Kitchen Garden Forum

After watching an article on the news yesterday about the homeless,I wondered if there were any genuine "Tramps" left in the country; the ones who roam the country doing odd jobs for a meal or a bed,not sitting on a pavement with a dog looking for a handout.
When I was a lad there were four Tramps who used to turn up in the Fairwater/Radyr area of Cardiff and work on the farms for a meal and slept in the barns and when it was time to move on,off they went but before they went they had helped out with haymaking,planting fields with beans or brassicas,cleaned out stables and any other jobs which needed doing,and usually with a packed meal from the farmers wife unless they just left.My father knew them but did not question their motives for being on the road and if he could would take them further down the road in his lorry .
When the council took over the farms to build houses etc.on they disappeared,so it may be a way of life disappeared too although the last Tramp I read about lived in the Swansea area up until the Nineties.

Snooky interesting.

It would be great if it was just poverty & bad luck that made todays folk homeless, but it is lack of services to treat those that minds are recalling things that should be forgotten, or those whose who thoughts are misleading them. Could they work the land - indeed! Would they be welcomed? Debatable.

Westi

Hi Snooky,
They still exist. I get several each year and if they call they get a cuppa and a sandwich and something to help them on their way.
Strangely they never want to come into the house and will always have their cuppa in the open or in the barn.
JB.

Jb. Unfortunately that's because of reputation. A few bad eggs caused so much trouble that the good ones are scared of being accused of things.

I went backpacking my first summer at uni, and stoped at farms, batering a few days hard work for food and a soft hay bale in the barn. I learned more that summer than in the rest of my life put together