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Epping Forest Gypsies
This thread was started by Leeboy Winters here is a snippet :
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http://www.studygroup.org.uk/Articles/Content/69/Liverpool%20Gypsies.htm
The Royal Epping Forest Gipsy Encampment at the International Exhibition, Liverpool. 1886 by Sharon Floate The 1886 Exhibition was a landmark event in Liverpool’s civic history, being the first great International Exhibition to be held outside London. It took place in buildings specially erected for the event on a site that lay due east of the present day Wavertree Park and Botanic Gardens in Edge Hill, with Edge Lane as the northern boundary of the grounds. A special railway station was also constructed to bring visitors to the exhibition, called ‘Exhibition Road’. Opened by Her Majesty Queen Victoria on 11 May 1886, the exhibition is reported to have attracted no less than 2.5 million visitors and hosted 450,000 exhibitors in the seven months it was open, so earning itself a deserved place on the list of ‘World Fairs’ of the Victorian era. It closed on 8 November 1886. (A useful point of comparison is the Great Exhibition of 1851, held in Hyde Park, London, which attracted 6 million visitors and had some 14,000 exhibitors in its five month duration.) The ‘International’ character of Liverpool’s Exhibition was personified by the presence of a number of different native peoples who appeared as ‘exhibits’ - something that may seem shocking in these politically correct days. In 1886, however, the Victorian passion for things foreign and exotic was at its height. Without the benefit as yet of cinematography the only way for most people to see foreigners in the flesh going about their normal everyday business, was either by travelling abroad or by attending events such as these. The contemporary newspapers reports which George Smith has added to the biographical section of this book, shows that groups of Laplanders, Indians and Hottentots were on show in Liverpool, amongst others. As curious as these people probably were to British eyes, they were seemingly eclipsed by the popularity and the drawing power of the English Gipsies in the shape of George Smith and his immediate family who, on the evidence provided by advertisements for the exhibition which appeared in the Liverpool Echo suggests the ‘Gipsy Encampment’ made its debut on Monday 14 June 1886.
George Smith’s ancestry George Smith - or Lazzy Smith as he is sometimes known - was a member of the East Anglian Smith family. By his own account he was born in 1830 at Mousehold Heath in Norwich, Norfolk, one of the two places in the eastern counties that these Smith’s saw as their headquarters, the other being the town of Woodbridge in Suffolk.
George took the surname Smith from his mother, Elizabeth. She was the sister of Ambrose Smith, the ‘Jasper Petulengro’ of ‘Borrow’s novels. George’s father was in fact a Buckley - Elijah. The oral history has it that Elijah Buckley was killed in a brawl in a public house at High Beech, Epping Forest, by a certain ‘Gypsy Stephens’ when George was very young and that his family never used the surname Buckley from then on.
There is documentary evidence that seems to support this, although admittedly without any suggestion of murder or manslaughter being involved. An entry in the burial register of the Abbey Church of Waltham Holy Cross, Waltham Cross, Essex, records that on 19 September 1832 an Elijah Buckley was buried there, being described as a 34 year old brazier from High Beech. However, George’s own account in the following pages doesn’t tally with this when he tells us that his father died at the age of 81. This anomaly may be explained by the fact that George Smith was not adverse to embroidering the truth when it suited his circumstances. Indeed as a firm example of this trait, when he found himself in financial difficulties in Edinburgh at the beginning of the 20th century, George is understood to have covered his tracks by faking his own death - even to the extent of having his own ‘In Memoriam’ cards printed. The story circulated that he ‘died of stewdiation’ - translated as ‘going insane’. It isn’t surprising therefore that when his close kinsfolk in Birkenhead, Cheshire were informed in 1909 that George was still alive and living with his daughter Alice in South Wales, the news was met with amazement and incredulity. According to the autobiographical account that follows, it was George who first had the idea of travelling Great Britain and at each stopping place opening up his encampment to the public and charging people an admission fee to enter and see the gipsies in their home environment at close quarters. this attraction was enchanced by the provision of music for dancing - not provided by the Gipsies themselves but usually by local bands hired for the occasion. These came to be known as the ‘Royal Epping Forest Gipsy Balls’. By his own claim George was the leader of this band of ball-giving Gypsies - but as he was considerably younger than some of the other family members he travelled with, one wonders what his elders would have said about this ‘upstart behaviour’. Whoever was responsible for the idea or its management, the group found great success during a tour in the 1860’s and 1870’s when they held dances in many large cities and towns, not only on the British mainland but also in the Isle of Man and Ireland, George runs briefly through some of their itinerary in the following pages. But to give a more detailed idea of how the dances were staged and what they included, an eye-witness account of the ball they gave in March 1871 at Binsey, Oxfordshire, is included. With the help of the considerable media coverage the group received from local newspapers wherever they went, supplemented by the use of birthplaces of the children in the group as given in census returns, it has also been possible to plot their course around the British Isles. A number of the 19th and 20th century Gypsiologists - such as