Residents of a sleepy Hampshire village have battened down the hatches as hundreds of travellers arrived for an annual horse fair which dates back 750 years.
The Wickham Horse Fair sees scores of Gypsy and Roma travellers descend on the quiet village, home to just 2,000 people, every year on May 20.
On what is a day of trading, the groups buy and sell horses and ponies while parading animals through streets lined with large crowds of fairgoers.
The event traces its origins back to the 13th century, when Roger De Syres obtained a royal charter from King Henry III to have a weekly market in the village centre.
But it has faced criticism in recent years over the travellers’ treatment of animals, with some horses put down after racing at the event.
Groups began to arrive on Wednesday morning with dozens of horses, ponies and dogs filling up the closed-off streets of Wickham.
Images showed youngsters rolling into the village on horseback while others arrived on carriages being dragged by ponies.
The fair brings the village to a standstill, with a number of main roads set to remain closed until Thursday morning, the local council warned.
Hundreds of travellers have descended on a usually sleepy Hampshire village for the annual Wickham Horse Fair (A boy is pictured running along a closed street with a pony)
The event, which traces its origins back 750 years, sees the groups buy, sell and trade horses and ponies while taking part in parades in which the animals are trotted through the village square in front of large crowds
Dozens of horses lined the streets of Wickham this morning, where temporary stalls and fun fairs have been installed ready for the event
Images showed youngsters rolling into the village in pony and trap
Others meanwhile arrived on horseback, with one tracksuit-clad youngster pictured riding a horse before the event got underway
The fair brings Wickham to a standstill, with the local council warning drivers to use alternative routes with many main roads not set to reopen until Thursday mornin
The A334, A32 and busy Fareham and Winchester Roads are just a few of the routes which have been shut, while a number of popular bus routes have been diverted.
Nearly all of the village’s businesses were closed on Wednesday, with a chip shop and a pastry store the only two to remain open.
However Vicky Herbert, the 45-year-old owner of Pirate Pastries, insisted the fair is ‘100 per cent’ a positive for business.
She told the Daily Mail: ‘We have been here nearly two years and I live next door so I am very local. I was here and just thought lets open next year. Lets give it a go.
‘I ventured out and thought last year and thought yeah lets sell pasties, everyone needs a hot pastie. So we are open, and everyone is friendly. Everyone was all for us, the community, the local parish.
‘It has a good impact for business and its a good time. Have some fun and take part in the local tradition.’
While Julie Churchill, 52, the owner of the local fish and chip shop said: ‘We are usually the only place that opens.
‘We have been for years and years. Its lovely to see old and new faces.
‘A lot of the traveller community that we haven’t seein years say hello – it’s lovely.
‘We stay open because everyone needs feeding. In general my thoughts are lets embrace it. Come along and see what its about the busier the better.
‘Let’s make it bigger again. It’s a tradition- no one controls it. It has been here and will stay here.’
Fun fairs, burger vans and other stalls however set up shop to cash in on the historic day that has been celebrated ‘every year’ with no signs of stopping.
Locals were pictured preparing for the event on Wednesday morning
A host of main roads have been closed with drivers warned to seek out alternative routes
Horses were tied up to fences across the village ahead of the beginning of the parades
Dogs were also pictured tied up to temporary metal fencing early on Wednesday morning
The event has sparked complaints from residents in the past, while others admit ‘it is what it is’
Lee Cookson, who was visiting the fair for the first time, said: ‘I am not gypsy but I love horses and its a good day out – you enjoy your day.
‘It’s really friendly. I know travellers get a bad reputation and grief from drivers but it’s just a day to enjoy a tradition of years of travellers.
‘A lot traders around here will be grateful for the influx of trade.’
He added: ‘It’s a day out with travellers. It’s what they do. It’s what they did back in the day, they would ride around.’
The event has taken place every year for centuries, apart from in 2020 and 2021 amid lockdown regulations.
But, in the latter of those years, up to 150 people were understood to have turned up, in a move slammed by police and angry business owners.
One local said: ‘I don’t like it and I don’t go. I just stay in and shut my doors and windows. I seal in for it. They shut down everything.
‘It’s getting smaller thankfully, we just avoid it, it’s not something I want to be involved in. People have things go missing afterwards apparently but who knows if that’s connected.
‘Anyway places are closed for a reason.’
Yet some residents take a different view, with many welcoming the travellers every year and admitting ‘it is what it is’.
One local who lives close to the heart of the action told the Mail: ‘It’s been here for hundreds of years! We normally go away for it, prior to that we’ve been in the thick of it.
‘But I enjoy watching it, yes I have to move my car, but that’s fine. Yes you occasionally get a few unsavoury characters turning up, but that’s by the by.
‘They’ve always been good to me!’
