Videos posted to TikTok show travellers from far and wide riding their horses and towing their trailers to Appleby-in-Westmoreland, Cumbria, where they hold their annual horse fair.
Determined gypsy travellers have began their journey to Appleby Horse Fair despite plan by locals to close every pub in town for the first time and board up shops after disorder at last year's event.
The town's main street is used for showing horses which are set to be traded - with some onlookers saying the animals tethered to railings outside pubs make the area look like 'the Wild West'. But things will be different this year as every pub in Kirkby Stephen closes for the first time in living memory, with only one community-owned club serving alcohol.
But one local businessman, who wished to remain anonymous through fear of reprisal, warned: 'Things seem to have started badly this year already and even earlier than usual.' On Saturday, travellers who had camped illegally on a field en route to the fair were moved on while four stolen caravans were seized by police.
Unprecedented restrictions are awaiting travellers descending in their thousands on Kirkby Stephen for this year's Appleby Horse Fair The Appleby Horse Fair has been a mainstay of the Gypsy calendar since the early 20th century - and its roots can be traced even further back. 'As it became a horse fair in the 1880s, the links with gypsy-travellers became stronger and stronger because they were the main dealers in horses.
Similarly, the tradition of gypsies and travellers washing their horses in the River Eden stems from the 20th century.
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