T. W. Thompson and Eric Otto Winstedt - were also fascinated by the group and obviously researched them extensively, using both contemporary newspaper reports and the memories of Gypsies associated with or related to group members. They have fortunately left us their findings in the pages of the Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society. These articles are listed as suggestions for further reading. However previously unrecorded sightings of the group are continuing to come to light even in the 21st century - as in a recent discovery by John Andrews, a member of the Romany & Traveller Family History Society, of a newspaper report of a ball given by the group at Shrewsbury Racecourse in 1868. Books written by Gypsies themselves rather than by non-Gypsy observers continue to be rare. So we must count ourselves lucky that George’s admirable showmanship led to the creation of this work in the first place - and then also that this fragile piece of ephemera has managed to survive the rigours of more than a century to alert us to the existence of the curious phenomenon of the ball-giving ‘Royal Epping Forest Gipsies’. Sharon Floate
Gipsy Rodney Smith Memorial, Epping Forest * Known as the Gypsy Stone
Go to below to read it all :
http://www.studygroup.org.uk/Articles/Content/69/Liverpool%20Gypsies.htm
The Royal Epping Forest Gipsy Encampment at the International Exhibition, Liverpool. 1886 by Sharon Floate The 1886 Exhibition was a landmark event in Liverpool’s civic history, being the first great International Exhibition to be held outside London. It took place in buildings specially erected for the event on a site that lay due east of the present day Wavertree Park and Botanic Gardens in Edge Hill, with Edge Lane as the northern boundary of the grounds. A special railway station was also constructed to bring visitors to the exhibition, called ‘Exhibition Road’. Opened by Her Majesty Queen Victoria on 11 May 1886, the exhibition is reported to have attracted no less than 2.5 million visitors and hosted 450,000 exhibitors in the seven months it was open, so earning itself a deserved place on the list of ‘World Fairs’ of the Victorian era. It closed on 8 November 1886. (A useful point of comparison is the Great Exhibition of 1851, held in Hyde Park, London, which attracted 6 million visitors and had some 14,000 exhibitors in its five month duration.) The ‘International’ character of Liverpool’s Exhibition was personified by the presence of a number of different native peoples who appeared as ‘exhibits’ - something that may seem shocking in these politically correct days. In 1886, however, the Victorian passion for things foreign and exotic was at its height. Without the benefit as yet of cinematography the only way for most people to see foreigners in the flesh going about their normal everyday business, was either by travelling abroad or by attending events such as these. The contemporary newspapers reports which George Smith has added to the biographical section of this book, shows that groups of Laplanders, Indians and Hottentots were on show in Liverpool, amongst others. As curious as these people probably were to British eyes, they were seemingly eclipsed by the popularity and the drawing power of the English Gipsies in the shape of George Smith and his immediate family who, on the evidence provided by advertisements for the exhibition which appeared in the Liverpool Echo suggests the ‘Gipsy Encampment’ made its debut on Monday 14 June 1886.
George Smith’s ancestry George Smith - or Lazzy Smith as he is sometimes known - was a member of the East Anglian Smith family. By his own account he was born in 1830 at Mousehold Heath in Norwich, Norfolk, one of the two places in the eastern counties that these Smith’s saw as their headquarters, the other being the town of Woodbridge in Suffolk.
George took the surname Smith from his mother, Elizabeth. She was the sister of Ambrose Smith, the ‘Jasper Petulengro’ of ‘Borrow’s novels. George’s father was in fact a Buckley - Elijah. The oral history has it that Elijah Buckley was killed in a brawl in a public house at High Beech, Epping Forest, by a certain ‘Gypsy Stephens’ when George was very young and that his family never used the surname Buckley from then on.
There is documentary evidence that seems to support this, although admittedly without any suggestion of murder or manslaughter being involved. An entry in the burial register of the Abbey Church of Waltham Holy Cross, Waltham Cross, Essex, records that on 19 September 1832 an Elijah Buckley was buried there, being described as a 34 year old brazier from High Beech. However, George’s own account in the following pages doesn’t tally with this when he tells us that his father died at the age of 81. This anomaly may be explained by the fact that George Smith was not adverse to embroidering the truth when it suited his circumstances. Indeed as a firm example of this trait, when he found himself in financial difficulties in Edinburgh at the beginning of the 20th century, George is understood to have covered his tracks by faking his own death - even to the extent of having his own ‘In Memoriam’ cards printed. The story circulated that he ‘died of stewdiation’ - translated as ‘going insane’. It isn’t surprising therefore that when his close kinsfolk in Birkenhead, Cheshire were informed in 1909 that George was still alive and living with his daughter Alice in South Wales, the news was met with amazement and incredulity. According to the autobiographical account that follows, it was George who first had the idea of travelling Great Britain and at each stopping place opening up his encampment to the public and charging people an admission fee to enter and see the gipsies in their home environment at close quarters. this attraction was enchanced by the provision of music for dancing - not provided by the Gipsies themselves but usually by local bands hired for the occasion. These came to be known as the ‘Royal Epping Forest Gipsy Balls’. By his own claim George was the leader of