In their own words

Annie's Story

Extract from "Gypsies and Travellers in their own words"

Annie Kindon was born in Bawtry, Doncaster. She was seventy-eight when she told her story.

"I was brought up in horses and wagons with me Dad and Mam. I only had one sister called Mary. She died about three years since, at Doncaster."

I think it was much better when I was a child than it is now, really. You hadn't as much money or anything, but things were cheap and stopping was good. You could stop on a roadside for forty-eight hours and they couldn't shift yer, with having horses and wagons – but now they shift you any time.

My sister married a collier, so she never travelled, but she wasn't ashamed of it or anything. She'd ride on a horse and cart, she'd come, make herself at home. She wasn't stuck up or anything. She had three children: two boys and a girl. Now she's gone, her husband's gone, and her daughter, there's only the two sons left.

My Husband Kazy with our first son, Arthur, riding on Toby the horse.

I had a good life and a good husband and a good family. And I travelled all over the place.We enjoyed oursen's. I hadn't a drunken husband or anything like that. He was a good man. And he loved his children and his grandchildren. Their Dad never hit 'em, he only had to talk to 'em, and my oldest, he was twenty-one when he got married, and if he said to him,"You're not going out of this place tonight": he wouldn't go. They wouldn't back-answer their father. They had to be in at a certain time - lads and lasses.

We got married at West Hartlepool, at Christchurch there. We stopped down there for two years and then we come away up here. We've been back since, but I like up here. He belonged the north of England, did my husband. His brothers and sisters were all born down there at West Hartlepool, but we had a good life and there's nowt I could put to it any more, you know.

We never had a lot of money – we never craved for a lot of money. We had four meals a day and where we went the children went with us. If we went to the pictures, we took'em all with us. They was never left on their own.

I've had good in-laws, good mother-in-law, good father-in-law, sister-in-laws; we were all for one another, and never had a wrong word with 'em. I've got good daughter-in-laws and I like my daughter-in-laws, treated like I like my daughters treated; and my sons-in-law. They'd do anything for me.

We used to have horses. I could drive them, me husband could drive them, he used to drive the wagon sometimes and I'd drive the cart. If he wanted to go for a talk, he'd leave me driving and talk to t'others in front. We used to pull up and have a cup of tea and then finish us journey where we going to after. It was a good life. Travellers were Travellers then, and if you hadn't anything you helped one another. I was married sixty years and I never knowed my husband in any trouble in his life.

And he was well-liked. Even from London, when he took bad, we went down to spend a week with my son, he was down London, and he was badly then like, but Doctor said "Let him do what he wants". So we went and had a week down London, and on the night my son was going out and he said to his Dad "Are you coming with us for a drink?" He said "No". I said "Go on with him", but I said "Don't get him any spirits, don't have any spirits", and he didn't and that woman from that Public sent a lovely wreath when he died, you know, and that's first time she'd ever seen him. A big funeral, he had. It's just one of them things. We always said if we ever parted, fall out and parted, we'd never come back, not even for death. And the only time we were parted was when he was in the army.

We had us rows like anybody else; they always say "True love never runs smooth". The only thing me husband and me fell out over was a cigarette – he loved a cigarette. If he hadn't a cigarette and he'd a one hundred pound note, he'd change it for a packet of cigarettes, and he'd ask the King, if he stood there, for a cigarette.

He went off'em before he died. I used to say to him, because he smoked one sort and I smoked another, and he used to take mine when he had none and that used to cause a row. And I used to say to him "If you die before me, I'll put you a packet of cigarettes in", and I did do that. I didn't put matches in, but I put a packet of cigarettes, ten cigarettes, in the coffin with him. I stuck to me promise.

We were in Barnsley all through t'war, on Queen's Ground. That's where me husband went in t'army, from there. But me Dad belonged Barnsley.

You could get in a farmer's field for a couple of nights. We stopped round Wetherby on the waterside, all round there.

We've been shifted at twelve o'clock at night by the police. We got shifted going to Yarm and we pulled on t'common in Thirsk and they come and shifted us. He had to pull two mile further up the road, at twelve o'clock at night.

Also see

In Their Own Words

Gypsies and Travellers in their own words compiled by the Gypsy Roma Traveller Achievement Service is a fantastic read, and gives amazing insights into the lives and times of Travellers in this country.

It is still available to buy.

The collection of stories and personal histories in this rich volume creates a vivid picture of life within the Gypsy and Traveller communities.

Find out more

Also read about

Tommy's Story

I was born in Dublin by accident, not by choice. My mother went up there and I was born in 1937. On my Register of Birth it says – "Caravan, so-and-so". Funny thing is that I was born in Dublin and never, ever lived there. My father always stuck to the North of Ireland.

Tilly's Story

There are differences in the culture and the beliefs and in the way we live. Well me brother's married to someone who was brought up in a house, a girl from Leeds and he lives in a house. More boys seem to marry out than girls. You only hear of a very very odd Travelling girl marrying out but I know an awful lot of men that are married outside. I think it's because Travelling people have got their own ways.

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