GYPSY LIFE AND GYPSY LORE.   
In the following pages I present a glimpse into the life history and folk lore of the gypsy. Origins Of The Gypsy/Roma/Rom History.
Diverse, nomadic…to be Roma, or “gypsy,” is to be a member of an ethnic minority that is difficult to define. Throughout their history, the Roma have been comprised of many different groups of people, absorbing outsiders and other cultures while migrating across continents. This has resulted in creating a patchwork of groups calling themselves Roma, each with differing cultures, customs, and written languages. Despite their differences, the Roma do share certain attributes. Made up of four “tribes,” or nations (natsiya), they are bound together at least through Rom blood and Romani (or Romanes), the root language they share. The Roma also hold common characteristics: they are extremely loyal to family and clan; a strong belief in both Del (God) and Beng (the Devil); belief in predestiny; and Romaniya, loosely translated as certain standards and norms in codes of conduct (which vary in degree from tribe to tribe). At their core, because of their history, they are a people who are adaptable to changing conditions. No one knows where the Roma originated. Because they arrived in Europe from the East, they were thought by early Europeans to be from Turkey or Nubia or any one of vaguely acknowledged non- European places. They were even thought to have been from Egypt, and were called, among other things, Egyptians, or ‘Gyptians, which is how the word “Gypsy” originated. In the second half of the 18th century, European scholars studying the Roma found that the Romani language shared basic words, including numbers, action, family relationships, etc. with the Eastern Indian languages. Indeed, its roots appear to be based on Sanskrit, the historical language of the Hindus of India. While Romani has many dialects, it is a spoken-only language. There are, still, many common words used by each dialect. Thus, based on language alone the Roma are divided into three subgroups: the Domari of the Middle East and Eastern Europe (the Dom), the Lomarvren of Central Europe (the Lom), and the Romani of Western Europe (the Rom). Among themselves the Roma speak their own language; otherwise they speak the language of the country they currently occupy. Today there are approximately more than twelve million Roma living across the world. It’s difficult to put a final tally on their numbers, as many Roma lie about their heritage due to economic, social and political reasons.  Travellers in the UK. 
Within Britain the roads have thronged with travellers of various sorts over the centuries, even before Romanies arrived about 600 years ago. All types and descriptions of Travellers moved around looking for work; selling, buying, spreading the gospels. There has always probably been friction between nomads and the sedentary population - partly from competition for resources and partly from the inherent fear of the free by the settled population. This reached xenophobic heights in the 16th and 17th century when Gypsies were banned on pain of death from Scotland and several were hung just for being Gypsies. In 1530 an Act concerning Egyptians required them to leave the country on pain of imprisonment or forfeiture of goods. This was followed by various other Acts relating to punishment of vagabonds "calling themselves Egyptians, both genuine and counterfeit, all to be treated as criminals and suffer death and loss of land, goods, without benefit of clergy."   Since then although persecution has continued Gypsies and Travellers have become an established, if not accepted feature of our country. In addition to the Romanies who arrived during the time of Henry VIII the population of Travellers has been swelled by Irish people working on the canals and railways, fleeing from the effects of the mid-nineteenth century famine and after the last world war in response to difficult economic conditions in Ireland. House dwellers have constantly trickled on to the road through force of circumstance or choice - for example it is known that some of the people forced to flee the London bombing and live in the countryside in vehicles during the last war continued to live in vehicles and took to the road never to return to settled accommodating.    Traditionally Travellers integrated with the local rural economy via seasonal agricultural labour and also by supplying other needs of the rural population. With increasing mechanisation the need for seasonal labour slackened during the 1950’s and many travellers forsook the rural for the urban and semi-urban environment. Increasingly employment opportunities centred around scrap dealing, car dealing and tarmac laying. Current accommodation sites for Travellers are diverse and some of them represent the worst examples of ‘housing’ to be seen in Britain. Although some Travellers live on well maintained, well run council sites there are many examples which are no more than ghettoes. These sites are usually fenced off from the rest of the population in places, usually next to the railway tracks where no one else would want to live and where they cannot be seen. Sites are often dangerously close to industrial premises and some have high tension power cables a few feet from the tops of the caravans which most traditional Travellers live in. However, at least these sites have access to some services - water and toilets are readily available, as is physical access to local schools. On unauthorised sites which can be in such diverse urban locations as yards of disused factories, underneath urban motorways (which have all the attendant health hazards from traffic fumes) access to normal facilities can be nonexistent. Water may have to be obtained from garages or churches, toilets in garages or public toilets used. For a bath many traditional Travellers used to resort to public baths but with their demise access to such facilities have become nonexistent. Since unauthorised sites can change frequently due to evictions, access to health, education and social services can be difficult or impossible for Travellers. Taken from an article by Steve Staines of FFT: "Travellers and the Built Environment".
