A website for both travellers and visitors to the fair and the local community in and around Appleby

Education on the Hoof

 

Education On The Hoof brings together information and cultural talks to provide both day visitors and Travellers attending the Fair the opportunity to learn and share information that is significant to the Travelling and housed communities.

The project is coordinated by Cumbria County Council’s Community Unit working with ACERT and this year the project has also had funding from Celebr8, a North West Development Agency funded initiative to emphasise that ‘diversity is an economic, social and cultural asset to the region.

Appleby Fair is a unique experience and through the Education On The Hoof project, visitors to the area are invited to explore the cultural aspects of this traditional Horse Fair and the Travelling community.

The Education On The Hoof activities will be focussed at two venues, Centre 67 in the town and Salttip Corner near Fair Hill.

A booking form for events can be downloaded here.

Centre 67 Activities

Centre 67 will be running a cafe from 10:00 each day for light breakfasts, lunches and tea/coffee/drinks. Centre 67's website.

For this year there is also the opportunity to receive vital First Aid training in the form of Heartstart - Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service will provide the two hour training session to get qualified in Emergency Life Support. For more information follow this link.

Simon Evans is a photographer, filmmaker, writer and broadcaster whose films and books include ‘The Vardo and the Grai’, ‘The Roads we Roam’ and ‘Stopping Places’.

Thursday 2pm - Simon will be talking about and showing extracts from recent film projects which have involved building links between Travellers and other communities and agencies.

Friday 11am - Simon will be introducing and showing extracts from films which give a voice to young Travellers. This will include looking at the lives of young Travellers living on the roadside.

Candy Sheridan is the vice-chair of the Gypsy Council and an Irish Traveller and will lead a discussion on the issues facing Travellers on Friday at 2pm. Candy has personal experience of the difficulties facing Travellers and has campaigned for authorised site provision for the Travelling community.

New to the Education On The Hoof work this year is a showcasing of the musical talents within the community. During a Friday lunchtime session some Cumbrian artists will give an introduction to the musical traditions and then local musician Bill Lloyd will lead an open mic session from 4:30pm featuring artists from the Travelling community.

On Saturday afternoon Caroline Binch, a celebrated children’s author and illustrator, will be delivering a workshop on her new book ‘Road Horse’.

Caroline will be reading to children from her book at Salt Tip corner on Fair Hill. The book is aimed at children aged seven and older. It tells the exciting story of a Traveller boy and his search for a trotting horse which he dreams of training to win road races. Road Horse will be published on 3 June.

To round the programme up on Saturday afternoon Jake Bowers will lead a panel of local Travellers in a discussion on the issues that face Travellers of all ages today. Jake Bowers is one of the UK’s best known Romani journalists. After growing up as one of 17 children the impending arrival of the first of his own three children pushed him into a more settled life and he now runs the Gypsy Media Company, providing education about Gypsies and Travellers through the media and presents Rokker Radio, a BBC programme for the Travelling community.

Salttip Corner Activities

A marquee will be the centre of the activities which will include a range of information available from agencies about health issues, education, family support, horse passports, animal welfare, fire safety advice and activities for young people via the Cumbria Travellers Truck Project and Lancashire Surestart.

These activities are coordinated and supported by a number of Travellers Education Services across the country working together through ACERT.

These activities are focussed on the Travelling community but day visitors will also find something of interest as they pass between the town and Fair Hill. The Office of National Statistics will also attend to advise Travellers on how to be included in the 2011 national census which is critical to address the shortfall of site provision nationally.

Travellers Times magazine will also be providing facilities for people to get on line and register while the Stroke Association and the RSPCA will provide advice and support.

All the activities on Salttip Corner will be withdrawn on the Saturday afternoon to hand over the area to the traditional horse trading that begins in the late afternoon prior to the Sunday.

The Education On The Hoof project also supports a programme of work with local schools. This year due to half term this work will be taking place the week before and the week after the Fair.

The schools benefitting from this work will be:

• Appleby Grammar School
• Appleby Primary
• Kirkby Stephen Grammar and Primary
• St Catherine's RC primary school in Penrith
• QEGS in Penrith

This will follow on from the work done last year which included work with Radio Cumbria at Appleby Grammar School and Kirkby Stephen Grammar School in 2009.

Images from the fair...