Description:In 1906 there were reports of German Gipsies who had migrated from Prussia, who were travelling the country thieving and committing acts of violence. The police were called to move them out. In this postcard the Gypsies are travelling along Stone Road.
They are probably part of a group of Gypsies who were travelling south across England from Cumbria and through Yorkshire during 1904-1905. It seems likely that the group were from Germany but the correct term for them is Sinti Gypsies. It looks like they arrived somehow on the north-east coast, travelled south, probably crossed the Staffordshire Moorlands and on through the midlands. From 1899 the police started to crack down on Gypsies in the Sinti heartland in Germany, which is perhaps why they arrived in the United Kingdom. Between 1933 and 1945 Sinti Gypsies and Roma suffered greatly as victims of Nazi persecution and genocide.
Photographer: Harry Osbourne of Woodseaves.