| Description | Charles Parker interviews 'Gypsy' Williams, a traveller from St Albans, about various aspects of travellers' lives, the role of families / tribes, their values and their lifestyles.
Track 1: 'Gypsy' Williams talks about how travellers would like to meet local people and discuss the issues, and cites an example in Hertfordshire where local people were concerned about travellers and that activism had resulted in travellers being given pieces of land to camp on by Hertfordshire Council, one for 'diddicoys' and one for 'regular gypsies' 1.40 mins.
Track 2 : he talks about the changes in the work that travellers undertake; there is no longer a market for peg making, china or rugs, and most travellers are now undertaking scrap metal work. Lots of travellers are getting other jobs, they will try anything, but it always come back to buying and selling things which many are now doing in markets. 2.00 mins
Track 3: 'Gypsy' Williams talks about the tribes or families of travellers in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, 'Smiths, Williams, Lee, Loverage, Lovell, Boswell,'. He points out that 'genuine gypsies speak the 'gypsy' language'. The tribes are helpful to each other, yet travellers are different based on the county they come from. He describes the different characteristics of the travellers from different counties 2.44 mins.
Track 4: he discusses how in the 'old day' there was more order to the movement of travellers between counties. Travellers had more class distinctions in the past, but the Second World War changed this and now travellers are more able to go across counties and are less suspicious of each other 2.08 mins.
Track 5: 'Gypsy' Williams talks about the order of travel that families have, 'the rules and regulations'. Each tribe had certain roads and routes that they used at different times of the year, they would welcome outsiders but not other traveller families. He says that travellers often went back to their county birth place during the winter months but all these routines are dying out now 2.17 mins.
Track 6: he talks about travellers wanting to die in the county they were born in, to do otherwise would be 'very very wicked'. He explains that March and October are the moving times for travellers, which he feels is very positive. He talks about suggestions made at council meetings that there should be permanent camps that gypsies could return to at regular times, and describes how this would work. He thinks there should be one permanent camp in every county and that travellers could pay rent while they are there 3.05 mins.
Track 7: 'Gypsy' Williams describes what the different families/tribes were known for in terms of economic activities. For example, he talks about the Lees being known as horse dealers and buying and selling caravans and gives examples for some of the other families. He states that travellers in Britain are not known for music, this is more obvious in France. 3.07 mins.
Total: 17.07 mins
Dubber's reference number: PLA 7L448C0466374 |