THIS INFORMATION HAS BEEN OBTAINED FROM THE GRT HISTORY MONTH WEBSITE:
Gypsy Roma Traveller History Month
History Timeline
Follow the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller journey throughout British History
53 B.C.E
Fairs are being held in Britain after the Roman invasion.
c.1000 C.E
Groups of Roma, originating in Northern India, reach modern Greece and Turkey.
1100s C.E
Travellers first recorded in Ireland. Travelling smiths mentioned in Scottish records.
1200s C.E
Many fairs are created by Royal Charter, including Bridlington (1200) and Hull (1299). By the turn of the 13th Century Roma begin to arrive in Western Europe.
1498
Four Gypsies travel to the New World with Christopher Columbus.
1505
King James the Fourth of Scotland pays seven pounds to “Egyptians” stopped at Stirling, who may have come from Spain. Parish records from around this time show that Irish Travellers are already living in England.
1530
Gypsies are forbidden to enter England under Henry VIII. Those already there are deported.
1554
Queen Mary of England passes the Egyptians Act. Being a Gypsy is punishable by death, as is being found in “the fellowship or company of Egyptians”. This is the only time that fraternizing with an ethnic community has been punishable by death.
1570s
Scottish Gypsies are ordered to stop travelling or leave the country. First records of the Kale Gypsies in Wales.
The first recorded Gypsy presence in Leeds is in the Leeds Parish registers of 1572.
1650s
Last known hanging for the crime of being a Gypsy, in Suffolk, England. Gypsies are deported to America.
1660-1800
English Gypsies calling themselves Romanichals survive by working for trusted non-Gypsies who know them. Appleby Fair granted chartered fair status in 1685 by James II. Ballinasloe Fair receives its royal charter in 1722.
1714
British Gypsies are shipped to the Caribbean as slaves.
1768
The first modern Circus is held in London.
1780
Some English anti-Gypsy laws begin to be repealed.
1800s
Fairs start to include mechanical rides, as they still do today.
1820s
Tents start to be used for fairs under George IV.
1830s
Covered horse drawn wagons begin to be used by Gypsies in Britain. Many Gypsies live in the more makeshift bender tents, and will continue to do so until the mid-late 20th Century.
1880s
Agricultural depression in England. Many Travellers and Gypsies are poverty-stricken and move to urban squatters’ areas. Hundreds of Irish Travellers leave Ireland for Britain.
1889
Showmen in Britain form the United Kingdom Van Dwellers Association, later called the Showmen’s Guild, to fight the Moveable Dwellings Bill, which restricts Travellers’ movements.
1908
The Children’s Act makes education compulsory for Travelling children in England by The Children’s Act, but only for half the year.
1930s-60s
Groups of European Roma come to live in Britain.
1934
Django Reinhardt introduces “swing jazz” to the world. A major influence on the development of Jazz.
1939-45
World War II. Nazis compose lists of English Gypsies to be interned. In Britain, the government builds caravan camps for Gypsies serving in the forces or doing vital farm work. These are closed when the war finishes. Roma, Sinti and other Gypsies are stripped of all human rights by the Nazis. As many as 600,000 are murdered in camps and gas chambers. This is Porraimos (the devouring), the Roma holocaust in Europe.
1945-60
Travellers start to use motor-drawn trailers, and some buy their own land to stop on with them.
1960
New private sites are banned from being built in England by The Caravan Sites (Control of Development) Act. Mass evictions and public harassment of Gypsies and Travellers. Irish Government “Commission on Itinerancy” begins a programme to assimilate Irish Travellers.
1968
Lord Avebury helps to pass the new Caravan Sites Act. From 1970, the Government have to provide caravan sites for Travellers.
1970s-1990s
People from the settled community start to take to the road and live in caravans. They are known as “New Age Travellers” in the media.
1989
Romany Gypsies are first recognised under the Mandla criteria CRE v Dutton.
1994
The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act abolishes the Caravan Sites Act. This is disastrous for all Travellers living in Britain, and more than 5,000 families now have no legal home. Local councils became duty bound to identify land for private purchase by Travellers. Not one local council adhered to this.
1997
Slovak Romani refugees arrive in Dover, England. The media reaction is openly hostile.
2000
Irish Travellers are recognised as an ethnic minority under the Mandla criteria CRE v O’Leary v Allied Domecq. Scottish Travellers are still not recognised as an ethnic minority in Scotland.
In England, Gypsy-led protests at the ban of the 600 year old fair at Horsemonden in Kent are successful and the ban is finally lifted in 2006.
2003
Irish Traveller Johnny Delaney, 15, is kicked to death in Cheshire for being “only a f***ing Gypsy”, as Eyewitnesses report. The Judge at his murderers’ trial rules that it was not a racially motivated attack and sentences the killers to 4 ½ years.
2003
12 Sussex Bonfire Society members arrested for incitement to racial hatred after burning an effigy of a caravancontaining images of Gypsy women and children, and pained with inflammatory slogans.
2004
The Labour Government makes it a legal duty to assess the accommodation needs of Gypsies and Traveller.
2005
The Sun newspaper launches its “Stamp on the Camps” campaign against Gypsies and Travellers. The Conservatives try to get re-elected by targeting Gypsies’ supposed flouting of planning laws.
2006
BBC starts Rokker Radio, the first programme for Gypsies and Travellers in its history.
2008
Britain celebrates the first Gypsy, Roma and Traveller History Month. But in Italy, Roma camps are firebombed by neo-nazis.
Scottish Gypsy Travellers are recognised for the first time under Maclennon v GTEIP
2009
After a successful debut, Gypsy Roma Traveller History Month enters its second year.
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