June 2008 - Gypsy Roma Traveller History Month

Transcription

Gypsy Roma Traveller
History Month Magazine
•
From Kent to Cumbria,
where you should be
during Gypsy Roma
Traveller History Month
•
The forgotten history of Europe’s largest ethnic minority
•
Places to go and things
to do to celebrate Gypsy,
Roma and Traveller
history and culture
June 2008
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Gypsy Roma Tr
Inside this issue
Places to Go
Things to See
History
All the concerts, exhibitions
and shows taking place in
venues near you
See traditional craftsmanship such as No Gypsy can afford to forget
wagon building in the places where
the darkest part of our history,
which all people must learn from
Gypsy history is best preserved
Poster Winner
From the thousands of entries to
our national poster competition,
we have chosen a winner
Gypsy travlr Ad
12/5/08
15:26
Page 1
Sussex Police are pleased to support the
Gypsy Roma Traveller History Month
people from your community...
Sussex Police is always looking to recruit
high calibre police officers, police community
support officers and special constables
to help us tackle crime across Sussex.
We want Sussex Police to reflect the
diverse population it serves and we are
interested in recruiting people who
represent all our neighbourhoods and
communities.
...working with
your community
unlocking your potential
- securing our future
2
Gypsy Roma Traveller History Month Magazine
Applicants wanting to become a police
officer or special constable will need to
live in Sussex. All applicants will need
to have lived at UK addresses with postcodes for the three years immediately
prior to the date of application. For further
information please contact the Positive
Action Recruitment Manager on 0845 60
70 999 extension 44128 and mention
Gypsy Roma Traveller History Month.
To view our current vacancies visit
www.sussex.police.uk
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Britain’s 300,000 Gypsies, Roma and Travellers have lived, worked and travelled
throughout Britain for over 500 years, yet we have been almost entirely written
out of British history. Go to most museums,
and schools
and nothing
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about our history and culture is kept or taught. The result is a widespread
ignorance about who we are, which sometimes turns to hatred, fear and
misunderstanding. Gypsy Roma Traveller History Month aims to change that.
53 B.C.E Fairs are being held in
Britain after the Roman invasion.
c.1000 C.E Groups of Roma,
originating in Northern India, reach
modern Greece and Turkey.
1100s C.E Travellers first recorded
in Ireland. Travelling smiths
mentioned in Scottish records.
What is Gypsy
Roma Traveller
History Month?
This June, Gypsy, Roma and
Traveller communities are
coming together, with central
government backing, to begin
the long overdue task of
educating the British public
about who we are and where
we come from.
We’re doing it for one simple
reason: If people do not realise
that we were an important
part of Britain’s past, they will
never accept us a crucial part
of Britain’s future.
This magazine has been
produced to publicize the
events that are going on
across England as part of
the country’s first national
Gypsy, Roma and Traveller
History Month. From cover
to cover, from Cumbria to
Kent, it is packed with events,
products and articles you
need to celebrate the survival
of Europe’s largest and most
misunderstood ethnic minority.
Watch out for the next issue of
Gypsy Roma Traveller History
Month Magazine in October
when we’ll report back on
the event and announce the
winners of the International
Activities Competitions that
are happening in June and July
(see centre spread for details).
History Month Magazine
June 2008
1200s C.E Many fairs are created
by Royal Charter, including
Bridlington (1200) and Hull (1299).
By the turn of the 13th Century
Roma begin to arrive in Western
Europe.
Inside this June issue
What’s going on in the South East Region
4
What’s going on in the London Area 5
Scottish Travellers
6
What’s going on in the East Region
6
Act of Compassion 7
From the Highlands to the Borders, Scotland has a Gypsy history
that has yet to be recognised
Forty years ago, the Caravan Sites Act made sites for Gypsies a
legal duty. Meet the man behind it, the campaigning Lord Avebury
Scroll On!
From traditional scrollwork to high contemporary art, the artistic
influence of Gypsies and Travellers is everywhere.
8
8
Poetry in Motion 9
International Activities 10
Hall of Fame 12
National Poster Competition 13
What’s going on in the North East Region
14
Gypsy War Heroes 15
What’s going on in the North West Region
16
Irish Travellers 17
What’s going on in the West Midlands Region
18
What’s going on in the South West and Wales 18
Roma Holocaust
19
We have devised a number of activity competitions for you to
show off your talents in the next two months
You may be surprised by the Gypsies, Roma and Travellers that
have made their mark in the world
Thousands of entries have been judged. Find out who won.
Gypsies and Travellers haven’t just lived in Britain for centuries,
they’ve defended it and died for it too
Irish Travellers just got off the ferry, right? Wrong.
The persecution of Roma and Sinti reached a horrific level during
the Second World War.
Gypsy Roma Traveller Achievement Service Leeds
West Park Centre, Spen Lane, Leeds, LS16 5BE Telephone: 0113 274 8050
1498 Four Gypsies travel to the New
World with Christopher Columbus.
1505 King James the Fourth of
Scotland pays seven pounds to
“Egyptians” stopped at Stirling, who
may have come from Spain. Parish
records from around this time show
that Irish Travellers are already living
in England.
Continues on page 6
What’s going on in the East Midlands Region
Cambridgeshire Romany writer Kathleen Cunningham is continuing
the long Gypsy tradition of capturing the past in poetry
Follow this timeline
throughout the magazine
to trace the Gypsy and
Traveller journey through
British history
Credits:
Published by: The Gypsy Media Company Ltd.,
community producers of:
•Films, radio and publications about the
Gypsy and Traveller community
•Research with the Gypsy and Traveller
community
•Cultural awareness training about the
Gypsy and Traveller community
The Gypsy Media Company Ltd.,
PO Box 313, Hastings,
East Sussex TN34 9EW
07966 786242
Edited by: Jake Bowers –
Email: jake@grthm.co.uk
Copywriter: Damian Le Bas –
Email: damian@grthm.co.uk
Research and photos: Patricia Knight –
Email: patricia@grthm.co.uk
Design: Graham Alexander –
Email: graham@grthm.co.uk
Part financed by: The Department for
Children Schools and Families.
To advertise in the October edition of
Magazine contact the Gypsy Media
Company Ltd.
The Gypsy Media Company
department for
children, schools and families
www.grthm.co.uk
3
Sussex, West Sussex, Surrey,
What’s going on in the East
Hampshire, Buckinghamshire,
South East Region Thames Valley and Oxfordshire
Throughout June
What: The Living Album - Hampshire’s Gypsy
Heritage. This project aims to help the public
to discover and access relevant museum and
archive collections on Hampshire’s Gypsy and
Traveller community in a creative as well as an
informative way.
The team of costumed interpreters will also be
performing their play “The Crossroads” about a
Victorian Romany Wedding on 7, 14, 15 and 29
June. Phone for start times.
Where: On display at Milestones Museum,
Leisure Park, Churchill Way West
Basingstoke RG22 6PG
Contact: 0845 603 5635
www.milestones-museum.com/events.html
June 3-27
What: Romany and Traveller Family History
Society Exhibition.
Where: Surrey History Centre, 130 Goldsworth
Road, Woking, GU21 6ND
Contact: 01483 518782
June 6-7
What: Epsom Derby, Epsom, Surrey
One of the biggest horse racing events in
Britain with a long Gypsy history and big Gypsy
attendance.
Where: Epsom Racecourse, Epsom Downs,
Epsom, KT18 5LQ
June 14-15
What: Open days about rural industries
including Nobby Melrose opening his Gypsy
caravan and explaining how he built it.
Where: Rural Life Centre,
Reeds Road, Tilford, GU10 2DL
Contact: 01252 795571
June 16-21
What: Exhibition on ‘Queen Victoria’s Gypsies’ –
The history of Matty Cooper, the Royal Ratcatcher.
Where: Windsor Library, Bachelors Acre, SL4 1ER
Contact: 01753 743940/743941
Friday June 20
What: Film screening of Travellers Tales and
Gypsy Caravan: Where the Road Bends and after
film discussion led by Gypsy journalist Jake Bowers.
Where: Kino Cinema, Rye Road, Hawkhurst,
Cranbrook, Kent, TN18 4ET. 01580 754323
Time: 8:00pm
Saturday June 21
What: An evening of Gypsy music and food,
featuring Ambrose Cooper and Lee Winter.
Tickets cost £10 (must be bought in advance).
Where: Romany Life Centre, 3 Oaks Nursery
Whitewell Lane, Cranbrook, TN17 2PP
Contact: 01580 715825
Sunday June 22
What: Film screening of Latcho Drom by Romani
Film Director Tony Gaitlif.
Introduced by Friends, Family and Travellers.
Where: Duke of York’s Cinema, Preston Circus,
Brighton
Time: 11:00am
Contact: 01273 626261
What: A day of Gypsy music, food and
workshops with master craftsman the Brazil
Brothers. Try your hand at bender making,
Gypsy scroll work and see old Gypsy vardos.
Time: From 11:00am until late.
Where: The South East Romany Museum,
Howland Road, Marden, Kent TN12 9DH
Contact: 01622 831681
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Monday June 23
What: Film screening of Travellers Tales and
Gypsy Caravan.
Where: Electric Palace Cinema, 39a High Street,
Hastings, East Sussex TN34 3ER.
Time: 7:15pm
Contact: 01424 720393
Saturday June 28th
What: Gypsy and Traveller History Day
featuring wagons, horses, music, history and
photos, flowers, peg making, and food.
An archive of photos and Derby memorabilia,
with the Romany & Traveller Family History
Society and other researchers helping people
trace their connections
Where: Bourne Hall, Spring Street, Ewell, KT17 1UF
Contact: 020 8394 1734
Monday July 7
What: Thorney Fair, a celebration of Gypsy and
Traveller Culture in and around the New Forest.
Old Gypsy wagons, market stalls, traditional
foods and lots more.
An event for the whole community and suitable
for all ages.
Where: Thorney Hill Community Centre,
Burley Road, Bransgore,
Christchurch BH23 8DQ
Time: 10.00am – 4.00pm
Contact: Sam Wilson, Hampshire Traveller
Education Service 07860 196546
Jane Peacock, Forest Bus 02380 663866
Friday July 11
What: Traveller Open Day including storytellers,
this year involving school children, in history
projects, children and grandparents.
Where: Yateley Green, Hampshire
Not to be missed …
Gypsies and Travellers from across
Kent and Sussex have organised
a weekend festival of Gypsy and
Traveller culture spread across
3 independent cinemas and two
Gypsy museums. Among the
festival’s highlights are Gypsy music
road movies Latcho Drom and
Gypsy Caravan. But to see Gypsy
culture and music close up do not
miss a rare public performance
by Romany singer songwriters
Ambrose Cooper (pictured) and Lee
Winter at the Romany Life Centre in
Cranbrook Kent on June 21st.
