'Wanderlusts' gypsy caravan holidays and living off grid

Always used to love Jack Hargreaves in ‘Out of Town’ he went out of his way to record programmes of the old ways before they died out, particularly around the New Forest. It was a Southern TV programme but assume it went out nationally?

here’s one of a painter for the carts
 
Harryw said:
Always used to love Jack Hargreaves in ‘Out of Town’ he went out of his way to record programmes of the old ways before they died out, particularly around the New Forest. It was a Southern TV programme but assume it went out nationally?

here’s one of a painter for the carts
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Brilliant programme . It was certainly broadcast in Scotland
 
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mariesnowgoose said:
The forerunner of the combustion engine (or now electric?) campervan.

Spent a great summer Full Moon meet weekend at their place with BanjoBilly & co a few years back, a really nice family. (y)

Maybe if you fancy a break from 4 wheels and aren't in a rush to get anywhere... ?

wanderlusts.co.uk

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mariesnowgoose said:
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nice bunch . pretty much our life ,but we had more kids and less horses . had a shower like that too ,just a shed leaning against the van and also no fridge . we also had ,on our park-up , a secret forgotten stand pipe the water board had forgotten about - very handy ! never had solar panels ,too dear ,but various gennys and every time a car moved it would charge a spare battery for lights, i hated candles ,they coat your throat with paraffin, horrible .any money we accumulated went on ferry fares and diesel . kids went to school or not ,their choice mainly ,but when it was time to up sticks we were offski !
 
Just wonder do they pay tax on jobs done and sold, then there are the doctors etc which most of us get with our tax monies.
Ground rent of rates, money for vets to look after horses, seems a good life but i wonder how much is blagged or scrounged.
 
trevskoda said:
Just wonder do they pay tax on jobs done and sold, then there are the doctors etc which most of us get with our tax monies.
Ground rent of rates, money for vets to look after horses, seems a good life but i wonder how much is blagged or scrounged.
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For Barny and Katus not much blagging or scrounging, I think you can pretty much tell that from where they live.
Barny makes money building vardos etc. and Katus is a singer/musician.
Their environmental footprint is pretty much zero - certainly a hell of a lot less than conventional housing.
You say seems a good life, but it certainly wouldn't appeal to the majority of most folk long term as not many modern 'luxuries' - if any!

The horses...
Don't know how working horses stack up against a modern combustion engine as an alternative mode of transport?
Anybody know? :unsure: 🤷‍♀️
 
Horses are very high maintenance if you think about it,not like the internal combustion engine ie mode of transport.
At home when I were young and you were going to work with a pair of horses your day started at 6am, muck out the stable, choose a pair of horses and take them into the yard and wash them down, dry them off with a bag then currycomb them and put on their harness ready for work, put them back in the stable with some hay and oats, you then went into the house for breakfast at 8am, if you were ploughing you changed horses at dinner time with a new pair and you did the same routine as morning.
The routine of the year revolved round your stock, hay time for feed, harvest for oats and barley for feed not to mention turnips, kale and mangold.
Sunday was often spent cleaning harness, oiling leathers, polishing brass and clean and oil anything that had been used during the week.
You were always judged by the way your horses were turned out.
Motor car -------- wash once a week if lucky, you buy fuel as required, if you aren't going to use it park it up and ignore it.
Life with a motor car is a lot easier, but with horses you always had someone to talk to and they were always glad to see you.
As you will gather I am just a daft old sod when it comes horses and stock.
 
Horses are more inviromently dirty than cars with admissions, second there are more horses now than in victorian times, they require a lot of work.
Yes no bother living their life style, just wonder are they paying the taxes etc, id think not.
 
trevskoda said:
Horses are more inviromently dirty than cars with admissions, second there are more horses now than in victorian times, they require a lot of work.
Yes no bother living their life style, just wonder are they paying the taxes etc, id think not.
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Trev, these particular people are not in the same culture as your Irish 'Tinkers'.
They do pay their dues. They're settled on their own piece of land, have been for some time, and use all the local services same as everyone else.

