Appleby Fair

I really feel for people living near there it must be awful. I would like a full documented account of total numbers and crime increases etc at the fair and in the local community. Why do they let these things continue if they are as bad as they are reputed to be? Why are the human (if you can call them that) rights of an ethnic group rated higher than the human rights of the local community who surely have rights to feel safe in their own home? :o :confused:

Toffee - its interesting what you say, so likely the fair has been taken over by the scum section of this part of society (like many things do in any society) leaving the 'old-schoolers' out to find their way somewhere else?
 
Ohhh I went once about 5 years ago. It was when I was just getting in to horses and I thought it'd be like a country fair, you know... like a smaller version of Bramham... :D My LORDY LORD was I in for a shock.

It was like being in a hostile football crowd but with horses. You had to watch not to get trampled because they were racing the horses up the main street, past people. You had to try not to get beaten up for staring at the girls who'd only got their knickers and bras on... albeit in a fetching shade of luminous yellow, pink or green. You had to try not to look visibly distressed when they were 'riding' their horses into the river then washing them with head and shoulders shampoo, which was getting in their eyes and they were going mental. You had to try not to see the swathes of knock off chainsaws, garden equipment for sale round the back (Seriously, who owns 8 second hand chain saws). Then there was the big mammas walking about in their fur coats through the filth with Styrofoam cups and trays stuck onto the bottom of their stiletto heels. It was a weird sort of horsey hell and made me very angry to be honest.
 
Stencilface said:
Toffee - its interesting what you say, so likely the fair has been taken over by the scum section of this part of society (like many things do in any society) leaving the 'old-schoolers' out to find their way somewhere else?
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Sadly the old schoolers who have never been a problem to anyone are so far and few between now :( It's this new breed who both normal law abiding folk and the Police are scared of, as they show no respect to anyone.
 
Beausmate said:
You missed out stealing! Lots of stealing and criminal damage, then there's the mess left behind.

Basically a festival for the lawless. :(

Don't know about castrations, but the fighting is another part of the fun!
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A few years a girl got raped, they handled the situation well, off with his balls it was!
One year it was the fashion to carry machetes and another year guns, not sure what this years assessory is yet though.:rolleyes:
 
Clodagh said:
An elderly friend of ours lives at Appleby, his house backs onto the river. He phones up in tears every year, he is terrified and cannot leave his house, yet can't move out for the week either or he won't have a house to move back to.
We wondered why he moved there but when he bought the house - 30 years ago - it was apparently not as bad and now he is stuck. Tragic that it is allowed to continue and I feel for anyone in the area.
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what a poor old soul :(
 
Moobucket said:
Ohhh I went once about 5 years ago. It was when I was just getting in to horses and I thought it'd be like a country fair, you know... like a smaller version of Bramham... :D My LORDY LORD was I in for a shock.

It was like being in a hostile football crowd but with horses. You had to watch not to get trampled because they were racing the horses up the main street, past people. You had to try not to get beaten up for staring at the girls who'd only got their knickers and bras on... albeit in a fetching shade of luminous yellow, pink or green. You had to try not to look visibly distressed when they were 'riding' their horses into the river then washing them with head and shoulders shampoo, which was getting in their eyes and they were going mental. You had to try not to see the swathes of knock off chainsaws, garden equipment for sale round the back (Seriously, who owns 8 second hand chain saws). Then there was the big mammas walking about in their fur coats through the filth with Styrofoam cups and trays stuck onto the bottom of their stiletto heels. It was a weird sort of horsey hell and made me very angry to be honest.
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Wow. Just.....wow....:eek:
 
I went once, my memories are as follows :-

3 dead horses drowned whilst being washed in the river

The smell of 2 rotting horse copse,s will stay with me forever, which were dumped in ditches.

A tiny mini shetland having to struggle to pull 6 grown men up the hill in a little cart, men thought this was very good fun.

Woman selling their lucky charms (which were actually looney tunes keyrings) pmsl

Foals being ridden by teenagers

Trotting races with regular crashes and horses slipping over on their sides.