this band of ball-giving Gypsies - but as he was considerably younger than some of the other family members he travelled with, one wonders what his elders would have said about this ‘upstart behaviour’. Whoever was responsible for the idea or its management, the group found great success during a tour in the 1860’s and 1870’s when they held dances in many large cities and towns, not only on the British mainland but also in the Isle of Man and Ireland, George runs briefly through some of their itinerary in the following pages. But to give a more detailed idea of how the dances were staged and what they included, an eye-witness account of the ball they gave in March 1871 at Binsey, Oxfordshire, is included. With the help of the considerable media coverage the group received from local newspapers wherever they went, supplemented by the use of birthplaces of the children in the group as given in census returns, it has also been possible to plot their course around the British Isles. A number of the 19th and 20th century Gypsiologists - such as T. W. Thompson and Eric Otto Winstedt - were also fascinated by the group and obviously researched them extensively, using both contemporary newspaper reports and the memories of Gypsies associated with or related to group members. They have fortunately left us their findings in the pages of the Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society. These articles are listed as suggestions for further reading. However previously unrecorded sightings of the group are continuing to come to light even in the 21st century - as in a recent discovery by John Andrews, a member of the Romany & Traveller Family History Society, of a newspaper report of a ball given by the group at Shrewsbury Racecourse in 1868. Books written by Gypsies themselves rather than by non-Gypsy observers continue to be rare. So we must count ourselves lucky that George’s admirable showmanship led to the creation of this work in the first place - and then also that this fragile piece of ephemera has managed to survive the rigours of more than a century to alert us to the existence of the curious phenomenon of the ball-giving ‘Royal Epping Forest Gipsies’. Sharon Floate
*******************************************************************************
Gipsy Rodney Smith Memorial, Epping Forest * Known as the Gypsy Stone
near to Woodford, Redbridge, Great Britain
Gipsy Rodney Smith memorial, Epping Forest
The inscription tells that Gipsy Rodney Smith was born here 31 March 1860, preached the gospel of Christ to thousands on five continents for seventy years
and was 'called home' journeying to America in 4 August 1947.
The stone lies in a secluded clearing of the forest, not far from the busy A104, Woodford New Road, just north-west of Waterworks roundabout.
and was 'called home' journeying to America in 4 August 1947.
The stone lies in a secluded clearing of the forest, not far from the busy A104, Woodford New Road, just north-west of Waterworks roundabout.
Copyright : John Davies
Rodney Smith is not buried here the stone was placed here in his memory.
*******************************
The snow falls deep; the Forest lies alone:
The boy goes hasty for his load of brakes,
Then thinks upon the fire and hurries back;
The Gipsy knocks his hands and tucks them up,
And seeks his squalid camp, half hid in snow,
Beneath the oak, which breaks away the wind,
And bushes close, with snow like hovel warm:
There stinking mutton roasts upon the coals,
And the half-roasted dog squats close and ribs,
Then feels the heat too strong and goes aloof;
He watches well, but none a bit can spare.
And vainly waits the morsel thrown away:
'Tis thus they live- a picture to the place;
A quiet, pilfering, unprotected race.
John Clare (1793 - 1864 ) was a Nature Poet who wandered through Epping Forset and came into contact with the Gypsies who lived there:
He was even taught to play the fiddle by ear, by Gypsy John Gray ,but this man suffered a madness caused by drink and great depressions which eventually lead to him being placed in various Asylums, in 1837 he was in Dr Matthew Allens High Beach Private Asylum near Loughton in Epping Forest
He was even taught to play the fiddle by ear, by Gypsy John Gray ,but this man suffered a madness caused by drink and great depressions which eventually lead to him being placed in various Asylums, in 1837 he was in Dr Matthew Allens High Beach Private Asylum near Loughton in Epping Forest
Wednesday 29th Sept, 1824
Took a walk in the fields ... saw an old woodstile taken away from a favourite spot which it had occupied all my life. The posts were overgrown with ivy and it seemed so akin to nature and the spot where it stood, as though it had taken it on lease for an undisturbed existence. It hurt me to see it was gone, for my affections claim a friendship with such things. Last year Langley Bush was destroyed, An old white thorn that had stood for more than a century full of fame. The Gipsies and Hern men all had their tales of its history. A few weeks later Clare attended 'Another Gipsy Wedding of the Smiths family, fiddling and drinking as usual'. He learned some gypsy medicine which was based on like for like, such as how to cure a viper's sting. Boil the viper and apply the broth to the wound it made. A sure cure, the gypsies said. He knew Wisdom Smith I believe who were Smiths from Northamptonshire.
The snow falls deep; the Forest lies alone:
The boy goes hasty for his load of brakes,
Then thinks upon the fire and hurries back;
The Gipsy knocks his hands and tucks them up,
And seeks his squalid camp, half hid in snow,
Beneath the oak, which breaks away the wind,
And bushes close, with snow like hovel warm:
There stinking mutton roasts upon the coals,
And the half-roasted dog squats close and ribs,
Then feels the heat too strong and goes aloof;
He watches well, but none a bit can spare.
And vainly waits the morsel thrown away:
'Tis thus they live- a picture to the place;
A quiet, pilfering, unprotected race.
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