Here are some of the stories recorded by young people from the traveller group
One night last week my friend Eileen Smith was abed and all her family heard banging. Someone was coming around, trying to open the doors. And the mum go t up to make the baby – Eileen’s brother – a bottle of milk and she saw a man in a white jumper watching; well, looking at the oldest girl, Torah and there was another little girl in there as well. He was trying to get in. And then she went back to bed thinking that it was a dream. And it happened to them the same night it was someone some people trying to open the door and when she got up they were trying to get in.
Auntie Gloria
My Auntie Gloria was awarded an MBE from the Queen. It was in the traveller’s time for helping the travellers. Here are just a few of the people she has helped.
‘Powerful inspirationl women have often emerged from the Gypsy and Traveller community at key moments. Gloria buckley MBE is just such a figure.
‘Meetings with her are variously described as ‘an experience’ and ‘unique’. Speaking to her for even a few minutes leaves you thinking she ought to be everywhere at once, spreading the word about her ‘breed’ as she calls them. It could save so much community angst.’
This is a woman who wants to help people. She could just do nothing but she chose not to.
Chantelle
Well, my uncle John and my granddad – my uncle John was about 7 years old – my granddad used to make my uncle John and my mum fight. But every so often they used to fight and my uncle John just broke my mum’s nose. So one night my granddad made them fight – my uncle John and mum – my uncle John missed my mum and broke the wall. He broke his hand. He punched the wall, but on the big trailer and it he broke a hole through it and my granddad striked my uncle John, and when my granddad tells this story – he’s a bit of a character – and my granddad still has the trailer. And every time after it when you go in the trailer, you can see the wall go back in – because he covered it over with some – I don’t know, plastic – and every so often you see the plastic just disappear and you see the hole. This was years ago. They really did it because my granddad used to pay ‘em. And if they broke each other or cut each other, he’d pay them extra, twenty quid. Every so often my Uncle John put a ring on. And every so often my uncle John used to hit my mum so hard on the arm, it would dig in and it left a mark. It would scar.
My granddad – he did it to make my Uncle John hard. My granddad used to be a bare-knuckles fighter. My grandad’s got medals. He’s fought all the way round the world. He’s met Muhammad Ali. He’s broken his knuckles 17 times. He’s proper good.
Nathan
The Hanging Tree
My story’s called the Hanging Tree. One day my granddad and my uncle, they were pulling this trailer under this tree and the farmer came out and said ‘You can’t call here under this tree. I’m telling you you can’t.” But they didn’t listen to the farmer because they called him ‘divvy’. And they slept under the tree and they heard footsteps on the roof and they went outside but no-one was there. So they moved away and in the morning they came back to the farmer’s wife and asked ‘why did the farmer say do not sleep there?’ she said ‘my brother-in-law hanged himself from there.’
Danny’s horses
I’ve got three horses. One of them’s a mare and she’s pregnant. I’m going to give the foal to the person that sold us the horse. He sold it to us cheap, so we’re going to give him the foal. The one I like best is the one that’s broken. I’ve got a stallion and two mares. I keep them down the farm. I ride the broken one. The stallion’s broken in, but still a bit mental. We’re going to get him gelded. But the mare’s, they’re to breed with. They’re my family’s horses. We share them.
Danny
Laura told this story around the photo of her family in front of their wagon in the 1950s.
One day a little boy called Ben who was sitting in a wagon, playing with his dog, Jam. Then all of a sudden there was a big crash. His dad Sam, who was in the other wagon, had fallen over and hurt his back, because the wheel fell off the wagon. Feather the horse had heard his cry for help. He went and told Celia, who was Sam’s wife, that Sam was hurt. He used a special symbol, that only their family knew. He was a clever horse. Then Celia went into the wagon and she picked up Sam and took him outside and she forgot all about Ben, that he was in the other wagon, and Feather noticed, so he went to see Ben, and he told Ben, and he laid down and Ben got on his back, because Ben couldn’t reach to get onto his back if he was standing up, and then they all went to the hospital together.
Bethany’s travels
It was really boring when we were in the car for 12 hours driving to Scotland on holiday. We arrived at 8 o clock in the morning. The gates to the campsite were closed. The gates opened and we set up our tent about 10 o’clock. And then because we set out and we didn’t have a lot of food, we went to the shops. We bought a lot of stuff because we didn’t have a lot, we bought gloves and hats and everything. And then the next day my sister, my step-sister Sharice, she fell into the stream. I was laughing. I don’t know why, I was right next to her, but I didn’t hear the splash. So then my sister came over – she walked across – she was standing up, trying to help her out, and she fell backwards.
We went home on Sunday because the clutch broke on our car and we didn’t have a lot of practical there.
We thought it was going to be a really boring holiday, but it was actually quite funny.
Bethany
