Most Welsh Kale who migrated to the US have become absorbed into the Romanichal communities of the US, with large portions of American Romanichal Travellers claiming Welsh Kale heritage.
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Indeed, many Romanichal Travellers from the South of England or the Midlands region have a slightly West Country sounding accent; in fact it is a Southern Romanichal Traveller accent.
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Familiar term of address. Probably from the Romanichal moosh, a man.
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This page cites Romanichal-related books, films, documentaries, and other forms of media documentation and/or depiction.
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Romanichal-style trotting cart The Romanichal had arrived in the British Isles by 1500 AD,Ward-Jackson p. 22 but they did not begin to live in vardos until around 1850. Prior to that, they traveled in tilted carts or afoot and slept either under or in these carts or in small tents.Ward-Jackson p.
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Interior of a Reading vardo, as used by the British Romani (Romanichal), donated to a museum by a family from Rhu. A vardo (also wag(g)on, living wagon, van, and caravan) is a traditional horse-drawn wagon used by British Romanichal Travellers as their home.Ward-Jackson Possessing a chimney, it is commonly thought of as being highly decorated, intricately carved, brightly painted, and even gilded. The Romanichal Traveller tradition of the vardo is seen as a high cultural point of both artistic design and a masterpiece of woodcrafters art.
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Most were deportees from Britain to Norway, but small numbers came via Denmark. Norwegian and Swedish Romani identify as Romanisæl, this word has origins in the Angloromani word Romanichal, Romanichal is the word English Romani and Scottish Border Romani and Southern Welsh Romani use to identify themselves with. A related group are the Finnish Kale, descendants of early Scandinavian Romanies who were deported in the 17th century from Sweden proper to Finland. The Finnish Kale, however, maintain that their ancestors had originally come from Scotland, They and other Scandinavian Romanisæl Travellers are related to present-day Romanichal Travellers of England and Scotland.
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Romanichal Travellers ( ),Oxford English Dictionary (2003) (more commonly known as English Gypsies or English Travellers) are a Romani sub-group in the United Kingdom and other parts of the English-speaking world. Romanichal Travellers are thought to have arrived in the Kingdom of England in the 16th century. They are very closely related to the Welsh Kale, Scottish Lowland Travellers, Norwegian & Swedish Romanisæl Travellers and Finnish Kale.
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It also contains a certain number of introduced lexical items from Romani such as the term gadje "non- Traveller" or "kushti" (from the Romanichal word for "good").
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Of the 13,386 caravans, 1,300 were parked on unauthorised sites (that is, on land where Romani were not given permission to park). Over 90% of Britain's travelling Romanichals live on authorised sites where they pay full rates (council tax). On most Romanichal Traveller sites there are usually no toilets or showers inside caravans because in Romanichal culture this is considered unclean, or 'mochadi'. Most sites have separate utility blocks with toilets, sinks and electric showers.
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CED 1991, p. 1023. ; mucker : Mate, pal. Romanichal ; muck in : Share a duty or workload. ; mufti : Civilian dress worn by someone who normally wears a military uniform.CED 1991, p. 1024.
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The Gypsies, Angus M. Fraser, Blackwell Publishing, 1995. The Romani vardo evolved into some of the most advanced forms of travelling wagon, and are prized for their practicality as well as aesthetic design and beauty. There is no more iconic or recognizable Romani symbol than a highly decorated Romanichal vardo, and the time of its use is often affectionately called "the wagon time" by Romanichal travellers. The vardos were typically commissioned by families or by a newlywed couple from specialist coach builders.
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The Kale speak Welsh Romani. Originally the variants of Welsh Romani and the Angloromani of the Romanichal constituted a common "British Romani" language.Sampson. J. (1926) The Dialect of the Gypsies of Wales. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
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Welsh Kalá is closely related to Angloromani (Spoken by Romanichal in England), Scandoromani (Spoken by Romanisæl in Norway & Sweden), Scottish Cant (Spoken by Scottish Lowland Romani in Lowland Scotland) and Finnish Kalo (Spoken by Finnish Kale in Finland). Welsh Kale, English Romanichal, Norwegian & Swedish Romanisæl, Finnish Kale and Scottish Lowland Romani are closely related groups and are descended from the wave of Romani immigrants who came to England in the 16th century.Bakker (1997) Review of McGowan, The Winchester Confessions. Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society.
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The Kale (also Kalá, Valshanange; ) are a group of Romani people in Wales. Many claim to be descendants of Abram Wood, who was the first Rom to reside permanently and exclusively in Wales in the early 18th century, though Romanichal Travellers have appeared in Wales since the 16th century. Welsh Kale are almost exclusively found in Northwest Wales, specifically the Welsh- speaking areas. Romanichal Travellers inhabit South Wales (In and around Cardiff, Swansea and Newport) and North East Wales (In an around Wrexham as well as in parts of Wales close to Liverpool and Chester).