What’s going on in the London Area
London’s contribution to this year’s Gypsy, Roma and Traveller History
Month reflects its position as an international crossroads, where Gypsy
cultures meet.
Monday June 2
What: House of Lords presentation by Lord
Avebury to the winners of the Gypsy, Roma and
Traveller History Month poster competition.
Where: House of Lords, London, SW1A 0PW
What: Gypsy, Roma & Traveller Exhibition
June 2-20
Wednesday June 4
What: Official Launch of GRTHM.
Where: Centre for Staff Development
Gwenneth Rickus Building, 240-250 Brentfield
Road, London NW10 8HE
Contact: Rocky Deans, 0208 9373329
Wednesday June 4
When: Gypsy, Roma & Traveller Touring
Exhibition.
Where: Brent Town Hall, Forty Lane, Wembley,
Middlesex HA9 9HD
Contact: Brent TES 0208 937 3328
Sunday June 15
What: In concert Frontier Flamenco With Simon
El Rubio & Flamencovino. Sizzling evening of
flamenco, Latino, bolero and rumba.
Where: Le Quecumbar, 42-44 Battersea High
Street, London SW11 3HX, For tickets contact: 020 7787 2227
info@quecumbar.co.uk
June 2-30
What: Passing Places Touring Exhibition.
Passing Places started as an exhibition and series
of events. The exhibition is now touring the UK.
The focus is on Gypsy-Traveller history, culture,
lifestyles and traditions.
www.passingplaces.org.uk
Where: To celebrate GRTHM the exhibition will
be held at two venues. From the 2nd – 13th June
it will be at West Drayton Primary School. Then
from the 16th-30th June it will be at Bell Farm
Christian Centre.
Contact: West Drayton Primary School, Kingston
Lane, West Drayton, Middlesex UB7 9EA
01895 442904
Contact: Bell Farm Christian Centre,
South Road, West Drayton, Middlesex UB7 9LW
01895 444406
Tuesday June 3
What: Gypsy History Seminar: All Change!
Recent Debates over the history and origin of
Roma/Gypsies/Travellers.
Featuring:
Professor Ian F. Hancock, Director of the Romani
Archives and Documentation Center, University of
Texas at Austin;
Dr Brian Belton, of the YMCA George Williams
College;
Adrian Marsh, of the University of Greenwich;
Mr. Valdemar Kalinin, of Camden Traveller
Education Service;
Mr Damian James Le Bas Jr. of the University of
Oxford;
Mrs Janet Keet-Black of the Romany and Traveller
Family History Society.
Where: Lecture Theatre KW302,
King William Building,
Old Royal Naval College,
University of Greenwich,
Time: between 10.30am – 4.00pm
Contact: Professor Thomas Acton at the
University of Greenwich.
0208 331 8923 T.A.Acton@gre.ac.uk
June 8 & 9
What: Stephane Wrembel in concert,
direct from New York the International French
guitar wizard Gypsy Swing and Gypsy roots from
around the world.
Where: Le Quecumbar,
42-44 Battersea High Street, London SW11 3HX, For tickets: 020 7787 2227
Sunday June 22
What: Concert celebrating Gypsy, Roma and
Traveller History Month. Bands and artists
performing include: Orchard Family (Romanichal),
Brigid Corcoran (Irish Traveller) and Romani Rad
(Roma).
Time: 6.00pm – 10.00pm
Where: Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square,
London WC1.
Nearest tube: Holborn
Contact: Roma Support Group
020 7511 0822
Email: roma@supportgroup.freeserve.co.uk
www.romasupportgroup.org.uk
What: ‘Absinthe Night’ With Flamenco Group
Carambita.
Street, London SW11 3HX, For tickets contact: 020 7787 2227
June 26-27
Tuesday June 24
What: Traditional Irish Traveller Story Telling
by Irish Traveller Rose McCarthy and exhibition
including Traveller items from Bruce Castle
museum.
Where: St Ann’s Library, Cissbury Road,
Tottenham, London N15 5PU
Time: From 2.00pm
Contacts: Michael Ridge
0208 489 3602/07980 31 6607
Thursday June 26
Top of column, singer Brigid Corcoran
and above, a photo by Zsuzsanna Ardó
from a photo Exhibition “How Long Is the
Journey?“ Both can be seen at Conway
hall in London on June 4th.
What: Irish Traveller Play – Performed by Michael
Collins - An evening of entertainment, music and
song. All entertainers are Irish Travellers.
Where: Centre for Staff Development
Gwenneth Rickus Building
240-250 Brentfield Road
London NW10 8HE
Time: 7.00 – 9.00pm
Contact: Rocky Deans, 0208-9373329
Wednesday June 4
What: In concert, The Dusa Orchestra, Swinging
soulful Gypsy-Balkan music from southeast
Europe.
Street, London SW11 3HX, For tickets Contact: 020 7787 2227
Stepdancers and singers The Orchard
Family. Tom, Jean and their son Ashley
come from true Gypsy stock, one with
strong music traditions. Their ancestors
have lived in Devon and Cornwall for
more than 400 hundred years. This multiinstrumental, singing and dancing family
promise to be a treat. The Orchard
Family are part of the line up to perform
at the Conway Hall on June 4th.
What: Irish Traveller Cultural Celebration,
featuring:
• Talks and presentations on Irish Traveller culture
and history by the community
• An Irish Traveller Youth Talent show.
• Traveller Movement in Britain DVD on Traveller
role models
• Traditional Traveller art & craft workshops and
displays
Where: Irish Cultural Centre Hammersmith,
Blacks Road, Hammersmith, London, W6 9DT
Contact: Irish Travellers Movement in Britain,
020 7607 2002
June 18-27
What: Exhibition celebrating Gypsy Traveller
Culture and Traditions.
Where: Phoenix Centre Library, Roundshaw,
Sutton, Surrey, SM6
Contact: Sarah Gwynn, Sutton & Merton
Traveller Education Service, 0208 648 3267
June 3-27
What: Exhibition celebrating Gypsy Traveller
Culture and Traditions.
Where: Merton Heritage Centre,
The Canons, Madeira Road, Mitcham CR4 4HD
Opening Times: Tues/Weds 10.00am – 4.00pm;
Fri/Sat 10.00am – 4.30pm
Contact: Sarah Gwynn, Sutton & Merton
Traveller Education Service, 0208 648 3267
No mean time in the capital
Rad and Irish Traveller music by Brigid
Corcoran at a evening concert at Conway
On June 3rd, Gypsy historians and
Hall, kicking of a month of celebrations in
academics, including world renowned
the capital.
English Romany scholar, author and linguist Don’t miss events at Le Quecumbar,
Professor Ian Hancock, debate the latest the only venue in the world dedicated
thinking on the origins of Gypsies and
to Gypsy Jazz. A unique wine bar from
Travellers at the University of Greenwich.
a bygone era: pre-war France, with Hot
Just one day later, the music of English
Club Gypsy jazz, invented by the Gypsy
Romany stepdancers and folk singers
Jazz legend Django Reinhardt. After June
the Orchard Family will be followed
22nd they’ll be heading for the Django
by Polish Romany music from Romani
Reinhardt festival in Samois in France.
Romani Rad is a group of Roma dancers and
musicians from Poland. Theirs is the tradition
expressed by costume, music and dance, skills
handed down from generation to generation.
www.grthm.co.uk
5
Scottish Travellers
From the Highlands to the Borders, Scotland has a Gypsy history
that has yet to be recognised, writes Damian Le Bas
The fact that the first record of Gypsies in
mainland Britain is in Scotland is only one
reason why Scottish Travellers (or “Nackins” as
some call themselves) should have a pride of
place in any Gypsy history. Travelling smiths
are mentioned as far back as the 12th Century
in Scotland, and King James the Fourth paid
seven pounds to ‘Egyptians’ who were stopped
at Stirling in 1505.
Toleration of the Scottish Gypsies was disrupted by the
Reformation in the mid-1500s. But as with all Traveller
populations, survival against the odds is one of the
things that Scottish Travellers have done best.
There is a rich variety of languages among Scottish
Travellers who until recent times had a history of living
in Bender tents, as did many Travellers south of the
border. Some speak Cant or Romani, some speak
‘Beurla-reagaird’ which is related to the Shelta that Irish
Travellers use.
Scotland’s Travellers may be best known for their genius
in music and storytelling. The singer Belle Stewart, who
died in 1997, was given the British Empire Medal in
1981. Jeannie Robertson, another Scottish Traveller, was
singing at the same time as Belle and there may have
been a slight rivalry between them but one thing was for
sure, they sang like nobody else from across the country.
Along with singing, storytelling is something Scottish
Travellers do better than most. Jess Smith’s books are
priceless and moving accounts of Traveller life that have
pride of place in Gypsy literature today.
Scottish Travellers are an ethnic minority, but they
are not currently recognised as one by law. Scottish
Traveller and artist Seamus McPhee states that “It’s
a blatant negation of our existence and our right to
exist. We know it’s a ploy to deny us our rights.” The
Scottish Parliament have recommended that Scotland’s
Travellers should be treated as an ethnic minority.
But as Seamus puts it, “There’s no legal remedy at
the moment in Scotland or in Britain as a Scottish
Gypsy Traveller”.
Regardless of what the law decides, Britain’s oldest
community of Travellers will still be here in the future
and continue to contribute their songs, stories and
characters to our way of life.
What’s going on in the
East Region
Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Essex,
Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk
Throughout June
What: Traveller Life exhibition including bender
tent, Gypsy and Showman’s wagons and Vickers
trailer caravan.
Where: Museum of East Anglian Life,
Stowmarket, IP14 1DL.
Times: Mon – Sat 10.00am – 17.00pm,
Sun 11.00am – 17.00pm
June 2-7
What: Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Exhibition.
Where: Dunstable Library, Vernon Place,
Dunstable, LU5 4HA
Contact: 01582 608441
June 4-8
What: Romany Heritage Exhibition.
Where: Ipswich Library,
Northgate Street, IP1 3DE
June 9-14
Where: Leighton Buzzard Library,
Lake Street
Leighton Buzzard, LU7 1RX
Contact: 01525 371788
June 9-15
June 24-28
Where: Lowestoft Library,
Capham Road South, NR32 1DR
June 16-21
Where: Biggleswade Library, Chesnut Avenue,
Biggleswade, SG18 0LL
Contact: 01767 312324
June 17-22
Where: Mildenhall Library, Chestnut Close, IP28 7NL
Where: Barton Library, Bedford Road
Bedford, Bedfordshire MK45 4PP
Contact: 01582 881101
Wednesday June 25
What: Gypsy and Traveller Open Day.
