Qualla: Appleby Horse Fair

Appleby Horse Fair: Introduction

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

For one week in early June, a quiet market town beside the River Eden becomes the heart of a community that has no other capital. Around 10,000 Romani and Traveller people arrive in roughly 1,000 caravans, drawing perhaps 30,000 visitors to watch. Horses are washed in the river, trotted at full pelt along Long Marton Road, displayed beside hand-painted vardos that glow in the long northern evening. The Appleby Horse Fair is not chartered, not organised, not owned by anyone. It simply happens, as it has happened almost every year since 1775, because the people who come keep coming.

Read more: Appleby Horse Fair on Qualla

Appleby Horse Fair: Origins of a People's Fair

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The fair started as a working livestock market. Appleby's medieval borough fair ran at Whitsuntide for centuries but ceased in 1885. The 'New Fair' had begun in 1775 on Gallows Hill, which was then unenclosed common land outside the borough boundary, organised by sheep and cattle...

Read more: Appleby Horse Fair on Qualla

Appleby Horse Fair: The Flashing Lane

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Horse trading happens at the crossroads the local authority calls Salt Tip Corner and along Long Marton Road, known to Romani and Traveller people as the flashing lane. Horses are flashed by being trotted up and down at speed, manes flying, riders showing off paces and conformati...

Read more: Appleby Horse Fair on Qualla

Appleby Horse Fair: Shera Rom and the Wider World

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Although no one organises the fair, the Romani and Traveller community recognises a Shera Rom, a head Romani who takes a licence from the town council for Fair Hill and arranges the practicalities: toilets, water supplies, rubbish, grazing. The current Shera Rom, Billy Welch, als...

Read more: Appleby Horse Fair on Qualla

Appleby Horse Fair: Cancelled and Continued

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Twice in living memory the fair has been cancelled. The 2001 foot-and-mouth outbreak shut down livestock movement across Britain and the fair did not happen. In 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic forced cancellation again, but a small group of six Travellers came anyway, in response to a...

Read more: Appleby Horse Fair on Qualla

Appleby Horse Fair: A Living Tradition

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

What makes Appleby remarkable is what it refuses to become. It has not been packaged, ticketed or moved indoors. It is not a heritage performance for tourists, though tourists come. It is what Romani and Traveller families have made of it, year after year, on the same hill above ...

Read more: Appleby Horse Fair on Qualla