Traditional British Romani horse fair threatened

03 October 2000

On August 31, 2000, the British government agreed to ban "any trespassory assembly within five miles of the village of Horsmonden in Kent." The order was allegedly intended to prevent the annual traditional Horsmonden Horse Fair from taking place, as it has done for hundreds of years, on Horsmonden village green, between September 7 and 11, according to the Guardian of September 7, 2000. The Horsmonden parish council sought to put an end to the fair as it had "grown too big", and led to problems with traffic and horses being raced up one-way streets the wrong way.

Britain's leading Romani organisations, the National Romani Rights Association (NRRA) and the Gypsy Council, have condemned the government's action as an act of racial discrimination. According to the Guardian, on September 7, 2000, the Gypsy Council, the NRRA and Liberty, a civil liberties group, sought a judicial review of the decision of Mr Jack Straw, the home secretary, to sign an order banning the fair, claiming that the ban is unreasonable and possibly discriminatory, and that there is no good reason why the historic event should be cancelled. The Romani organisations organised a parade through the village, led by traditional Gypsy wagons, on September 10.

Eli Frankham, NRRA president, who has attended the fair all his life, says: "In an age where nomadic life is all but outlawed, fairs such as these bind the Gypsy community together. They are the places we meet, trade and continue our traditions. The attack on this fair is therefore a direct assault on the Gypsy community of this country." Unlike other traditional Romani horse fairs in the United Kingdom, such as those held at Appleby in Cumbria and Stow on the Wold in Gloucestershire, the Horsmonden Fair has never been granted a Royal Charter guaranteeing its continued existence. But Roma have been trading horses on the Horsmonden village green for hundreds of years.

(Guardian)