Gypsies

 

Gypsies were a familiar site from my childhood. When shopping in Funnell's, the small grocers on Leatherhead Rd where my grandmother worked, they often did not have enough money to pay for their goods.

 

My grandmother told them to take the goods and pay her next time they were in the area, or when they had sold enough pegs.

 

Months would pass but, sure enough, the gypsies returned with the money.

 

On one occasion they told my grandmother that she would never be bothered by a gypsy, as repayment for the trust she had shown in them when not many people trusted gypsies.

 

As promised, whenever gypsies were going along her road selling clothes-pegs door to door they would reach her house, look up at it and pass on to the next house. This happened even decades after the event.

 

One gypsy woman looked hard at the house and then passed it by, so we went out after she had gone, and searched for a visible mark. There was none.

 

We couldn't tell how gypsies knew where she lived or passed on the word to the next generation that she was not to be bothered, but they never forgot the promise.

In 2000, Bourne Hall Museum in Ewell had a fascinating display of gypsy items, with photos of some familiar faces who have visited Chessington over the years.

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