what further changes were waiting round the corner for them.
SIX
Talent Shows and Wedding Bells
‘No Gypsies’ was a sign the family were starting to see more and more in pub yards, where traditionally travellers would have been allowed to stay. The 1930s was a
time of tension in the country and it was no longer safe to turn up at a place where some people may not know you. The industrial areas of Britain had already been through a recession in the 20s,
but Lincolnshire was agricultural land, growing flowers and vegetables that were delivered all over the country. It wasn’t the first county to be hit by problems, but it couldn’t escape
forever. Things became worse after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 led to the Great Depression. In Britain the effects lasted until at least 1933, with long dole queues in some parts of the country.
Many people were literally begging for food. Suddenly, the Romany way of life began to look more and more appealing, for they were free and independent, and many gorgers around this time decided
that they too would take to the road. Many came down from the Welsh hills, desperate to find a way of surviving. They would go from door to door selling things, begging and pretending to read
hands.
For these gorgers, living on the road was not as easy or romantic as they had expected. Some of these people degenerated into thieves and con artists, owed rent to farmers and spoiled the
countryside, leaving litter and rubbish at the stopping places. Not all of them, but some of them. It only took a few to spoil things for the real Romanies, though, as people were unable, or
unwilling maybe, to distinguish between Romanies and other gypsies, including their own gorger kind. Many people decided that we were all ‘dirty gypsies’.
Some of these new travellers would get drunk and start fights in pubs, so landlords became wary of allowing travellers to pull in to their yards and, of course, the residents of the towns and
villages became more cautious. Farmers no longer welcomed them due to the bad state non-Romanies were now leaving their land in. ‘Hedge crawlers’ and ‘dirty gypos’ were
phrases heard more and more often.
The old romantic idea of the gypsy was dying fast. Scrap metal had become a gypsy trade by this time and their stopping grounds often looked more like salvage yards. This all contributed to the
notion of gypsies being dirty and anti-social, and the resentment people felt very quickly began to turn to hatred.
Naughty and Alice became more and more concerned by this growing hostility. By 1933 they had a teenage family, as well as Shunty, who was five, and they did not want their children, at an
impressionable age, to be unduly affected by it. This, I am sure, was the reason for the change in their way of life. They must have known then that their children would never live in the
traditional Romany way, as their parents and grandparents had done, and that it was time for them to start making changes.
Alice and Naughty now had a wintering place to stay. The vardos towed by horses would draw in for the winter months at Spalding. Although Alice still owned the bakery site at Whaplode, she
allowed other travellers to pull onto it, as it was a little bit out in the sticks and Spalding was rather like their home town to them. Travelling was impossible in the winter months because of
the weather. Money was short and life was hard.
The family stayed in a field behind the eighteenth-century Red Lion pub and hotel in Spalding’s marketplace. Fairground and circus families would also stay for the winter in nearby
Weldon’s car park, and they would all swap stories about some of the less reputable characters taking to the roads. One of Granny’s favourites was the story of a family of confidence
tricksters. This story went round all the travelling communities, but nobody we met had actually encountered them. It goes like this.
The story was about a man called Thomas, his
SIX
Talent Shows and Wedding Bells
‘No Gypsies’ was a sign the family were starting to see more and more in pub yards, where traditionally travellers would have been allowed to stay. The 1930s was a
time of tension in the country and it was no longer safe to turn up at a place where some people may not know you. The industrial areas of Britain had already been through a recession in the 20s,
but Lincolnshire was agricultural land, growing flowers and vegetables that were delivered all over the country. It wasn’t the first county to be hit by problems, but it couldn’t escape
forever. Things became worse after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 led to the Great Depression. In Britain the effects lasted until at least 1933, with long dole queues in some parts of the country.
Many people were literally begging for food. Suddenly, the Romany way of life began to look more and more appealing, for they were free and independent, and many gorgers around this time decided
that they too would take to the road. Many came down from the Welsh hills, desperate to find a way of surviving. They would go from door to door selling things, begging and pretending to read
hands.
For these gorgers, living on the road was not as easy or romantic as they had expected. Some of these people degenerated into thieves and con artists, owed rent to farmers and spoiled the
countryside, leaving litter and rubbish at the stopping places. Not all of them, but some of them. It only took a few to spoil things for the real Romanies, though, as people were unable, or
unwilling maybe, to distinguish between Romanies and other gypsies, including their own gorger kind. Many people decided that we were all ‘dirty gypsies’.
Some of these new travellers would get drunk and start fights in pubs, so landlords became wary of allowing travellers to pull in to their yards and, of course, the residents of the towns and
villages became more cautious. Farmers no longer welcomed them due to the bad state non-Romanies were now leaving their land in. ‘Hedge crawlers’ and ‘dirty gypos’ were
phrases heard more and more often.
The old romantic idea of the gypsy was dying fast. Scrap metal had become a gypsy trade by this time and their stopping grounds often looked more like salvage yards. This all contributed to the
notion of gypsies being dirty and anti-social, and the resentment people felt very quickly began to turn to hatred.
Naughty and Alice became more and more concerned by this growing hostility. By 1933 they had a teenage family, as well as Shunty, who was five, and they did not want their children, at an
impressionable age, to be unduly affected by it. This, I am sure, was the reason for the change in their way of life. They must have known then that their children would never live in the
traditional Romany way, as their parents and grandparents had done, and that it was time for them to start making changes.
Alice and Naughty now had a wintering place to stay. The vardos towed by horses would draw in for the winter months at Spalding. Although Alice still owned the bakery site at Whaplode, she
allowed other travellers to pull onto it, as it was a little bit out in the sticks and Spalding was rather like their home town to them. Travelling was impossible in the winter months because of
the weather. Money was short and life was hard.
The family stayed in a field behind the eighteenth-century Red Lion pub and hotel in Spalding’s marketplace. Fairground and circus families would also stay for the winter in nearby
Weldon’s car park, and they would all swap stories about some of the less reputable characters taking to the roads. One of Granny’s favourites was the story of a family of confidence
tricksters. This story went round all the travelling communities, but nobody we met had actually encountered them. It goes like this.
The story was about a man called Thomas, his
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