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Due to travelling about, the average British Showman has a mix of English, Scottish, Welsh and/or Irish heritage. Lots have partial Romani (mainly Romanichal) and partial Irish Traveller heritage too, but despite this, Showmen developed as a group separately to both Irish Travellers and Romanichal Travellers, and their roots, cultures, traditions and identities are separate and distinct. In 1917, the Showmen's Guild of Great Britain, as it became known, was recognised as the trade association for the travelling funfair business. It acquired the right to represent the business at local and national levels.
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Historic image of a traveller family, vardo, and horse The Gypsy Horse was bred by the Romanichal Travellers of Great Britain to pull the Vardoes in which they lived and travelled. Romanichal Travellers had arrived in the British Isles by 1500 AD, but they did not begin to live in vardoes until around 1850. Prior to that, they travelled in tilted carts or afoot and slept either under or in these carts or in small tents. The peak usage of the Gypsy caravan occurred in the latter part of the 19th century and the first two decades of the 20th.
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Originally from Cheshunt, Saunders grew up in a Romanichal travelling community near Hatfield, Hertfordshire. His great-grandfather, Absolom Beeney, was one of the community's most famous bare-knuckle boxers.Addley, Esther (4 August 2008). "Going for gold: young Gypsy keeps up a family tradition".
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Marsh, Adrian & Strand, Elin (red.) (2006). Gypsies and the problem of identities: contextual, constructed and contested. Istanbul: Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul (Svenska forskningsinstitutet i Istanbul), p. 207 There is also a similar small community with some colonial Romanichal ancestors in Malta.
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Best was born in a caravan at the side of a road in Leicester to a poor Romanichal Gypsy family. He left school at the age of 12 and started his first business at 14 years old, buying and selling cars and vans.
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Gypsy Sisters was an American reality television series on TLC. The series debuted on February 10, 2013. It follows the daily life of Romanichal women located in Martinsburg, West Virginia. The series serves as a spin-off to its sister show My Big Fat American Gypsy Wedding.
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The ethnic origins of Scottish Lowland Travellers are not clear, but can be categorised into two main theories: 1.) They are Romani in origin and have a common ancestry with the English Romanichal, and their language and culture simply diverged from the language and culture of the Romanichal like what happened with the Welsh Kale. 2.) They are a fusion or mix of Romani and an indigenous Lowland Scottish Traveller group, and their roots are just as Romani as they are Scottish. Regardless of both theories, Lowland Gypsies are still viewed as a Romani group, with Romani culture clearly being a massive part of Scottish Lowland Gypsy culture. Lowland Scottish Romani Travellers share many cultural features with other British Romani Travellers (English Romanichal Travellers and Welsh Kale Travellers) such as a belief in the importance of family and family descent, a strong valuing and involvement with extended family and family events, a preference for self-employment, purity taboos (among the Romani people the purity taboos are part of the Romanipen) and a strong commitment to an itinerant lifestyle.
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Racism against Romanichal and other travelling peoples is still endemic within Britain. In 2008 the Romani experienced a higher degree of racism than any other group in the UK, including asylum-seekers, and a Mori poll indicated that a third of UK residents admitted to being prejudiced against Romani.
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In Wales, Romani couples would get married by eloping, when they would "jump the broom," or jump over a branch of flowering common broom or a besom made of broom. Welsh Kale and English Romanichals and Romanichal populations in Scotland practiced the ritual into the 1900s. According to Alan Dundes (1996), the custom originated among Romani people in Wales (Welsh Kale) and England (Romanichal).Dundes, Alan. "'Jumping the Broom': On the Origin and Meaning of an African American Wedding Custom", The Journal of American Folklore, 1996, p.327. C.W. Sullivan III (1997) in a reply to Dundes argued that the custom originated among the Welsh people themselves, known as priodas coes ysgub ("besom wedding"),Gwynn, Gwenith (W.
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The exact number of British Romani deported to Australia is unknown. It has been suggested that three Romanichal were present on the First Fleet, one of whom was thought to be James Squire who founded Australia's first commercial brewery in 1798, and whose grandson James Farnell became the first native-born Premier of New South Wales in 1877. The total Romani population seems to be an extremely low number when we consider that British Romani people made up just 0.01% of the original 162,000 convict population. However, it has been suggested that Romanichal were one of the main target groups and were discriminated against due to the transportation laws of England in the mid-18th century.
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Xavier Petulengro (25 December 1859 - 16 June 1957), more often known as Gipsy Petulengro, was a British Romanichal horse trader, violinist, businessman, writer and broadcaster, known as the "King of the Gypsies". He frequently broadcast on BBC radio in the 1930s and 1940s, and later wrote regular astrology columns in magazines as well as publishing his autobiography and several books on Romani lore.
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Northern Romani Traveller groups include: 1.) Romanichal Travellers in England (As well as North East Wales, South Wales and the Scottish Borders), with diaspora communities in the United States, Canada, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. 2.) Welsh Kale Travellers in the West-speaking parts of Northwestern Wales. 3.) Scottish Lowland Travellers in Lowland Scotland. 4.) Romanisæl Travellers in Central Norway and Sweden.
