gypsies and conscription

[mcderms]

I cant think of anythink so disgusting

FYI the SAS and most of our elite regts teach soldiers how to catch, kill and prepare a wide variety of animals whilst in the field. There's nothing wrong with hedgehog, snake or even the odd bit of rat if that's all you can get. Nothing unhealthy about eating these animals - its just that our modern sensibilities get in the way. Everyone seems to think that meat comes from Tesco, no blood or bone and nicely wrapped in clingfilm.

My nan felt the same way about powdered eggs and a whole list of wartime recipes though!

[NIGEL]

Owning a smallholding and keeping sheep, and been out in what they call countrysports most of my adult life, i am not one of the people you refer too. I know all to well on what you can find under a hedgerow ( almost broke into stairway to heaven then ) and survive on, thing is not many people care to do it unless they are starving.

I too can remember shall we say " proper Gypsies " there were some about half a mile from us when we first moved to Aldridge in the early 60s. We were quite scared of them, and also heard about the Hedgehog meal then, but i remember when they left, we explred their camp, and found small cloth bags containing a substance dagling in the stream tethered with a piece of string, from my memory we gathered that they caught crayfish this way, dont know if that was true

[Stuart Brown]

I read about the hedgehog method of cooking in a child's novel a few decades ago it also described how to tickle a trout.

The above must be the first reference to the hedgehog meal I have seen since reading that book.

[Guest Simon Bull]

Sue

You describe Ayers as a name indicative of gypsy roots. As I have Ayres (presumably, in effect, the same) in my own family tree, I am intrigued to know your reasons for saying this. My Ayres was a cow-keeper in urban Cambridge in the Nineteenth Century (upon whose home the Council have now built a public lavatory - which I rather cavil at), but i have not yet traced the line back further.

[DirtyDick]

There are quite a few Romany/Gypsy websites - including message boards - giving information on surnames accessible with a basic key words 'gypsy surnames'.

Richard

[tybaltstone]

There is an article in the latest magazine (vol 7 no 1) from the Romany & Traveller Family History Society, by Janet Keet-Black called 'Gypsies didn't go to war... did they?' which is very interesting. It mentions the fact that many Gypsies were used in veterinary departments thanks to their skill with horses. I believe Janet is running a project that collects Roma that served in the Great War.

My own great-grandfather, Charles Hodgkins, was descended from Romany Boswells. Although the family was settled in Uttoxeter by the time he was born, his parents and their families (especially the Sherriffs and the Boswells) were tinkers, hawkers, chair-menders, etc, and travelled the Derbyshire and Staffordshire counties.

The Romany & Traveller Family History Society

Best -

Garen.

[NIGEL]

Well does anybody know what the small bags containing a substance were that were left dangling in a stream tethered by string???????

[Max]

My own great-grandfather, Charles Hodgkins, was descended from Romany Boswells.

There is the grave marker of Dan Boswell, King of the Gypsies, at Selston Church in Nottinghamshire. http://www.ashfield-dc.gov.uk/see_and_do/c...n_sthelen.shtml

Andy

[Max]

Well does anybody know what the small bags containing a substance were that were left dangling in a stream tethered by string???????

Its a long shot Nigel, but could it have been mushed up leaves in the bags? I can't remember which type of leaf it is that when crushed produces a chemical that incapacitates fish and forces them to the surface.

Andy

[NIGEL]

Well thank you Andy, that does make sense, and that has been in my head for nearly 40 years, always wondering what they had been up to as we explored their camp the day after they left.

[tybaltstone]

There is the grave marker of Dan Boswell, King of the Gypsies, at Selston Church in Nottinghamshire. http://www.ashfield-dc.gov.uk/see_and_do/c...n_sthelen.shtml

Andy

Thanks for that, Andy - yes I have come across that webpage before. I know 'my' Boswells included various 'King of the Gypsies' called Edward, descended from Haniel in the late 1500s. Not sure about Dan!

My Romany line

By the way - some of the names in Janet's RTFHS article: Silvester Gordon Boswell (Veterinary Dresser), Abram Keet (Royal Hampshires), Samuel Brazil (12th King's Royal Rifles), David Thomas Keet (13th Royal Sussex), benjamin Lee (16th Rifle Bgde), William Ripley (B/189 RFA), Alfred Riley Scamp (1st Buffs), S. Scamp (1st Buffs).

Best - Garen.