From the Gazette & Herald of Friday, July 1, 1955 (From Gazette & Herald)

From the Gazette & Herald of Friday, July 1, 1955

SIR William Worsley, chairman of Malton Magistrates' Court, displayed kindness to a tramp when he offered William Noonan (32 years on the road) his fare back to York.

William had been charged with wandering abroad and lodging in a barn at Castle Howard Farm School.

Formerly, he said, many tramps had their regular rounds and they were often welcomed by villagers in a manner similar to that given to the travelling tradesmen who once came with their horse-drawn wagons selling their wares and bringing news of happenings and events in other towns and villages.

There was not the same warmth of hospitality shown to the tramp today by the younger generation.

Among the many 'regulars' who tramped our Yorkshire countryside on the Wolds and in the dales many years ago, there was 'Orange Tommy', with his basket of oranges and sack of rabbit skins on his back; 'T'Oad Impire' (The Old Empire), a tall, gaunt figure, who expressed his personal views on politics and human nature to himself in words anyone might hear as they walked along the lanes; 'Canary', who had once been a butler and who had a dog as his companion; 'Slenderman'; 'Happy Jack', who would sit in a hedge bottom in the Wolds playing a mouth organ or singing songs; and last, but not least, Tom Mcguire, the fiddler.

Updated: 13:54 Wednesday, June 29, 2005