ELI & TINKER

In the 1970s and 1980s one of the most persistent topics of public discussion was a sudden proliferation in 'gypsy sites,' a common label later amended to 'traveller sites.' Amended, because 'gypsy' signalled Romany, whereas in reality many of those using the controversial sites were not Romany at all but Irish tinkers or drifters, mobile 'good lifers,' or simply unemployed.
One of the locations which provoked many public tut-tuts was Roundwell, at Costessey, and I went there a couple of times. Mostly, the travellers talked about general levels of ill-feeling within the site, because gypsies, tinkers and drifters were not at that time natural neighbours; about how nearly all their traditional stopping places had gone; and how difficult it was to fulfill the usual demands, like school for the youngsters, access to health clinics, and regular rubbish disposal. The public, of course, simply saw the sites as rubbish-strewn eyesores.
Eli Frankham, who lived in Marshland between King's Lynn and Wisbech, was one Romany who had more or less given up life on the road for a permanent residence. He was a tireless worker for travellers' rights, even though he yearned to travel. 'Every Romany traveller I know,' he told me, somewhat sadly, 'just wants a letterbox.' Meaning that many more of them wanted to settle. Then he made, and gave me, a walking-stick, which I still have.
Another 'settled' Romany, who lived near Hainford, showed me around his bungalow and his caravan, still parked in his yard, still spotlessly clean, and sparkling with crystal glass. I also met one of the Boswells - who was a scrap dealer - when I was a junior reporter in Spalding. But the chap who attracted my particular interest came from an earlier age - Tinker Joe, of Great Hockham, on the edge of the Brecklands, who died in 1881.
Tinker Joe, a local character, is also a bit of a mystery because his gravestone says he died on October 8, 1881, aged 112 years. The EDP reported at the time that after the funeral his age was amended to 116. Amended where, exactly, is not clear, because the last time I looked at his stone it still said he was 112. And therein is the mystery.
His real name was Joseph Ashton, originally of Kettering, Northants, who as a child was apprenticed to a chimney-sweep. At some point he ran away, joined some gypsies, and ended up at Hockham. Deeply religious, and a regular Sunday churchgoer, Joe turned himself into a travelling tinker, mending pots and pans, and is said to have set off each Monday with his pony and cart on his rounds of the surrounding villages. But how old was he?
In 1981 I sent his details to the Registrar General, in Kingsway, London, and they suggested - because Joe had been born before the start of official registration, in 1837 - that a baptism record might be found in Kettering. Then I sent the details to the Northamptonshire Record Office at Delapre Abbey, which searched Kettering church records, but alas, drew a blank.  But having found the church marriage of Joseph's parents, in February, 1777, they then tried their microfilm records of independent chapel baptisms.
They promptly discovered the details of four offspring - the first, also named Joseph, who was born on May 25, 1777, three months after the wedding. He, alas, died when young. Then came two girls, Mary and Elizabeth, in 1778 and 1781. And then a second son, another Joseph, listed as having been born, or at least baptised, on May 8, 1783. This is presumed to have been Tinker Joe.  
Perhaps the real date of Tinker's birth, and thus his actual age at death, may never be known, but it seemed likely that Joseph (born 1783) had somehow confused or adopted the birth date of his younger, dead, brother, who was also called Joseph. More detective work, I think, needs to be done.