Explorer attends Appleby Horse Fair in 60 Days with the Gypsies

2022-02-14

‘If we go to the police, the door just slams in our face’: Amazon explorer is shocked as Head Gypsy defends fights at Appleby Horse Fair, saying the community have ‘their own rules’ to ‘settle disputes’

Adventurer Ed Stafford spent 60 days with Romani gypsies and Irish travellers
Encountered threats, aggression and strangers defaecating on windscreen
Head Gypsy Billy Walsh defended violence between men at Appleby Horse Fair
Said they ‘have to have own rules’ because ‘the police slam the door in their face’
Channel 4’s 60 Days with the Gypsies airs tonight at 9pm

A former army captain was left stunned after the Head Gypsy defended fighting at Appleby Horse Fair.

Adventurer Ed Stafford spent two months with Romani gypsies and Irish travellers across the UK for a new Channel 4 documentary 60 Days with the Gypsies, admitting he initially considered the community ‘unlawful’ and intimidating.

During the programme, which airs tonight on Channel 4 at 9pm, the explorer visited the fair, which is the annual gathering for Gypsy, Romany and travelling communities and is billed as the biggest traditional Gypsy Fair in Europe.

The fair is usually held in early June outside the town of Appleby, in Cumbria, and attracts around 1,000 caravans, hundreds of horse-drawn vehicles, and around 30,000 visitors.

During filming, Ed saw two fights break out between groups of men, with Head Gypsy Billy Welch defending the violence as ‘settling a dispute.’

He said: ‘It’s a shame and it shouldn’t happen but even now if we go to the police, the door just slams in our face. So we have to have our own rules and regulations.’

Adventurer Ed Stafford was left stunned after the Head Gypsy defended fighting at Appleby Horse Fair

The fair is usually held in early June outside the town of Appleby, in Cumbria, and attracts around 1,000 caravans, hundreds of horse-drawn vehicles, and around 30,000 visitors

Over the years, the mass gathering has generated allegations of violent crime, animal cruelty and mess left in the town.

Traditionally travellers wash their horses in the River Eden before taking them up the hill to the showground where they are put through their paces in the ‘flashing lane,’ giving potential buyers a chance to see them put through their paces.

It is believed that the fair originated in the late 18th century as horse dealers and sheep and cattle drovers sold their stock on Gallows Hill, not far from Long Marton Road near where the Appleby Fair is held – and that by the 20th century it had morphed into a Gypsy event.

It has existed under the protection of a charter granted by James II since 1685 and it remains one of the key meeting points for these communities.

During filming, Ed saw two fights break out between groups of men, with Head Gypsy Billy Welch saying the community had its ‘own rules and regulations’ to manage disputes

Explorer Ed, who holds the Guiness World Record for being the first man to ever to walk the length of the Amazon River, spend time with Romani gypsies and Irish travellers across the UK

Halfway through his time on the road, he confessed the lifestyle was ‘more challenging than he ever imagined’ and he was struggling to understand why the community ‘fought so hard to maintain’ it

During the documentary, explorer Ed, who holds the Guiness World Record for being the first man to ever to walk the length of the Amazon River, spend time with Romani gypsies and Irish travellers across the UK.

The first man to walk the Amazon: Who is Ed Stafford?

Perhaps best known to fans of the Discovery Channel, Ed Stafford is a British explorer and the first human to ever walk the length of the Amazon river.

Stafford completed the achievement in 2010, earning him a spot in the Guinness Book of Records.

His journey was documented in the 2011 Channel 5 series Walking the Amazon.

Since then, Stafford, who was previously a Sandhurst trained Army officer, has continued his adventuring, including a 60-day survival show documenting his life marooned on an uninhabited tropical island without food or equipment.

Outside of adventuring, Ed, who is originally from Peterborough, is a father-of-three and is married to fellow explorer Laura Bingham.

He stopped in the Yorkshire Dales to meet with a traveller called John Doe, who explained he had spent weeks on the road.

John was a Romani Gypsy on his way to Appleby. Every night, he set up camp by the side of the road, chopping down local trees in order to build fires.

He explained that the police were patrolling the area ‘every two hours’, saying: ‘If you ask them why they’re up on patrol, they say they’re “protecting the locals.” But protecting them from what?”

Ed said: ‘It’s definitely not an easy lifestyle. From going through all the trouble of harnessing up the horses to looking after the horses…none of that is easy is it.

