Exhibition on New Foresy gypsies to be held at Thorney Hill Community Centre

A vast exhibition shining a light on the gypsies who lived on the New Forest will be at Thorney Hill until Friday.

As reported in the A&T, the collection of around 600 photos was on display at East Boldre last month; but is now being shown in a community where many Romany were forced to move after spending hundreds of years on the open Forest.

Tony Johnson, who collected the treasure trove, has been fascinated by the gypsies who lived in the Forest for centuries, saying it’s an exhibition he has been “dreaming about for over 10 years”.

The first record of gypsies in Hampshire is in the 1600s, but it is believed they were here a hundred years before.

In 1926 they were restricted to camping only in seven compounds – including Thorney Hill, Shave Green and Longdown – and no longer allowed to roam the Forest freely. Thorney Hill was the largest of the compounds with up to 400 inhabitants.

By 1947 there were only five compounds where, by then, a total of just over 400 gypsies lived – some in makeshift shacks, others in WW2 barracks, or still in tents which they refused to leave.

By the late ’40s the local authority decided they were all living in “appalling conditions” and resettlement plans were put in place.

In 1960 Hampshire County Council decreed all gypsies had to leave the Forest and erected 22 pre-fab houses on the Thorney Hill site. Tents and wagons were no longer allowed.

The exhibition is at Thorney Hill Community Centre every day this week until Friday.