Appleby Horse Fair Attracts Thousands of Travellers and Gypsies as Locals Prepare for the Event

Thousands of travellers have descended on the small town of Appleby for the annual  horse fair, with locals preparing themselves for chaos.

Weary locals in Appleby-in-Westmorland are accustomed to the chaos that comes with the yearly Appleby Horse Fair. However, as around 10,000 travelers are expected to descend upon the town, residents are gearing up for potential trouble.

The 250-year-old fair attracts thousands of travellers from across Europe for the six-day event, which also attracts around 30,000 visitors.

Appleby-in-Westmorland, a charming town located on the River Eden, usually has a population of approximately 3,000 residents for most of the year. But once the annual fair, established in 1775, kicks off in early June, everything changes.

As the fair approaches, gypsies have already been accused of causing havoc by vandalizing a cricket pavilion, racing carriages through village streets, intimidating locals with weapons, and defiling public footpaths with waste.

Footage posted on social media yesterday, a line of Gypsies on horse-drawn carriages are seen galloping down a road causing traffic to come to a snail’s pace.

In a video titled ‘Appleby 2025 so far’, a toddler is seen being held by his mother on the back of a horse. 

Gypsies have also been washing their horses in the River Eden as part of a long-held tradition to prepare them for sale and to cool them off. 

Billed as the largest traditional gathering of the community in Europe, the annual fair features horse riding, horse trading, traditional music, dance performances and shopping stalls. 

A special police task force has so far dealt with offences of burglary, criminal damage, racist abuse, knife crime and faced a torrent of criticism after finding it necessary to handcuff a 10-year-old boy.

Boxing champ Tyson Fury sparked excitement that he might be on his way to the fair when he posted an Instagram video riding a horse and trap.

But he later confirmed he had just been seen taking a ride around Knutsford in Cheshire for scenes filmed for his Netflix show. 

Cumbria Police said on Sunday that almost 30 arrests had already been made in the Eden and South Lakes area as part of their pre-fair policing operation. 

Ahead of the fair, a surge in crime around quaint Kirkby Lonsdale in Cumbria caused anxiety among locals because the fair isn’t even due to start until Thursday.

Local sporting venue, Kirkby Lonsdale Cricket club, has seen its pavilion smashed up, as no windows remain in the wooden structure.

Cumbria Police say three 10-year-old boys – only just within the age of criminal responsibility – were arrested over the attack as part of the wider Appleby Fair policing operation. 

There were also problems at Woodclose Park caravan site where police investigated reports of criminal damage and the racial abuse of a security guard.

It was reported that a group of traveller children had been abusive to staff and when asked to leave the park’s reception set off fire extinguishers

All the complaints led the police to visit the makeshift camp in a layby at the town’s Devil’s Bridge where dozens of caravans congregated ahead of the fair in Appleby, which is 40 miles away.

A field has been handed over by the town for the gypsies to graze their horses as a safety measure to make sure they aren’t causing a hazard tethered on roadside verges.

In an earlier incident police detained and handcuffed two traveller children after a penknife was produced in front of a shocked local on a riverside path.

The police action in the layby at Kirkby Lonsdale was captured on video by the boys’ mother, showing one of her sons in tears tethered by the wrist to a policeman.

The mum posted: ‘Our boys were put in handcuffs on the basis of False allegations! Pure abuse of power and provoking behaviour! Bullying 10 year olds!

‘You wouldn’t see them doing this to anyone other community! And they wonder why our children are afraid of them, this could of been handled in a completely different manner!’

William Lee, from Blackpool, was furious at the intervention of Cumbria Police, posting videos of the confrontation on social media.

Mr Lee posted: ‘We’re on the way up to Appleby on our holidays as we have done for generations these these police have been to a several times as we’ve been travelling we all feel very intimidated and picked on can everyone please share this post thank you.’

