I’ve been sitting with this for a while now.
Like a lot of us, I was brought up hearing bits of things — never the full story. Things half said. Things you don’t ask too many questions about. Things that sit in families but don’t get written down.
I’m Romani Gypsy, with Scottish Gypsy ancestry on both sides. I believe my family came down into England around the time of the Tinker Experiment, but I can’t say that with certainty. It’s not something that’s ever been properly spoken about.
And I’m starting to understand that the silence isn’t accidental.
I’ve been working with Roseanna McPhee, and between us we’ve been going through what’s been shared, what’s been recorded, and what’s still missing. The more we look, the more one question keeps coming back:
Was this really just Scotland?
Because that’s how it’s being framed.
The Tinker Experiment is being talked about as something Scottish. A failure of Scottish policy. Something Scotland now needs to deal with.
But when you start looking properly, it doesn’t feel contained like that.
This didn’t begin in the 1930s
The Tinker Experiment didn’t come out of nowhere.
We already know that.
The Scottish Human Rights Commission has confirmed what our communities have known for generations — that nomadism was criminalised, families were pushed onto sites, children were threatened with removal, and culture was actively suppressed. The harm didn’t end. It carried on.
But if you go back further, there’s more.
There are reports from the 1800s going to the Secretary of State.
There’s the 1895 Committee looking at “Travellers” as a problem.
There are industrial school systems already removing children long before the 1930s.
So when the Tinker Experiment appears, it doesn’t feel like a beginning.
It feels like a continuation.
So where did this thinking come from?
That’s the question we’re asking now.
Because the structures behind it weren’t just Scottish.
Industrial schools existed across Britain.
Child removal systems weren’t limited to one nation.
Vagrancy laws and control of movement were UK-wide.
Policy thinking didn’t stop at a border.
So we have to ask it plainly:
Was Scotland acting alone?
Or was it working within a wider system of thinking that ran through Westminster as well?
I’m not interested in throwing accusations around without evidence. But I am interested in following patterns, and the pattern here doesn’t feel local.
There’s something else that doesn’t sit right
We’ve started hearing things.
That Westminster is more comfortable if this stays seen as a Scottish issue.
That there’s concern about it “spreading” if it’s looked at too closely elsewhere.
I don’t know how much weight to put on that yet.
But I do know this — there are people who remember things that don’t fit neatly into a Scottish-only story.
The huts. The camps.
This is where we need help.
We are asking:
Were there similar camps outside Scotland?
In England?
In Wales?
Places where families were put into huts — often disused army or military buildings.
Places where people were contained, monitored, moved on.
Because if that happened beyond Scotland, even in smaller numbers, then this becomes something else entirely.
So this is a genuine ask
If you or your family:
- Lived in huts or camps like that
- Remember Traveller families being placed into old military buildings
- Have heard stories that were never fully explained
- Know something that never made it into official records
Please come forward.
Even if you’re not sure.
Even if it’s only part of something.
Even if it’s something your elders mentioned once and never again.
We are trying to piece together something that was never properly recorded.
Why this matters
If this really was just Scotland, then the evidence will show that.
But if it wasn’t — if this sits within a wider UK pattern — then we need to be honest about that.
Because the moment we accept a smaller story, we let larger responsibility disappear.
And this isn’t just about history.
It’s about:
What happened to families.
What happened to names.
What happened to culture being passed on.
There are things that stopped. And we don’t always talk about why.
Where I’m coming from
I’m not writing this as an outsider.
I’m writing this as someone from the culture, trying to understand what sits behind the gaps in our own histories.
Trying to understand what wasn’t said.
Trying to understand why.
The question we’re not letting go of
Was this:
A contained Scottish policy failure?
Or part of something wider that hasn’t been fully acknowledged?
If it was only Scotland, then let that be shown clearly.
But if it wasn’t, then we need to be honest about how far this really goes.