Where: Traveller Education Service,
Alec Hunter Humanities College,
Stubbs Lane, Braintree, CM7 3NT
Time: 10.00am – 4.00pm
Contact: 01376 340360
Many of the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller history
month events to be held across the East of
England are to be held in schools, libraries and
council offices. Among them Scottish Traveller
storyteller Jess Smith, will be entertaining and
educating young people in schools across Suffolk.
The Museum of East Anglian Life in Stowmarket has
a large display of Gypsy and Traveller homes, from a
bender tent to an ornate Vickers Caravan at the heart
of its beautiful display on local life. For those who want
to see the best that Gypsy and Showman culture has
to offer visit the Cambridge Midsummer Fair on June
1530 Gypsies are forbidden to enter
England under Henry VIII. Those
already there are deported.
1554 Queen Mary of England
passes the Egyptians Act. Being a
Gypsy is punishable by death, as
is being found in “the fellowship
or company of Egyptians”. This is
the only time that fraternizing with
an ethnic community has been
punishable by death.
1570s Scottish Gypsies are ordered
to stop travelling or leave the
country. First records of the Kale
Gypsies in Wales.
The first recorded Gypsy presence
in Leeds is in the Leeds Parish
registers of 1572.
1650s Last known hanging for the
crime of being a Gypsy, in Suffolk,
England. Gypsies are deported to
America.
1660-1800 English Gypsies calling
themselves Romanichals survive by
working for trusted non-Gypsies
who know them. Appleby Fair
granted chartered fair status in 1685
by James II. Ballinasloe Fair receives
its royal charter in 1722.
1714 British Gypsies are shipped to
the Caribbean as slaves.
1780 Some English anti-Gypsy laws
begin to be repealed.
June 23-29
The Gypsy and Traveller
journey throughout British
history continues …
1768 The first modern Circus is held
in London.
June 18-24
What: Cambridge Midsummer Fair. Ancient
Gypsy Fair in one of Britain’s most beautiful cities.
When: 18-24, but the biggest day is the 21st
Where: Midsummer Common,
Cambridge, CB4 1HA
Where: Bury St Edmunds Library, Sergeants
Walk, St Andrews Street North, IP33 1TX
Timeline #2
See traditional wagon art on display
in June in the East of England.
21st. King John granted a charter for the Midsummer
Fair back in 1211, though it now exists solely as a
funfair. The Mayor of Cambridge still proclaims it open
by throwing coins to assembled children.
Many of the events held across England during Gypsy
History Month will be featured on BBC Rokker Radio,
the eastern regional radio programme for Gypsies and
Traveller broadcast on the following radio stations
between 7 and 9pm every Sunday night.
BBC Three Counties, BBC Radio Cambridgeshire,
BBC Radio Suffolk, BBC Radio Northampton,
BBC Radio Norfolk and BBC Essex.
The show is also available on the internet at:
www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/networks/three/aod.
shtml?three/rokker_radio
1800s Fairs start to include
mechanical rides, as they still do
today.
1820s Tents start to be used for
fairs under George IV.
1830s Covered horse drawn
wagons begin to be used by Gypsies
in Britain. Many Gypsies live in the
more makeshift bender tents, and
will continue to do so until the midlate 20th Century.
1880s Agricultural depression
in England. Many Travellers and
Gypsies are poverty-stricken and
move to urban squatters’ areas.
Hundreds of Irish Travellers leave
Ireland for Britain.
Continues on page 16
6
Act of Compassion
Not all legislation has been designed to wipe out Gypsies and Travellers. Forty years
ago, the Caravan Sites Act made sites for Gypsies a legal duty. Damian Le Bas meets
the man behind it, the campaigning Lord Avebury.
In Britain, like the rest of Europe, laws
affecting Travellers have almost always
been designed to destroy their way of life.
In the 20th Century it can sometimes look like
not much has changed. But we should also
remember the people who have fought for
Gypsies and Travellers. Eric Lubbock was MP for
Orpington in Kent in the 1960s. Life was hard
for Travellers then, but Eric Lubbock worked
tirelessly to help Travellers help themselves.
In the mid-1960s there were only ten council
sites in the whole country. You could only live in
a caravan, even on private land, if you held a site
license. This meant that only 4% of Gypsies and
Travellers had somewhere legal to stop. Violent
evictions, which even led to the death of Gypsy
and Traveller children, were resisted by Gypsy
and Traveller families. It led to the formation of
Gypsy and Traveller civil rights groups like the
Gypsy Council, but it was Eric Lubbock who
fought to change the law.
great work was scrapped by the Conservatives
in 1994 as part of the Criminal Justice Act. This
has meant that for a lot of Gypsies and Travellers
things are as bad today as they were in the early
1960s. But Lord Avebury is still campaigning for
human rights today. He has supported Gypsy
History Month from the beginning and is still
dedicated to improving life for Gypsies and
Travellers in Britain.
His work paid off in 1968, when the Caravan
Sites Act came into force. For the first time in
British history, local councils had to provide sites
for Gypsies and Travellers.
“In 1968, I introduced a law to prevent Gypsies
and Travellers from being evicted from their
sites and to compel authorities to build sites for
Gypsies and Travellers,” says Eric.
But two years later he lost his seat in parliament.
“In 1962 the wise, far-seeing people of
Orpington elected me as their Member; in 1970
the fools threw me out”. Says Eric.
An eviction in Birmingham in the 1960s.
A year later his cousin died and he succeeded to
the peerage, becoming Lord Avebury. And he’s
used the past 37 years he has been the House of
Lords to support Gypsies and Travellers. But his
Lord Avebury at the launch of the National and
Regional poster competition for GRTHM. Here he
is in discussion with Delaine Le Bas.
Publications by Romany Poet,
Kathleen E Cunningham
A Moving Way of Life ~ collection of new poems £5.00 plus £1 P&P per copy
A collection of poems by Kathleen E. Cunningham
dedicated to her grandchildren so that they will always
remember their Romany ancestors and in memory of her
father, Esau Carman, without whose foresight in sending
her to school, they would never have been written.
Jell Akai Chavvies Traveller Nursery Rhyme
Book - £7.50 plus £1 P&P per copy
Jell Akai Chavvies Traveller Nursery Rhyme
CD - £5.00 plus £1 P&P per copy
Special Offer: If both book & CD purchased
together £10.00 plus £2 P&P per copy
A truly delightful collection of Traveller nursery rhymes ~
written and illustrated by Kathleen E. Cunningham.
The Great Romany Showman ~
The Life and Travels of Esau Carman
£8.00 plus £1 P&P per copy
From the Fens of Cambridgeshire to the
fairgrounds of Ireland, Cambridgeshire Romany
Poet Kathleen E. Cunningham remembers the life
and travels of her grandfather Esau Carman in
The Great Romany Showman.
Cambridgeshire Race Equality & Diversity Service - Team for Traveller Education
CPDC, Foster Road, Trumpington, Cambridge CB2 9NL
Phone: 01223 508700 Fax: 01223 506013
Email: margaret.wood@cambridgeshire.gov.uk
Cheques payable to Cambridgeshire County Council
www.grthm.co.uk
7
Scroll on!
Non-Traveller households across the
country contain pictures of idyllic country
scenes with a bow top, reading or ledge
wagon in the background. As the scholar
David Smith has pointed out, the painted
wagon (or ‘vardo’ in Romani) is ‘one of
the few acceptable symbols of Traveller
society’. It has certainly had a huge
influence on how we understand English
rural life. Gypsy families like the Boswells
have helped maintain our pride in this
contribution to British culture.
Carved scrollwork and bright colours were first
used by Travellers on the wagons, drays and
trolleys they depended on for livelihood. Both
have been part of the British visual landscape for
over 200 years. But this only a small part of the
influence that the Travelling communities have
had on art and decoration.
From traditional scrollwork to high contemporary art, the
artistic influence of Gypsies and Travellers is everywhere.
can still be seen on the country’s travelling fairs:
it was invented by Showmen and Travellers.
The Showmen specifically did a lot for
the popularity of ribbon work, which even
influenced military designs. When we imagine a
typical British pub, we will usually think of the
cut glass behind the bar and in the windows.
Again, it was the Travelling communities who
popularised it by building cut glass panels into
their living wagons.
The Traveller traditions of craftsmanship are
still thriving today. Gypsy and Roma artists
have exhibited at the highest levels of the fine
art world, and English Gypsies have worked
alongside Roma artists from all over Europe,
even showing at the 2007 Venice Biennale,
the biggest art event in the world. Artists like
Ferdinand Koci, Daniel Baker and Damian and
Delaine Le Bas are reclaiming the Travellers’
artistic heritage.
Perhaps the most common Traveller design to be
absorbed by settled British culture is adorning
of china crockery with fruits, flowers and birds.
Not many people would look at a cup and saucer
decorated with a chaffinch or berry bush and
think “We owe that to Travellers”!
For too long, depiction of Travellers has been
done exclusively by Gorgers, but this is changing.
The GRTHM poster competition has received
some fantastic entries from young Travellers so
keep up the good work: some of you will be our
community’s top artists in the future!
Depicting horses and horse culture is one of
many Gypsy traditions in visual art. It had a
huge impact on many artists, such as Sir Alfred
Munnings and Augustus John. Fishtail lettering
Nottinghamshire,
What’s going on in the Derbyshire,
Northamptonshire, Lincolnshire,
East Midlands Region Leicestershire and Rutland
June 1 onwards
What: Gypsy, Roma and Traveller exhibition.
Where: Gainsborough Library, Cobden Street, Gainsborough,
Lincolnshire, DN21 2NG
Contact: 01522 782010
Wednesday June 4
What: Launch of five East Midlands five Gypsy and Traveller
community projects including “I know when it’s raining: study into
emotional health needs and accommodation issues”.
Where: The East Midlands Conference Centre, University Park,
Nottingham, NG7 2RJ
Contact: Derbyshire Gypsy Liaison Group, 01629 583300
The East Midlands is home to some of the most ornate
collections of Gypsy culture. In Spalding, Lincolnshire,
The Gordon Boswell Romany Museum houses a unique
collection of superb traditional Romany horse-drawn
Vardos (caravans), carts and harness as well as the
largest collection of Romany photographs and sketches
covering the last 150 years.
Friday June 6
What: Free transport to Appleby Horse Fair.
Leaves Derby 7.30am (additional pick up M1 Junction 28 – 7.45am)
Contact: Derby and Derbyshire Traveller Education 01332 256726
Sunday July 13
What: Romany Camp and Culture day. Vardo on display, Gypsy
crafts, Display of crystal ball, fortune telling items, Books, DVD’s,
Pictures for Sale. LGLG Display boards etc. All welcome.
