The life of Joanne Hale’s family sounds quite romantic.

Years ago, they travelled around the countryside of Shropshire and Herefordshire in a horse-drawn caravan in the traditional lifestyle of Romany gipsies.

Behind the evocative imagery was a hard reality.

“When my mum was growing up she lived in one of these horse-drawn wagons. She never went to school. She had to work to help her dad earn the money in the fields to help provide for the rest of the family,” says Joanne.

“With my mum being the eldest of nine she had to sleep underneath the wagon because there was not enough room. I don’t know how they managed in those days, with the weather. It was a different world back then.”

Her mother was Betty Lock, and the Locks were a well-known Romany family in Shropshire and Herefordshire, still remembered by some older folk.

Joanne says her mum is now Betty Higgs living in Claverley, somewhat more comfortably, no doubt.

Despite the family background, 40-year-old Joanne was destined never to live the gipsy lifestyle herself. Indeed, it appears to be her coming along which prompted a more settled existence.

“Before I was born my mum and dad were travelling around. After I was born they stayed put and we ended up in Bridgnorth, and lived on The Grove from me being five years old. My mum and dad settled into a house and my granddad Albert settled into a house as well. I never knew him as travelling – he was already living in a house from when I was born.”

What happened to the caravan, she does not know.

With her family history, an old photo we carried of some Romany gipsies was of double interest to her – firstly because they are all her relatives, and secondly because she’s never seen it before.

It was loaned to us by Bill Kerswell, who lives near Church Stretton, who says the Locks were a legendary travelling Romany family in the Shropshire and Herefordshire area.

Incidentally there is some uncertainty as to the spelling of the surname, with Mr Kerswell giving it as Locke, but Joanne under the impression it is Lock.

Mr Kerswell wondered if anybody could identify the location of his photo.

And while Joanne, who lives in Derby, cannot help there, she was able to identify some of those on it.

Young boy

“They’re my family. That’s my great-granddad Enoch Lock in the cap, and my granddad Albert Lock is a young boy on the picture, although I don’t know which one. So the photo shows my mum’s dad when he was very young and her granddad.

“I was born in 1970 and only knew my great-granddad Enoch Lock as an old man. They had nine children altogether, so they’re not all on this photograph.

“When my granddad Albert got married he also had nine children, and my mum was the eldest. They lived in the Leominster and Hereford area and would move around a lot. They would go where the hop picking was and would find work.”

One of Enoch’s daughters was Sarah, who used to write to Joanne and sent her pieces of lace and other things she used to make.

Joanne said: “I know the Romany language, but myself and my two brothers weren’t brought up as travellers or gipsies. My dad was Price, so my mum became Betty Price.”

Mr Kerswell had thought the photo might be late 1930s, but Joanne thinks it might be the early 1930s or late 1920s.

Mr Kerswell has other photos of the Lock family, including Jack and Jim Lock breaking in a horse in the late 1950s at Shrewsbury, and Enoch in old age at the Bishop’s Castle show, with his family.