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Romani began emigrating to North America in colonial times, with small groups recorded in Virginia and French Louisiana. Larger-scale Roma emigration to the United States began in the 1860s, with Romanichal groups from Great Britain. The most significant number immigrated in the early 20th century, mainly from the Vlax group of Kalderash. Many Romani also settled in South America.
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Many of the descriptions in the 19th century are also the product of a romanticized view of Romanichal and other Romani groups, both idealized and reviled by Victorian and early-twentieth-century writersGypsies and the British Imagination, 1807–1930 (2006). Deborah Epstein Nord. Columbia University Press which manifests itself in the works of fiction by many other authors throughout the Victorian Era to the present.
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In the late 15th century, the Romani people, who have Indian origins, arrived in Britain. The Romani in Britain intermarried with the local population and became known to the Romani as the Romanichal. In India, employees and officers of the British East India Company, as well as other European soldiers, intermarried with Indian women. Children born in these marriages were called Anglo-Indians.Anglo-Indians. Movinghere.org.uk.
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John Sampson (1926) The dialect of the Gypsies of Wales, being the older form of British Romani preserved in the speech of the clan of Abram Wood, Oxford University Press, London. Historically the variants of Welsh Kalá and Angloromani (Spoken by the Romanichal of England) constituted the same variant of Romani, known as British Romani.Sampson. J. (1926) The Dialect of the Gypsies of Wales. Oxford. Clarendon Press.
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Scottish Travellers, or the people in Scotland loosely termed gypsies or travellers, consist of a number of diverse, unrelated communities that speak a variety of different languages and dialects that pertain to distinct customs, histories, and traditions. There are four distinct communities that identify themselves as Gypsies/Travellers in Scotland: Indigenous Highland Travellers, Romani Lowland Travellers, Scottish Border Romanichal Traveller (Border Gypsies) and Showman (Funfair Travellers).
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Born in a Romanichal tent in Yorkshire, England, Jones learned the techniques of his future trade at a young age, and honed his skills into his late teenage years. In 1860, he emigrated to Canada,"Canada Bill’s Funeral," Inter Ocean, November 1, 1877, p. 3."Canada Bill's Funeral: The Career of a Western Train Gambler Who Won Money by Thousands". Watertown, Wisconsin: Watertown Republican, November 14, 1877.
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George Henry Borrow (5 July 1803 – 26 July 1881) was an English writer of novels and of travel books based on his own experiences in Europe. During his travels, he developed a close affinity with the Romani people of Europe, who figure prominently in his work. His best-known books are The Bible in Spain, and the novels Lavengro and The Romany Rye recalling his time with the English Romanichal (Gypsies).
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Travelling Art: Gypsy Caravans and Canal Barges by Gordon Thorburn and John Baxter 2007. The heyday of the living wagon lasted for roughly 70 years, from the mid-1800s through the first two decades of the twentieth century. Not used for year-round living today, they are shown at the Romanichal (British Romani) horse fairs held throughout the year, the best known of which is Appleby Horse Fair.
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The Romanichal funeral rite during the wagon time of the 19th and 20th century included burning the wagon and belongings after the owner's death.In the Life of a Romany Gypsy, Manfri Frederick Wood, et al. Routledge, 1979 The custom was that nothing whatsoever would have been sold, though some of the deceased's possessions, jewellery, china or money would be left to the family. The rest, including the wagon, was destroyed.
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Hancock was born in London in 1942. His mother, Kitty, is Romanichal; his father, Reginald (Redžo), was part Romungro, the descendant of a Hungarian speaker of North Central Romani named Imre Benczi. He acquired the surname Hancock by Imre's daughter, Maria, who married a member of an English West Country showman family of that name. In the late 1960s, he became a Romani rights activist after reading reports about anti-Romani discrimination in Britain.
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Up until the mid-20th century they invariably burned the deceased person and all their earthly belongings, including the dwelling place, all which was considered spiritually impure. During the latter half of the 20th century British Romanichal began adopting the burial customs of their Continental cousins. It is believed the soul of the deceased does not officially enter Heaven until after the burial. The Romani hygiene is to shampoo daily since keeping the head clean is symbolic.
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Some Romanies use Rom or Roma as an ethnic name, while others (such as the Sinti, or the Romanichal) do not use this term as a self-ascription for the entire ethnic group. Sometimes, rom and romani are spelled with a double r, i.e., rrom and rromani. In this case rr is used to represent the phoneme (also written as ř and rh), which in some Romani dialects has remained different from the one written with a single r.
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Carver stood in four general elections for UKIP: Orpington in 1997 (5th, 526 votes), Cheltenham in 2001 (6th, 482 votes), Preseli Pembrokeshire in 2005 (5th, 498 votes), and Stourbridge in 2015 (3rd, 7,774 votes). He was also sixth on the party list for London in the 1999 European election. Carver is of Romanichal descent on his grandmother's side, giving rise to his interest in fostering better relationships with traveller communities. He believes that he is the only British Parliamentarian from a Romany background.
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Louis Welch of Darlington was described by British media as the "King of the Gypsies", a title given to the best bare-knuckled boxer in the Romanichal - mainly from the UK, and France community, following an alleged attack by six knife-wielding men, possibly from a rival band of travellers, in Cumbria. He refused to give evidence against his attackers, saying it was "against the travellers' code of honour", and a retrial was ordered after the jury failed to reach a verdict.
