A gipsy encampment at Crays Hill, near Basildon, Essex
Posted on 01/03/2009 10:13:03 AM PST by BGHater
This idyllic corner of England is where council chiefs want to put a new gipsy camp.
When locals, protested, they branded them racists and threw out their complaints. So much for democracy...
The spring bulbs are coming up a treat outside Huckleberry Cottage and the thatched roof looks as pretty as a picture.
'Would you like tea or a glass of lemonade?' inquires Frances Huckle, a slight white-haired woman who answers the front door.
Mrs Huckle, a former nurse, and her 79-year-old husband Gordon, a retired engineer, have lived here in the same home in Stotfold, Bedfordshire, for half a century.
It was derelict when they moved in and they have lovingly restored it. When that project was completed, they helped restore Stotfold's historic water mill after it was destroyed by fire in 1992.
You would be hard-pressed to find a more public-spirited - or modest - couple than Frances and Gordon Huckle. Nor more unlikely racists.
The same can be said of their near neighbours, grandmother of three Lucy Clarke, retired teacher and methodist Brian Collier, 66, and conservation volunteers Patrick Chalmers, 59, and his wife Heather, 54.
Ditto Louden Masterton, another retired engineer, and Ian Bowskill, who runs a fish and chip shop in the town centre.
Yet all of them, and thousands of other residents in Stotfold (population 8,500) and surrounding villages, are now having to defend themselves against accusations of racism.
A gipsy encampment at Crays Hill, near Basildon, Essex Another permanent site in White City, West London. The Government has told local authorities to find more sites to solve a housing crisis in the gipsy community
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Remember folks, Irish Travellers are NOT gypsies (Roma). Nevertheless, it never ceased to amaze me traveling through Spain and France how the REAL Roma enjoyed living in shacks/caravans despite being offered housing projects by the government. Its kind of a shock to drive outside of a relatively prosperous southern French/Spanish town and to see folks living like Guatemalan indigenas.
(One of the three Guy Ritchie fans on this site.)
It’s fir mih mah.
What?
HIS MAH!
And they really shouldn’t worry about defending themselves from the racist claims of thief-subsidizers. Soon they’ll be too busy defending every scrap not nailed down from being stolen or destroyed.
While in Bedfordshire a few years back I had the pleasure of drinking with an old Gypo in an Irish pub in Luton. A sweet old man he was although quite drunk. Turns out he was off rambling and he was not expecting to make a return visit the following year as he was quite ill. Sadly not all are like this old gentleman. A lot of the travelling Irish are not cheeky old rogues like that man and I would not feel safe with many of them living in my community. If they don’t want to buy a house or pay rent then let them take up residence in a proper caravan park and let them pay for the privilege. These people choose a lifestyle and then want the Governement to support them in it. Fook ‘em I say!
Mel
We saw a gypsy encampment along the railroad tracks from Fiumicino Airport into downtown Rome. Steve was shocked that any Italians were that poor.
"Honey, they're not Italians [no matter where they were born or what passport they hold], they're Gypsies.
LOL. I brought the DVD of “Snatch” to my GF’s on New Year’s, and it was her first time seeing the movie (despite being a HUGE Brad Pitt fan). A near-perfect film execution wise (script/camerawork/direction/acting).
Think I'll watch it again this weekend after the NFL playoff games... ;)
I didn’t know that gypsies were rounded up in Europe and sent to the Americas from the 1600-1770 period. The DNA project found that my surname contained two separate lines, those of the gypsies and those that migrated from France/England. Virginia was an area that many gypsies were used as indentured servants and slaves until the American Revolution.
They probably stole the maps for Columbus to use on his trip.
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