GYPSY LIFE AND GYPSY LORE.

 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.

 

                              

 

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.

A History of the Gypsy/Roma.

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 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.  

 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.

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.

The Rom arrived in the United States and Canada from Serbia, Russia and Austria-Hungary beginning in the 1880s, as part of the larger wave of immigration from southern and eastern Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Though a great many and no one is sure how many and how early, as some were sent over to the tobacco plantations very early.

   ( reprinted from The Gypsy Lore Society)

 

 

Every summer many people, including Gypsies, came to the Alton area in Hampshire to pick hops.

These unique hand coloured magic lantern slides c1884 taken by Rev Augustus Wright, give a glimpse of the hop pickers and their surroundings.

  

            

   

            

       

 

         

 

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.

John was called Sir Gustus by the gypsies and many saw him as the king of the gypsies.

 

                           

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.

 

 

My Uncle George Castle and his family n friends in The Story Teller picture.

 

A great many local people today are in some way related to the gypsies who frequented the area during those early years.A great many local gypsies have their roots in the new forest area.Which was the main gypsy area in the uk.

 

 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,White, Gritt, Phillips, etc.A great many irish gypsies had flooded into the area in earlier times with the growth of the railways and roads.

Most were navvies and did labouring on the building of the new railways, roads and viaducts. 

 

There were so many gypsy sites and encampments in the area, some of them there from early 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.Those most of these were flimsy homes cut out of the mud with bender roofing.

 

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 HEATHLANDS OF OLD KINSON

 

Gypsies and heath lands of old Kinson By SUE DAY of romany genes

 

 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), Augustus would enjoy a drink with the Gypsies and was also equally at home around their fires, or on the Heath, where he drew n 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 POETRY

 

DORSET GYPSIES SLIDE  

journey folki

http://www.journeyfolki.org.uk/Welcome/tabid/658/language/en-US/Default.aspx

Bournemouth Area Settlement Patterns and Issues

. Bournemouth Area Settlement Patterns and Issues Bournemouth’s Gypsy Heritage Bournemouth, Dorset and the New Forest have a long history of Gypsy life and settlement.

Basil Burton, President of the National Romany Rights Association and Dorset resident, estimates that up to 20% of Bournemouth’s residents are of Gypsy heritage.

 Basil says he knows of hundreds of Gypsy families in West Howe.

He says there are also dozens of Gypsy families who were re-housed in Northbourne, where there are also two private caravan parks. He said there are some Gypsy families in Southbourne, and lots in Upper and Lower Parkstone. There are also lots around the Bournemouth side of Mannings Heath, and lots in Longham.

He adds that there are lots of Gypsy families all over Bournemouth who have integrated and try and keep their heritage a low profile because of the negative reception they feel they might receive.

West Howe Library recently held a Gypsy exhibition which resulted in a 20% increase in library use with local families bringing in photos and information. The libraries now also allow people to join on the same day without proof of address, allowing mobile families to access services. Bournemouth Ethnic Minority and Traveller Achievement Service (EMTAS) supports some Traveller children in Primary Schools and Oakmead College and provides regular support to Showpeople’s children every year. The service also supports New Travellers in Southbourne and Boscombe. Although schools monitor Travellers by ethnicity, many fewer are recorded than other sources suggest. EMTAS identified West Howe and Kinson as key settlement areas.

Gypsy and Traveller Accommodation Assessment (GTAA) Local Authorities are now required to plan for the accommodation needs of Gypsies and Travellers in line with the process for housing planning. The need for 28 residential plots and 12 transit plots in Bournemouth was submitted to the Secretary of State last year.

The Dorset Gypsy Traveller Accommodation Assessment (2007) interviewed New Travellers, Gypsies, Irish Travellers, Welsh & Scottish Travellers and Showmen and identifies several key issues for all Travellers in Dorset in addition to accommodation need: • Discrimination – 56% experienced discrimination in services or media. e.g. turned away by shops, pubs, gyms, sports facilities, waste disposal sites and midwives and doctors surgeries. • Literacy – 62% had some literacy difficulties and identified an unmet need for training. • Health – 43% respondents (or close family members) were in poor health including asthma, depression, and cardio-vascular problems. • Accommodation type – the need for more sites was the most raised topic. 23% had overcrowding, 1/3 housed expressed dissatisfaction with their accommodation, with some feeling forced into housing against their wishes. 

MANNINGS HEATHLANDS GYPSIES.

Sarah Sherran, Senior Resettlement Officer for Borough of Poole, said: "An established traveller site has operated on land owned or managed by the council in some capacity for more than 20 years and there are records of gypsy communities living on heathland in the area dating back more than 100 years".