Its a shame really because there were some nice looking horses there who looked well cared for, but the sad truth is my memories are of the bad bits not the good bits.
 
Yes, i'd forgotten about the carts on route. So you have the A66 which is a dual carriage way with long straight descents where people speeding along at over 80mph, then lo and behold a horse and cart with 3 lads on it trotting along. Its terrifying and horses are killed every year despite the warning signs. Who'd put their horses through that? :mad:
 
I wouldn't judge gypsy society based on the more visible types described here. I'm sure you wouldn't want someone judging 'you and your kind' based on the aftermath of a west end football derby.

I had the pleasure of taking an elderly romany gentleman (lived locally for many years, and a friend) to Stow fair a few years ago. He was proper old school, and seemed to know everyone. For me it felt like giving the Queen a lift to Ascott. These fairs originate as marriage and trade events, where deals are done, and friendships/kinships kept alive. They're essential for nomadic people.

I drive carriages, so have dealings with both irish and romany types quite regularly, and have found them honest and decent. I'm sure many of them are as pissed off with the out of control element as everyone else.
 
I'm a bit offended that some posters thought Appleby would be like Bramham! :eek: :eek:

Its fraightfully posh at bramham you know, we have Pimms with fruit and everything! ;)
 
pennyturner said:
These fairs originate as marriage and trade events, where deals are done, and friendships/kinships kept alive. They're essential for nomadic people.
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But very few now are actually nomadic, they've taken over tons of land near me and have had it made official as a desiganted site right by the Hilton and graze their ponies on the lawns there!

It's become something totally different from the original aim. :(
 
Sounds like hell on earth. I know someone who goes every year and loves it-can't understand why! It must be awful living near it.
 
I live not far away on one of the main arterial roads that they use to get into the area. Often, then turn up about 2 - 3 weeks in advance and camp on the verges just at the lane end from us, this time, because of the poor weather, thankfully they only showed up a week or so ago.

It's a funny do the fair - probably something to go and have a look at once, but it is very difficult to get over the way they treat their horses - which are their pride, joy and wealth, it should be added! They don't seem to see anything wrong with what they do, but to us, it's all v wrong - the culture clash is just so vast!

All this week, driving to our local town along the stretch of 'camping road' (main A road, usually v fast and I don't like riding along it) you have been taking yours and their life into your hands.....people dropping onto the road in sulkys just in front of you, people parking on the road (across the full lane!!) just so they can have a chat and a cup of tea with their mate who is parked up there! They just have no respect for the folk around them and that is what gets me. Actually, I should say there are some of the old school gypsy folk still around, who are courteous and smile and wave to you as you go past in your car, but they are defo the minority.

All sorts of stuff goes missing at this time of year - my friend just had her tractor battery stolen from her leccy fence last week - wonder where that went (!) - could it be on to the hastily constructed electric fence down the road that was put up as young foals were wandering onto said road?!!! OH had to stop and funnel one back to its dam the other night - the gypsies didn't seem to care!

I have some friends who live v close to the site who love it - it amazes me - one is a complete fluffy bunny hugger with all animals and yet she copes with them riding yearlings, thrashing the horses up and down the tarmac etc etc.....most strange. It is the welfare aspect that I can't on with, as I say, the culture gap (young lasses in neon PVC and heels etc) otherwise is just too big for me to even begin to identify with!
 
I am not sure if I have ever read a more prejudiced, snobbish, ill-informed, biased, nasty, unsupported, hate-filled garbage account of Appleby Fair and Gypsies as appears in this forum.

The words 'It must be awful' appear half a dozen times, demonstrating that those writers at last have never been there, but that does not stop them spouting their prejudice. Apart from the one or people who have written in to defend 'real gypsies' but mostly it is verging on simple racism, and says as much about the character of the writers as it does about the character of Gypsy people...
 
I think i would rather cheese grate my own eyeballs then witness it.


