| We begin with a simple introduction,
followed by detailed information on the different groupings of Gypsies
and Travellers.
Where did Romani
Travellers come from?
The Romani people moved west out of Northern India about 1000 years
ago. We do not know why they left India. They gradually spread out
across Europe, North Africa and Scandinavia. There are now groups of
Romani people living all over the world.
Gypsy and Traveller History
The
Romani people reached England about 500 years ago, where they met Irish
Travellers, who were already here.
The
earliest written record is of a Gypsy woman reading palms in 1514,
during the reign of Henry VIII. 
Why are Romani Travellers called Gypsies?
People thought that the Travellers came from Egypt because they looked
different. Some Travellers
said that they came from "Little Egypt". At first people called them
Egyptians. Later they were called
Gypsies - short for Egyptians. The first
Gypsies to arrive in England wore turbans on their
heads.
Travellers' Homes
The first Travellers slept in the open, sheltered in barns or made
‘bender tents’
from hazel sticks.
In
the 19th Century, Travellers lived in wooden horse drawn
wagons, known as
vardoes.
In
the 1950s and 1960s, Gypsies and Travellers began using caravans, which
they call trailers. Today many live in mobile homes or houses.
Horses and Horse Fairs
The horse is
important in Gypsy and Traveller cultures and still remains so today.
Many Travellers visit horse fairs to buy and sell horses. Horse fairs
also provide an opportunity to meet up with friends and relatives.
The
most famous horse fair is held at Appleby
in Cumbria. The fair has taken place since 1685.
Gypsy and Traveller
Traditions
Porcelain china was first brought to Western Europe by groups of people
including Romani Gypsies.
Crown Derby ware,
in particular, is highly valued by Gypsies and Travellers and is still
kept today.
Travellers are
people who are nomadic, which means that they move around, often to
follow work in different places.
Some Travellers do not move around any more, living in the same place
instead.
Traditionally, Gypsies and Travellers
made wooden pegs and flowers to sell. The wooden flowers were carved
from elder wood and were coloured using natural dyes, such as elderberry
juice.
Languages
Gypsies, Roma and
Irish Travellers have their own languages.
Irish Travellers speak a language called
either Gammon, Cant or Shelta.
English Gypsies speak Romani which they call Romanes. It is a mixture of
English and Romani.
Romani words,
such as pal
(friend), kushti (good) and
lolly (money) have become part of the
English language.
Below are more details on the different groupings of Gypsies and
Travellers.
These are the major groups of nomadic
people in The British Isles:
- Romany Gypsies
- Roma
- Welsh Travellers, Kale
- Irish Travellers
- Scottish Travellers
- New Travellers
- Bargees
- Showmen
- Circus People
Let us now look at the history and culture of these different
Travelling groups.
1. Romany Gypsies are, by far,
the largest group of Travelling people in the UK. They were thought to
have originated in Egypt, hence the name Gypsy. However the studies of
English Romany in the 19th century lead to the conclusion that their
origins were in northern India. Scholars such as John Samson realised
that English Romany language was mainly Sanskrit with foreign words
added. These words would have been picked up along the way and
incorporated into their native tongue. It is possible to track their
progress through Europe by the words they now speak. There are still
Roma tribes living in India who share the same linguistic and cultural
roots.
We know now that they left India about 1000 A.D. They arrived in Western
Europe about 1300 and crossed over into Britain about 1514 when we have
the first record of them. By then many of them had accepted the Catholic
faith mainly because they could mask themselves as pilgrims and could
travel anywhere in Europe without hindrance. When they arrived in
Britain, it was at the time of the protestant reformation and Henry VIII
thought of them as dangerous spies for the Roman Church. In 1530 Henry
forbade Gypsies to come into the country. In 1554 Mary I passed a law in
England making it a crime, punishable by death, to enter the country as
a Gypsy. Elizabeth I passed a law, that if Gypsies did not give up their
way of life they would be put to death and their belongings taken away.
The Romany Gypsies survived all of these persecutions and became a
useful part of country life. The farming community used Gypsies and
Travellers for many years to harvest the crops. They were useful in that
they were itinerant and after their work was done were happy to move on
elsewhere.
The word Romany comes from the word Rom which means in Romany, man or
human being. Romany people have a strong family based culture where the
family is very much their support system. Romany people are from birth
to death, governed by strict hygiene laws known as Mochadi which can be
translated as unclean. Romany's believe cleanliness to be of great
importance and strict principles have been laid down. Washing one's
hands is very important prior to handling food or dishes, after getting
dressed in the morning, and before going to the kitchen.
To a Gypsy, bodily fluids are thought to be "Dirty", therefore latrines
are to be well away from the living area. This is why Gypsies find
modern housing very difficult as it breaks Mochadi. To the Romany a
house is a dark and depressing place because they are very much
out-of-doors people. [Top of
page]
2. Roma are Romany Gypsies
who have arrived here in the last century mainly as refugees from
Eastern Europe. Under Stalin the Roma, as they call themselves, were
forced to settle; they literally took the wheels off their caravans and
in some parts of Eastern Europe they are still living in those vans.
