Gypsies

The seasonal nature of agricultural work in past times meant that itinerant workers were essential to bring in the crops and although the wives and children of farm workers were always a ready source of labour, gypsies were invariably on hand to provide help when needed.

They have a rich history of harvest work, notably hop picking in Kent, collecting apples in Worcestershire, soft fruit in Cambridgeshire, lifting sugar beet in Norfolk and potatoes in Lincolnshire, as well as bringing in the corn harvest around the country. Their asset to such work was mobility as travelling families moved with the seasons and often turned up on the same farms when work was available by habit rather than command.

Gypsies are a wandering race, probably of Indian origin, and their language, Romany, is a corrupted dialect of Hindi. On their arrival in Britain, probably in the late 15th century, they were wrongly thought to have come from Egypt, hence the name.

It was as metal workers that most gypsies made a living and their activities broadened to include basket and peg making, horse dealing, selling flowers and herbs and telling fortunes, the latter occupation with some financial success because a folklore soon became established that unless you crossed a gypsy's palm with silver when she offered to tell your fortune, bad luck would come your way. They were also entertainers and considered to be splendid fiddlers and pipers while the traditional decorated gypsy caravans or Romany carts, as they are also known, can still be seen in parts of England, especially during the hop and fruit picking seasons. But the decline of the county fairs at which gipsies used to trade has led to many abandoning their nomadic way of life and those that remain are regarded with suspicion in many areas.

Their traditional craft of metal working which has a long and honourable history has evolved into the recycling of scrap metal and abandoned encampments littered with car parts and other such debris have not endeared them to nearby communities. Local authorities now have a duty to consider their needs for camp sites and some provide them with electricity and running water but these facilities have not always been treated with respect and many have been badly vandalised. There have also been complaints in some parts of the country about their purchase of land and subsequent development for living purposes without the required planning permission but councils are reluctant to proceed against them for fear of infringing race relations legislation.

There is currently a climate of intolerance towards travelling families by the public at large and it remains to be seen whether the gypsy community will use this to its advantage or continue to defy convention and the law in pursuit of a way of life that is fast becoming outdated.

The last known encampment of gypsies in the Bourne area was in the winter of 1998 when a small community of Romany travellers arrived and parked their colourful carts on the wide grass verges of the access road leading to Cawthorpe village, a mile north of Bourne. There were also several vans and many ponies, particularly the piebald which they favour, and the only signs of life were the occasional wisps of smoke which wafted skywards from their camp fires. They appeared to be totally self-contained and not wishing to bother anyone, or be bothered, because my attempts to photograph them were not welcome.

The verges at Cawthorpe had been a regular stop for several years but villagers disliked their presence and lodged a protest with Lincolnshire County Council and officials subsequently ordered the landscaping of both sides of the road with the planting of a variety of saplings that have now become young trees, making the verges totally inaccessible for camping. The gypsies have not been back since.

In July 2007, proposals by South Kesteven District Council to establish a permanent gypsy site in the area were revealed after several owners had been informed that their land was under consideration as a suitable place for this development. No official statement was issued by the council but within days a groundswell of opinion against the idea became apparent with protest meetings attracting unprecedented large crowds at Market Deeping and at Langtoft while written protests filled the columns of the local newspapers and the discussion forum on the Bourne Internet web site.

Councillor John Smith (Bourne West), also a cabinet member with responsibility for a healthy environment, was anxious to allay public fears that the town was about to be invaded by hordes of itinerant travellers with a bad reputation. “I absolutely deplore prejudice of any sort”, he said, “and I hope that anti-gypsy sentiment will not be aroused. People think there will be four sites in Bourne but we are looking for one, possibly two, in the whole council district. The likelihood of it happening here is not that great and it is quite probable that it will not be. People ought to wait until they have the full information before they voice their concerns.”

But the protest did not go away and SKDC announced that their public consultation on the issue was to end in September although there were no plans to call a meeting in Bourne at which the public could ask questions. Meanwhile, the town's M P, Quentin Davies, urged the district council to think again. "If this requirement is being imposed by statute, the district council should use every legal argument to challenge and resist it", he said. "In any event, such an encampment should certainly not be sited in Bourne. It would be much more suitable in Peterborough, or in the parts of South Kesteven nearest to Peterborough where there are much more substantial employment opportunities.

"The same rules should apply to travellers on benefit as to everyone else. If travellers are able bodied they should be required to seek work. If they are deliberately sited away from significant job opportunities they and their families will be condemned to permanent welfare dependency. That cannot be in their interests or in my view, in those of the rest of the community. Nor should the normal planning rules be flouted in the case of travellers. Consent should not be given to concrete over green fields. Nor should a travellers’ site be located next to a residential area. The only thing that should be built next to existing houses, if anything, is more homes. I trust that after careful reflection and consultation with the people of Bourne, this proposal will be withdrawn."

REVISED JULY 2007