THE WAY OF THE ROMA

 

THE WAY OF THE ROMA

Worcestershire County Museum, Hartlebury Castle, Kidderminster

The Worcestershire County Museum (WCM) at Hartlebury Castle is looking to radically transform the experiences of visitors to its beautiful Gypsy Roma and Traveller (GRT) Vardo (the Romany word for a horse drawn gypsy caravan) collection.

The move follows the appointment as Vardo Project Officer of Georgie Stevens, part Romany herself, who by reaching out to the GRT community to record their distinctive lives intends to help WCM visitors and the general public at large to understand how these minority ethnic groups have contributed to British society – and rural communities particularly - for centuries.

Most of the 9 Vardos at Hartlebury were acquired in the 1960s for the transport section of the museum. Opened in 1950 the museum also hosts displays of costumes and toys and dolls.  The 1960s was a period when traditional living methods were in decline amongst GRT communities.

According to Stevens: “In older days all the wood on a vardo  was carved and the carvings express strong relationships with animals, especially horses, wildlife and birds. Sadly, as the skills died out it became too expensive to maintain the practice. Colours from natural backgrounds were important as the community wanted to blend in and be part of the local landscape and so used green, browns and rich reds.”

There are six different vardo forms. The Burton would be used for specific purpose such as carrying goods to sell at showgrounds or fairs. The Bow Top would house whole families and faced with such a small living space inside the waggon, then naturally as much time as possible was spent outside around the campfire. Cooking was done on an open fire.

Cleanliness was maintained according to strict rules and traditionally gypsies would only wash themselves in running water as a bath involves sitting in dirty water. No animals were allowed inside a waggon.

Sleeping was done inside and outside the waggon. Adults slept on the top bunk and small children in the lower bunk. Other family members would sleep under a cover on the cart, beneath the wagon on warm nights or in a bender tent constructed from willow or hazel with a tarpaulin over the top.

“According to my auntie, who is a district nurse, it was the coldness of sleeping outside across Herefordshire that contributed to her adopting a more traditional life when she grew up. My dad, who became an agricultural contractor, made the same decision, “explains Georgie.  

Her paternal grandparents bred horses, which have always been economically important in GRT life. Gypsies, whose roots trace back to Northern India over 1000 years ago and who arrived in Britain around 500 years ago, were important in breeding horses that were used to transport goods and materials during the early years of the industrial revolution.

The GRT community sought employment while on the move and thus earnt their living by various means - of which agricultural work was central. With its extensive orchards, hop fields and fruit farms, Herefordshire and Worcestershire were popular destinations to travel to.

 “The rural landscapes of both counties would look very differently today if the GRT communities had not harvested the fruit and cut down and processed the hops,” says Georgie.

Other occupations undertaken by GRT include door to door sales, the collecting of scrap and rags for recycling and metalwork; especially knife grinding, blade sharpening and the manufacturing of nails and pins.

According to Helen Large, Museums Audience Manager for Museums Worcestershire, the Vardo Collection is the equivalent to a National Collection and “we know a great deal about physical aspect of the caravans and some associated stories. But it got to a stage where we wanted to connect with all the communities that make up Worcestershire. We wanted to hear the words of the GRT community itself and were fortunate enough to begin work on this by getting funding from the John Ellerman Foundation to employ Georgie and despite COVID she has made brilliant progress since beginning work last year.”

Stevens sees the work as part of her identity and is “passionate about getting the GRT story recorded and explained to the many members of the public who are not educated about the history of GRT communities and their culture. “

Stevens has started to approach older members of GRT communities to interview them. Some are not too keen to get involved as they prefer for stories to be passed on orally and they also feel undervalued as a community.

“I need them to know that is not the case and convince people that they have a really interesting story that also dovetails with the histories of many other communities who have migrated to Britain from overseas or who have moved from different regions of the UK and Ireland to find work”, says Stevens. She is aware that programmes such as the Big Fat Gypsy Wedding series reinforced certain prejudicial ideas about the GRT community.

Once the oral histories are collected then visitors – including school students - will be able to listen to them. Local schools have a relatively high intake of children from GRT backgrounds including some who may not currently want to express it. Stevens wants these children to be proud of their identity.

She wants to work with young members of the GRT community on art, music and drama projects and to build a vardo from scratch.

Stevens is also looking to redesign the vardo display area so that they are collected around a fire and intends to construct a bender tent which visitors can sit inside. There are longer term plans for incorporating interactive interactive technologies. A growing number of museums are using apps, QR codes and touch screens that allow for easy and direct transfer of information.

The museum’s work is even more relevant now as the Government has just passed legislation that - in light of the fact that there is a substantial shortage of approved sites - means Gypsies have very few places where they can legally stop.

Landworker readers should consider keeping up to date with developments as well as enjoying a visit to Hartlebury Castle Museum in the future.

FIND OUT MORE

www.museumsworcestershire.org.uk/museums/county-museum-hartlebury/