In one video he says: ‘We are gypsy people stopping at Fell End and hurting no one. Other vehicles are parked on common land and they are not going to check them out, they are just checking gypsy vehicles. Is this racism?’

Locals said they have never seen so many Gypsy, Roma and Traveller (GRT) people descend on the town so early.

For years the town was the focus of the pre-fair gathering but in the recent past locals have fought back, closing down services and pubs and shutting off the places where travellers would usually set up camp. 

One Kirkby Lonsdale local told MailOnline: ‘They seem to have descended on us this year and have come earlier and in bigger numbers than we have seen before.

‘There have been problems caused by gypsy children in the town centre and closer to the camp they have set up in a layby.’

One of the biggest concerns for locals – apart from the disruption, criminal damage, littering and occasional assault – is the welfare of the thousands of horses driven to Appleby to be traded in the streets. 

Last year two horses died at Appleby, one a three-year-old stallion and the other a Shetland pony, both deaths due to exhaustion and overworking. The RSPCA intervened in 438 cases in total. 

Local campaigners say stricter regulations need to be placed on the event with spot checks on animal passports.

The Appleby Fair Communities Group said: ‘There are no checks on horse passports, we know horses are traded but the authorities never spot check passports. We know horses are moved, but with no check on passports ever. ‘ 

Some of Appleby’s pubs remain open, but many close down for the weekend, fearing trouble between rival gypsy factions. 

One resident told MailOnline: ‘My husband and I pack up for the weekend and leave town, it just isn’t worth staying here. 

‘The town changed beyond recognition with horses being raced up and down the high street and tethered to every railing, it goes from being a peaceful country town into something from the Wild West. 

‘It’s the small things that annoy you as much as the rampant disorder, there is always damage caused and the drunkenness and fighting that comes every year is scary. 

‘We’re not alone in moving out, Lots of people do it just to escape the mayhem.’ 

One of the ‘small things’ to annoy Appleby residents so far this year is that small wooden animals that were painted by local children have been pulled off the railings at one of the town’s play parks. 

A local woman fumed: ‘Why would they even touch this? That’s pretty tragic really.’ Travellers are also accused of digging up or sawing down stakes hammered into roadside verges with the aim of keeping horses and caravans from parking up. 

Pictures show a road into Appleby with traveller vehicles parked all the way along a grassy verge. 

Locals claim the posts hammered in by the local authority with signs nailed on making it clear parking was banned, have been uprooted. 

Cumbria Police has warned motorists to expect slow-moving traffic in the next two weeks because of the Appleby Fair. 

Detective Superintendent Dan St Quintin of Cumbria Police – Police Gold Commander for Appleby Horse Fair – said: ‘Public safety is our number one priority for Appleby Horse Fair which is why we are encouraging all road users to be cautious and vigilant on the roads.

‘Drivers need to be aware that the likelihood that they encounter slow-moving traffic is high so please pay extra attention when travelling around the county.

‘I ask people to pay particular attention when driving on the A66, where there is the potential for fast-moving traffic to encounter slow-moving, potentially horse-drawn, vehicles.

‘Please take extra care, be patient and plan ahead and set off early. 

‘Let’s make sure everyone reaches their destination safely.’

The fair is held outside the town of Appleby, at the point where the old Roman Road crosses Long Marton Road, on Gallows Hill, which was named after the public hangings that were once carried out there.

It was once thought the fair originated from a royal charter to the borough of Appleby from King James II of England in 1685, although more recent research has found the charter was cancelled before it was ever enacted.

The gathering is sometimes known as ‘the New Fair’ because Appleby’s medieval borough fair, held at Whitsuntide, ceased in 1885.

The ‘New Fair’ began in 1775 for sheep and cattle drovers and horse dealers to sell their stock.

By the 1900s it had evolved into a major Gypsy/Traveller event which brought families from across the UK and Europe.

In its 250 year history the fair has only been cancelled twice, the first in 2001 during the foot and mouth outbreak and the second in 2020 due to the COVID pandemic.