21-05-2025
EXCLUSIVE Wickham Horse Fair travellers slam authorities for ordering pubs and shops to shut and warn: 'If they don't let us run the fair our way, they're gonna get problems'
Travellers at Wickham Horse Fair have blasted the police and local council for ordering pubs and shops in the area to shut for day, warning they will have 'problems' if they aren't allowed to run it their way.
The quaint Hampshire village was bought to a standstill yesterday, with roads, pubs and shops closed, as hundreds of travellers descended for the chartered horse trading event which dates back 800 years.
But Romanies who have been attending the event, which takes place annually on March 20, have taken offence to the local authorities orders for local businesses to shut up shop for the day.
Jessy Goddard, a well-known horse trader who comes to Wickham Horse Fair every year with his family, told MailOnline: 'I've gone to all the meetings with police and the council and I've told them if they don't let us run the fair our way, they're gonna get problems.
'So, they've stood back for the last three years and it's been fine. They can't stop it, there's no way they can stop it because it's a chartered fair.'
Gypsies have had a legal right to hold the fair since the 13th century when Roger De Syres obtained a royal charter from King Henry III to have a weekly market in Wickham's town square.
Mr Goddard, 66, said: 'The pubs and shops don't wanna open up and I don't understand why. They've got cameras. We aren't going to go and take their tools or anything.'
There was a time when they used to be able to go into the pubs for a pint but now have to drink at a beer tent since they were ordered to shut, he explained.
The patriarch, whose arm was in a sling for an injury he sustained when he fell off a horse, maintained there have been no issues with bad behaviour since he told the police and council to back off.
Mr Goddard said: 'The reason you won't see no trouble is because the last time there was trouble was because this place was full of police. We had the horses in our trucks and we weren't allowed to bring 'em out.
'They even split my hand open as I was trying to open the gate to let them out. I went to the meeting after that and they said it was too dangerous to let them out.'
A local superintendent police officer who was patrolling the outskirts of the fair told MailOnline: 'We will be here all through the night returning the town back to how it should look.
'It's a tricky one to police, to get the balance right, because they have no central organiser from the Romany and gypsy community to liaise with.
'Policing it is a very fine line and all we can do is stand back and watch and hope it's doesn't turn out for the worst.'
Hampshire Police today confirmed to MailOnline there were no arrests or police related incidents at the fair yesterday.
Gypsies have had a legal right to hold the fair since the 13th century when Roger De Syres obtained a royal charter from King Henry III to have a weekly market in Wickham's town square
Mr Goddard believes there is a misconception about travellers that they commit more crimes than what he calls 'gorjas' - a term travellers use to refer to non-travellers.
'Gorjas are worse than what travellers are,' he said, adding: 'They thieve more than travellers then they blame us.
'You look in the papers tonight, they'll be saying "Oh, my shed got broken into, my lawn mower got stolen, my kids bikes got stolen because the travellers are here", just to put the blade just so they can get an insurance claim.
'That's what they do and it gives us a bad name.'
Giving a message to those who who have misconceptions, he said: 'I would say they wanna sort themselves out and come down and see us.'
Nelson Scott, 78, who has been coming to Wickham Horse Fair since he was two years old, called the shop and pub closures 'criminal'.
He said: 'We feel persecuted because we feel they don't trust us. They're ignorant.
'We're a dying race and we are still condemned. Years ago, when we were travelling, they had in the shop and pub windows "no gypsies".
'We've got no rights, the law doesn't care about us. It's like claustrophobia, we feel closed in.'
Romanies who have been attending the event, which takes place annually on March 20, have taken offence to the local authorities orders for local businesses to shut up shop for the day
Mr Scott, who was accompanies by his wife Pauline, believes people's judgements that travellers are criminals are misdirected.
He said: 'Let me ask you, how many Romany travellers do you see getting done for rape, murder or killing babies on TV? You don't.
'Now, how many of them ['gorjas'] do you see doing it? That's the ones doing it. But we get the blame for anything anyway because we are not liked because we are gypsies.'
The grandfather who was born in a tent and travelled for much of his life said people should 'never believe what these house dwellers say'.
'They'll say "don't trust them around your children, they'll steal you children", but when we were travelling around and came across a lost little boy, who was brown, we took him home to look after him.
'We are all human. But never mind, it's too late to change anyone mind now. I just wish there was more respect for gypsies.'
Mr Scott's cousin, Dinky Sherwood was in agreement and said non-travellers look down on them.
The 68-year-old, who was born in a traditional Romany wagon, said: 'I'm a gypsy born and bred and I've never pinched anything in my life. I've poached! Shot pigeons and that, but I've never pinched anything.
A man and young boy pictured leading their horses around the The Square in Wickham where the fair is held
A man parading a horse down the road as people looking to purchase watch on from the side
Travellers ride their horses up and down as a way to show off them off and hopefully sell them
A young man seen cracking a whip as he rode his horse down the road during the annual event
'But people would assume I would because the gorjas look down on us like we are rubbish, they make fun of us. Another word I can't stand is p****s.'
Another traveller, Stanley, thinks the local businesses are missing out on a huge day of trade by abiding by orders to shut.
He said: 'The police tell them not to open. In our culture we talk loud and a lot of people be scared of that. The man and lady in the fish shop don't care though and they stay open and talk to us and get loads of business.
'These people that lives here don't want the fair to happen. But they're not realising if they open the shops, and put up with a bit of loud talking, our kind would spend more in one day than their kind does within a year.
'They'd do a nice bit of business. I think a few of them would actually open if they police and council didn't tell them to shut.
'A man at Appleby once told me he wouldn't even have a business without us gypsies.'
