“We always try to be respectful of the environment that we’re in. I think travelling is environmentally friendly and sustainable way of life. You have to be careful obviously, not to pour outrageous chemicals all over the place, to look after your oil, if you’re draining your radiator look after the water that comes out of it and just have respect for the other animals and plants that are living on the land with you. I love nature.”
Lolly and Sal
0 sec What was your favourite vehicle to live in for your travelling?
The bus that I bought when I first came on the road.
18 sec And what was your favourite vehicle for a blat-around
I used to love driving the J-type around
I remember you picking me up from school in it
I used to go everywhere in it.
53 seconds
Have you always travelled with dogs or animals. Has it ever had a negative impact on places you’ve lived.
We’ve always travelled with dogs. When we first got on the road Eddy had a dog called Hazy, then I got Rambo, my dog. They used to just run off and do what they want. You’d open the door in the morning and let them out, and when you wanted them you’d shout them, and they’d come to you as soon as you shout them. Nowadays, dogs like Marley and Charis, I know where they are all the time. I can’t just let them out. Things have totally changed. Even when we were at Dolly’s the dogs would just run around outside. You have to be so careful nowadays, people will just shoot your dogs.
The thing that happened to Sidney, do you think that’s because you’re a Traveller?
When we were at Oxsted lay-by, where he was hot tied and beaten, yes I do. Some people are just horrible to animals, but in that case, then maybe.
Do you remember when we had truffles the pig? She was so cute, she thought she was a dog, and the dogs just through she was the biggest dog on site. She’d go round and eat the dogs food.
3 min 24 sec. TV shows, you’ve been on quite a few of them. How have you found that? Did you find it a bit invasive, coming in and filming you at home?
Yes it was, you do have to take a bit of a chance. With “Living with the Enemy” we had that lady come into the trailer and she was sat down chatting to me, she was polite, but so very different, and she didn’t’ think we should be living in vans. I knew she potentially was going to be quite judgemental. Ollie had done a wee in a potty, and I chucked the wee out the door, it was only a tiny little wee, but we lived in the middle of a muddy field. I don’t quite know what she thought I was going to do with that wee-wee. She was quite incensed about it. I said to her, you need to check out where you go to the toilet. Your in a mansion, you use the same toilet that’s been in there forever, for hundreds of years, and then the sewage has loads of outrageous chemicals poured all over it, then inadequately floated out to sea, to come back on our beaches. She’s like “oh yes, I’m not qualified to talk about beaches and sanitation.” you know there’s going to be a certain amount of judgement.
5min 5 sec Do you think all in all it’s a good thing
I think so. It gives people a bit of an insight. It’s there for posterity. It’s nice to look back, there’s film of you, it’s part of our archive as it were, . It does help to potentially bridge gaps and provide education to some people who might not have much idea as to how we live or what we do. the ITV car park wars, I thought that was very sympathetic and put us in a really good light. But it’s always a lottery, if you’re going to embrace media. Obviously we were branded as pure parasites all across the county, through the newspapers, not through TV, it’s always a bit worrying.
6 min 32 sec
What do you think your impact on the environment is, positively and negatively?
We always try to be respectful of the environment. I think travelling is environmentally friendly and sustainable way of life. You have to be careful, not to pour outrageous chemicals all over the place, be careful of your oil, if you’re draining your radiator look after the water that comes out of it, and this kind of thing. Have respect for the other animals and plants that are living on the land with you. I love nature. I was hitchhiking to work the other day and I picked up 8 worms off the pavement and put them on the grass verge, I didn’t want them to get stood on. If I find a bee I drop everything, run off and feed it sugar water. I can’t not look after injured animals. I think a lot of Travellers are like that.
7 min 56 sec Do you think it has a negative impact on the environment?
If you’re on a site too long. The old fashioned ways is if you need the toilet you take a shovel and dig a hole. If you’re on a site too long and there’s a lot of people there it can turn the land sour. It needs a rest. That’s the problem with the travelling thing, is if you can’t move around. You haven’t got a lot of opportunities so that the land can get fresh again. On the whole, for example, we were on Coverack Car park for nearly 12 years, and it’s been said that it looks very good down that, that we’ve cleared it right up, we haven’t destroyed it there at all.
8 min 50 sec If you look at it now, it’s just gone back to what it would have done if there was no-one living there. It’s gone like soil and mud on top the concrete and gravel, it’s started to be better for nature.
Yes, you have to respect where you are and a lot of Travellers are like that.
