Friday 31 May 2019

Travellers



I promised that I would post some photographs of travellers passing through our town on their way to Appleby Horse Fair.   Today is Market Day and also Market Day at the Cattle Auction Mart so the roads are busy with traffic  coming and going.   This lot were stopped on our main street and the traffic was held up of course.   But it did give my friend W, who was driving us to our usual Friday lunch venue, an excellent opportunity to park up for a few minutes, nip across the road and take these smashing photographs.   She was told by one of the travellers not to get too near one horse as he was a kicker!   She also had a chat to a little girl who said she wasn't walking with the horses she was riding on her bed.   So many thanks to W because these photographs really do give you a view of something which has been going on for a very long time.    The travellers are an irritation to a lot of people for a variety of reasons but it would be a shame to stop something which has gone on for so long.

30 comments:

Chris said...

I believe they are great horse traders. Here they seem to mostly be in the business of roofing and repairing driveways. They don't travel in caravans either but come around in pickup trucks.

justjill said...

In Scotland we are creating stop off points with all the facilities for travellers. We respect them many places do not. Such a shame. Part of our culture.

Susan Heather said...

I noticed "The Wobbly Dog" and thought it may have been a pub but on googling it see it is a sweet shop. Lovely name.

Tom Stephenson said...

True travellers are great I think. We would be poorer without them.

Joanne Noragon said...

Great photos, Weaver. Thank you for doing this for us. They are part of our heritage, mine too.

Red said...

Odd sizes and shapes with these teams. I wonder why?

Bonnie said...

Thanks to you and your friend for these photos. This is all new to me and I find it interesting. Are travellers the same as gypsies or is there a distinct difference? Forgive my ignorance of the subject but it is something I have not encountered.

angryparsnip said...

Wonderful photos ! Thank You to W for doing this.
parsnip x

Cro Magnon said...

We noticed a field near here, yesterday, that was filled with hundreds of white vans and white caravans. I'm not sure what they're doing there, but it was a very different sight to Appleby. The wagons you illustrate are similar to the one that stayed with us many years ago, which belonged to Wedgwood-Benn's niece and her boyfriend. Perfect guests.

Derek Faulkner said...

Most travellers live in giant caravans on static sites and don't actually travel, just getting out their caravans such as you've illustrated for the annual holiday. Or they drive around in motor homes and 4x4 trucks parking illegally on other people's land.

thelma said...

Remnants of the past but wonderful to see. Always fancied owning a 'painted' pony. Yes I know they are called either piebald or skewbald but I like the 'cowboy and Indian' feel. As for travellers, unfortunately we are a small land, there is no room at the inn for them. America perhaps has a different attitude to people who move around.

Midmarsh John said...

Seeing those horses brought back a childhood memory from the 50's. When the milkman or coal man came down the street with their horse drawn wagons I would be sent out with a bucket and hand shovel to collect the manure. That was put in a sack dangling in a rain water barrel to make a free fertiliser for the roses and rhubarb plants.

ss said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Rachel Phillips said...

Yes Bonnie, there is a difference.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Rachel Phillips said...

When I was in Barnard Castle a few years ago we saw the travellers arriving on the A66 and they were in big white caravans pulled by big cars. They do not all arrive in the horse and carts of the Romany Gypsies as photographed. We had gypsy horse fairs here for many years when they would take over one particular market town for a weekend. In recent years the trouble was such, drunkeness mostly, that in the end they were asked not to come back and miraculously, they didn't.

The Weaver of Grass said...

Many questions here - many of which I don't know the answers to but yes, there is a difference between the Traveller and the Romany Gypsy. My mother was descended from pure Romany stock several generations back. On the whole the horse trading at Appleby is done by Travellers many of whom live in houses and keep these caravans for just such occasions as Appleby when they meet up with relations from far and wide. Many of the folk who go to Appleby are nothing at all to do with either but just like to treat the occasion as their annual holiday. Unfortunately on the way there they have to camp on the roadsides and village greens at night, or ask permission (hopefully) to use a field. Some of them leave awful messes behind them and that gets the lot a bad name. I am sure you can get much more information on this from Google. Glad you enjoyed the pics though. Now you have at least a taste of what our little town is like. Forties weekend next.

Heather said...

My grandmother had a great respect for Romany gypsies and I think it is wonderful that this tradition still continues. I also think it a great shame that some travellers flout the law and cause nuisance wherever they go, giving the rest of their community a bad name. Thank you for the photos and I'm looking forward to Forties weekend.

coffeeontheporchwithme said...

I found those photos very interesting, even just looking at the background shops as well. We have no 'travellers' here, but horse drawn buggies and wagons are very common, as there is a very big population of Amish and old-order Mennonite farmers in the area. -Jenn

Librarian said...

It would not be for me, this unsettled way of life - just like true travellers would probably hate sitting in an office every day. When a society can make room for different ways of life and people have a real choice, that is the best state of things.

The Furry Gnome said...

Fascinating, something we never see here in Canada.

Ruth said...

Thank you so much for the pictures! Not quite as good as being there, but it helps!!

Rachel Phillips said...

Extra police have been drafted in for six days of drunkenness and violence. Local residents brace themselves. There is little or nothing romantic about it.

The Weaver of Grass said...

Sadly Rachel has a point. Again - the few make it difficult for everybody. But thousands of the public go to see the spectacle of the horse sales. The dwellers in the town are never happy about it because it causes such a lot of bother and chaos.

The Weaver of Grass said...

Midmarsh John - Those were the days!

Anonymous said...

I don't like the way they treat their women.

Rachel Phillips said...

Women, other people's property, law and order.

Bovey Belle said...

I grew up near an area a with lots of gypsies and diddakois and of course, their horses. Good to see the vardos on the road for Appleby. There are usually one or two stopping for a few nights on a wide grass verge at Bronllys near Hay-on-Wye each summer, with the ponies "pegged out" to make the most of the grass.

Thanks for sharing these photos.

krishna said...

great pictures!

Sarah Ignacio said...

This was really motivates me to write also about this dry cleaning service singapore someday, because it makes me amazed to many things.