Gypsy/Rom History In the US.
However the big exodus for our English gypsies was about 1850. Primary immigration ended, for the most part, in 1914, with the beginning of the First World War and subsequent tightening of immigration restrictions. Many in this group specialized in coppersmith work, mainly the repair and refining of industrial equipment used in bakeries, laundries, confectioneries and other businesses. The Rom, too, developed the fortune-telling business in urban areas. Virtually all the anthropological and sociological work on North American Gypsies concerns the Rom, an emphasis which has led a British observer to label the North American academic tradition "Kalderashocentric," Kalderash being one of the Rom subgroups. The first work covered in this bibliography to concern the Rom appeared in 1903. Material appeared sporadically after that, and steadily from 1928 onward. This group is also referred to in the literature as Nomads, Coppersmiths, Nomad Coppersmiths, Vlach (or Vlax) Gypsies, or by reference to a country from which they immigrated to North America, as Brazilian Gypsies, Bulgarian Gypsies, and so forth. The individual subgroup terms Kalderash and Machwaya are also used. While in the Kalderash dialect of the Romani language, Rom is both singular and plural, the Machwaya dialect has plural Roma, which is also found in the literature. The inflected language of the Rom belongs to the "Vlach" branch of the Romani language family. Native speakers refer to "speaking Romanes" (adverb) "in the Gypsy fashion." A group of Rom who began immigrating to the United States and Canada from eastern Europe in the 1970s is represented primarily in the police literature, where they are referred to as Yugoslavian Gypsies. ( reprinted from The Gypsy Lore Society) 
PLAYING WITH THE GYPSIES / A CHILD IN DORSET. 
From an early age I had the good fortune to freely mix with numerous gypsy families who frequented the heaths and common lands close to my childhood home. I was raised on a small holding farm the Mannings on the Manning’s heath within the area known then as Canford and now known as Tower Park. In those days of the post war 1945 -1960 a great many gypsy families roamed the area with their Vardos wagons, horses and dog packs. Gypsy sites were scattered through the terrain from Newtown to canford magna. I was told by my close relatives not to go near the gypsies, but like most kids of my generation I was adventurous and inquisitive. In those days children could walk miles in safety with little traffic. As a child I would spend hours accompanied by my Airedale dogs visiting the gypsy encampments of Canford Heath, old Wareham road and Alderney. The artist Augustus John himself a lover of gypsy life and culture lived close by in his studio at Manor Avenue at Alderney and would daily sketch n paint the gypsies and also our family home Heather View.    During these times the gypsy families were gradually encouraged to settle down in the local community, most of their children attended the local schools at branksome heath and rossmore.Thus many of my school mates came from gypsy stock.The local public houses were another attraction to gypsy families and of these there were very many in the area. Including the snake and pickaxe at newtown which eventually became renamed the albion.The smugglers arms in west howe, the bear cross and the dolphin at kinson, which is now renamed Gullivers. Whilst new housing estates were built at Rossmore/Trinadad, Alderney and Kinson/West Howe to accommodate the growth in local gypsy population. A great many local people today are in some way related to the gypsies who frequented the area during those early years. There are still folk lore stories in the area of when hundreds of barefoot gypsy children turned up at Kinson village school on the first day of the new term. There were stories of bare knuckle fighters who attracted hordes of folks to their illegal gatherings and contests at Bear Cross. Some of these gypsy camps stretched the whole length of the old Wareham road and caused quite a storm and local reactions. Many of the gypsy families worked in the local factories in wallisdown at Max Factors and in Newtown at Chalwin Lamps, Ryvita and Bluebird Caravans. Some had originally worked in the many brickyards and clay pits which had been around for many years.Others worked casually at the large Poole fairgrounds etc. Whilst many would take sprigs of heather, create artificial paper crape flowers and wreaths and sell them privately or outside of Beales store in Bournemouth square and Woolworth’s stores in Poole high street. Many gypsies had ties with the sporting world and were to become well known national or world boxing champions, or speedway riders at Poole Pirates. Familiar family names like Sherwood,Trent,White, Saunders, Light, King, Compton, Stanley, Gillingham, Dibben, Hooper, Cruthcer, Mills, Arnold etc. There were so many gypsy sites and encampments in the area some of them there from pre war days.Some of them like at heavenly bottom contained caravans that were spotlessly clean with polished brass lamps glass and trinklets inside. Often the women were to be seen sitting on the van steps smoking their clay pipes.One of the very first gypsies to move from heavenly bottom to move into a bungalow was Samson Stanley. Sammy was a well liked gypsy with a pleasant cheerful manner, he was at one time a rag n bone man and used to give school children rides on his grey mare and cart.There were many other sites like the one at the rear of the Saunders Home of Rest on the ringwood road, the one at Cuckoo Bottom and huts at Bourne Bottom, pembroke road and wolseley road. The heath lands then considered by many as wastelands were gradually built on and the gypsies rehoused, or moved on. In time official sites for gypsies were set up locally.The main one being based next to our farm at Mannings Heath Road,which unfortunately attracted many of the traveller and few true romany and thus the criminal fraternity.Thus often giving the gypsy a bad name locally.In time the gypsy fraternity adapted well to their new brick built homes though still retaining the delightfull artistry of interior furnishings and their cultures and identity.