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Romanichal style Reading Vardo late 19th century. Originally, Romanichals would travel on foot, or with light, horse-drawn carts, and would build bender tents where they settled for a time, as is typical of other Romani groups. A Bender is a type of tent constructed from a frame of bent hazel branches (hazel is chosen for its straightness and flexibility), covered with canvas or tarpaulin. Around the mid- to late 19th century, Romanichals started using wagons that incorporated living spaces on the inside.
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Among these were a significant number of coloured Shire horses. Many of these ended up with Romanichal breeders, and by the 1950s, they were considered valuable status symbols within that culture. Spotted horses were very briefly in fashion around the time of the Second World War, but quickly went out of fashion in favour of the coloured horse, which has retained its popularity until the present day. The initial greater height of the breed derived from the influence of both Clydesdales and Shires.
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Generally speaking, the Kale have employed a tribal structure in which a group of several family units would be under the authority of a male chieftain. However some Kale families are matriarchal with a senior woman being chosen by consensus among the other women of the family to take the leadership role. The Welsh Kale are extremely closely related to English Romanichal Travellers, Scottish Lowland Romany Travellers, Norwegian and Swedish Romanisæl Travellers and Finnish Kale. Many Welsh Kale have migrated to the United States over the centuries.
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Scotland's Census Result OnLine The village is notable for being the northern terminus of the Pennine Way, and to a lesser extent the southern terminus of the Scottish National Trail. The Border Hotel public house is the official end of the Pennine Way. Kirk Yetholm was for centuries the headquarters of the Romanichal Travellers (Gypsies) in Scotland. The last king of the Gypsies, Charles Faa Blyth, was crowned in 1898 and the Gypsies have been integrated and are no longer a separate ethnic minority.
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Romani began arriving in sizeable numbers in parts of Western Europe in the 16th century. The Romani who settled in Britain are known as Romanichal. The first educated South Asian to travel to Europe and live in Britain was I'tisam-ud-Din, a Bengali Muslim cleric, munshi and diplomat to the Mughal Empire who arrived in 1765 with his servant Muhammad Muqim during the reign of George III. He wrote of his experiences and travels in his Persian book, Shigurf-nama-i-Wilayat ('Wonderous Chronicle of Europe').
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Many times those deported in this manner did not survive as an ethnic group, because of the separations after the round up, the sea passage and the subsequent settlement as slaves, all destroying their social fabric. At the same time, voluntary emigration began to the English overseas possessions. Romani groups which survived continued the expression of the Romani culture there. In the years following the American War of Independence, Australia was the preferred destination for Romanichal transportation due to its use as a penal colony.
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James Squire was baptised on 18 December 1754 in Kingston upon Thames. Squire's parents were Romanies (Romanichal), Timothy Squires and Mary Wells, who were married on 8 December 1752 in West Molesey, Surrey. Their families had been embroiled in a dramatic incident (the Canning affair) which polarised England in 1754, the year of Squire's birth. (This is a matter of contention - The Canning affair trial was held in 1753 & 1754 and Mary Squire was stated to be between 60 & 80 Years old with 3 adult children.
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Promotional image from TLC My Big Fat American Gypsy Wedding is an American reality television series that debuted on the TLC in April 2012. It claims to revolve around the marriage customs of Romani-Americans ("Gypsies") – allegedly members of Romanichal clans, although some are actually of Irish Traveller descent. It is a spin-off of Britain's Channel 4 series Big Fat Gypsy Weddings. It was announced in June 2012 that the series had been renewed for a second season, which debuted March 24, 2013.
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Saunders won his first 49 amateur fights at senior level, including the 2007 Commonwealth Championships and the 2008 Strandzha Cup, edging out Cuban Carlos Banteux. In 2008 Saunders qualified for the Beijing Olympics in the welterweight division at the age of 18. At the European area qualifier in Pescara, Italy he beat European champion Andrey Balanov and Kakhaber Zhvania, but lost in the semi-final to Oleksandr Stretskyy before beating Pavol Hlavačka for the all-important third spot. to become the first person from the British Romanichal community to qualify for the games.
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Pathe News: Double Gypsy Wedding at Baildon After the Second World War he went on to write an astrology column, "Your Fate in the Stars", in the Sunday Chronicle national newspaper. He died in Littlehampton, Sussex, on 16 June 1957, aged about 98. His funeral was held at Viney Hill, near Lydney in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, which he had visited many times and where he had said he wished to be buried. The funeral was arranged in traditional Romanichal style, with about 100 mourners in traditional costumes and some 1,500 sightseers.
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5.) Finnish Kale in Finland and parts of Sweden. These groups have much European blood due to mixing with Indigenous Traveller groups (British Romani Travellers mix with Irish Travellers, Scottish Highland Travellers and Funfair Traveller and Scandinavian Romani Travellers mix with Indigenous Norwegian Travellers) and even non-Travellers over the centuries. This has led to these Romani groups generally looking White in appearance. It is also a reason why these groups speak mixed languages rather than more pure forms of Romani: Romanichal Travellers speak Angloromani (A mix of English and Romani).
