siblings to live with them in in Glasgow.

She had grown up in Castle Douglas, where her mother and father are buried, but has spent the rest of her life with roots in the city's Ibrox.

Some 80% of Scotland’s remaining carnival yards are in Glasgow and around the Govan and Ibrox areas where an estimated 4000 showpeople live and store their rides.

It was a community that warmly embraced Violet and her siblings and they spent happy times in the winter quarters in Ibrox.

Violet said: "The other people were told, 'the wee girls are coming and you have to look after them' and we were very well looked after.

"It was hard to lose our parents but this was family too so it was a good life. They was all just family."

Violet, 84, and Richard senior, 85, have been married for 58 years, having met at a Showman's dance in Kirkcaldy when a 21-year-old Violet tripped over his feet.

She refuses to be drawn on whether this was accident or flirtatious ploy but she then kept him on his feet by waiting until she was 26 to agree to marry him.

It has been, she says, a "lovely" life and was a lovely wedding with a traditional Showman's wedding function at Ibrox House.

"My sister was my best maid and his brother-in-law was his best mate. It was perfect," Violet said.

"We've been in love for a long time."

Violet married into a well-respected extended family; the Wilmots are a prominent Showman dynasty and have worked for decades around Scotland at famous fairgrounds such as Burntisland fair, which has roots dating back to the 1500s.

Their son, Richard junior, is the only son of four children from the union and enthusiastically took to the family traditions.

In Violet and Richard's day the season started in March and families would leave the winter quarters, where repairs and upgrades were carried out on the rides, and head out across Scotland.

Richard junior said: "And when you left there you didn't go back, you didn't have a permanent home.

"You went and the next time you'd probably visit back to that site was when you finished your season that October."

Men would take seasonal work - Richard senior worked as a driver in the off season - but now the work is year-round with bonfire night, Christmas lights switch-on, festivals, fair holidays, galas and fetes.

"It has evolved from a quieter pace of life with much more time," Richard junior said, but he follows the same route around Scotland to the same shows that his parents did.

"But the world has changed as well in that now we all have friends who are not from the fairground. Before you wouldn't.

"When I was a kid, you very seldom mixed outside."

Young Richard also remembers moving constantly as a boy and so not attending school regularly.

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While he has no regrets about his education this was not what he wanted for his two sons and so the boys were enrolled in school in Glasgow's Hyndland area and the family went to great lengths to ensure they could attend every day, even if it meant hours-long round trips or staying with family members.

When the boys did have to be out of school - the family also tours to Ireland - teaching staff were supportive and an educational liaison officer made sure schoolwork wasn't missed.

The Showman community is tight knit and there are functions where people can come together and meet up. Richard mentions a Showman zone where the pensioners socialise over a meal.

He said: "The community stays together. We meet up in Falkirk, Kirkcaldy, Burntisland but it's not always the same group that travel all the way round.

"It's good when we come to the carnival, we'll meet up with some English Showpeople that you maybe only meet once a year.

"The friendship is kindled from there. Everybody knows my mum so people will come and give her a cuddle."

When there are breaks in touring the equipment goes into the workshop for maintenance and the long days continue.

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In the run up to the Irn Bru Carnival at the SEC the work can go on until late into the night to make sure the rides are decorated and in perfect condition for what is the most prestigious event of the year.

Richard said: "You want to be presenting it the best you can to showcase that you're pretty good at what you do.

"It's like washing your car for a wedding and getting it polished - we take a lot of pride in this."

In taking his business forward, Mitchell secured a space at Alton Towers theme park for his ride Air Raid with a two year contract; it will be at the Irn Bru Carnival this year too.

It was never the case for either Richard junior or Mitchell that they did not want to continue the family tradition.

Richard said: "My oldest son came and said this is not for me and we said, 'of course, if it's not for you, that's fine.'

"I don't think anybody would say you have to do this. I wasn't disappointed, it was more that I was happy for him being honest and saying I don't like it and I don't want to do that.

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"As Showmen, your kids are working on the fairground when they're young giving change, they're learning people skills, they're learning how to deal with situations and it's, it's installed hospitality in you.

"These are skills you take with you, no matter what you go on to do."

Richard senior has retired but Violet is still hands on, working at the fairgrounds on the hook-a-duck and charming the customers.

Mitchell said: "I wouldn't see anything else. I think it's in your blood. Yes, it's in your blood.

Richard added: "Once it bites you, it bites you.

"We've never been stupidly ambitious. People say to me, my dad's a millionaire because of how content he is.

"It can be disappointing when the weather is bad at a one day event and it's pouring with rain but that's just one thing you cannot control.

"Otherwise, I wouldn't change anything at all."