Wedding Scramble

older scramble

A "scramble" in Gemmel Street, Bridgeton, 1955. Originally called James Street, Gemmel Street disappeared during the redevelopment of the East End during the 1980s.
Credit here goes to the Partick Camera Club who in 1955 embarked on a photographic project of Glasgow streets.

GlesgaPal SBL, Springburn, Apr 2004
A wedding in the street was a magnet for all the kids who waited for the scramble. All those pennies & hapennies would be eagerly collected & taken to the shops for "the penny tray" of sweets. Or maybe the tuppenny & thruppenny tray too if you were lucky & had a good scramble.

GlesgaPal Flim, Glasgow Apr.2004
I do remember the wedding scramble,because I aws nearly killed a few times running after the monies that where thrown from the wedding carsespecially when the pennise started to roll under the vehicles as the car took off..Who was it that threw the mony out ? Was it the Groom because that was his spending days over? The White bride?hmmm..The Best Man ? The Best Maid ? The Parents of the Groom? Parents of the Bride ? I think i should ask Mickey Rooney

GlesgaPal Nell, London, Apr. 2004
Hiya Pals, I remember scrambles for money at weddings, and the christening piece at christenings, as soon as us weans heard of a wedding or a christening we would hover roon the close fur hours tae be the first there.
My neice got married in Glasgow four years ago and her dad my brother-in-law threw money for the kids at the front of the house, so I think it still does go on. they dont do it down here in England, and when I put a piece of silver behind a new born baby's head they had never heard of it before, but my Mammy always did that to a new born baby, so I do too, does anyone else know of the this custom.
Aw ra Best, Nell

GlesgaPal Normanconk, Ontario, Canada, Apr.2004
Many a skint knee and sore knuckles participatin in a wedding scramble chasin efter the wedding caurs. 8-)

Cheers

GlesgaPal Ronnie, London, Apr.2004
In one of my wee Scottish dictionarys, which is actually called: 'Scoor-oot', it explains the word as follows.
      The custom, is now less observed than formerly, by the scattering of coins at or after a wedding to be scrambled for by children. Also shortened to 'a scoorie: in 1952 there was a scoorie of coppers thrown amongst [the children] by the best man before the wedding actually took place. In 1956 a mother commented ruefully, 'It'll no be the first time he'll have lost the knees oot his breeks (trousers) at a 'scoor oot'.
       Both examples come from Fife. Scoor corresponds to the English 'scour', but is used here in the sense to scatter, to throw in all directions. In other parts of Scotland 'scatter' 'scramble' and 'poor oot' may be used in the same sense.
        In 1967 an Edinburgh church magazine commented that the 'the increasing volume of traffic today makes the traditional 'poor oot' or 'scatter' a hair raising experience.   Interesting eh!

GlesgaPal Lobeydosser, Canada, Apr.2004
We used to repeatedly call oot ,"Hard up!" until the people in the bridal car threw the coins oot the windae, thereby provin' thit thae wur flush o' money an' no hardup.

.
Ah think thit hosts o' guardian angels ::)

must hae been present at the scrambles fur Ah doan't recall any wean ivver bein hurt

GlesgaPal SBL, Springburn, Jun. 2004
Wedding Traditions: The groom should give a coin to the first person he sees on his journey to the church for good luck. Found this among traditions, I suppose it`s how scrambles were started.

GlesgaPal Duncan, California, USA, Jun. 2004
Many a scramble i attended,coz i was wee i could get the pennies that rolled under the parked caurs . But my main in income in those long lost days were Christening pieces, i think i should be in the Guinness book of records for pieces,hauf a croon tween 2 digestive biccies wrapped in foil. We lived right next door tae the church on London rd so i was accosted on a regular basis by total strangers wi weans in shawls and given biscuits an money for no apparent reason,was i complaining no way, treated ma sis an me tae all sorts o sweets for days on end.

GlesgaPal Handsome, Ontario, Canada, Sept. 2004
best scramble a know of took place in mcintosh st aroon 1945 wan o my relatives wis merryin a yank &n aw the wimmen in the famly goat a tube a lipstick from the groom ,the wean goat money tae go tae the pictures cause they didny get tae the weddin & the yankie best man goat so exited dont think the poor soul hid seen a scramble before went inty the rang pocket & threw shillings n two bob bits by mistake ma bro n his pals could a afford fish suppers efter the pictures that day .

cheers

GlesgaPal missmouse, Glasgow Sept. 2008
Used to be an old woman who waited with us kids , outside Queens cross church , Maryhill , for the wedding party coming out . She wore an apron , which she held up to catch all the money in , us kids were lucky to get anything . I remember a particular day after waiting .One of the cars waited till it moved down the road a wee bit before throwing their money out , so some of us were lucky after all.

GlesgaPal Dazzle, England, Sept. 2008
There wiz a woman in Milton who did that, she used to get right up tae the bride's car and haud her apron against it....it wiznae as if she wiz hard up or anything...greedy besom, how could she take the fun oot o' it fur the weans?....BTW dae they still huv scrambles in Scotland? Some o' ma neighbours are Glaswegians an' when ma eldest daughter goet married 4 years ago, they were ootside tae see her off, Jim thru' out a scramble an' they a' hud a great time divin' fur the pennies, the rest o' the 'English' neighbours hudnae a clue whit wiz happenin' an' thooght they wur a' daft

GlesgaPal Adeline, Glasgow, Sept. 2008
Dazzle, we still huv scrambles here in Glesga, if you remember it wis the men that threw the money oot well it wis somethin I always wanted tae dae so at our daughters wedding ten years ago I was the wan sitting in the car nearest tae the pavement and I got the chance tae dae it then.

When our eldest son got married there were lots of weans and the same at our daughters but when our youngest son got married he left from our eldest son's as our street was getting renovated at the time and covered in mud and there wasn't a wean in sight, his wedding reception was held in the chapel hall next to the chapel he was married in so we never went back into the cars after the mass so when we were going into the hall we just threw the scramble out of the gates.

GlesgaPal Wilmabaird, Hampshire, England, Sept.2008
Just been reading through this thread and it brought back happy memories of scrambles. Havn't seen one since I left Scotland.
Nell mentions christening pieces too, I remember them, usually digestive or tea biscuits with a half crown sandwiched inside, if a girl was being christened it was the first boy they met and if it was a boy then a girl got the chrestening piece.
As for giving a new baby a silver coin, the first time I did that in England, they all looked at me as if I'd gone mad (and they say Scots are mean!!!)

GlesgaPal Poppins, Sydney, Australia, Sept.2008
When my sons got married we threw money out of the car on the way to the church, the neighbours loved it. The same when my grandchildren were born. We made up christening pieces and gave them out to the first person of the opposite sex that we saw on the way to the christening. When my daughters-in-law had their 'hen night' my sister and I dressed them up and took them around the neighbourhood. We gave all their mates pots and spoons and taught them to sing 'hard up'. It was hysterical. All those Aussie voices singing Glasgow slang. They still talk about those nights.

Webmaister. Sept 2008
living in a street wi a church oan the corner, Fairbairn Street, Brigton ah seen plenty scrambles

Great times

Wedding photographs from the GlesgaPals archives

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