History of Romany Gypsies on Belvedere marshes.
In winter months of the 1940s up to 1,700 Gypsies would congregate on marshland in the borough — making it the largest caravan site of its kind in the country.
Gypsies who were mostly of English Romany descent settled on the Belvedere Marshes in Erith helping out with harvesting on farms during summer months and labouring in the winter.
Simon McKeon, borough archivist at Bexley Local Studies and Archive Centre, said: “When they were needed, they were very useful here working on the farms but when the labouring opportunities were finished, that’s when people perceived them as being a nuisance.”
Erith borough council considered Gypsies to be a cause of concern and attempted, for 20 years, to remove them from the marshes.
Mr McKeon added: “In 1947, there were 1,700 Gypsies on the marshes which dropped to about 600 during the summer. During the winter time the area was very much linked to the Gypsy heritage and this can be seen today with the recently installed cob horse sculpture in Belvedere.”
The cob inspired by the Gypsy community who would breed and sell horses on the marshes
The council’s eviction process even made it into the national press in 1948 when The Daily Mirror’s “Ruggles” cartoon strip featured the plight of the Belvedere community where Councillor Alford was depicted as describing the Gypsies as a “blot on the good name of Erith”.
Fate took its turn in 1953 when floods washed away the site and many Gypsies were housed by Erith borough council, others were moved on.
The council finally got its own way in 1956 when 700 people and “ramshackle structures” were removed from the marshes drawing to an end over 100 years of Gypsy history on the marshes.
But not all politicians were intent on moving the Gypsy community but in the ’60s Norman Dodds, Labour MP for Erith and Crayford, passionately campaigned for their rights to have better water and sanitary facilities.
He died in 1965, but James Wellbeloved who became the MP for the same seat, took up the campaign and in 1968 the Caravans Sites Act was passed by Parliament.
The act placed a duty on all local authorities in England and Wales to provide sites on which Gypsies could place their caravans and stay, either temporarily or permanently. It was in turn repelled by the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1995. Mayor of London Boris Johnson published proposals in 2010 to reduce the London-wide target of Traveller sites from 538 to 238 but this was axed due to the coalition Governments decision to abolish regional strategies.
Today there are three remaining Gypsy encampments in the borough with around 40 residents located in Jenningtree Way, Belvedere, Powerscroft Road, Sidcup, and Thames Road, Crayford, where a combination of stationary trailers, houses and caravans remain.
(Bexley Times 24 February 2011, Reena Kumar )
In winter months of the 1940s up to 1,700 Gypsies would congregate on marshland in the borough — making it the largest caravan site of its kind in the country.
Gypsies who were mostly of English Romany descent settled on the Belvedere Marshes in Erith helping out with harvesting on farms during summer months and labouring in the winter.
Simon McKeon, borough archivist at Bexley Local Studies and Archive Centre, said: “When they were needed, they were very useful here working on the farms but when the labouring opportunities were finished, that’s when people perceived them as being a nuisance.”
Erith borough council considered Gypsies to be a cause of concern and attempted, for 20 years, to remove them from the marshes.
Mr McKeon added: “In 1947, there were 1,700 Gypsies on the marshes which dropped to about 600 during the summer. During the winter time the area was very much linked to the Gypsy heritage and this can be seen today with the recently installed cob horse sculpture in Belvedere.”
The cob inspired by the Gypsy community who would breed and sell horses on the marshes
The council’s eviction process even made it into the national press in 1948 when The Daily Mirror’s “Ruggles” cartoon strip featured the plight of the Belvedere community where Councillor Alford was depicted as describing the Gypsies as a “blot on the good name of Erith”.
Fate took its turn in 1953 when floods washed away the site and many Gypsies were housed by Erith borough council, others were moved on.
The council finally got its own way in 1956 when 700 people and “ramshackle structures” were removed from the marshes drawing to an end over 100 years of Gypsy history on the marshes.
But not all politicians were intent on moving the Gypsy community but in the ’60s Norman Dodds, Labour MP for Erith and Crayford, passionately campaigned for their rights to have better water and sanitary facilities.
He died in 1965, but James Wellbeloved who became the MP for the same seat, took up the campaign and in 1968 the Caravans Sites Act was passed by Parliament.
The act placed a duty on all local authorities in England and Wales to provide sites on which Gypsies could place their caravans and stay, either temporarily or permanently. It was in turn repelled by the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1995. Mayor of London Boris Johnson published proposals in 2010 to reduce the London-wide target of Traveller sites from 538 to 238 but this was axed due to the coalition Governments decision to abolish regional strategies.
Today there are three remaining Gypsy encampments in the borough with around 40 residents located in Jenningtree Way, Belvedere, Powerscroft Road, Sidcup, and Thames Road, Crayford, where a combination of stationary trailers, houses and caravans remain.
(Bexley Times 24 February 2011, Reena Kumar )
Gypsies and Travellers
The gypsy encampment on Belvedere Marshes was established in 1895. The land had been offered for sale for development. However, poor drainage meant that only one bungalow was ever built. The poor conditions did not deter travellers from settling on the site, which was conveniently located close to factories in London, Erith and Belvedere.
In 1896 the Inspector of Nuisances reported to Erith Council that nine plots of land had been purchased by a gypsy named Love, who let them out to other travellers for an encampment. Despite years of hostility from the local authority and the decline in traditional winter forms of work, the encampment at Belvedere Marshes became an increasing attractive stopping off place on the edge of London.
By 1947 the Belvedere Marshes site was the largest encampment in Great Britain, with 600 summer and 1700 winter residents. Erith’s attempts to remove the gypsies form the Marshes even made the national press when in 1948 the Daily Mirror ‘Ruggles’ cartoon strip featured the plight of the Belvedere gypsy community.
Where Erith Council failed to shift the travellers, the North Sea Floods of 1953 succeeded. The entire encampment was flooded and the occupants temporarily re-housed in a rest centre. The Council then found them permanent, conventional accommodation within the Borough. Attempts to return to the encampment were strongly discouraged. Finally in 1956 the clearance was completed with the removal of over 700 people and 280 ramshackle dwellings.
"Information and images compiled by Bexley Local Studies & Archive Centre."
This legacy was acknowledged in the public art by sculptor Andy Scott ,unveiled in 2011: a towering five metre high steel Gypsy Cob horse which has its head held high and its mane and tail flowing in the wind. The working horse celebrates the unique character and industrial heritage of the area.
Some of the comments received from the public on The Cob design were:
"I think it's a suitable link to our travelling community. Also it's a good, strong, clear figure - no second guessing of what it is."
"It's beautiful! This striking sculpture reflects the rich cultural heritage of the travelling communities in this area and the contribution they and their horses have made and are still making to the area. The horse is vivid, alive and proud and represents everything good about the area."
"Having lived in Belvedere all my life like my parents and my father's parents have, I think this would be more of a significant sculpture representing days gone by, I remember walking down past the marshes with my grandmother to meet my grandfather from work. All those surroundings are now long gone, but I feel this would represent what stood before the industrial estates were even there."
"Horses were bred and kept on Belvedere marshes for hundreds of years and many of them were kept and reared by the local gypsy population. I think that this should be recognised and celebrated."
LINKS TO WEB SITES THAT CONTAIN INFORMATION ON GYPSY LIFE IN BELVEDERE AND KENT
https://www.facebook.com/RomanyRoad/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/kent/romany_roots/
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,507101.msg3635674.html
http://romanygenes2.webeden.co.uk/#/parish-registers/4526588077
http://www.travellerstimes.org.uk
http://www.culture24.org.uk/history-and-heritage/art38565