However Stalin set up Roma schools all over the Soviet Union and wrote
down Romany in Russian script. He wanted to create a Roma communist
elite and in some circumstances he succeeded. Many of the children in
these schools became high up officials in government and the Red Army.
At the collapse of the Soviet State the Roma became the target for
racial abuse, which continues to this day.
[Top of page]
3. Welsh Romany's or Kale
as they call themselves, are mostly the descendants of Abram Wood, who
was a talented violinist. They entered Wales about 1700 and until
recently they spoke their own type of Romany which is very much more
like continental Romany and was of great interest to the linguist John
Samson. He thought of it as being a purer language and thought it was
far closer to the original language of those who left India a thousand
years ago.
[Top of page]
4. The Irish Travellers are
one of the oldest Travelling people of the British Isles and some
scholars believe them to be the descendents of the original hunter
gatherer people of these islands. They speak two languages: Gammon,
which is spoken in the south of Eire, and Cant, which is spoken in the
north and the west of Ireland. They were at one time tin smiths, tinkers
and peddlers and also brought information from place to place. This was
valued because before 1700 Dublin was the only Irish town to have its
own newspaper. In culture they have the same hygiene laws as the Romany
Travellers, which is very much a mystery to anthropologists as they have
little to do with each other and intermarriage is rare even to this day.
[Top of page]
5. Groups of Scottish
Travellers developed between 1500 and 1800 from Scottish craft
workers, who married into immigrant Romany groups from France and Spain.
In 1969 one third of them were still living in tents. Much of Scotland's
traditional music has been collected from Traveller families. They have
their own language which is known as Cant. To this day the Scottish
Parliament refuses to count them as an ethnic minority.
[Top of page]
6. New Travellers or as some
quite wrongly call them New Age Travellers started to form in the 1970s.
Most of them come from the settled community and there are many reasons
for this. Some chose the way of life because they thought it was better
for the environment as they could use less of the world's depleting
energy stocks. Others however are just poor people who have been forced
through economic circumstances to live on the road. In the days of high
unemployment many young people from the North and from the Midlands,
where poverty and unemployment were at there highest, groups of homeless
young people simply did what the then minister told them to do: they
bought old vehicles such as Buses, Lorries and took to the road to live
like Gypsies. Today many of those people would like to come off the road
but because they are being constantly moved on they have no chance of
getting into council housing.
[Top of page]
7. Bargees are a distinct group of
Travellers who live and work on barges. There are now very few Bargees
in Britain as canals are now rarely used to carry freight. However some
New Travellers wishing to get away from constantly being moved on by
local authorities have bought up old narrow boats and travel on the
canals. Recently this has come under fire from the water authority, who
again want to move them on.
[Top of page]
8. The Showmen and Circus
people probably travel the most out of all these groups. The
word 'fair' comes from the Latin word Feria meaning holiday. There were
probably fairs in Britain before the Roman invasion. In the middle ages,
traders from Europe brought goods to trade from all over the world.
Travelling entertainers such as jugglers, musicians and tumblers
performed wherever people gathered to buy their goods. Rides first
appeared in the 1800s. In 1889 the fair ground people formed the
Showmen's Guild. Some of the guild members are of Gypsy decent. They
remain distinct from all other Travellers.
[Top of page]
9. The first Circuses were
travelling shows with musicians, jugglers and acrobats performing in
open spaces and collecting money for acts. Later circuses were held in
enclosed spaces and people paid to watch. The first modern circus was
held in London in 1768, but tents were probably not used until the
1820s. [Top of page]
The plight of Gypsies Travellers today is not easy. In 1968 a law was
passed obliging councils to provide a site for every Traveller. This
promise was never honoured and the sites that were provided were often
old rubbish tips or even under flyovers, places no one else would want
to live. In 1994 the Conservative government abolished the Caravan Sites
Act and took away the obligation for local councils to provide sites. At
least 5000 families were left without any legal home. The Gypsies and
Travellers were told that they should look for their own sites and that
councils would give them planning permission. Again this never happened
and families were forced to either go into housing or apply for planning
permission retrospectively, because Gypsies could rarely get planning
permission granted because of local prejudice. In recent years many of
the old traditional stopping places such as commons, old roads etc. have
been sealed up and this has made it more difficult to live on the road.
Those who have chosen the housing route have often found hostility from
the settled population and many of these folk forced to live in houses
have landed up clinically depressed. Young people living on these
estates have lost their cultural roots and have ended up with a
dysfunctional family life.
It is difficult to count how many Gypsy Travellers there are in the UK
because they move so often. It is thought that at the least there are
120,000 of them. It would not be greatly difficult to solve this
problem, if only the settled population were less prejudiced. It costs
the taxpayer £20 million each year to just evict these people from one
place to another and make their lives a misery. That money could build
many sites and solve the problem. However; there is a lack of political
will to do this, because the settled community are so hostile to the
Travelling community. This hostility comes from fear and ignorance and
until this is addressed, as the Gypsies would say: "We are on a
puckering cosh to nowhere" (a sign post to nowhere).
[Top of page]
Thanks to Revd Roger Redding, Chaplain to Gypsies & Travellers.
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