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At the beginning of the 19th century, the first major Romani group, the Romanichal from Great Britain, arrived in North America, although some had also immigrated during the colonial era. They settled primarily in the United States, which was then more established than most English-speaking communities in Upper Canada. Later immigrants also settled in Canada. The ancestors of the majority of the contemporary local Romani population in the United States, who are Eastern European Roma, started to immigrate during the second half of the century, drawn by opportunities for industrial jobs.
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Pikey (; also spelled pikie, pykie) is a slang term, which is pejorative and considered by many to be a slur. It is used mainly in the UK to refer to people who are of the Irish Traveller community, an ethnic group originating in Ireland and also found in Great Britain. It is also used against Romanichal Travellers, Welsh Kale, Scottish Lowland Travellers, Scottish Highland Travellers and Funfair Travellers too. It is not well received among Irish Travellers or British Romany Travellers, as it is considered an ethnic slur.
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Washing the horses at Appleby Horse Fair Vardoes at the Fair The Appleby Horse Fair calls itself "an annual gathering of Gypsies and Travellers in the town of Appleby-in-Westmorland in Cumbria, England." The horse fair, also known as Appleby New Fair, is held each year in early June. It attracts about 10,000 Gypsies and Travellers, about 1000 caravans, several hundred horse- drawn vehicles, and about 30,000 visitors. The Gypsy and Traveller attendees include British Romanichal, Irish Travellers, Scottish Gypsy and Traveller groups, Kale (Welsh Romanies), and more.
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In the formative years of the Gypsy Horse, the Romanichal bred not only for specific colour, profuse feather, and greater bone, but also for increased action and smaller size. To increase action at the trot, they first tried Hackney Pony breeding, but this blood reduced both feather and bone. The Roma therefore turned to the Section D Welsh Cob to add a more animated trot to the breed without loss of other desired traits. Another trend in breeding was a steady decrease in height, a trend still present among many Romani breeders.
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Sexton Ming, Tracey Emin, Charles Thomson, Billy Childish and Russell Wilkins at the Rochester Adult Education Centre 11 December 1987 to record The Medway Poets LP Emin was born in Croydon, a district of south London, to an English mother of Romanichal descent, and brought up in Margate, Kent, with her twin brother, Paul. Emin shares a paternal great-grandfather with her second cousin Meral Hussein-Ece, Baroness Hussein-Ece. This ancestor, Abdullah, was reportedly a Sudanese slave in the Ottoman Empire. Via her father, she is of Turkish Cypriot descent.
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Of these, only the Welsh tour yielded a book, Wild Wales (1862). Borrow's restlessness, perhaps, led to the family, which had lived in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, in the 1850s, moving to London in the 1860s. Borrow visited the Romanichal Gypsy encampments in Wandsworth and Battersea, and wrote one more book, Romano Lavo-Lil, a wordbook of the Anglo- Romany dialect (1874). Mary Borrow died in 1869, and in 1874 he returned to Lowestoft, where he was later joined by his stepdaughter Henrietta and her husband, who looked after him until his death there on 26 July 1881.
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Most Showmen marriages happen within the community, having their own language, traditions with most having generations of lineage of Showmen, Showmen are viewed as and self identify as a cultural group. They are not recognised as an ethnic group though due to Showmen being more of an occupation than an ethnicity, also as the group has drawn upon many other ethnicities and since many families are joining and leaving the group, it cannot be considered an ethnicity. Showman generally get along well with the UK’s other Traveller communities (Most notably Romanichal Travellers and Irish Travellers). Marriages between different Traveller communities aren’t uncommon.
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Pikey remained, as of 1989, common prison slang for Romani people or those who have a similar lifestyle of itinerant unemployment and travel. More recently, pikey was applied to Irish Travellers (other slurs include tinkers and knackers) and non-Romanichal travellers. In the late 20th century, it came to be used to describe "a lower-class person, regarded as coarse or disreputable." Pikey's most common contemporary use is not as a term for the Romani ethnic group, but as a catch-all phrase to refer to people, of any ethnic group, who travel around with no fixed abode.
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Based on the design of the Ledge wagon, the Bow Top is significantly lighter, and less likely to turn over in a strong wind. The design incorporated a lightweight canvas top, supported by a wooden frame: a design reminiscent of the older “bender tents” used by the Romanichal. Both back and front walls of the wagon were decorated in scrollwork and tongue and groove and the wagon was painted green to be less noticeable in woodland. The inside of the Bow Top also contained the same high scrollwork or Chenille fabric, with a stove, table and double bed.
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Death is seen as "impure" and affects the whole family of the dead, who may remain "impure" for a period after the death; usually private items of the dead are considered to be impure and are to be buried in his/her grave or given to non-Romani poor people. "Impure" is not literal but rather linked to cleanliness. This practice of burial (rather than cremation) is also found amongst the nomadic people of Western India to this day. Notable deviations from this practice exist among German Roma and British Romanichal, the latter holding a tradition of cremation similar to that of some Hindu cultures.
