Travelling showmen should be allowed to stay in Winsford, near family and friends - Cheshire

Letter from Winsford Guardian

READING the article on the front of the Winsford and Middlewich Guardian (March 21) has prompted me to write the following.

Maybe people do not know the difference between Showmen/Gypsies/Irish Travellers. But I assure you we are all totally different.

I just wanted to bring your attention and that of Winsford people among others to what the showmen did for this country during the war.

Not only did we lose a lot of our men and women during the war, the Showmen’s Guild also supplied the country with a Spitfire, they named it All the Fun of the Fair.

The Showmen’s Guild also loaned the country money.

What thanks do we get for this? None! There is reference to this in the Sheffield University archives.

I live in Winsford and have done for a number of years. Until last year when my mother passed, we had three generations of our family on this site on Bradford Road.

Before living here in Winsford we lived on the fairground site in Brook Street, Northwich, and my parents and grandparents lived in Northwich during the war years and after.

My parents were married in St Helens Church, where they are also buried, along with my grandparents. I was Christened in the same church, as were my two children, who were born in Davenham Hospital. I was married there and had a blessing after 25 years.

My husband and I are having our service in the same church on our deaths via a pre-paid funeral plan which we have taken out.

We have lived in Cheshire all of our lives and wish to stay in the area where all our friends and family are.

JOEANN WRIGHT