Romnichal - Romanichal Culture

Romanichal Culture

Historically, Romanichals earned a living doing agricultural work and would move to the edges of towns for the winter months. There was casual work available on farms throughout the spring, summer and autumn months; spring would start with seed sowing, planting potatoes and fruit trees, early summer with weeding, and there would be a succession of harvests of crops from summer to late autumn. Of particular significance was the hop industry, which employed thousands of Romanichals both in spring for vine training and for the harvest in early autumn. Winter months were often spent doing casual labour in towns or selling goods or services door to door.

Mass industrialization of agriculture in the 1960s led to the disappearance of many of the casual farm jobs Romanichals had traditionally carried out.

During the 20th century onwards Romanichals became, and remain, the mainstay of scrap metal dealing, horse dealing, tree surgery, tarmacking, hawking, fortune telling and wooden rose making. They have also produced notable boxers such as Billy Joe Saunders as well as some notable football players like Freddy Eastwood, and journalists, psychotherapists, nurses and a whole manner of professions. Romanichal scrap metal dealers are one of the most visible presences of Romanichal culture in Great Britain today with their distinctive calls for "any old iron" from their Ford Transit vans.