Articles

The following are extracts from articles published in our journals:-

EXTRACT FROM AN INTERVIEW WITH LOCAL MAN BOB CLINTON - Journal 1
Recorded 26.5.1984 at Suckley, Worcestershire by Eric Payne

Bob recounted that:- “Scarratt was the King of the Gypsies.   When one dies, they pick another. He was one of the richer type of Romany, he was a Romany you see … there’s a difference between a Gypsy and a hedge crawler that’s taken to the road.

They had two great big horses on a pole pulling the van through here and his family were ‘well to do’, with sovereigns on their fingers and in their ears. All their money was more or less carried on their person, although some was, I think, in their milk churns or in their vardos’. They had no bank accounts, no bank books, they couldn’t read anything – that was the idea of that.

Scarratt would lead and go first with his showpiece van and his horses on the pole, nobody else had a van and horses, so they stood out like a sore thumb! If you were working at the roadside when he passed, you’d look up at him and say ‘How are you’ …. you knew it was Scarratt, he hadn’t a name on his van, but you knew it was him with his piebald horses. Word would have gone round that he was on his way, so the other vans started to gather but nobody would proceed until he had gone first. Scarratt administered his own law. He would give offenders up to the police if they’d done anything terrible, but if it was a trivial offence he’d see to it, and if he thought it was bad enough, he’d drum ‘em out, they were no longer in his kingdom .. and he was King!”

GRANDPA JOE SMALL AND HIS LEATHER POUCH - Journal 1
From Gary Small
 
My great grandpa Joe Small became a tin miner at the age of 16. He travelled to Africa, Australia and America, as did many other miners from Cornwall.  During his travels in Africa he had to be extra careful as there was still a lot of internal conflict going on after the Boer War and a lot of miners were robbed of their hard earned wages.
 
So grandpa Joe, rather than carry his money in his jacket or trouser pockets, made a leather purse, which he strapped to his leg under his tweelers (trousers), so if anyone ever tried to rob him they would only find a few coins. Grandpa converted his money into gold sovereigns and slotted a sovereign in each of the little slots in the pouch. I was told he could carry up to a hundred and fifty sovereigns quite comfortably and was never robbed.
 
On returning to Cornwall after anything from 6 months to 2 years work and a long journey home, he would say to granny “Hold out your pinny” and he would drop the coins, one by one, into her apron. Nine months after returning from wherever, a chavie would be born. They had thirteen children all told!!

  Gary Small Joe and Angelina Small - Gary's Grandparents

THE STORY OF GEORGE SAUNDERS WHO DIED AT POOLE, DORSET in 1903 - Journal 2
By Ian Orchard

The 1901 and 1891 Census Returns state George Saunder’s age as 78 and 68 respectively, and his place of birth as Linfield, Sussex.  In 1891, his father Michael was living with him aged 96, born Binderton, Sussex. George’s wife was called Mary (maiden name unknown).

George was walking to work early one morning when he passed a pub outside of which, was parked a butcher’s cart. The butcher was inside the pub breakfasting. On emerging, the butcher swore a piece of meat was missing and, as someone had seen George pass by, he was arrested. By then it was past dinner time and he had eaten his dinner, which had consisted of some cooked meat. This had left a fatty residue on his pocket knife and that was the evidence that convicted him. He was sentenced to seven years transportation to Australia. 

In those days that was a journey of several months on a sailing ship. On arrival he was put to work on a farm on outdoor duties and the farm was owned by two brothers who treated the convicts harshly. One day George was eating his dinner using his knife, when he clearly overheard two other Traveller men discussing him. “There’s a fine shiv (knife) the old mush has got, let’s moor (kill) him for it!” “No”, said the other, “Let the poor old mush go”.

Some time later, he was working on the drive leading to the house when a smart horse and trap raced by and a “Portmanteau” (large case) filled with important papers fell out. George took it up to the house and handed it in to a servant, who insinuated that since a convict had handled it, then something had to be missing. When all was found to be intact, George was given a job in the house. When his seven years were almost up, two sons of one of the owners’ were so friendly with George, that they asked him to go gold prospecting into the Blue Mountains with them, but he told them, “No, I have a wife and seven children back in England and I must return to them”.  He boarded a ship bound for England, but this became stranded in some ‘sinking sands’ and they all feared they would die, but somehow they escaped, but only after several days. In the middle of the night his wife heard footsteps on their gravel path and declared “That’s my George come home!” When questioned by his family, George always maintained his innocence and they even asked him on his death-bed, but he always stated that he never did it!

George was born c.1823, his son Michael was born 1845, Edward (my g.grandfather) c.1850, William c.1860, Caroline c.1856, Emma c.1858. He had other children, so I presume he was transported around 1860, and possibly the other children were born after his return, as one was called Liberty.  By 1891, Mary had died and George was living with his widowed father who died near Wincanton, Somerset in 1892, aged 97. Some time after that George went to live with his son William at Poole.

Holsworthy 1906 - Marriage of Alfred Penfold (s/o Alfred and Louise nee Small) and
Sally Orchard (d/o Joe and Susan Orchard)
Photo from Ian Orchard
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SOPHIE LEGG - Romany Singer

Sophie Legg was a Romany singer who travelled England and Wales collecting and preserving traditional music. A native of Cornwall, she built up a good-sized collection of songs, some dating back to the 14th century, possibly even earlier, many being passed down by generations of her family.

Born in a tent in 1918 to Edwin and Susie Orchard, who were first cousins, the couple at first settled on some land near Saltash, but soon after went on the road in search of work. At first Edwin worked on a coconut shy, until he was approached to stand in for one of the prize fighters on a boxing booth. The boxing game paid so well, that after a while they could afford a brush wagon, so with a good vanner horse, they soon built up a regular round in North Cornwall, hawking brushes, wicker baskets, pots, pans, haberdashery and trinkets. By providing such a valuable service to outlying and remote villages, they were shielded from much of the usual prejudice that surrounded Gypsies. Many people also appreciated spontaneous performances they gave in pubs on their route, singing and step-dancing to the sounds of banjo and accordion.

During the winter they stopped in Launceston, where the children went to school and acquired a basic education. This was the family’s life until in the mid 1930’s, Edwin built a bungalow on some land he had bought in Launceston. Aged sixteen, this was the first time Sophie had slept in a house. Edwin, by this time 65 years of age, taught himself to drive, bought a car and a caravan which he towed, and found that trading rounds that used to take weeks, could be covered in a matter of days in a car.

One night Sophie saw a young electrician from Gloucester singing in a pub and fell in love with both George Legg, and his singing, and they married in Launceston in 1939. Following the 2nd World War, George and Sophie moved into one of seven terraced houses in Bodmin, the remaining six eventually being taken by extended members of the family, until the street became known locally as Orchard Terrace. From then on regular Romany singsongs by the extended family were held in the houses.

In 1978 Sophie, by then aged 60, and her sisters Charlotte and Betsy, aged 77 and 78, were persuaded into a recording studio, each laying down single tracks. For some reason, much to the regret of Gypsy scholars, the album entitled “Catch Me If You Can: Songs from Cornish Travellers”, did not include any sung in Romany. Sophie had two children, one of whom is Victor Legg, (A member of Romany Road), who continues his mother’s musical tradition in Bodmin. Three months before her death in June 2007, Sophie asked her son to take down the words of every verse from her version of The Wild Colonial Boy and The Golden Vanity.