Time: 11.00am – 4.00pm
Where: Gainsborough Old Hall, Parnell Street, Gainsborough
Lincolnshire, DN21 2NB
Contact: 01427 612669
Friday Aug 15
What: Travellers Tales - Children’s storytelling in Gainsborough
Library.
Where: Gainsborough Library, Cobden Street, Gainsborough,
Lincolnshire, DN21 2NG
Contact: 01522 782010
Monday Aug 25
What: Romany Camp and Culture day.
Time: 11.00am – 4.00pm
Where: Museum of Lincolnshire Life, Burton Road, Lincoln, LN1 3LY
Contact: 01522 528448
8
Whilst there, experience a Romany day
out in a horse-drawn Romany Vardo and
enjoy a meal cooked over a traditional
Romany stick fire in the beautiful
Lincolnshire countryside. Or enjoy a
carriage drive for an hour or two, stepping
back into a slower way of life. In Gypsy,
Roma and Traveller History Month, the
museum is open on Friday, Saturdays and
Sundays from the 13th of June onwards.
Sample some “Boswell’s Romany Brew”
from a local brewery made especially for
Gypsy History Month.
Contact: Gordon Boswell Romany Museum,
Clay Lake, Spalding, Lincolnshire, PE12 6BL
+44 (0) 1775 710599
Royal Crown Derby china is known and collected
throughout the world, but is particularly prized by
Gypsy women. The Royal Crown Derby Visitor
Centre has been created to provide an insight
into the traditions, the history and the skills that
go into making Royal Crown Derby so special.
A unique collection of superb traditional Romany
horse-drawn Vardos (caravans), carts and harness.
In June, the opening Times of the visitor centre
are: Monday – Friday 9:30am – 5:00pm.
Visit the museum, factory tours, factory shop
and restaurant for a great day out.
Contact: The Royal Crown Derby Porcelain Co
Limited, 194 Osmaston Road, Derby,
Derbyshire, DE23 8JZ, (01332) 712800
Poetry in Motion
Cambridgeshire Romany writer Kathleen Cunningham is
continuing the long Gypsy tradition of capturing the past
in poetry, reports Jake Bowers.
Kathleen Cunningham’s bungalow is
unremarkable. Like many of the Gypsy
homes across the flat fenland landscape,
nothing about it gives away her identity
from the outside, until you see its name –
“Novada”. Like her poetry, it’s subtle, but
when she reads it, it comes alive.
it is a British Gypsy history told from the inside.
She faithfully recalls stories she heard as a child
about her grandfather Esau Carman and blends
them with her own poems and drawings that
capture a world that should be remembered.
She might not have a varda anymore, but her
way with words is as strong as ever.
“I called it “No Vada”, because I haven’t got
a Varda (wagon) anymore!” she quips and
invites me in. At her kitchen table she spreads
out the impressive amount of books she’s had
published. She wrote as a child, but as an adult
the pressures of raising a family and being moved
from place to place kept her from it. In later
life, when illness struck, she realised that her
grandchildren weren’t learning much about the
history of her people, she returned to it and she’s
been writing ever since.
“I realised if I didn’t get my old life into some
A Smith/Wilson wedding that appears in the
form of writing, my grandchildren wouldn’t
book the “Great Romany Showman”.
know anything about it.” She’s passionate that
they need to learn from the wisdom of their
Kathleen’s granddaughter Rose Cunningham-Wilson will
ancestors, who may not have been as rich as her be collecting photographs and other materials of Gypsy
History Month events across the country to produce and
descendants, but were probably happier.
publish a national archive that will be turned into a high
Her latest book, the “Great Romany Showman”,
quality book of photos, drawings, sketches celebrating the
reaches far back into that family history. From
spirit and nature of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller history and
the Fens of Cambridgeshire
to the fairgrounds
Gypsy_Ad:Layout
1 06/05/08
13:42 ofPageculture.
1 Call Rose on 07900 678291.
Ireland, via Scotland and northern horse fairs,
rose.cunningham-wilson@cambridgeshire.gov.uk
The Old Turf Fen
Just outside March in Cambridgeshire, I can
remember when.
There used to be a place there called
Chatteris old turf fen.
It used to be full of Romanies but things were
oh! So different then.
You could pull on when you wanted to, and
park just where you pleased.
Stake your horse, light your fire, hang
washing out in the breeze.
And just whenever you wanted to you could go
and move away,
Up the Great North Road to Appleby you
could spend weeks, months or days,
Travelling where you wanted to, selling
baskets, pegs or lace,
From May until October for you knew there
was a place,
Without a doubt within your heart when you
came back again,
There would be a spot for you on the Chatteris
old turf fen.
You didn’t have to ask the council or the local
people there,
You didn’t have to be in the ‘Showmans Guild’
or part of the Status Fair.
You just hitched up your horse, and moved
where fancy called,
For the common land belonged to everyone,
and welcomed one and all,
The men would race their dogs and pony traps
across its vast expanse,
Play ‘Pitch and Toss’ and horseshoe quoits,
sit around an outside fire, play music, sing and dance.
Of all the modern Gipsy sites there never will
be one of them,
that will have the atmosphere and
character of ‘The Chatters Old Turf Fen!”.
East Sussex
Fire & Rescue Service
is proud to support
Achieving safer and more sustainable communities
Transport that
works for everyone
Our job is to create the strategic
framework for transport services,
which are provided by many
public and private organisations,
from our own executive agencies
and local councils to operators
such as airlines, bus, train and
ferry companies.
As an employer, we are committed
to supporting equality and
diversity in our business, working
relationships and employment
practices. The Department for
Transport takes diversity seriously
and is committed to raising the
profile of diversity, both within the
Department and also across the
transport industry as a whole.
Our core policy objective is
transport that works for everyone.
This means we have to be diverse Our job is transport that all can
in every policy we develop and in use delivered in a way that
benefits the whole community.
everything we do.
www.grthm.co.uk
9
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GRTHM Activity
Competitions
As part of the June celebrations of Gypsy Roma
Traveller History Month we have devised a number of
activity competitions for you to show off your talents.
Activity 1:
Maps
Look at the maps that Ferdinand Koci (part of
it below) and Damian Le Bas (middle poster at
the bottom of the next page) have made. For
larger versions please go to www.grthm.co.uk/
activities.
There are 13 altogether. We hope that you find them challenging. We
hope that you will explore and learn something of the Gypsy, Roma and
Traveller communities. And we hope to reward you for your efforts with …
Prizes!
You may do them individually at home,
or in school or clubs and also as groups
working together on any of these different
projects. See activities 1 - 12.
Educational establishments and/ or
organisations can submit a portfolio of work which will reflect
your activities leading up to and during Gypsy Roma Traveller History
Month. See activity 13.
There are Gypsies, Roma and Travellers all over the world and they have
a fascinating history and culture and they have brought many new skills
and ideas to many different parts of the world. In doing some of these
activities and challenges you will be experiencing what it is like to use your
imagination and skills to solve problems and create something new.
Are you a budding musician or songwriter? A prospective designer
or artist? How's your photography? Perhaps you'd like to have
a go at something you've never tried. We bet most of you
won't have tried to design a fairground ride before. What
about looking after the environment and recycling?
Perhaps this is something you've never considered.
And why should you enter?
Get involved because there are loads of prizes to be won!
Can you explain what these maps are showing?
Are they describing a journey or something
else?
Using some of their ideas and your own - create
your own map – it could be about anything - your
last holiday, your favourite walk or mapping out
where your family or friends live ... you decide.
Try and make them as bright and attractive as
possible so we will all enjoy looking at them.
Activity 2:
Languages
The Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities
speak many different languages as they live
across the world in many different countries. They
also have their own languages – Anglo Romani/
Poggerdy Jib, Cant, Gamin and Romanes. We know
how important languages are and how they can
enrich your life by being able to communicate with
people from different countries and heritages.
We would like you to send in a story or poem
in any language – please put the name of the
language after the title to help us.
How to Enter
Contacts
Entry is quite simple!
Please see www.grthm.co.uk/activities for more
details, including FAQs, some links for reference
and the rules for entering.
Activity 3:
If you need to get in touch for any reason,
whether to clarify anything, ask us something
we may not have been clear on (it’s possible!) or
simply to say Hi! use the info below.
Use one of the 5 Art Posters produced by the
Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Artists to celebrate
GRTHM as an inspiration for your poem.
We are looking for original and exciting ideas.
Use your imagination and be creative. Then
send the results to us! And make sure it arrives
before 25th July 2008.
If you're writing poetry, stories or ideas,
especially if you are using a computer, you could
email them to us using this address:
Email: activities@grthm.co.uk
activities@grthm.co.uk
Telephone: +44 (0) 113 2748050
Please make sure your file isn't bigger than 5mb
though. If you have larger files, put them on a
CD if you can and send it to us. And the address
for sending all your entries is on the right.
Write to:
GRTHM Activities,
GRTAS,
West Park,
Spen Lane,
Leeds LS16 5BE
We had thousands of entries for the poster
competition that preceded the History Month
so we hope to see many creative and exciting
entries once again!
10
Good luck!
For example: El caballo blanco (Spanish).
Poster - Poem
Activity 4:
Poster - Story
Use one of the 5 Art Posters produced by the
Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Artists to celebrate
GRTHM as an inspiration for your story. You may
wish to analyse the poster, do some research and
write about the work or write a critique.
You could also use it as the starting point for
your own story.
Activity 5:
Shelters and/
or Dens
When Gypsy, Roma and Travellers
moved from place to place they would
need to make shelters and somewhere
to have protection from the weather.
Sometimes these shelters were made,
used for a time and then left, and other times
they were made so they could be used again.
were one of the first to make tents to live in and
take with them when they moved. If you do some
research and look at old photographs you will
see that they had a range of different tents for
different climates and some were very elaborate.
We would like you to design and/or build your
own shelter or den – you may have one already
and can draw a plan of it and send some photos
or it may be something that you will do as part of
this project.
It can be made of anything you have easily
available and it can be moveable or not – you
decide. Please take care when building!
Activity 6:
Photographs
In the early days of photography the Gypsy,
Roma and Traveller communities, like
many others, did not usually take their own
photographs and yet they treasure old
photographs of family, friends and places they
have stayed.
Send in a photograph that is important to
you and describe what is happening in the
photograph and why you like it.
It could be one you have taken or one of you,
your friends, family, community or of anything ...
Activity 7:
Activity 11:
Explore some of the great artists and performers
from the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities
and also how these communities have been
depicted by many famous artists e.g. Van Gogh.
have often built businesses on what people
throw away. They have made pegs using old tin
cans, cut into strips, to hold the peg together.
They have used reeds from riverbanks to make
baskets. They have collected scrap metal to recycle and avoid it being wasted in land fill sites.
