This is a documentary a travelling Romany family, part of the Yorkshire Television series Once In a Lifetime, broadcast on 19th April 1977.  It shows the daily life of the family of “Sir Montague Smith”, (aka 'Cocker’), his wife, Ellie, and their five children as they wander around the country lanes of Yorkshire, rarely staying in one place for more than 24 hours.  There are interviews with Cocker and Ellie about their lifestyle, and also featured is their visit to the Appleby Horse...

This is a documentary a travelling Romany family, part of the Yorkshire Television series Once In a Lifetime, broadcast on 19th April 1977.  It shows the daily life of the family of “Sir Montague Smith”, (aka 'Cocker’), his wife, Ellie, and their five children as they wander around the country lanes of Yorkshire, rarely staying in one place for more than 24 hours.  There are interviews with Cocker and Ellie about their lifestyle, and also featured is their visit to the Appleby Horse Fair. Series – Once In a Lifetime Title – A Romany Summer The film begins with Cocker Smith and his boys running with horses down a country lane, with one of his scruffy looking boys with a small pony.  The commentator remarks that the Romany’s stay apart from the rest of the gypsies, are of mysterious origin and that the documentary makers are fortunate that Cocker Smith has allowed them to film them.  There is an interview with Ellie, Cocker’s wife about her life, focusing on her selling eggs.  The commentator claims that the state does not recognise them, and that they in return reject the conventional lifestyle.  The whole family, with five children, sleep together in the one vardo, rarely staying in one place for more than 24 hours, on an “endless odyssey”, sometimes travelling with Cocker’s widowed sister-in-law.  They travel together down country lanes and through a village. The film switches to Barnaby Fair, at Boroughbridge.  Here Ellie is again interviewed about her life, rejecting living in a house or owning a car, citing the costs.  Cocker is asked about the prices he hopes to get for the horses he is selling in the auction.  But at the auction he receives much less than he was hoping for.  Ellie is again interviewed, questioned about how they manage to have a bath, and whether they ever get hungry.  She answers that they occasionally get a bath in York, and that they don’t eat much.  Cocker says that he intends to sell his vardy and buy a trailer and a lorry, stating that there is no money to be made from horses.  The film switches to a pony and trap race at which Cocker wins a bet. Part two The boys strip some branches with their teeth, while Cocker cuts open a tin can and cuts it into strips. Cocker and the boys make pegs with the strips of tin and the wood.  Cocker is asked what his ambition is, and he replies, travelling.  He is then asked whether he has a National Insurance card, and replies, no.  When asked what he does if someone is ill, he replies that he finds the local doctor, but has to pay.  The interviewer puts it to him that some think that they lead an aimless life, and he replies that they should mind their own business. When it is put to him that farmers don’t like them because they destroy fences and fields of crops, Cocker admits that they are right to do so. The two families are then seen travelling to, and arriving at, Appleby fair.  Visitors at the fair swim and ride and bathe their horses in the river.  The commentary states that 7,000 gypsies attend the fair each year.  The film does a tour of the caravan site, showing some impressive caravans and cars.  A blacksmith attempts to replace a horse shoe on a horse which doesn’t keep still, having to restrain it by squeezing its nose in a hoop.  There is a large gathering in the Crown and Cushion pub, and when they have all had plenty to drink the landlord refuses to serve one of the gypsies and the police are called to clear them all out of the pub.  In the caravan park a man dances to an accordion.   Then some horses are run through the crowd and there is much bartering over the buying and selling of the horses.  In the evening there is another gathering outside a pub and more dancing.  The film ends with the family again camped by a roadside. Narrator – Paul Dunston Research – Julie O’Hare Sound – Stan Ellison, Ron Gunn Dubbing Mixer – Terry Cavagin Camera – Mustafa Hammuni Film Editor – Graham Shrimpton Producer/Director - Barry Cockcroft Executive Producer – John Fairley Yorkshire Television Trident television Ltd. Credits text: Cocker Smith - As himself