Romany travellers have always been a part of the Epsom Derby, since the first years when Gypsy families arrived in their traditional caravans and set up stalls on the Downs to supply racing folk with goods and services.
Surrey is still home to the fourth largest Gypsy and Traveller community in Britain and the Epsom Derby was a major event in the calendar, attracting people from across the country.
Well known throughout the world as successful horse traders and trainers, the Romany Gypsies were an important part of the racing fraternity and took their place alongside the owners, tipsters and the betting public.
The colourful caravans, covered carts and horses on the slopes of the Downs were as much a part of the event as the rows of parked charabangs, buses and cars of the spectators.
However romantic it sounds, life camped on the windswept Epsom Downs, even in summer, was hard.
Victorian artist and member of the Royal Academy Sir Alfred Munnings, was so taken with the annual scene he painted a work called 'Gypsies on Epsom Downs, Derby Week'.
Writer, designer, artist and local eccentric Lady Sybil Grant who owned the 'Durdans' estate at Epsom, allowed the travellers to camp on her land, and frequently joined them, staying in her own caravan.
Her actions in giving the Gypsies somewhere legal to stay for the duration of the Derby Week, greatly improved relations between local townspeople and their Romany visitors.
And when, in 1936, the local government decreed it illegal for the Gypsies to camp anywhere on the Downs, Lady Grant allowed them to camp in her field in Downs Road.
In 1937, The Times reported that she had written appealing for the Gypsies saying 'the Epsom Spring Meeting has, for the first time in living memory, been without its traditional encampments of Gypsies'.
Regardless of the problems they faced, the Romany people remained a firm favourite with many of the people who attended the races hoping to win on the horses.
The Gypsies were in great demand for their racing tips, lucky charms, entertainment and fortune telling, in return for payment.
This little Gypsy girl is attempting to sell lucky oak leaves to a couple at 'The Oaks' in Epsom in June 1922.
In fact, there is an old Gypsy tradition dating back for decades which says the Derby winner's name will appear in chalk letters on a well outside The Amato pub, in Chalk Farm Lane in Epsom, on the Sunday before Derby day.
Records show that it's highly probable Gypsies were living on the Epsom Downs as early as the 1500s after arriving from Europe.
Sadly in 2009 the 'Horseman's Sunday' tradition finally ceased, but the travelling community will continue to congregate on the Downs for the Derby in years to come.
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