Artwork
You could use any of these for inspiration and we
hope you will try some different art techniques –
printing, collage etc – all work submitted needs
to be 2D or photographs of 3D and description
of work also welcomed.
Activity 8:
Music
You could listen to some of the
great Gypsy, Roma and Traveller
musicians and also see how they
inspired many of our great classical
composers (see our website www.
grtleeds.co.uk/classicalinspiration).
Listen carefully to the many different
types of music and create your own
piece. You may write and/or record
it. Please send a tape or digital file
(Maximum length 3 minutes).
Activity 9:
Re-cycling
Think about what is around you and how much
is thrown away. Can you do anything to improve
the situation and save any waste.
Try and come up with an idea and send it to us.
The best ideas will be rewarded and they will
have benefited us all – so get saving the waste!
Activity 12:
Fairground Ride
or Circus Act
Most people will have had fun at the fair and
many may have been be to the circus. But this is
your chance to look at the show from a different
point of view.
Could you invent a new ride or act? For this
competition that’s what we’d like you to do.
Songs
What would it look like and how would it work?
Many Gypsy, Roma and Travellers write great
songs. Listen to some of them and then write
and/or record your own. Please send tape or
digital file (Maximum length 3 minutes) and text.
Activity 13:
Please send drawings and explanations.
Portfolio
Activity 10:
to achieve the GRTHM Standard Award
Who do we think
we are (WDWTWA?)
For all phases of education and/or organisations
please submit a portfolio of work which will
reflect your activities leading up to and during
Gypsy Roma Traveller History Month.
Our own individual histories are really interesting
and also those of our friends and communities. The
Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities have very
close family networks and their history has largely
been carried orally. They can speak in great depth
about their families and stories that have been
passed down from one generation to the next.
This portfolio will reflect the quality of work
leading up to and during GRTHM.
It may list the policies, action plans, events,
outcomes – examples of work produced and
engagement of the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller
communities in this celebration.
In June there is WDWTWA week (see their
website) and we hope you will get lots of ideas
from that great web site. We would like you to
map out ‘who do you think you are’.
(The Stephen Lawrence Education Standard
and the Inclusion Chartermark produced by
Education Leeds see www.educationleeds.co.uk
have very useful guidelines for these portfolios).
You could do this in many different ways – it
could be a portrait or photograph with your
likes/dislikes and/or about your family and
relatives, stories about your own history or
family or community history.
Below are the five Poster produced by professional GRT artists specially for GRTHM.
They are available as A2 posters or postcards from www.grthm.co.uk. From left to right
Ferdinand Koci, Daniel Baker, Damian Le Bas, Delaine Le Bas and Lloyd Holland.
www.grthm.co.uk
11
Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Hall of Fame
If newspapers were to be believed, Gypsies, Roma and Travellers are guilty of
everything and capable of nothing. To read about Gypsies, Roma and Travellers that
have made their mark beyond Britain, see: www.imninalu.net/famousGypsies.htm
In 1953, the Encyclopaedia Britannica
proclaimed: “The mental age of the average
adult Gypsy is thought to be about that of a
child of ten. Gypsies have never accomplished
anything of great significance in writing,
painting, musical composition, science or
social organisation. Quarrelsome, quick to
anger or laughter, they are unthinkingly but not
deliberately cruel. Loving bright colours, they
are ostentatious and boastful, but lack bravery.”
Martin Taylor
The following Gypsies, Roma or Travellers
are just some of the many household names
across Britain. Jake Bowers
Sir Michael Caine
(Ayrshire, Scotland, 1956)
Martin Taylor is a self-taught guitarist of
international prestige. He is a Romanichal. Among
his achievements, he has been granted the British
Empire Membership for his services to music in
2002, has got the British Jazz Award as best
guitarist ten times between 1987 and 2001, the
Honorary Doctorate University of Paisley, Scotland
in 1999, Pioneer to the Life of the Nation in 2003
and other honours and medals.
(Rotherhithe, London, 14/3/1933)
Born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite, it was a tradition
of his Romanichal family to call the firstborn son
Maurice. As an actor, he has twice won Oscars
(1986 and 1999). He was knighted in the year 2000
for his contribution to performing arts.
John Bunyan
(Elstow, Harrowden, Bedfordshire, 28/11/1628 –
Snow Hill, London, 31/8/1688)
Ferdinand Koci’s painting, created for our poster
competition depicts many famous Gypsy Roma and
Travellers. Posters and postcards are still available.
Django Reinhardt
(Liberchies, Belgium, 23/1/1910 - Fontainebleau,
France, 16/5/1953)
Jean-Baptiste Reinhardt was the first and still
the greatest European jazz musician. His origins
have never been a mystery, he belonged to one of
the most numerous German Sinti families, of the
Eftavagarya group. Even after two of his fingers
were seriously damaged by an accident, Django
outstandingly performed violin, guitar and banjo
with the use of his healthy fingers. Django’s
particular style is also defined “Gypsy Jazz”.
Yul Brynner
(Vladivostok, 7/7/1915 – New York, 10/10/1985)
An undoubtedly controversial person, his origins
have been a mystery for many. Actually he had
only 1⁄4 of Romany blood. It was among Roma that
he began his adventurous life, playing guitar in
Romany circles and working as a trapezist in circus.
He was elected Honorary President of the Roma, an
office that he kept until his death.
Sir Charles Chaplin
(Walworth, London, 16/4/1889 –
Vevey, Switzerland, 25/12/1977)
Born Charles Spencer Chaplin, his parents were
music hall artists. It is usually assumed that he
was Jewish, an assertion that seems not to be true.
His mother, Hannah Smith, was Romanichal, and
probably also his father was.
12
people with HIV/AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis,
soup kitchens, children’s and family counselling
programs, orphanages, and schools.
George Bramwell Evens
(Hull, 1884 - Wilmslow, Cheshire, 1943)
George Bramwell Evens was a very popular BBC
journalist, better known as “Romany of the BBC”. His
broadcasts about nature and life in the countryside
inspired David Attenborough and David Bellamy.
Louise Doughty
(Rutland, East Midlands, 1963)
Louise Doughty was born in 1963 in the East
Midlands, UK. She grew up in Rutland, England’s
smallest county, a rural area that later provided the
setting for her third novel, Honey-Dew.
After her first three novels, Doughty took a dramatic
departure with her fourth, the internationally
acclaimed Fires in the Dark, the first in a series of
long novels based on the history of the Romany
people and her own family ancestry. It was
followed by Stone Cradle in 2006.
John Bunyan was the author of the most popular
classic of Christian literature: “The Pilgrim’s
Progress”. He is widely considered by historians
as a “Tinker”, a name given in Great Britain and
Ireland not only to Gypsies but also to other
Traveller groups. Parish registers of the 16th
century describe the Bunyans as “Egyptians”.
Gypsy men are great
sportsman, on the field
and in the boxing ring.
Elvis Presley
Eric Cantona (24/5/1966)
Raby Howell (12/10/1869 – 1937) Romanichal,
Sheffield United, Liverpool (GB)
(East Tupelo, Mississippi, 8/1/1935 –
Memphis, Tennessee, 16/8/1977)
Manouche Leeds, Manchester United (GB)
Elvis Aaron Presley’s ancestors came from Germany
in the early 18th century and their original surname
was Pressler. They were part of the Sinti people
commonly known as “Black Dutch”, also called
“Chicanere” or “Melungeons”. It is also likely that
his mother Gladys Love Smith was a Romanichal.
Caló Arsenal (GB), Real Madrid
Rita Hayworth
(New York, US, 17/10/1918 –
New York, US 14/05/87)
An American Romany actress who rose to stardom
in the 1940s as the era’s leading sex symbol.
She was known as “The Love Goddess”, and was
celebrated as an expert dancer and a great beauty.
Bob Hoskins
(Bury St. Edmund’s, Suffolk, 26/10/1942)
Robert William Hoskins, as many Gypsies, spent
his youth travelling and performing occasional
activities like working in circus. Then he turned to
the cinema and succeeded as actor. His family on
his mother’s side are German Sinti.
Mother Teresa
(Uskub, Macedonia 26/08/1910 – Calcutta, India
05/09/1997)
An Albanian Roman Catholic nun who founded
the missionaries of charity in Calcutta, India in
1950. For over forty years she ministered to the
poor, sick, orphaned, and dying, while guiding
the Missionaries of Charity’s expansion, first
throughout India and then in other countries.
By the 1970s she had become internationally
known. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979
for her humanitarian work. Mother Teresa’s
Missionaries of Charity continued to expand, and at
the time of her death it was operating 610 missions
in 123 countries, including hospices and homes for
José Antonio Reyes Calderón (1/9/1983)
Andrea Pirlo (19/11/1979) Rom,
AC Milan, World Cup Winner (Italy)
Freddy Eastwood (29/10/1983) Romanichal,
West Ham United, Grays Athletic, Southend United (GB)
Jem Mace (8/4/1831 - 30/11/1910) Romanichal,
Heavyweight Champion of England and World
Champion, is considered the “father of modern boxing
Johnny Frankham (Reading, 6/6/1948)
British Light Heavyweight Champion in 1975,
famous for having floored the great Cassius Clay in
an exhibition fight.
National and Regional
POSTER COMPETITION RESULTS
A major part of the build up to Gypsy
Roma Traveller History Month (GRTHM)
2008 was a poster competition run for
schools/organisations and individuals.
The theme was to create an image to
celebrate GRTHM in June and involved
finding out about the different histories,
cultures and languages of Gypsies, Roma
and Travellers (GRT).
To help with inspiration five professional GRT
artists were commissioned to create a poster (see
bottom of page 11). The resulting set of images
show a mixture of contemporary and historical
GRT lifestyles and language. There were
thousands of entries from all over the country
and the 5 artists, some who have recently
exhibited at the Venice Biennale, were at the
GRT Achievement Service in Leeds to judge the
winners. They were amazed by the range and
quality of all the work and found it very difficult
to decide. The winners have now been chosen
and will be given prizes by Lord Avebury in a
House of Lords presentation on the 2nd June.
The overall competition winner (see below) will
have her entry printed and available for purchase
from the GRTAS and GRTHM websites (www.
grtleeds.co.uk and www.grthm.co.uk). The other
winners will be able to see their work online and
the most interesting work will be displayed in an
exhibition in June.
Sets of these posters are still available to buy.
See www.grthm.co.uk for details.
Some of the thousands of entries at the West Park Centre for judging. All the judges commented on
how impressed they were with the entries and how hard it was to choose winners.
Delaine “Personally I was looking for individuality,
personal comment, interesting use of media and
also work that was thought provoking. The future
artists from the community are definitely out there
and the way the children from the wider community
have looked at our culture makes me feel that there
is hope for better understanding and breaking
down the barriers that have existed for too long.