Irish 'Tinkers' is a different story, at least historically, so I understand how dislike/animosity can come about.
My own mother (Southern Irish) and the rest of her family didn't have a good word to say in that regard, but that was based firmly on their first hand experience of thieving and other pretty bad behaviour when actually living in Ireland, i.e. 100% fact and not second-hand hearsay. 🤷‍♀️
 
Many years ago my sister and her two friends hired a gypsy caravan in Ireland. They couldn’t get the horse to back into the rails so tried to push the caravan at the horse.
A passerby, once he has stopped laughing, had to do it for them. Don't think they ever got the hang of it.
 
Ireland has changed so much from when i were a kid, no donkeys or carts down south now, more like Porsche lambo and Bmw since the celtic tiger landed
 
mariesnowgoose said:
Trev, these particular people are not in the same culture as your Irish 'Tinkers'.
They do pay their dues. They're settled on their own piece of land, have been for some time, and use all the local services same as everyone else.

Irish 'Tinkers' is a different story, at least historically, so I understand how dislike/animosity can come about.
My own mother (Southern Irish) and the rest of her family didn't have a good word to say in that regard, but that was based firmly on their first hand experience of thieving and other pretty bad behaviour when actually living in Ireland, i.e. 100% fact and not second-hand hearsay. 🤷‍♀️
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How do they manage to get those shacks on land, here the council planning boys would be round with a removal summons
 
We have quite a few static gypsy sites around our local area and over the years we have done quite a lot of work for the council repairing fences, and its very interesting that as we have got to know the families how you have a tendency to put them into categories, some welcome you and will make you cups of tea and want to chat, some accept you but are very wary and will let you get on with the job, they moan a bit about you repairing the holes in the fence which they made to let their horses into the farmers field, and then their are the animals (sorry but I am insulting animals) they are not fit to be called human beings, one of these in particular we had to erect a 6ft high steel wire fence to stop them using the farmers gutter as a toilet, not only poo but sanitary towels and everything else you can think of, all of these sites have a flush toilets, maybe that site they will have sold all the copper pipes etc.

HAVE YOU NOTICED HOW MANY OF THEM HAVE CAMPER VANS 😱😱
 
trevskoda said:
Horses are more inviromently dirty than cars with admissions, second there are more horses now than in victorian times, they require a lot of work.
Yes no bother living their life style, just wonder are they paying the taxes etc, id think not.
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If we didn't have horse poo what would you put on your rhubarb??🤣🤗
 
mariesnowgoose said:
Trev, these particular people are not in the same culture as your Irish 'Tinkers'.
They do pay their dues. They're settled on their own piece of land, have been for some time, and use all the local services same as everyone else.

Irish 'Tinkers' is a different story, at least historically, so I understand how dislike/animosity can come about.
My own mother (Southern Irish) and the rest of her family didn't have a good word to say in that regard, but that was based firmly on their first hand experience of thieving and other pretty bad behaviour when actually living in Ireland, i.e. 100% fact and not second-hand hearsay. 🤷‍♀️
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Yes I have , unfortunately , had some bad experiences of travellers in Ireland , England and Scotland . Dealings with individuals was usually fine but as a group they do things their way .
 
I'd just like to say, to make things very clear, that this couple are NOT Romany by birth, neither are they Irish Tinkers.
They have simply chosen to live this way, and I greatly admire them for having the courage to do that.

Some comments have veered away from the content of my original post - which is basically about horse drawn holidays. 🤷‍♀️
If this was 'Just a Minute' you'd all be disqualified for deviation, including me with my reference to Irish Tinkers ! :ROFLMAO: :cool:

Maybe watch the videos properly (instead of a quick glance and dismiss) and you'll know they had to battle for a long time with the local council to get planning permission for their 'shack'. They are the only family residing on their land, it is tucked well away from prying eyes and it is not a gypsy encampment. They also pay their business taxes etc., (unlike plenty of well known figures we could all mention).

We all drive around in our motorised 'off-grid shacks'. Don't see there's such huge difference really, apart from money spent?

Please don't be quick to judge people before you know anything about them. Yes, they live an unconventional life but are harming no one, neither do they scrounge or thieve.

Beware the green eyed monster, maybe.... ? ;) 💚
 
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