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200px Travelling funfair showmen are a community of travellers officially called occupational Travellers, that can be categorised broadly defined as a business community of travelling show, circus communities and fairground families. Occupational travellers travel for work across Scotland, the rest of the UK and into Europe. The Show/Fairground community is close knit, with ties often existing between the older Romanichal families, although showmen families are a distinct group and have a vibrant social scene centered both around the summer fairs and the various sites and yards used as winter quarters. Many Scottish show and fairground families live in winter communities based mainly in the east end of Glasgow.
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England began to deport Romanichals, principally to Norway, as early as 1544. The process was continued and encouraged by Elizabeth I and James I. The Finnish Kale, a Romani group in Finland, maintain that their ancestors had originally been a Romani group who travelled from Scotland, supporting the idea that they and the Scandinavian Travellers/Romani are distantly related to present-day Scottish Romani and English Romanichals. cited in: Fraser (1995) In 1603 an Order in Council was made for the transportation of Romanichal to the Low Countries, France, Newfoundland, Spain, and the West Indies. Other European countries forced the further transport of the Romani of Britain to the Americas.
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These they called Vardos and were often brightly and colorfully decorated on the inside and outside. In the present day, Romanichals are more likely to live in caravans or houses. Over 60% of 21st-century Romanichal families live in houses of bricks and mortar whilst the remaining 40% still live in various forms of traditional Traveller modes of transport, such as caravans, trailers or static caravans (a small minority still live in Vardos). According to the Regional Spatial Strategy caravan count for 2008, there were 13,386 caravans owned by Romani in the West Midlands region of England, whilst a further 16,000 lived in bricks and mortar.
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The Johnson Gang is the collective name for a group of Romanichal criminals from Cheltenham, Gloucestershire who specialised in stealing fine art and antiques from English country houses over a period of 20 years. The goods they stole are estimated to be worth between £30 million and £80 million. The gang were sentenced to a total of 49 years in prison in August 2008. The gang comprised Ricky Johnson (born 1954), his sons Richard "Chad" Johnson (born 1975) and Albi Johnson (born 1983), Daniel O'Loughlin (born 1976 and the nephew of Ricky Johnson) and Michael Nicholls (born 1979) the boyfriend of Ricky Johnson's daughter.
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Anglo-Romani is a mixed language, with the base languages being Romani and English (something referred to as Para-Romani in Romani linguistics). Some English lexical items that are archaic or only used in idiomatic expressions in Standard English survive in Anglo-Romani, for example moniker and swaddling. Every region where Angloromani is spoken is characterised by a distinct colloquial English style; this often leads outsiders to believe that the speech of Romanichals is regional English. The distinct rhotic pronunciation of the Southern Angloromani variety also means that many outsiders perceive Southern Romanichal Travellers to be from the West Country because West Country English is also rhotic.
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Door carving of a traditional Romanichal Chiriklo (bird). Reading vardo, early 20th century Vardos were elaborately decorated, hand carved and ornately painted with traditional Romani symbols. Examples of famous Wagon Artists responsible for the early development of vardo art are Jim Berry, John Pockett, Tom Stevens, Tommy Gaskin, John Pickett, modern contemporary decorators continuing to shape this colourful tradition included artists such as Yorkie Greenwood and Lol Thompson. Much of the wealth of the vardo was on display in the carvings, which incorporated aspects of the Romani lifestyle such as horses and dogs, as well as stock decorative designs of birds, lions, griffins, flowers, vines and elaborate scrollwork.
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While the majority of the resettlement took place within Ireland to the province of Connaught, perhaps as many as 50,000 were transported to the colonies in the West Indies and in North America. During the early colonial period, the Scots and the English, along with other western European nations, dealt with their "Gypsy problem" by transporting them as slaves in large numbers to North America and the Caribbean. Cromwell shipped Romanichal Gypsies as slaves to the southern plantations, and there is documentation of Gypsies being owned by former black slaves in Jamaica. Long before the Highland Clearances, some chiefs, such as Ewen Cameron of Lochiel, sold some of their clans into indenture in North America.
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For example, Showmen in Great Britain and Ireland often had a mix of English, Scottish, Welsh, Irish, and/or Traveller (typically Romanichal Traveller and Irish Traveller) heritage. As a result, Funfair Travellers are not defined as an ethnic group, even though they display certain common features, although in many countries (such as the UK) they identify as a cultural group. Funfair Travellers often sport unique cultures and self-identity, and they tend to be insular, favouring marriage within the communityDallas, Duncan, (1971) The Travelling People, , which results in long lineages and a strong sense of cultural homogeneity. For example, the Showman's Guild of Great Britain requires that applicants have a parent from the Funfair Travelling community.
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The Association of Independent Showmen and Society of Independent Roundabout Proprietors are two other Showman trade associations. Due to travelling, the majority of British Showmen have English, Scottish, Welsh and even Irish heritage, as well as heritage from English Romanichal Travellers and Irish Travellers due to marriages between the different Travelling communities. Most Showman’s Heritage goes back generations all following in the foot steps of their parents, showmen know each other all over the UK due to the nature of the business Travelling from one fair to the next over generations. The children often work alongside of their parents learning all aspects of the business, this has been like this for generations, close bonds are formed.