I congratulate all the entrants as I recognise how
much effort was put into every art work.”
these artists a chance to have there work seen by a
wider audience. The event shows a great interest in
the new Gypsy Roma Traveller History Month. It also
shows how important visual art has been in Gypsy,
Roma and Traveller cultures.”
Comments from the Judges
Lloyd ‘The youngsters used a lot of imagination
and I was impressed by the range and standard of
the work. There were some brilliant pieces especially
from the younger children.’
And the Overall
Winner is …
Ferdinand ‘It’s nice to see their ideas, it’s
surprising how they draw and put things together. It
takes you back to times forgotten, when you were a
child. It makes you really think again, when you see
how honestly and clearly they see the world, the rich
language of children and art.’
Damian “I was proud and honoured to be asked
to help judge the competition with the other artists.
I was astounded at the quality and talent amongst
the thousands of entries from the travelling and non
travelling communities. It was difficult to choose the
winners and runners up as so much hard work had
been put into all the entries.”
Daniel “I was amazed to see how many artworks
had been submitted for the competition. It was
really a tough call deciding on the winners because
the standard of drawing, painting and design
innovation across all the age ranges has been very
high with some incredible works being produced.
I’m glad that we have been able to give some of
The professional GRT artists hard at work
discussing and judging the competition entries.
From the left; Damian Le Bas, Lloyd Holland,
Delaine Le Bas, Daniel Baker and Ferdinand Koci.
More competitions!
Exciting international competitions are taking place over the next
two months. See pages 10 & 11 for more details.
The overall winner of the competition
is Lucy Mongan of Sedgehill School, London.
www.grthm.co.uk
13
North East Region
Northumberland, Tyne and Wear,
Durham, North Yorkshire,
South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire
The many events planned across the North East of England don’t just reflect the region’s long
history as a hotbed of Gypsy and Traveller activism and culture, but its place where diverse
Gypsy and Traveller communities have met.
June 3-14
What: North Yorkshire Traveller Support is
organising photo exhibitions in 5 libraries in
the County.
Where:
Malton Library, St Michael Street, Malton
Norton Library, Commercial Street, Norton
Ripon Library, The Arcade, Ripon
Selby Library, 52 Micklegate, Selby
Stokesley library, Town Centre, Stokesley
Contact: 01609 535546
Wednesday June 16
What: The Exhibition Space,
Central Library, Leeds.
Art Exhibition by professional Roma artist
Ferdinand Koci. Includes a the display of the
winners and entrants of the Leeds and National
Poster Competition.
When: Every day from 16th – 29th June
Friday June 20
What: Celebration and History of the
Roma people A celebration of Roma people living
in Rotherham and a chance to share histories
through storytelling, old photographs and music
Where: Unity Centre, St Leonards Road,
Eastwood, Rotherham S65 1PD
Time: Afternoon
Contact: Janet Gold 0114 2585913
Saturday June 21
What: Workshops in Leeds Central Library to
celebrate GRTHM – with storytelling and art
activities.
Where: Central Library, Calverley St, Leeds, LS1 3AB
Contact: 0113 247 6016
Saturday June 21
Wednesday June 25
Friday June 27
What: Awards for GRT Achievers and
presentation to winners of Leeds GRTHM Poster
Competition.
Where: The Banqueting Suite, Civic Hall,
Leeds LS1 1UR
Time: 6.00pm – 7.30pm
Contact: Peter Saunders, 0113 274 8050
Wednesday June 25
What: Performance of
‘It’s a Cultural Thing or is it?’
Where: The Carriageworks Theatre, The Electric
Press, Millennium Square, Leeds LS2 3AD
Time: 1.30pm – 3.00pm
Contact: carriageworks@leeds.gov.uk
0113 224 3801
What: Gypsy, Traveller and Roma History in a
Day – remembering the hidden history of Gypsies,
Travellers and Roma.
Where: Northern College, Wentworth Castle,
Stainborough, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, S75 3ET
Time: 10.00am – 4.30pm
Contact: Janet Gold: 0114 2585913
June 23-30
What: Photographic Exhibition.
The exhibition will include photographs of Puck
Fair by Daniel Lyons and local images
Where: Headingley Library
Tuesday June 24
Thursday June 19
What: Gypsy and Traveller WOMEN – memories
retold – a half day remembering the hidden
histories of the women Gypsies and Travellers
of Doncaster Bring your old photographs,
information and treasures.
Where: Stainforth Children’s’ Centre,
Thorne Road, Stainforth, Doncaster DN7 5BG
Time: 1.00pm – 4.00pm
Contact: Janet Gold 0114 2585913
What: First GRTHM Concert with Romipen, a
Gypsy ensemble from Slovakia. Come and learn
new dances and enjoy this exciting music with
stories and songs from the internationally renowned
Scottish Travellers Sheila Stewart and Jess Smith.
Where: St Chads, Headingley
Time: 7.30pm–10.00pm
A number of prestigious concerts in Leeds
will contain Scottish
Traveller storytelling from
Jess Smith and Sheila
Stewart, and Romany
music from the Orchard
Family and Romipen.
Yorkshire will also host performances from Irish
Traveller actor Michael Collins and his play ‘It’s
a Cultural Thing or is it ?’ Based on the life story
of Michael Collins it sets about exploding the
myths often created to stigmatise the Traveller
communities. True to collaborative theatre, this
play is dedicated to Travellers and settled people
who stand up to discrimination and prejudice.
The Irish Times had this to say about the play:
“Entertaining, enriching and provocative - you
could hardly ask for more from a show. These
14
Friday June 27
What: Premiere of ‘All About Us’ DVD.
Where: York’s Beacon Conference
Time: 10.00am – 3.00pm
Contact: Sylvia Hutton, York Traveller Education
Support Service 01904 554335
Friday June 27
What: Northern Regional Conference in the Civic
Hall ‘Gypsy, Roma and Traveller participation,
aspiration and achievement’.
Where: Civic Hall, Leeds LS1 1UR
Time: 6.00pm – 7.30pm
Saturday June 21
What: Showing of the film
“Gypsy Caravan: When the Road Bends”
Where: Hyde Park Picture House
Contact: 0113 275 2045
What: Leeds Second GRTHM Concert. Music,
story, drama and songs.
Richard O’Neill, Sheila Stewart, Jess Smith, Irish
music featuring Traveller musicians and Romipen
Gypsy Ensemble.
Where: Seven Artspace, 31(a) Harrogate Road,
Chapel Allerton, Leeds LS7 3PD
Time: 7:30pm
Saturday June 28
Wednesday June 25
What: Irish Session hosted by Derek McGee and
featuring guest Traveller musicians, William and
Jimmy Dundon.
Where: The Chemic Tavern. 9 Johnston Street
Leeds LS6 2NG
Time: 8.00pm – 11.00pm
Contact: 0113 245 7670
What: Leeds Final GRTHM concert with guests
from London, Devon and Ireland.
Romipen, The Orchard Family, Romani Rad,
Brigid Corcoran, Richard O’Neill, Sheila Stewart,
Jess Smith and Irish music featuring Traveller
musicians.
Time: 7.00pm – 10.00pm
Where: Banqueting Suite, Civic Hall, Leeds
Thursday 26th June:
What: Performance of
‘It’s a Cultural Thing or is it?’
Where: Otley Courthouse, Courthouse Street,
Otley, West Yorkshire, LS21 3AN
Performances at 1.00pm & 8.00pm
Time: 7:30pm onwards
Friday 27th June:
What: Northern Regional Conference in the Civic
Hall ‘Gypsy, Roma and Traveller participation,
aspiration and achievement’. Includes launch of
DVD “The First Traveller”.
Time: 10.00am – 3.00pm
engaging true tales portray the discrimination
and hardship routinely experienced by the
Traveller community.”
Further a field, events focusing on the history
and culture of Romany communities have
been planned in Rotherham, Barnsley and
Doncaster.
Saturday June 28
What: GRTHM Open Day at the Civic Hall to raise
awareness about the GRT communities through
music, storytelling and art.
Time: 11.00am – 3.00pm
Where: Civic Hall, Leeds LS1 1UR
Contact: Jane Donaldson: Senior Library Assistant,
Western Bank Library, Sheffield S10 2TN.
Telephone: 0114 22 27231 Fax: 0114 22 27290
j.donaldson@sheffield.ac.uk www.nfa.dept.shef.ac.uk
The North East is also home to The National
Fairground Archive (NFA) at the University of
Sheffield. Housed in the Western Bank Library,
it is a unique collection of photographic, printed,
manuscript and audiovisual material covering all
aspects of the culture of travelling Showpeople,
their organisation as a community, their social
history and everyday life; and the artefacts and
machinery of fairgrounds.
With over 80,000 images in the photographic
collection, the collection also includes a unique
body of fairground ephemera (programmes,
handbills, posters, charters and proclamations,
plans and drawings).
Above, The Orchard Family; left, Sheila Stewart MBE.
Also on this page from left to right; artwork by Ferdinand
Koci, Jess Smith, Michael Collins and Romipen.
Gypsy war heroes
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Gypsies and Travellers haven’t just lived in
Britain for centuries, they’ve defended it
and died for it too, writes Janet Keet-Black.
In the Second World War a
direct hit destroyed 60% of
the records of soldiers who
served in the First World War,
but amongst the records that
remain, many Traveller names
are to be found. The Medal
Rolls are further evidence of
Traveller participation including
a number of Military Medals
and at least one Victoria Cross.
Whilst many stories from WW1
have been handed down through
families, Travellers today may not
speak of military service in WW2
and later conflicts, but that doesn’t
mean they weren’t there. Many
photographs of fathers, brothers,
uncles and cousins in uniform are
to be found in treasured family
albums.
And while the men were away
fighting for their lives and this
country’s liberty, many Traveller
women did their bit by joining the
ATS, ARP or the Land Army. They
also drove ambulances or became
auxiliary nurses, or went to work
in munitions factories. “They all
ran off to Ireland,” “Gypsies didn’t
go to war,” and “You can’t imagine
Travellers being in the Services,” are
the kind of ill-informed statements,
often spoken with conviction,
that dishonour those who served,
particularly those who made the
ultimate sacrifice.
Barbara Walsh records the loss in
WW1 of two of her great uncles,
cousins who had grown up
together: “Everyone went out of
the yard to see them off. The two
young Abrahams laughed as they
waved and walked away into their
uncertain future.
A few amongst many:
Samuel Brazil, died 1918.
Benjamin Lee, died 1917.
J Ripley, died 1916.
Awarded the Military Medal.
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Alfred Riley Scamp, died 1914
S Scamp, died 1915. Brother to the
above.
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Sidney Harris, died 1918.
