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Scores of travellers line the side of the road to Appleby

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Scores of travellers line the side of the road to Appleby

Scores of motorhomes line the side of the road to Appleby as travellers get ready for the town’s infamous horse fair 

  • The controversial fair attracts roughly 10,000 travellers and gypsies every year  
  • Scores of caravans were spotted lining the A658 near Appleby-in-Westmorland 
  • Fair doesn’t start until Thursday and will have higher security presence this year

By Isabella Nikolic For Mailonline

Published: 15:38 EDT, 3 June 2019 | Updated: 02:59 EDT, 4 June 2019

Travellers have lined the roads to Appleby with their caravans as they prepare for the controversial horse fair. 

The annual Cumbrian fair attracts 10,000 travellers and gypsies who come to trade livestock and race horses. 

Even though the event doesn’t start until Thursday, scores of caravans have been captured stationed on the grass of the A685 near Appleby-in-Westmorland.

The annual Cumbrian fair attracts 10,000 travellers and gypsies who come to trade livestock and race horses

Even though the event doesn’t start until Thursday, scores of caravans have been captured stationed on the grass of the A685 near Appleby-in-Westmorland

The infamous fair, which has attracted complaints in the past, will see an added security presence this year and a restriction on caravan numbers. 

Last year’s event was the scene of a violent attack on a 66-year-old grandfather called Patrick. 

He revealed how he thought he was moments from death when he was dragged from his car and brutally beaten by travellers after he accidentally hit a toddler at Appleby Horse Fair. 

Patrick, a local shop owner, accidentally hit the three-year-old boy, who lived in an unofficial traveller site, when he ran out in front of his car.  

The boy was left with a broken arm. 

The infamous fair, which has attracted complaints in the past, will see an added security presence this year and a restriction on caravan numbers

The infamous Appleby Horse Fair is set to return to Cumbria in June this year, leaving the town’s residents in fear of a repeat of last year’s violence

The annual fair, which has been running since 1775, is held by travellers and gypsies, who attend the event in their thousands 

Patrick was then dragged from his vehicle and beaten up by a group of men who left him with broken vertebrae, black eyes and a bruised head, neck, spleen, liver and kidney. 

He believed he was going to be killed and that a passing off-duty policeman saved his life. 

Patrick has decided to close up shop and leave town for the duration of the fair.

In an interview with the Sunday Times , head gypsy Billy Welch said: ‘In the hundreds of years this fair has been going, an attack like that has never happened before. 

‘It’s unfortunate because it creates headlines that are not a fair reflection of the truth.’

Last year a local shop owner, Patrick, 61, accidentally hit a three-year-old unofficial traveller who ran out in front of his car.

The grandfather (not pictured) was then dragged from his vehicle and beaten to within an inch of his life

Cumbria’s police and crime commissioner, Peter McCall, reportedly told residents that he would ban the fair if he ‘had a magic wand’. 

Last year saw 23 arrests, 17 crimes and 115 incidents logged by police. 

The annual fair, which has been running since 1775, is held by travellers and gypsies, who attend the event in their thousands.  

King James II granted a Royal Charter in 1685 allowing a horse fair to be held ‘near the River Eden’, and is unofficially believed to have started then. 

Every year thousands of travellers come from around Britain and the rest of the world to take part. 

Patrick (not pictured) has decided to close up shop and leave town for the duration of the fair, which sees 10,000 gypsies and travellers trade horses and livestock between June 6-9

Residents of a small parish called Kirkby Stephen were left enraged when they were forced to close their main road because travellers use it to race horses

Traditionally they bathe the horses in the River Eden before grooming them and riding them fast along the ‘mad mile’ to show them off to potential buyers.

As well as horses, the fair also features market stalls selling food and other merchandise as well as fortune telling, palm reading and other live entertainment. 

In 2012 the fair was featured in the hit TV series My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding – known for publicising the term ‘grabbing’. 

Grabbing is the act of a traveller boy physically pulling a girl towards him that he wants to kiss. 

It looks violent but most traveller girls will accept the ritual as part of their culture.     

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