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Many Romanichals will not do their laundry inside, especially not underwear, and subsequently many utility blocks also have washing machines. In the days of horse-drawn wagons and Vardos, Romanichal women would do their laundry in a river, being careful to wash upper body garments further upstream from underwear and lower body garments, and personal bathing would take place much further downstream. In some modern trailers, a double wall separates the living areas from the toilet and shower. Due to the (British) Caravan Sites Act 1968 which greatly reduced the number of caravans allowed to be pitched on authorised sites, many Romanichals cannot find legal places on sites with the rest of their families.
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29 Originally Romanichals would travel on foot, or with light, horse-drawn carts, typical of other Romani groups or would build "bender" tents — so called because they were made from supple branches which they bent inwards to support a waterproof covering. The heyday of the Romani caravan was the latter part of the 19th century.Ward-Jackson p. 51 Initially using castoff horses and even mules to draw their chimneyed living wagons, the Romanichal gradually created a breed of horse known variously as the Gypsy Cob (UK, NZ), Gypsy Horse (US, UK, AU), Coloured Cob (UK, Ireland, parts of continental Europe), Gypsy Vanner (USA, CAN), Tinker Horse (parts of continental Europe), and Irish Cob (Ireland) to do so.
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Czech neopagans at an anti-Romani demonstration in České Budějovice, 29 June 2013 Antiziganism (also antigypsyism, anti-Romanyism, Romaphobia, or anti- Romani sentiment) is hostility, prejudice, discrimination or racism which is specifically directed at Romani people (Roma, Sinti, Iberian Kale, Welsh Kale, Finnish Kale and Romanichal). Non-Romani itinerant groups in Europe such as the Yenish and Irish and Scottish Travellers are often given the misnomer "gypsy" and confused with the Romani people. As a result, sentiments which were originally directed at the Romani people are also directed at other traveler groups and they are often referred to as "antigypsy" sentiments. The term Antigypsyism is recognized by the European Parliament and the European Commission as well as by a wide cross-section of civil society.
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Housing an estimated 80% of all showfamilies Glasgow is believed to have the largest concentration of Showmen quarters in Europe, centred mostly in Shettleston, Whiteinch and Carntyne. Showmen families have a strong cultural identity as ‘British Showmen’, dating back to 1889 and the formation of the Showmen's Guild of Great Britain and Ireland, and are known within the UK as the “Scottish Section”. As with other showmen communities they call non-travellers (but not other non related travelling groups including Romanichal, Roma, Scottish Lowland Travellers, Highland Travellers or Irish Travellers) as “Flatties” or non-`showmen’ in their own Polari language. The label of "Flattie-Traveller" can include showmen who have left the community to settle down and lead a sedentary lifestyle.
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Romanichal Travellers and Irish Travellers argued in response that thousands of retrospective planning permissions are granted in Britain in cases involving non-Romani applicants each year and that statistics showed that 90% of planning applications by Travellers were initially refused by local councils, compared with a national average of 20% for other applicants, disproving claims of preferential treatment favouring Travellers. They also argued that the root of the problem was that many traditional stopping-places had been barricaded off and that the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 passed by the previous Conservative government had effectively criminalized their community, for example by removing local authorities' responsibility to provide sites, thus leaving the travellers with no option but to purchase unregistered new sites themselves.
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Romanichal Reading vardo, early 20th century The Reading or kite wagon is so named due to its straight sides that slope outwards towards the eaves, high arched wheels, and relative light weight; there is no other vardo that epitomizes the golden age of Romani horse travel. It dates from 1870 and is synonymous with the original builder Dunton and Sons of Reading from where the vardo takes its name. The wagon was highly prized by the Romanies for its aesthetic design, beauty and practicality to cross fords, pull off-road and over rough ground, something smaller-wheeled wagons like the Burton were unable to do. The Reading wagon is 10 feet long, with a porch on the front and back.
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Born in a blizzard to a British Romanichal family near Fenborough Station in England, Meggan adapted to the cold by growing fur, to the horror of her family. Unfortunately, as an empathic metamorph, the more they saw her as a monster, the more monstrous she became, growing webbing upon her hands and feet, antennae on her head, claws, and patagia. The belief that she was some sort of monster was also affected by the fact that Meggan's birth took place near an ancient British fortress that was rumoured to be the site of dark magics. Meggan's family hid her away in their camper, where she watched television incessantly, totally immersing herself in the fantasy of the various British TV shows of the time (such as Gerry Anderson fare, Quatermass, Doctor Who and many more).