Awarded the Military Medal.
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Leonard Page, died 1945.
James Keet, died 1944.
Janet Keet-Black is editor of the
Romany and Traveller Family History
Society, 6 St James Walk, South
Chailey, East Sussex BN8 4BU.
Janet would like to hear from
anyone who has served in the
services, and would welcome
photographs.
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Hertfordshire Constabulary’s
Gypsy & Traveller Liaison Officer,
PC Kevin Moore
wants to meet You!
Final_Travellers_Advert2_aw1.ind1 1
Henry Keet Jnr 1915-1979, Janet’s
father, just one of many Gypsy and
Traveller men who fought for Britain.
PC Kevin Moore
9/5/08 16:46:27
Hertfordshire
Constabulary is proud to
introduce our first
Gypsy & Traveller
Liaison Officer,
working full time within
our Diversity Unit.
You can contact Kevin on
01707 354395, 07764 852491
or email Kevin.Moore@herts.pnn.police.uk
The family stood in silence until the
two had disappeared, then they
went back to the yard until only
my mother stood looking down the
empty lane, even after the sound of
their boots and their laughter had
died away.”
“The name Abraham Ripley is
recorded twice on the memorial
at Hailsham, Sussex, and their
young lives were just two amongst
the millions that were lost in that
dreadful conflict.”
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Kevin is more than happy to listen and
learn from anybody who has any advice on
travelling community issues.
John Cole who fought in World War 1,
picture Courtesy his nephew
Peter Cole.
www.grthm.co.uk
15
North West Region
Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater
Manchester, Lancashire, Merseyside
June 4-10
What: The biggest Gypsy and Traveller horse fair
in the world and the biggest event in the British
Gypsy year.
Where: Go to Appleby in Cumbria and follow the
crowds up onto the hill or down to the river Eden.
Other events during Appleby Fair include:
• Live Outside Broadcast of BBC Rokker Radio
from Appleby Fair between 7 and 9pm on
Sunday June 8th, available on 756 AM in the
Appleby area.
• Education on the Hoof. Activities include:
- Education promotion to families and
children on the Hill
- Early Years activities Stop and Play Spot
- Sale of Traveller Education Service resources
including a booklet of Irish Traveller recipes
compiled by Breda Doran
- Living History – reminiscences of Appleby Fair
- Educational Research Project for Department
for Children, Schools and Families
- Go For It! Advice from ESSEX TES
- Displays of children’s work relating to GRTHM
Where: The Supper Rooms are directly
opposite the Appleby Tourist Information
Centre, The Moot Hall, Boroughgate,
Appleby, Cumbria CA16 6XE
Contact: Heather Lawrence Cambridgeshire
Race Equality and Diversity Service Team for
Traveller Education 01223 508700
Saturdays in June:
What: Gypsy and Traveller Drop in Activities At
the Bolton Museum.
Where: Bolton Museum and Archive Service
Le Mans Crescent, Bolton, Lancashire BL1 1SE
Contact: 01204 332211
Timeline #3
The timeline of the Gypsy
and Traveller journey
throughout British history
continues its trace here.
If you are looking for a single event that
sums up Gypsy and Traveller culture head
to the town of Appleby-in-Westmoreland
in Cumbria over the second weekend in
June. No other single event crams so much
Gypsy and Traveller colour, chaos and
character into such a short amount of
time as Appleby Horse Fair.
Like many Gypsy Horse Fairs,
Appleby Horse Fair exists because
of a royal charter granted by James
II in 1685. The fair has survived an
attempt at closure by Westmorland
Borough Council in 1965. Appleby
New Fair now is attended by about
5,000 Gypsies, Travellers and other
traders and up to 1,500 caravans
park in the area.
On the Sunday of fair week, between 20,000 and 30,000 visitors pour into
Appleby and onto Fair Hill. Watch horses being washed in the River Eden
and the trotting of horses to show them off to potential buyers. It’s also the
place to see the finest piebald and skewbald Gypsy cobs changing hands.
Wednesday June 25
Saturday June 28
Monday June 30
16
1939-45 World War II. Nazis
compose lists of English Gypsies
to be interned. In Britain, the
government builds caravan camps
for Gypsies serving in the forces or
doing vital farm work. These are
closed when the war finishes. Roma,
Sinti and other Gypsies are stripped
of all human rights by the Nazis.
As many as 600,000 are murdered
in camps and gas chambers. This
is Porraimos (the devouring), the
Roma holocaust in Europe.
1960 New private sites are banned
from being built in England by
The Caravan Sites (Control of
Development) Act. Mass evictions
and public harassment of Gypsies
and Travellers. Irish Government
“Commission on Itinerancy” begins
a programme to assimilate Irish
Travellers.
What: ‘A Celebration of Gypsy, Roma and
Traveller Culture’.
Where: World Museum Liverpool
William Brown Street, Liverpool, L3 8EN
Time: 10.00am – 4.00pm
Contact: 0151 478 4393
Friends, Families and Travellers,
Community Base, 113 Queens Road,
Brighton BN1 3XG
www.gypsy-traveller.org
1930s-60s Groups of European
Roma come to live in Britain.
1945-60 Travellers start to use
motor-drawn trailers, and some buy
their own land to stop on with them.
What: Gypsy and Traveller Celebration Day;
traditional crafts, music, dancing, recording
histories and a marquee with displays.
Where: Victoria Square, Bolton BL1 1RU
Contact: Kath Cresswell, 01204 338150/33
is proud to support the first Gypsy
Roma Traveller History Month and
wishes the event every success this
year and in the future.
We are a small national charity,
based in Brighton, working on
behalf of all Gypsies and Travellers
regardless of ethnicity, culture or
background.
Join us if you want to help the
fight against the racism and
discrimination that Gypsies and
Travellers experience as part of
their everyday lives.
Membership costs just £10 per
annum (£5 unwaged) or £25
for organisations. To apply for
membership just phone Suzanna
on 01273 234821 or email to
admin@gypsy-traveller.org
1908 The Children’s Act makes
education compulsory for Travelling
children in England by The Children’s
Act, but only for half the year.
1934 Django Reinhardt introduces
“swing jazz” to the world. A major
influence on the development of Jazz.
What: Awards ceremony delivered by local
community member.
Where: Bolton Council
Victoria Square, Bolton BL1 1RU
Contact: Kath Cresswell, 01204 338150/33
Friends Families
and Travellers
1889 Showmen in Britain form
the United Kingdom Van Dwellers
Association, later called the
Showmen’s Guild, to fight the
Moveable Dwellings Bill, which
restricts Travellers’ movements.
Appleby Fair (pic: Jo McGuire)
A Century of Service
wavs
1905 - 2005
WOKING ASSOCIATION OF
VOLUNTARY SERVICE
Registered Charity 2055545
is pleased to support Gypsy, Roma and Traveller History
Month and hope the events are successful at raising more
awareness of your history and community.
WAVS provides support and assistance to new and existing
voluntary and community groups in Woking Borough.
We also have an in-house Volunteer Centre.
Please give us a call if you need help in any way.
Tel: 01483 751456
Email: info@wavs.org.uk
Continues on page 18
diversity
embracing diversity …
… committed to equality
Cambridge City Council
is proud to support
History Month 2008
www.cambridge.gov.uk
Irish Travellers just got off the
ferry, right? Wrong.
If we listen to the way the media talks about Irish Travellers in Britain we might be
forgiven for thinking they were a very recent part of British culture. This couldn’t be
further from the truth: they have been in mainland Britain for centuries.
Tommy Collins of Justice for Travellers has
pointed out English parish records that
mention Irish Travellers living here more
than 500 years ago. Irish Travellers refer
to themselves as ‘Pavees’ or ‘the Pavee’
and they are sometimes known by the
Irish name of ‘Minceir’.
Irish Travellers are a recognised ethnic minority
with their own language, called Shelta. This is
spoken in different dialects including Gammon/
Gamin and Cant.
Tradition is very important to Irish Travellers.
Customs such as cleanliness and hygiene, music
and singing, horsemanship, the family, respect
and care for elders in the community are at the
heart of Irish Traveller culture. Being free to travel
is an idea that is still very important even for
Travellers who live in houses.
Through the years Irish Travellers have had
diverse dealings with Romany Gypsies and both
peoples attend important fairs together, such as
Appleby Fair in Cumbria in June. There have also
been many marriages between English and Irish
Travellers. Their histories are distinct though and
this is a source of pride for both communities.
Funereal customs are also different, but the need
to show proper honour and respect to the dead is
held in common.
For further information contact Bridie Jones of
The Irish Traveller Movement on 01227 379206.
You can visit the Irish Traveller Movement’s
website at www.itmtrav.com
Racism directed at Irish Travellers is
commonplace and, as with anti-Romany racism,
based on complete ignorance of their culture and
traditions. Even politicians often voice disgusting
views, and this can encourage violence: in 2003,
15-year-old Johnny Delaney was beaten to
death in a racist attack just for being a Traveller.
However, the community is strong and
determined to improve this situation, as
organisations like Justice for Travellers and the
Irish Traveller Movement show. Irish Travellers
are as much part of the British landscape as any
other group. They are recognised as an Ethnic
Minority under British law, and many have gone
on to contribute to the country’s social and
cultural life. Wayne Rooney and David Essex
have Irish Traveller roots.
GYPSIES, ROMA AND TRAVELLERS
have a right to see their culture celebrated
WE support Gypsy, Roma and Traveller History month
An image of Irish Travellers on the move. This is
one image from a fine photographic collection on
Gypsies, held at the Liverpool University Library.
THE JOURNEY
CONTINUES
YOU can get early years play and learning activities at
www.savethechildren.org.uk/earlyyears
A traveller’s tale told in
Jess Smith’s gallus and
infectious style.
£9.99 pbk
The first part of the author’s
life story Jessie’s Journey
also available from Birlinn.
The Travellers Aid Trust
The Travellers Aid Trust is the only independent UK grantmaker specifically dedicated to supporting the Gypsy and
Traveller community. We currently offer small grants of up to
£250 under our Violet Clegg Fund programme for individuals
and families experiencing exceptional hardship or individuals,
groups and sites for community benefit.
Give us a call, drop us a line or visit our website to find out
more about what we do.
PO Box 16, Llangyndeyrn, Kidwelly SA17 5YT
Telephone/Fax: 01269 870 621
info@travellersaidtrust.org www.travellersaidtrust.org
Available now from all
good bookshops or phone
BookSource on 0845 370 0067
(quoting ref GRT08)
p&p free in the UK
WWWBIRLINNCOUK
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www.grthm.co.uk
17
West Midlands Region
Herefordshire, Shropshire,
Staffordshire, Warwickshire.
