After seeing the Sepia Saturday posts of my mother and the Twycross school pictures a cousin, Brenda, on my fathers side emailed me two old pictures of our great-grandfather that I didn't know existed.
Rather than wait another two weeks to show you I thought I would put them up now. The quality is good considering their age. I don't think I could improve them in Photoshop so I'll post them as I received them. Click the pictures to see a larger version.
The first on shows my grandfather sitting between the steps and the wheel of the vardo (gypsy caravan). My great-grandfather is sitting at the entrance to the 'bender' (a makeshift tent that the Romani used to cook and eat in). My grandfathers brother, Dick, is on the right of the picture, next to great-grandad.
We cannot trace our family back any earlier that this photo because the Romani didn't register births, deaths or marriages in the old days.
The second picture shows great-grandad years later when he obvious went on a trip to the seaside! We do know that he lived to be 94 which was a great age in those days. Apparently then gypsies lived longer than their 'townie' counterparts because of their diet of mainly fruit, veg, nuts and berries. Surprisingly they ate very little meat, well except for the odd hedgehog now and then. Perhaps we should learn from that and cut out burgers and fatty meats! (Do McDonalds do hedgehog-burgers?)
My great-grandfather was a bare fist prize fighter known on the circuit as 'Brandy Joe Smith' because of his love of French Brandy. In his younger days he took the caravan and the family around all the country fairs in the south of England, and after setting up his tent he would challenge all-comers to a boxing match at 2/6d a time and the winner took the 5 shilling bet. Apparently he was quite good, so he must have made quite a bit of money!
Brandy Joe's son, my grandfather, met the love of his life when he was 21, but she was a 'gadjo' (a non-Romany) and her name was Maud Elsie Worthy. They met at one of the country fairs in the New Forest where he was trading horses and ponies. She was rather keen on buying a New Forest pony that he and trained. After a long courtship he asked her to marry him. She said she would if he gave up the travelling life and settled down in a house and got a proper job. He agreed and they married and had twelve children, ten boys and two girls. My father, also named Joe, was the second eldest. Like all good love stories, they lived happily ever after; I think.
Labels: Romani, Sepia Saturday |