They camped on the verge near us a few weeks ago, foals lose wandering near the side of a 70mph road. Thrasing youngsters up and down said 70mph roads at night :eek::eek: and the amount of mess they left :o


Oh and they decided to block a bridlepath with their caravans and left glass everywhere for the council to clean meaning said bridlepath has been out of action for a few weeks whilst the council tidy up after them :mad:
 
ApplebyLover said:
I am not sure if I have ever read a more prejudiced, snobbish, ill-informed, biased, nasty, unsupported, hate-filled garbage account of Appleby Fair and Gypsies as appears in this forum.

The words 'It must be awful' appear half a dozen times, demonstrating that those writers at last have never been there, but that does not stop them spouting their prejudice. Apart from the one or people who have written in to defend 'real gypsies' but mostly it is verging on simple racism, and says as much about the character of the writers as it does about the character of Gypsy people...
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Wondered when the *racism* card would be pulled! *taxi!*
 
ApplebyLover said:
I am not sure if I have ever read a more prejudiced, snobbish, ill-informed, biased, nasty, unsupported, hate-filled garbage account of Appleby Fair and Gypsies as appears in this forum.

The words 'It must be awful' appear half a dozen times, demonstrating that those writers at last have never been there, but that does not stop them spouting their prejudice. Apart from the one or people who have written in to defend 'real gypsies' but mostly it is verging on simple racism, and says as much about the character of the writers as it does about the character of Gypsy people...
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Owp here they come out in force :rolleyes:

http://primetime.unrealitytv.co.uk/...at-prejudice-against-travellers-is-warranted/

http://blogs.rspca.org.uk/insights/2012/08/21/this-is-appleby-horse-fair-2012/

http://www.politics.co.uk/opinion-f...ed-for-drowning-a-horse-at-appleby-horse-fair


Google it.... appleby fair is not a nice place, some travellers are okay, others are scum and deserve their title, same as normal folk you get the bad and good. Its not racist at all.
 
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If anybody is under the illusion that it's only travellers who treat there horses badly I could tell them a few tales about people who play upmarket games.
 
ApplebyLover said:
I am not sure if I have ever read a more prejudiced, snobbish, ill-informed, biased, nasty, unsupported, hate-filled garbage account of Appleby Fair and Gypsies as appears in this forum.

The words 'It must be awful' appear half a dozen times, demonstrating that those writers at last have never been there, but that does not stop them spouting their prejudice. Apart from the one or people who have written in to defend 'real gypsies' but mostly it is verging on simple racism, and says as much about the character of the writers as it does about the character of Gypsy people...
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I think people are generally using 'it must be awful' in reference to others living nearby - a lot of accounts on here are first-hand. You can say that those accounts are wrong or biased if that's what you think, but this thread hasn't been filled with vague, ignorant prejudice from people who haven't got a clue.
 
ApplebyLover said:
I am not sure if I have ever read a more prejudiced, snobbish, ill-informed, biased, nasty, unsupported, hate-filled garbage account of Appleby Fair and Gypsies as appears in this forum.

The words 'It must be awful' appear half a dozen times, demonstrating that those writers at last have never been there, but that does not stop them spouting their prejudice. Apart from the one or people who have written in to defend 'real gypsies' but mostly it is verging on simple racism, and says as much about the character of the writers as it does about the character of Gypsy people...
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Unsupported? Need evidence of someone shot in the head and a big fight at Wickham Horse Fair?

Ok....

http://www.itv.com/news/meridian/update/2013-05-20/man-shot-in-head-at-wickham-horse-fair/
 
Coincidentally it is the one week of the year that Newark is tollerable...

Completely feel for you Justabob, I have never understood why that event is tollerated.

It also baffles me that PETA and the likes are not making a big deal - PETA are usually the biggest at kicking up a fuss...
 
ApplebyLover said:
I am not sure if I have ever read a more prejudiced, snobbish, ill-informed, biased, nasty, unsupported, hate-filled garbage account of Appleby Fair and Gypsies as appears in this forum.

The words 'It must be awful' appear half a dozen times, demonstrating that those writers at last have never been there, but that does not stop them spouting their prejudice. Apart from the one or people who have written in to defend 'real gypsies' but mostly it is verging on simple racism, and says as much about the character of the writers as it does about the character of Gypsy people...
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Rileyboy?
 
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