Metropolitan county of the West
Midlands and Worcestershire
Remembering the Black Patch Gypsies
Saturday June 7
What: Rock Against Racism Day, Shrewsbury.
Gypsy and Traveller exhibition to be displayed in
Shrewsbury town centre.
Sunday June 15
What: Kushti Project Staffordshire’s day out to
Hartlebury Museum Gypsy and Traveller Heritage
Day.
Contact: Lynne Powis, 01902 714646
What: “Gypsies: Who are Ya!
Hartlebury Gypsy and Traveller Heritage Day
Workshops demonstrating basket weaving, peg
making, holly wreaths, wagon making/ restoring
etc. Free entry for families if a child in family
brings with them a home made model of a vardo.
Where: Worcestershire County Museum,
Hartlebury Castle, Hartlebury,
Worcestershire DY11 7XZ
www.worcestershire.gov.uk/museums
Time: 11.00am – 5.00pm
Contact: 01299 250416
gretel.roberts@wolverhamptoncyp.org.uk
Weekend June 16-17
What: 5 minute slots during the Breakfast Show
on Radio Shropshire featuring members of the
Travelling community taking about their lives;
past and present.
Gypsy and Traveller history is
recorded in place names across
Britain in the many Romany Roads
and Gypsy Lanes to be found
across the country. But in the built
areas of English cities, the places
our ancestors used to stop remain
hidden under concrete or far off
because of fences. But in the West
Midlands, descendants of Gypsy
families who were removed from the
land come together over 100 years
later to remember their roots.
On July 6th, many of the settled
descendants of Esau and Sentinia
(Henty) Smith who were evicted
from the Black Patch in 1905 will
come together on the anniversary
of the eviction. If you want to see
a bit of Gypsy history, on Sunday
6th July, from 11.00 am meet Ted
Rudge, author of “Brumroamin” –
the history of Birmingham’s Romany
community, at: Soho Foundry
Tavern, Foundry Lane, Smethwick,
Group of some Black Patch families
in 1898. The man holding the horse
on the right is King Esau Smith.
West Midlands B66 2LL. The event
will be broadcast on BBC WM (96.5
FM) between 1.00 and 4.00pm from
the grounds.
Contact: ted.rudge@btinternet.com
0121 744 5939
On Sunday 15th June 2008,
don’t miss “Gypsies – who are
ya!” a celebration of Gypsy and
Traveller Heritage and culture at
Worcestershire County Museum,
Hartlebury Castle. The event, which
has been put together with The
Worcestershire Gypsy Roma and
Traveller Partnership, pupils from
Stourport High School and Birchen
Coppice, Stourport and Hartlebury
Primary Schools is an exciting
look at the way the Traveller
communities have lived and the
way they live today. See advert on
the back page.
Timeline #4
The journey throughout
British history continues …
1968 Lord Avebury helps to pass
the new Caravan Sites Act. From
1970, the Government have to
provide caravan sites for Travellers.
1970s-1990s People from the
settled community start to take to
the road and live in caravans. They
are known as “New Age Travellers”
in the media.
1994 The Criminal Justice and Public
Order Act abolishes the Caravan
Sites Act. This is disastrous for all
Travellers living in Britain, and more
than 5,000 families now have no
legal home. Local councils became
duty bound to identify land for
private purchase by Travellers. Not
one local council adhered to this.
1997 Slovak Romani refugees
arrive in Dover, England. The media
reaction is openly hostile.
2000 The amended Race Relations
Act recognises Irish Travellers as
an ethnic minority. This has not yet
happened in Ireland, where they are
seen instead as a “social minority”.
Scottish Travellers are still not
recognised as an ethnic minority
in Scotland. In England, Gypsy-led
protests at the ban of the 600 year
old fair at Horsemonden in Kent
are successful and the ban is finally
lifted in 2006.
Concludes on back page
South West and Welsh Regions
Romany Gypsy Culture in the Museum of Somerset
Somerset County Museum is
working with the Traveller Education
Service and Romany Gypsies as
part of the development work for
the new Heritage Lottery-funded
Museum of Somerset.
The Romany culture will be
explored and linked into the
displays being developed for the
new museum in Taunton, which
opens in 2010. A film will be
produced, resources acquired and a
teaching resource pack created for
use across Somerset.
the local Romany story in more
detail. Any one with objects, stories
of information with a Somerset
connection can contact the museum
at eagilbert@somerset.gov.uk
Below, Suzanne Small’s
grandfather, a Romany Gypsy
‘Doing his bit!’ during the First World
War. Suzanne and her family now
live in Somerset.
Romany gypsies have provided a
workforce for farmers in Somerset
for many generations. For example,
peas and swedes were popular
harvests in Stogursy and High Ham.
In the future, there is also to be
a larger, temporary exhibition,
created for Somerset that will tell
18
Throughout June
What: Gypsy and Traveller displays in libraries
across Bristol.
Where: Bristol Central Library, College Green,
Bristol BS1 5TL
Contact: 0117 903 7200
June 4
What: The St. Day Gypsy & Traveller Women’s Group is celebrating their DVD penpal project
which links a group of young Gypsy & Traveller
women in Cornwall with a similar group in
Romania.
Where: Teyluva Children’s Centre, St. Day,
Cornwall. TR16 5LG
Time: 10.30am
Contact: TravellerSpace 01736 334 683
June 1-14 & 15
What: Varda Travelling Exhibition - Gulbenkian
Prize Finalist. This award winning resource will
be at Scolton Museum in Pembrokeshire from the
1st - 14th June. It will then travel to the opening
day of the Pembroke Dock Midsummer Festival
(contact 0700 580 2315).
Where: 1–14 June – Scolton Museum, Spittal,
Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, SA62 5QL
Contact: 01437 731 328
June 15 – Pembroke Dock Summer Festival Group,
10 Meyrick Street, Pembroke Dock SA72 6UT
Contact: 0845 345 5031
Sunday June 15
What: Romany & Traveller Family History.
Society members Cathay and Joseph Birch will
be attending the Woodland Fair at Worlebury
Woods, West-super-mare, with their exhibition
of Romany History and Culture. They will also be
demonstrating pegmaking.
Time: 2.00pm – 5.00pm
Where: Water Tower, Worlebury Woods,
Weston-Super-Mare, Somerset
July 1, 2 & 3
What: Screening of “Gypsy Caravan”, an
exhibition of Jack Loveland’s 1960s photographs
of Dorset and New Forest Gypsies in the cinema
foyer during opening times.
Where: Rex Cinema, Wareham, Dorset, BH20 4JX
When: Tuesday 1st July at 6.30pm, Wednesday
2nd July at 7.15pm, Thursday 3rd July at 7.15pm
The Roma Holocaust
The persecution of Roma and Sinti reached a horrific level during the Second World
War. No Gypsy can afford to forget the darkest part of our history, which all people
must learn from writes Damian Le Bas.
Racism against the Roma, and the
violence that comes with it, date back as
far as history or memory go. A look at the
timeline on these pages tells us that in
some ways not much has changed. But it
was only in recent times that this racism
was taken up by an empire that tried to
eliminate the Roma for ever.
died. The Romani scholar Ian Hancock estimates
that more than 600,000 Roma and Sinti may
have been murdered.
Manfri Wood was an English Gypsy who fought in
the War who saw what had happened at Belsen
concentration camp: “When I saw the surviving
Romanies, with young children among them, I
was shaken. Then I went over to the ovens, and
found on one of the steel stretchers the halfcharred body of a girl, and I understood in one
awful minute what had been going on there”.
By the 20th Century Europe’s Gypsies had
already experienced centuries of slavery,
rejection and ethnic cleansing. There were
already anti-Gypsy laws in Germany but under
the Nazis things got even harder. The 1935
Nuremberg laws took away their citizenship
and categorised them as a racial problem. As
Germany took over the countries around it they
adopted the same policy. Hungary, Croatia
and Romania, Germany’s allies in the war, also
stripped their Roma of all their rights.
A people with no rights is an easy target for an
evil government. So the Nazis started to develop
their final solution to the Gypsy “problem”: they
would round the Roma up in camps and starve
and gas them to death until there were none
left alive in Western Europe. The Romani word
for what happened is Porraimos which means
“devouring”. Nobody knows for sure how many
Hugo, a German Roma survivor stands in the
gate of the special Roma camp in Auschwitz Birkenau. As a child Hugo passed through
many camps including Auschwitz before he was
liberated by the British from Bergen-Belsen.
Photo: Anna Kari
Europe’s Roma were lucky to survive at all. Like
the genocides against Gypsies in Britain what
the Nazis did must never be forgotten. All the
Travelling peoples are united by the violence
they have faced and it continues to this day.
We’re also united by our ability to survive the
violence that every European country has
subjected us to.
(Manfri Wood quoted in Donald Kenrick and
Grattan Puxon, The Destiny of Europe’s Gypsies.
London and New York: Heinemann, 1972 p.187).
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www.grthm.co.uk
19
HISTORY MONTH
KD;Ãqyyw
OFIO EC7 H7L;BB;H
HISTORY MONTH
OFIO EC7 H7L;BB;H
Gypsies - Who are ya!
HISTORY MONTH
The way we lived and the way we live now
Sunday 15th June from 11am-5pm
Normal admission rates.
Please call 01299 250416 for further information
County Museum, Hartlebury Castle, Hartlebury, Nr. Kidderminster, DY11 7XZ
;^cYdjibdgZdca^cZ/
Rcd
Ad Gypsy 12/5/08 4:25 pm
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Page 1
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To advertise in
the October
edition of Gypsy
Roma Traveller
History Month
Magazine,
contact the
Gypsy Media
Company on:
07966 786242
For a rate card see:
www.grthm.co.uk/
magazine.html
Timeline #5
2003 Irish Traveller Johnny Delaney,
15, is kicked to death in Cheshire
for being “only a f***ing Gypsy”, as
Eyewitnesses report. The Judge at
his murderers’ trial rules that it was
not a racially motivated attack and
sentences the killers to 4½ years.
2003 12 Sussex Bonfire Society
members arrested for incitement to
racial hatred after burning an effigy
of a caravan containing images of
Gypsy women and children, and
pained with inflammatory slogans.
2004 The labour government
makes it a legal duty to assess the
accommodation needs of Gypsies
and Traveller.
2005 The Sun newspaper launches
its “Stamp on the Camps” campaign
against Gypsies and Travellers. The
Conservatives try to get re-elected
by targeting Gypsies’ supposed
flouting of planning laws.
2006 BBC starts Rokker Radio, the
first programme for Gypsies and
Travellers in its history.
2008 Britain celebrates the first
Gypsy, Roma and Traveller History
Month. But in Italy, Roma camps are
firebombed by neo-nazis.
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June 2008 - Gypsy Roma Traveller History Month

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