John said: ‘This way of life is hard. but if you’re in a car, you don’t get the chance to see the sheep in that field or the way the fields are woven.’

Ed said: ‘I thought the horse drawn bit of going up to Appleby would be kind of twee, but it’s not twee…it’s a way of life.

‘These guys are treading on the edges of laws as it is.

‘This lifestyle is so engrained in Gypsies that they aren’t going to stop because they’re told to.’

The fair’s organiser was Billy, who explained: ‘Being a Gypsy isn’t a lifestyle. You’ve got to be born into it. Traveller people go back in this country for 800 or 900 years.

‘We’re an ancient people that goes back thousands of years. We began coming here in large numbers…this place since then has become sacred to us. It’s the most important date in the Gypsy Traveler calendar.’

The explorer explained how filming the documentary had opened his eyes to how difficult the lifestyle of Travellers can be

Ed explained he hoped to buy a horse for his niece during the event and was told prices could fetch up to as much as £15,000.

He said: ‘I feel like I’m scoring drugs in a club or something, I’m somewhat nervous approaching everyone.’

Ed ended up approaching a group in a pub about buying a horse, settling on £2,800 for the animal.

But by the morning the sale had fallen through. The following morning Ed confessed he felt the atmosphere had grown ‘tense.’

During filming, Ed travelled with a group of gypsies to Appleby fair, and explained that the police were patrolling the area ‘every two hours’ (pictured, a camp set up by the side of a road)

During the event, they saw a crowd gathering as two men started a huge fight to settle a disagreement.

Ed said: ‘There was a fight between two lads, I’m not sure what it was about, but there were some pretty bloody faces.’

As one fight ended, another began, with one man punching another as he lay on the ground

Ed said: ‘That’s the second fight that has broken out in the last 10 minutes. When money is exchanging hands and people have been drinking, you get that sort of tension.’

The organiser of the event in Appleby said the fights had broken out because ‘young men do stupid things’ (pictured, police controlling a crowd at Appleby last year)

During the documentary, Billy described how Appleby was a ‘sacred place’ and the fair was ‘the most important date in the Gypsy traveler calendar’

He tracked down Billy to hear about why he believed the fights had broken out.

Billy said: ‘They’re settling a dispute. It’s a shame and it shouldn’t happen…We have to say, right this is how we settle this now and this is how we end it.

‘If I’d have been there, I would have told the boys to stop it…on an average night out in an average little town, there’s a lot more trouble.

‘Yes young men do stupid things, but what young men don’t? And we’re not a perfect people, there is no such thing.

‘But why does the settled community judge us so harshly constantly.

‘It’s a constant battle between making the settled community happy and my own residents happy. It’s got to be a bit of give and take.

Ed explained he hoped to buy a horse for his niece during the event and was told prices could fetch up to as much as £15,000

‘It’s not easy but I’ve got to try.’

Elsewhere in the programme, Ed met a woman Sherrie, who decided to Google him and found out his name is Lovell – a common Gypsy name.

‘Welcome to the family,’ she declared, leaving Ed stunned.

The father-of-three, who is adopted and went to boarding school, then decided to look into his past.

While filming Ed encountered verbal threats, witnessed aggression towards the police, had a stranger defaecate on his windscreen and, saw children using catapults to kill squirrels for dinner.

Channel 4’s 60 Days with the Gypsies airs tonight at 9pm

Tougher laws in Policing Bill to crack down on unauthorised encampments risk breaching human rights of Gypsies, Roma and Travellers, MPs warn

Tougher laws to crack down on unauthorised encampments could breach the human rights of Gypsies, Roma and Travellers, a group of MPs and peers has warned.

There is a ‘significant risk’ measures put forward by the Government as part of its Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill could have a ‘disproportionate impact’ on the rights of such communities, according to the findings of a parliamentary inquiry.

The wide-ranging legislation is part of efforts to overhaul the justice system, cut offending and make streets safer, the Government said.

But the Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) has made a number of recommendations for amendments to the Bill – which includes proposals to give police more powers to tackle unauthorised encampments which interfere with the ability to use land.

Some campaigners previously told the committee the proposals in the Bill are based on ‘racial hatred’ and would threaten the rights Gypsy, Roma and Traveller people have to live a traditional, nomadic way of life.

They called for more authorised encampments and approved stopping or transit sites to avoid those unauthorised sites being set up on private or public land.

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