Gypsies and heath lands of old Kinson By SUE DAY of www.romanygenes. I can only guess why so many of the old Gypsies decided to stay on the heaths that once covered a vast area from Parkstone (which then came under the parish of Kinson and Canford), all the way down from Constitution Hill to Bourne Bottom and Heavenly Bottom. Just across the heath, of course, was one of the best well-known camps called New England, where even today many of the descendants of the Romanies who once lived there, have settled in houses in the nearby housing estates. Many, of course, married local village folk and so the communities have combined to form what I think, is quite a unique community. Alderney, which is half-way between Parkstone and Kinson, came into its own when the famous artist Augustus John made Alderney Manor his home from 1911 to 1927, although he first visited Dorset in 1899.
Alderney Manor was owned by Lady Wimborne, Winston Churchill’s aunt, who was very liberal in her views and was pleased to have an artist as a tenant. The grounds, which contained sixty acres of heath land and had a large lake where they could bathe naked, as well as a walled private garden, was ideal for Augustus’s entourage. The Manor itself, and the guest house, were separated by an abundance of trees, shrubs and rhododendron bushes, amongst which stood several brightly painted Vardos’ (caravans) and tents. As he had a love of Romany life and Romany people, Augustus at once mingled and became friends with local Gypsy families from a camp at Hooper’s gravel pit, which was then situated by what is now the Wallisdown roundabout. Augustus could often be seen at the local pub ‘The Shoulder of Mutton (which is still there today), enjoying a drink with the Gypsies and was also equally at home around their fires or on the Heath where he painted some of them. It would be nice to know exactly who the local Gypsy lasses were that he painted and from his reputation as a womaniser, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was more than just a friend to some of them! Just how early the Gypsies were travelling back and forth from the New Forest to Kinson and other Dorset villages is hard to tell, but my earliest proven record is of a Peter Stanley b.1771 who married Mary Drake in Church Knowle Dorset in 1792. Many Stanley’s’ are still living locally in and around Kinson as well as Hampshire. Other families were also stopping on the heaths and are still well represented in Dorset and Hampshire. Some of them include families such as:-Cooper/Barnes/Doe/Hughes/James/Johnson/KeatsKeets/Lamb/Light/Pidgeley/Pateman/Bowers/ and Sheens to name a few. Matthews/Mitchell/Sheen/Turner/Wells and White. There are, of course, more. Some were originally from Kent, Surrey and Sussex, but I have even found some who travelled from as far as Wales and Scotland. So it is important to check all counties, as even when they were in vardos they sometimes seemed to travel further afield than we do today by car! Many Travellers who made Kinson their home, still returned every year to Alton, Medstead,and Binstead for the hopping and strawberry picking season, and went even further afield for pea-picking. Another stopping-place was Horton Heath, near Cranborne and, of course, West Moors Common, which then came under the Parish of Hampreston.One of my relatives and her family were all born there and later their parents used a disused railway carriage for their home – and very cosy it was too! I can remember the old gas light still being used in the early 1960s! This was also home for several of the local families of Cooper, Barnes, Keat-Keet, Hughes and Saxby, amongst others. Many of those families were in the New Forest or around Fordingbridge in earlier times, where they were often photographed and painted, and are probably unaware that their old folki have been captured and preserved in history. Sven Berlin painted Henry Cooper who he described as “Old Henry or Tuvvy and his raven-voiced wife Amy”. Dominic Reeve one of my favourite modern day authors’s on Gypsy life and the antics they got up to while travelling in a wagon with local Romanies on the road, wrote about the Gypsies he stayed with at the Higher Camp, which