This book throws fresh light on the experiences of Gypsies in Surrey and
South London at the dawn of the modern era. It uses a wide range of
records to paint a detailed picture of people who left few written
records themselves. It shows how external forces including enclosure,
urban expansion, changing economic circumstances and ever-intrusive
legislation, increasingly challenged their way of life. The parallel
struggles of local communities and institutions to respond effectively
and the development of perceptions and prejudices have a contemporary
resonance that should interest the general reader as well as academics
and local and family historians.