Do you remember those halcyon days when the
sun always shone, the corn was always golden and
the itinerant harvesters always mysteriously
arrived at precisely the time the hops needed
pulling, or the strawberries picking? When the
Gypsies' caravan of horse-drawn wagons rolled
over the hill in the gathering dusk, just as it
had for centuries past?
Well, actually, not for centuries past. When
Gypsies first appeared in these islands they
moved about on foot, sleeping out in the open or
in barns, or maybe in benders, those improvised
tents now favoured by many non-traditional
travellers. The wealthier may have been fortunate
enough to own a donkey on which to transport the
family's belongings, or even a horse or two to
pull a cart, but my own Cooper great-great-grandparents,
even as late as the early l900s, had nothing more
than a pushcart on which to pile their temporary
home, and my late father, born in 1915, spent his
entire childhood in a bender tent.
A
Reading Wagon from an Illustration in the London
Illustrated News, 1879
In this country, the 'Gypsy caravan' (van,
wagon or vardo to a Gypsy - never a caravan) with
stove and bed, did not make an appearance until
at least the mid 1800s, the forerunner being
little more than a bender tent erected on a fiat
cart, and bore small resemblance to the brightly
coloured, richly carved wagon that some Gorjers (non-Gypsies)
romantically equate with the 'real' Romany.
Walter Simpson, in A History of the Gipsies,
wrote:
'In no part of the world is the gipsy life
more in accordance with the general idea that the
gipsy is like Cain - a wanderer on the face of
the earth - than in England; for there the
covered cart and the little tent are the houses
of the gipsy ...'
However, it is obvious from Charles Dickens'
The Old Curiosity Shop, that by 1840 living
wagons, complete with stove and bed, were in use
by non-Gypsy travellers. He placed his Mrs
Jarley, wax-works proprietor, in:
'... a smart little house upon wheels ... with
window shutters of green picked out with panels
of staring red ... partitioned off at the further
end as to accommodate a sleeping-place,
constructed after the fashion of a berth on board
ship. ... The other half served for a kitchen,
and was fitted up with a stove whose small
chimney passed through the roof.'
It is probable that some Gypsies adopted
living wagons as a mode of travel and
accommodation round about 1850, although the
earliest I have found any of my ancestors - my
Keet great-great-grandparents - recorded in one
is in the 1871 census, by which time country
wheelwrights were being commissioned to build
them, the various designs limited to the amount
of ready cash available.
By the late nineteenth century, living wagons
had evolved into those we have come to identify
as the Gypsy caravan - the Reading, the Ledge,
the Burton, the Bowtop - but although the Reading
is synonymous with Dunton and Sons of Reading, it
was also built elsewhere; the 'kite' wagon dating
back to 1870, lovingly restored by the late Peter
Shallcross and now on show at the Gordon Boswell
Romany Museum at Spalding, Lincolnshire, was
built by Wicks of Wisbech, and other builders of
the Reading included F. J. Thomas of Chertsey,
Surrey, Williams of Leighton Buzzard,
Bedfordshire, and D. Macintosh of London.
The town of Reading during the mid-nineteenth
century, perfectly situated as it was on the
highway from London to the West Country, boasted
many wheelwrights and harness-makers and seven
coachbuilders were established there by the 1870s.
Although it is unclear when Dunton and Sons built
their first living wagon, in 1874 they were to be
found at 30 King's Road and Highbridge Wharf,
trading as 'coach and cart wheelwright and
general smith' and by 1884 were recorded as 'van
builders'.
Samuel Dunton appears to have founded the firm
and, after him, his son Alfred was the mainstay
of the business. The late Ferdinand Huth
remembered that from the 1914 period, another
son, Samuel Eber, attended to the business side
and made the contracts, while a third son,
William, or 'Bill', worked on the bodies. The
firm employed other members of the family,
including Alfred's son Albert and a nephew,
George, who did the painting and gilding.
Of all the wagons, it was the Reading that the
Gypsies favoured most. They required a vehicle
which was best suited to pulling off onto rough
ground or crossing fords, and the tall wheels of
the Reading, between which the straight-sided,
high arched body was slung, suited their needs
better than those with wheels situated beneath
the body.