was just past the Mountbatten Arms, along the Ringwood road. Some of these Romanies were later housed in nearby Council estates and there descendants still live there today, not far from here is the Manning’s Heath Council run Gypsy site which at the present time is closed but I have heard that it may soon be reopened . Dominic Reeve is still active and his new book Beneath the blue sky is due to be released any moment (May 2007) I am looking forward to it and will be interested to see just how much has changed since the author last roamed the highways and lanes. Dominic and his wife Beshlie who is an artist and author herself , and illustrated all of Dominic’s book's are still both writing and continuing their roaming life.  MY GYPSY POEMS. Here I present just a few of my own composed Gypsy poems, which I hope you will enjoy reading.  They hid within the shadows where the sun had gone to rest Their seasons were enchanted and their clothes all Sunday best Their heartaches were all numbered and their dreams were satisfied at rest They hid their dreams in baskets far from others wandering eyes The tree were high and covered in fir cones and true grit skies Their campfires were a welcoming with their ashes warm and lit their shawls were woolly comfort and their smiles were rich in Grace they wore the look of freedom and had that grin upon their face their vardos were rich in crafted skill and flowing art without whilst the wooden steps that led inside were hard and trimmed with grout the rooms were cosy and set in comfort zone with lamps of brass and wicks so trim I can still hear their plaintiff gypsy reels within the songs they sang were handed down like the clothes their children wore They’d travelled through the dirt and dusty land through many many wars Their refugee foundations were set in history Like the wishes and the spinning wheels and their tarot revelry the sands of time enriched their lives like the spirit intuitively they set their store upon goodwill and they set their store for thee their ponies all were bridled and their dog packs all ran free they lived upon the heathered heath just a stone throw from me.
 I went to visit www Romany Genes and chanced upon the gypsy queens with vardos there all on display and heathers bound for chavvys play the gypsy king was true to form with tales of old and wheels all worn the road was hard when folks were true to gypsy lore and common dues the customs then were fit for a king with common rights and everything the fairground charms with darts and lace with fortunes told to bright ones face the walks to market village greens the wayward men and words obscene the dancing gals with tops that spun castanets and lewdly folki song the ponies free to graze the moors with tattooed bridles and woolly shawls the yarns that Horace Cooper told folks said he had a heart of gold they burnt their homes as they died and jumped the brooms each happy bride the heaths were rich in rabbits stews with ferreting for each boy blue Romany Genes be rich in law with roads a winding and Vardos talln old Lamps that shone with brass so clean like Gypsy's eyes at Halloween.  Ray Wills. SLEEPY DOGS RIDGE. 
On sleeping dogs ridge the antelopes play you can find peace and solitude there anytime of the day where children are blessed as they run in the sun where the coyote sings and the lord bangs the drum a candle it flickers in the lodge there each night lit for the peacekeepers and the dreams in their sights the wind it is rare and the stars shine each night under the heavens where the good lord puts right the songbirds they sing and the lambs run each day there by the brook where the children all play where the fishes they swim and the bull frogs all hops where there's no need for credit each time that you shop the pathways that lead their are steep and so wide though there's nettles and brambles there on each side the lizards they slither and the grasshoppers sing then the flowers bloom to greet you each early spring I'm off with my buckboard and my ponies all set I'm bound for that ridge where the sun never sets where music plays daily on gods earthly throne there's a candle to greet you where gypsies call home. Ray Wills GYPSY GIRL. 
