Jon Day

Appleby, a small market town in Westmoreland, sits snugly in its loop of the river Eden. For the last five hundred years or so Gypsies and Travellers from across the land have gathered in the town in June for an annual horse fair; an opportunity to trade animals, to trade gossip. Many make the journey over several weeks in trailers and caravans, stopping along the way. I take the train from Leeds, travelling along what must be one of the most beautiful railways in Britain, the Settle-Carlisle line. I leave London behind. England slides past in a flicker of green and grey. Knock, Dufton and Murton pikes look on, impassive, wreathed in cloud…