All the fun of the fair

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Horse culture, is in most people’s minds, the exclusive territory of the rich. We’ve all seen the ladies in fine dresses at Ascot, the masters of the hunt, and the champagne swilling at the Badminton horse trials. Yet, deep in the south west countryside there are remnants of the time when horses were the common man’s pleasure – the Gypsy horse fairs at held today at Stow-in-the-Wold in Gloucestershire is one of them. 

Gypsy Horse fairs are ancient fairs granted existence by Royal Charter, and as such are inalienable fixtures on the rural calendar until abolished by an act of Parliament. Sometimes hated by locals, but celebrated by Travellers as a market place and social gathering that glues Traveller culture and society together. In an age where nomadic life is outlawed, they are an increasingly vital part of Traveller identity. They are wild, chaotic events often hated by the authorities. They are to Travellers what the Notting Hill carnival is to Caribbeans. Except at Stow, you won’t see the policemen either smiling or dancing.

The first time I went to Stow Fair, I asked a bus-driver if he’d give me directions to the site. “Don’t worry”, he said “you’ll see all the disgusting drinking, fighting and carrying on as soon as you get near it. Those dirty gyppoes come twice a year and there is nothing we can do to get rid of them”. “My kind of people, my kind of party”, I thought as I skipped off the bus into a sea of humanity.

Stow-on-the-Wold has held it’s fair ever since Royal Charter granted it in 1476. Edward IV, the monarch at the time, decreed, “2 fairs forever be held for the relief and succour of the inhabitants of the county”. The charter states that the fairs may be held for a period of 2 days either side of and including the Christian feasts of St Peter and St Edward, which are now calculated to fall on the nearest Thursdays to the 12th of May and 24th of October. Royal Charter started Lee Gap, the oldest horse-fair in this country in 1106.

Over the years, the fairs have changed. Visitors 30 years ago would have seen hundreds of beautifully painted wagons and the horses that pulled them. Nowadays, although a few stubborn traditionalists make the annual pilgrimage with horse and wagon each year, it is mainly modern caravans and lorries that crowd the site. But it’s not just the technology of travelling that’s changed, so has the attitude of the authorities that consider themselves responsible for policing them.

20 years ago horses were shown and raced on the main street of Stow, nowadays, the fair is confined and restricted to a field on the outskirts of town. But Bobbies on the beat are no match for the skill and agility of Gypsy “chavies” (children) on horseback who sometimes taunt the police, to the amusement of onlookers, by riding horses up the main street. To them it is a chance to tease the “gavvers” (police) but they are actually reclaiming the rights of their ancestors.

Not content with forcing the fair out of town, the authorities obtained a permanent injunction to stop people from camping on land owned by Travellers at the edge of the town. Every year, all nearby lanes, field entrances, car parks and verges are blocked by police tape.



Claire McGine, spokeswoman for Cotswold District Council, explains the councils position “We have taken out the injunction prohibiting people from staying in the field, sometimes they stay overnight but we would take action to move them on if they stayed a few days. The object is not to discourage the fair but to control the level of disturbance to local residents”

Vera Norwood is a local resident, shopkeeper and was once Mayor of Stow Town Council. “The Gypsies have been very badly treated by the district council and a few nasty business people” she says, “they threaten people who come every year with imprisonment and have even demanded planning permission for every caravan that comes. I think it’s terrible!”

Mick Darling is a Traveller and musician that has been to the fair and others like it for 40 years. He denies that the fair is unpopular with locals and says the campaign to stop it emanates from only a few powerful individuals. “ It’s always the empty barrels that sound the loudest.” he says, “Many local people genuinely enjoy the fair”. But empty barrels can sometimes be loaded; Mick was there when the army stopped Todcliffe fair in Yorkshire in 1968. The local authorities publicised their intentions to have the fair unchartered in that well-known local Yorkshire paper - the London Evening Standard. Not surprisingly they received no written objections and called the army in when thousands turned up to attend the fair.

“The charter fair is one of the few freedoms the British people have left.” says Mick, “The fairs are for everybody, not just Travellers. Although in this day and age where Travelling is more difficult, it is increasingly important to the survival of our culture. There’s many a Gypsy courtship and marriage that’s started at a horse fair ”.

Local publicans, encouraged by the local police, either close up for the week, ban travellers altogether or rake in the cash. The White Hart Inn is one such example. Each year it hires burly security men to keep the pub genteel for startled American tourists. A sign, declaring “No Travellers” in direct defiance of the Race Relations Act hangs above the door. How they can tell whom to refuse entry, I cannot tell. Stow is a place where all Travellers meet, red-haired Irish Travellers, dread-locked new Travellers, “olive-skinned” old Romany ladies and every shade of skin colour in between.

The fair has many fans. “For me it is THE image of the old saying “a fair field full of folk”, and a reminder of the sense of celebration so many of us have lost,” wrote the late Jeremy Sandford, writer of the acclaimed BBC documentary Cathy Come Home.

Sandford also made a film about British Gypsy music called Spirit of the Gypsies, which was shot on location at Stow for the Gypsy Council. He said, “It is the crowning of my summer, and the best place for all people to see the vibrancy of living Gypsy culture”.

The caravans may have changed, but the original purpose of selling horses thrives to this day. Travelling men and boys show off their horsemanship as they ride and drive horses through the crowds without warning, scattering panicking spectators everywhere. It’s a chaotic scene that seems more suited to the streets of Spain than the mellow lanes of the Cotswolds.

Pride of place among the horses are skewbald and piebald cobs, sometimes known as “Gypsy cobs” or “Tinker horses” in other countries where they are increasingly valued and exported. It’s a robust type of horse that has been used by Travellers for pulling wagons for hundreds of years. It’s renowned for it’s good temperament, strength and versatility and can be recognised by its distinctive black and white, or brown and white colouring and hairy “feathered” feet. When shown at fairs, Travellers often shampoo and backcomb the feathers into a bush of hair that would turn Tina Turner green with envy.

The Gypsy cob seems to prove the point that pets are like their owners, and a completely different animal to the thoroughbred favoured by “well bred” aristocrats. It is hardy, has great stamina and intelligence. Like it’s owners, it is often undervalued and frowned upon by those at the top of the social ladder because its origins are not recognised and no written pedigree exists. But unlike either neurotic thoroughbred horses or people, the Gypsy people and horses have a strength and grace independent of the status they are given.

“The interesting thing ”, comments Mick Darling, “is that people are really beginning to get interested in horses and wagons again. You should see the hundreds of horse-drawn wagons that come to Appleby fair in Cumbria in June. Sometimes people only appreciate something when they’ve almost lost it.”

The next fair at Stow on the Wold will be held in October 2009.

Listen to this documentary made 2 years ago at Stow Fair.

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