A
Colchester stove
The early models were not ornate, although the
internal design is similar to that found in most
types of wagons, with a double bed taking up the
entire width of the van at the end opposite to
the door. Beneath this is a shorter bed designed
to accommodate children, the length dictated by
the outward lean, from bottom to top, of the
sides. Entrance is gained through a door at the
shaft-end which opens outwards, as do the two
hinged windows above the door, and the stove, (a
Colchester in the earlier models, known as 'the
policeman in the corner') is situated to the left
as one enters, so that, when travelling along the
road, the chimney is on the offside thereby
missing any overhang of trees.
The Reading is approximately 10ft in length
but a front porch adds another 18 inches and a
back porch 14 inches. At 5ft in diameter, the
back wheels are larger than those in front by 18
inches, with the body clearing the ground by 4ft
3ins. After 1900, mollicroft roofs (raised
skylights) started to appear. The body itself
would have originally been made from beaded
tongue-and-groove matchboard, painted deep red
picked out in red, yellow and green. If it
boasted lion heads or gargoyles, these would have
been painted gold or were gold-leafed. Side and
back windows were shuttered.
Internally, the decoration and fittings
reflected the wealth of the Gypsy for whom the
wagon was originally built, as did the amount of
carving and gold leaf used externally. By
necessity, cupboards and locker-seats were built
in to prevent movement whilst travelling. On
either side of the bed space, quarter-inch thick
bevelled mirrors may be found, perhaps lavishly
decorated with red, cream and pink roses, with
blue birds in each corner. Peter Shallcross, when
restoring his old Reading, discovered what he
thought was the original linoleum but which
turned out to be a very rare example of hand-painted
oilcloth. The Victoria and Albert Museum
identified it as the type used for the sails of
the old sailing ships, and would have been made
in one of the ports. With the Thames close to
hand, it is possible that Dunton's used similar
material.
Gypsies ordering wagons from Dunton & Sons
would stop on Ascot Heath and drop by to discuss
their specific requirements with the builders.
Measurements were written down on any convenient
piece of paper and it was from these the
craftsmen worked; no detailed drawings or plans
were made. In their last six years, before being
taken over by Froud, Rivers and Kernutt in 1922,
Dunton's built six or seven wagons, taking six
months to a year to complete. As the work
progressed, they were paid in gold sovereigns,
five at a time. In 1904, a simply built and
decorated Dunton Reading cost approximately £70.
In 2001, a more lavishly decorated one exchanged
hands for £30,000.
During those years, which today's Travellers
still refer to as 'wagon-time', the Gypsies took
great pride in their homes on wheels, yet they
seldom slept in them, preferring instead to sleep
in tents or beneath the wagon itself. They also
lacked sentiment in times of need, having no
hesitation in selling them or 'chopping' (exchanging)
them for something else.
Today, most surviving Reading wagons are to be
found in museums or private collections, but of
all the many and varied four-wheeled vehicles
which trundie their way to the few surviving
annual horse fairs of England, it is perhaps the
Reading which epitomises the golden age of horse
travel. One of the best publicly owned examples
is in the Bristol City Museum; another is in the
possession of the Rural History Centre at the
University of Reading. The Rural History Centre
is also home to the Robert Dawson Romany
Collection, an extensive archive of books,
journals, papers, videos, music and artefacts
donated to the Romany and Traveller Family
History Society by the collector.
Anyone with an interest in the history and
culture of Gypsies can access the collection by
appointment. Contact the Rural History Centre,
Whiteknights, P0 Box 229, Reading RG6 6AG, or
ring 0118 931 8664.
The Romany and Traveller Family History
Society was founded in 1994 for the descendants
of Gypsies, travelling showmen and other
travellers, and now has over 500 members. For
details contact the Membership Secretary, P0 Box
432, Walton on Thames, Surrey KT12 4WJ.
Further reading:
Dickens, Charles, The Old Curiosity Shop,
1840
Pearce, John, 'Horse drawn gypsy caravans' in Model
Engineer (25 September 1998)
Shallcross, P. Our Vardo, 1996
Simson, W. A History of the Gipsies,
1865
Ward-Jackson, C.H. and Denis E Harvey, The
English Gypsy Caravan, Its origins, builders,
technology and conservation, David &
Charles 1972
Wilson, Nerissa, Gypsies and Gentlemen,
1986
with any queries
