BOOKS

 

  Travellers & Fairkeepers from The Cotswolds & Vale of White Horse to Regions Beyond

  BY Jim Hayward

 Now only produced in set of six parts

£340 inc Post UK, £360 inc Post World (pounds sterling only)

For the complete set of the six parts so far produced.

Each set is individually made for the purchaser with their name and identifying number inscribed on the inside covers of each part.

None genuine without the signature of the author on the inside cover

 

Copyrights © 2000, 2001, 2002, 2007 & 2008 J. & P. Hayward (All images and texts)

J. & P. Hayward, The Aviculturist Publications, Carterton Breeding Aviaries, Brize Norton Road, Carterton, Oxon, ENGLAND. OX18 3HW

Tel: 01993 841736   E-Mail: hayward@witneyserve.net

 

Part One:

The Buckland Family their Kith & Kin

 

THE OLD BUCKLANDS are chosen as the back-bone of this family history because of their large numbers and because they married into and influenced the lives of so many other travelling families ‑ as well as a great many of the non‑travelling inhabitants of the areas they worked.

Their 'travelling' descendants of today are just the tip of a great hidden mountain of 'settled' descendants who live what are considered to be more conventional lives ‑ being totally unaware of the past rich culture of their ancestry, and the interest it aroused from the mid nineteenth century into the early part of the twentieth century amongst a certain group of enthusiasts describing themselves as 'Romany Rais' or 'Gypsiologists'.

The counties through which the young Thames with its contributories, then the Vale of the White Horse and the Cotswolds run ‑ Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Berkshire, Oxfordshire and Warwickshire ‑ were most certainly strongholds for the Bucklands and their kith and kin during these times.

Part Two:

Abraham Buckland & His Children

THE MARRIAGE OF ABRAHAM BUCKLAND AND EMILY SHAW was important as the foundation stone of a large and spreading family of travelling show people. Not all the family took to fair keeping but the majority did, and this resulted in members of at least another five generations continuing in the tradition up to the present time.

  Many of Abraham and Emily's children and their subsequent partners and families were amusement caterers all their lives; they attended countless events ‑ fairs, feasts and clubs ‑ spreading from the areas in which they wintered, out to the midlands, Wales, the West Country, the counties of the south coast and into London and its surroundings.

Part Three:

Mantus Buckland His Kin & Their Associates

 

IN VICTORIAN/EDWARDIAN TIMES at Burford and Fulbrook, there had developed an intricate web of fairkeeping families, where - even though disappearing into underground streams beneath other family names - there also ran the Buckland bloodline of old Mantus.

  Seemingly without end, the fantastic geometry of the Buckland associated families bisects the circumferences of circles of amazingly complex relationships; it winds out and then spins back into itself.

  From the Burford fairkeepers to the Headington fiddlers, from Phoebe Smith who could 'fight any man' and jumped for joy into Chalgrove brook at her wedding to Jim Bunce, to Dona Buckland who climbed the Berkshire Downs to 'wrestle with God and the Devil' for the sake of her son, the origins and associations of Mantus and his kinfolk are traced from tent dwelling times and days of horse-driven roundabouts, on through the age of the great steam engines.

Part Four:

Alabon Smith Some of his Tribe - with Addenda/Revisions

 ADDITIONAL AND REVISED INFORMATION includes more details about Dancing Booths and the local men from Brize Norton and Minster Lovell who played in and operated some of them, as well as extra material on the travelling families already outlined in Parts One, Two and Three.

  A great swathe of Buckland descendants are shown herein to be blood relatives of a mass of Smith descendants of equally incalculable volume, all having sprung from the patriarch Alabon Smith and two of his three known wives.

  Among their colourful relatives - both near and distant - are included the Berkshire fiddler and coconut sheet proprietor Tommy Lewis or Boswell (who was reputed to have sired thirty-six children), Esau and Henty Smith (the King and Queen of the Black Patch, Birmingham), and Sifi Smith - who caused a trial over a teapot.

Part Five:

The Spurretts Their Families & Their Associates

THOMAS SPURRETT & REJOICE ORPWOOD were the founding partnership that resulted in a mass of families which soon spread out from their original home town of Bampton in Oxfordshire; they were solidly based within the agricultural economy and made their livings as agricultural workers, road surveyors, dealers, shop keepers, coal merchants, bakers, publicans and farmers.

  Two of their grand‑children ‑ the brothers Joe and Bill Spurrett ‑ made themselves well known as fairkeepers in their own district and far afield, and were members of The Showman’s' Guild of Great Britain.

  The tradition of the travelling showman still continues amongst great‑grand‑children and great‑great‑grand-children of Bill Spurrett and his wife Bella Buckland.

Part Six:

Addenda & Revisions to Parts One to Five

THE POSSIBLE DESCENT of the Cokey Smiths from the Loveridges is discussed, along with their connections back into the Buckland and other long established travelling families. There is further information on Buckland connections with the Midland Smiths, Aldridges, Biddles, and many of these families’ associates.

  A puzzle over Urania Buckland, a presumed matriarch of the Bunces; Riley smith who ‘sold his blood to the Devil’; a possible clue to the origination of a branch of the Lambs; more from George Hatwell on the founding of the travelling section of the Hatwells from Otmoor and Cassington - and Wychwood Forest Fair; further on the Rogers family, and more intricacies of the Rowles, Smith and Forest families of Burford - all this is included in the sixth part of this series.

 

Old Ways, New Days Price £12.99 

Old Ways, New Days: A Family History of Gypsy Life in South London and Kent.

by Rosie Smith and Lindsey Marsh.

Paperback 104 pages with over 100 black and white photographs.

ISBN 978 1 903427 45 3

Old ways, New Days is a book of photographs and reminiscences of Gypsy life in South London,

 Surrey and Kent by Rosie Smith, who still lives a traditional Gypsy lifestyle, and her second cousin Lindsey Marsh, who has been researching her own Gypsy roots. It is an introduction to the language, working lives, music, poetry and song of Gypsies and a record of the changes that have taken place in their way of life in recent years. With chapters on prize-fighting, cherry picking and hop picking, the book also exposes the hostility that Gypsies have endured at the hands of gavvers and local councils over the years. A remarkable book, a social history and the seldom heard voice of Gypsy life.

Available in June:- Check Linsey's Marsh site at :- http://www.marloco.com