You'll see them there on Saturday's outside the towns great store baskets full of daffodil's and roses by the score their braided hair and darker looks with dresses oh so gay from heather sweet terrain they came to while the hours away their dialect course with melody though their words they were plain they spoke the true Romany like children once again they promised wealth good health and more to people passing by with smiles to warrant fortunes gain and wisdom in their eyes their homes of vardos on the heath and songs of yesterdays with accordions playing songs of love and rabbits in the hay with ponies small and dog packs calls heathers sweetly laid amongst the hills where myxomatosis killed the food of yesterday. Ray Wills CHAVVY DAYS.  Oh the chavvy days on Canfords heaths where us zunner kids did cut out teeth whilst wagons rolled and vardos roamed amidst heathered bracken and fern rich home Oh the nights were cold upon the down of wallisdown and kinson town where Whites and Turners came to call Coopers Kings and chavvys all the pylons stretched for many a mile from cuckoo bottom to home of lady Guests attire where rabbits frequented the fern rich downs whilst fox did hide high above the crown Augustus john did sketch the zunners sweet whilst lady Mary clapcott stretched with beauty down to her naked feet newtown zunners under wimborne bridge collected falling coins from kings rich carriages the hills of canford magna rich in rhoedenrun ditch the flowers of the lily spread where heathers sweet aroma rich the cans and tins of yesterday amidst the smoke of clay pipe days where chavvys sported catapult and net for rabbits rich in lorded debts the run of hills and trees so rich with blossom scents and caravans unhitched the songs of piano accordian darky echoed free from wallisdown to alderney whilst zunners ran and chavvys played upon the heaths just yesterdays. Ray Wills country life and gypsy lore.  In country life and gypsy lore when skies were blue and trees were tall when farmers locked their pens at night with young men's bodies full of sprite on heather-ed down and village green where artists bold would paint the scene where baccy pipes and fire lights glow would lighten our world in times of snow when country lass and laddies danced upon the green to true romance where bells did ring each Sunday morn where birds did sing and love was born where orchards branches hung with fruit where daisy chains and lilies roots where tractors rolled across the downs where vardos spread their ways around the gypsy queen smoked her clay pipe for free whilst one could hear the buzz of bees with scent of heather gorse and fern where sheep did wean their lambs just born the old town clock struck each hour within streets of ancient histories towers whilst school kids ran to greet each day whether back at school or holiday in country life and gypsy lore the artist poet went to war with easel's brush oil and plan whilst the poet etched the world of man when life was rich in time and space where each young man did know his place where rivers flowed through country scene from springtime joys to Halloween. Ray Wills TRAVELLIN MAN.  I traveled those fairgrounds and all those great shows to find me some gypsies that i ne'er did know i searched for those kings with dark skin and more with words that twer couse and hides saddle sore i met with some tinkers and hawkers by trade i met up with a teller of fortune and slaves i mixed with the bests the Shaw's and the pride of England's travelings circus with dark roving eyes i glimpsed their fair world of satin and lace with drapes that did flow n smiles pon their face their ponies were wild and the dogs they did bark they lit up their candles and lamps in the dark their tales they were long and they gave me a thrill their stories were old and they spun that great wheel their vardos were tall ans their stew it was rich they traveled this land through heathers and ditch i was born with the look of a traveling man they called me a gypsy wherever i am my folks they were destined to warrant a wish as they stumbled through life with the sign of the fish the wheels they did roll and the pen it was wet with fables and songs that flowed from their nets their hair it was dark and their skin it was tan their eyes looked you over and into the man i never found kings or queens of my clan i guess il remain just a traveling man . Ray Wills ROMANY ROOTS.  With eyes that light up when i hear the wheels spin when the fairgrounds organs playing when the gypsy gal sings He had traveled through those Romany roots where cultures and heartaches were seldom foolproof he'd walked o'er the footpaths where thorns tagged your toes where rabbits and foxgloves bridled your clothes he'd stumbled on wise folk who'd been through the wars when peace was a haven and Truth was ones word his clothes they were tattered and his language was rich he'd laid in the gutters the sideways and ditch the lore of his nation was caste to the winds where freedom was gifted with Romany rings where the sun hit you blindly each morning at dawn where the heavens were open and your ways were forlorn the paths that had ventured o'er valley and dale with scent of the flower and the rich golden smells where your fortune was told through the wink of an eye where fairgrounds were rolling and spirits were high like days long ago when the soil was rich they traveled their wagons through mud and low ditch where heather and fern stretched for many a mile where the Romany roots were a haven a while where the man was renowned for the good in his smile. Ray Wills  Scottish Travelllered http://www.scottishtravellered.net/travellers.html MY GYPSY POETRY click on pic VIDEOS. Gypsy horses HOME. Click on pic.  | 
http://www.gypsymagick.com/gmland/gmlpoems.html
http://www.bournemouth.gov.uk/Library/PDF/Residents/Housing/... 
