Bexley Women’s Institute

11:25am Monday 21st April 2008

MEMBERS listened with great interest at the last meeting to Philip Godliman's talk on the History and Culture of Gipsies.

Bargees, New Age Travellers, Tinkers (Irish travellers), Romanies and Roma are all names covering the various branches of gipsies.

Originally they came from India about 1,000 years ago, moving from country to country as tinsmiths and entertainers.

Later they helped on farms and with hop picking, living in wagons.

Then they changed to caravans and went into scrap metal, keeping their homes absolutely spotless.

Nowadays they are more likely to live in mobile homes, the most important thing in their lives being their children.

However, even now gipsy children do not attend school regularly.

In the family, the most important person is the grandmother, with all the members being most supportive to one another.

The women do women's work and the men do men's work, with no taking over from one another.

Eileen Knapp, who attended the annual meeting in Tunbridge Wells, gave an amusing report on proceedings and showed the paperweight given to the institute to celebrate 90 years of the West Kent Federation.

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