Bohemia Village Voice

1 Romany Gypsies have lived in the UK since 1515.
2 Gypsies in Britain were originally known as ‘Aegyptians’.
3 Until the 17th century it was an offence punishable by death simply to be a Gypsy.
4 In later centuries punishment for being a Gypsy became deportation (to Australia and other places).
5 It wasn’t until 1989 that the British Government first recognised Gypsies as an ethnic minority.
6 It was not until 2000 that Irish Travellers were accorded the same status as Gypsies.
7There are now 12 million Romany Gypsies in the EU, the fastest-growing community in the Union.
8 Some 2 million Gypsies live in Romania (representing 10% of the population), where they are treated better than in most other European countries, according to a Save the Children report published in 2002.
9 The majority of Travellers in the UK, some 80%, have a settled base from which they travel. But there is currently a shortage of 5000 pitches in the UK. There are only four council sites in the whole of East Sussex.
10 There are more famous people with Gypsy or Traveller heritage than you might think. Among them are the Jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt, the actor Bob Hoskins, the footballers Eric Cantona, Jose Antonio Reyes and Wayne Rooney, Hollywood legends Ava Gardner and Rita Hayworth, as well as Elvis Presley, Pablo Picasso and former US president Bill Clinton. [JB]