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The crisis of the 1960s decade, caused by the Caravan Sites Act 1968 (stopping new private sites being built until 1972), led to the appearance of the "British Gypsy Council" to fight for the rights of the Romanichals. Alt URL In the UK, the issue of "Travellers" (referring to Romanichal Travellers, Irish Travellers, Funfair Travellers (Showman) as well as other groups) became a 2005 general election issue, with the leader of the Conservative Party promising to review the Human Rights Act 1998. This law, which absorbs the European Convention on Human Rights into UK primary legislation, is seen by some to permit the granting of retrospective planning permission. Severe population pressures and the paucity of greenfield sites have led to travellers purchasing land and setting up residential settlements very quickly, thus subverting the planning restrictions.
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The Gypsy Cob, also known as the Traditional Gypsy cob, Irish Cob, Gypsy Horse or Gypsy Vanner, is a type or breed of domestic horse from the islands Great Britain and Ireland. It is a small, solidly-built horse of cob conformation and is often, but not always, piebald or skewbald; it is particularly associated with Irish Travellers and English Romanichal Travellers of Ireland and Great Britain. There was no stud-book or breed association for horses of this type until 1996. It is now considered a breed and can be registered by the Traditional Gypsy Cob Association (TGCA).. From about 1850 travelling people in the British Isles began to use a distinct type of horse to pull their vardos, the caravans in which they had just begun to live and travel.
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The earliest period of Asian migration to Britain has not been ascertained. It is known that Romani (Gypsy) groups such as the Romanichal and Kale arrived in the region during the Middle Ages, having originated from, what is now, North India and Pakistan and traveled westward to Europe via Southwest Asia around 1000 CE, intermingling with local populations over the course of several centuries. Immigration from what is now Pakistan to the United Kingdom began long before the independence of Pakistan in 1947. Muslim immigrants from Kashmir, Punjab, Sindh, the North-West Frontier and Balochistan as well as other parts of South Asia, arrived in the British Isles as early as the mid- seventeenth century as employees of the East India Company, typically as lashkars and sailors in British port cities.
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There have also been suggestions that the expression may derive from an actual custom of jumping over a "broomstick" (where "broom" refers to the plant common broom rather than the household implement) associated with the Romanichal Travellers of the United Kingdom, especially those in Wales.Thompson, T. W. "British Gipsy Marriage and Divorce Rites", quoted in The Times, Issue 54004, 21 September 1928; p.11. A paper read at the 1928 jubilee congress of the Folk Lore Society in London refers to this: "In Wales there was preserved until recently a marriage ritual of which the central feature was the jumping of the bride and bridegroom over a branch of flowering broom or over a besom made of broom." The custom of a marrying couple literally jumping over a broom is now most widespread among African Americans, popularized in the 1970s by the novel and miniseries Roots but originating in the mid 19th century as a practice in antebellum slavery in the United States.
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The Highland Traveller community has a long history in Scotland going back, at least in record, to the 12th century as a form of employment and one of the first records of that name states a "James the Tinker" held land in the town of Perth from 1165-1214 and share a similar heritage, although are distinct from the Irish Travellers. As with their Irish counterparts, there are several theories regarding the origin of Scottish Highland Travellers, one being they are descended from the Picts, excommunicated clergy, to families fleeing the Highland potato famine, or the pre-Norman-Invasion, have been claimed at different times. Highland Travellers are distinct both culturally and linguistically from other Gypsy groups like the Romani, including the Romanichal, Lowland Scottish Gypsies, Eastern European Roma and Welsh Kale groups. Several other European groups are non- Romany groups, namely the Yeniches, Woonwagenbewoners in the Netherlands, Indigenous Norwegian Travellers and Landfahrer in Germany.
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It is uncertain whether Scottish Cant is the result of Scottish Lowland Romani Travellers transitioning from speaking Romani to speaking a mixed language (Like what happened to Romanichal Travellers in England with Angloromani and Romanisæl Travellers in Sweden and Norway with Scandoromani), or whether it is the result of Romani in Lowland Scotland merging with an indigenous Lowland Traveller group. The large number of Scots derived words and archaic Scots words within Scottish Cant vocabulary suggests that merging with another group, although it could just be that Lowland Scottish Travellers are fully Romani in their roots and they just picked up these words, similar to how Angloromani has picked up words such as ‘ken’ and ‘mort’ which are derived from English. Up to 50% of Scottish Cant originates from Romani-derived lexicon.wilde 1889, cited in Not just lucky white heather and clothes pegs: putting European Gypsies and Traveller economic niches in context.
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Angloromani or Anglo-Romani (literally "English Romani"; also known as Angloromany, Rummaness, or Pogadi Chib) is a mixed language involving the presence of Romani vocabulary and syntax in the English used by descendants of Romanichal Travellers in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, United States, and South Africa. After their arrival to Great Britain in the sixteenth century, Romani used the Romani language until the late nineteenth century (and perhaps a generation longer in Wales). It was replaced by English as the everyday and family language of British Romani, leading to what is known as "Para-Romani" or the presence of Romani features in the English used by the Romani. An example of a phrase in Angloromani is: ('The man was walking down the road with his horse') This differs from the presence of loanwords (such as that used locally in Edinburgh and Northumberland) from the Romani language, such as lollipop (originally a toffee apple), pal (originally Romani phral 'brother'), and chav (originally chavo 'boy').
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