Driving at 11, boxing from seven and living in their own caravan… Inside the lives of the real Gypsy Kids twins who are ‘men in boys’ bodies’
Romany twins Abraham and Johnny, who star in the Channel 5 show, reveal how they mix their ordinary school lives with a traditional Traveller lifestyle
AT ELEVEN years old, twins Abraham and Johnny Smith have just finished their first year at a local secondary school.
But away from school, their lives couldn’t be more different from their classmates'.
The boys are Romany Gypsies and their school holidays are spent driving cars, buying horses, riding in horse-drawn carriages and cooking full meals in a pot suspended over an open fire.
The pair started boxing at seven and, at 11, they have already “left home” – moving in to a caravan of their own.
To earn money, they help out their dad doing landscape gardening, fencing and laying patios.
Abraham said: “I’m like a man in an 11-year-old’s body.
“We go to school but when we’re home, it’s like our own Traveller school here. I learn off my grandfather when he buys horses, and deals cars, I go with him so I can learn.”
The twins - who feature in the new series of Gypsy Kids - are keen fighters, learning their skills from their uncle, champion cage-fighter Tony Giles and even building their own gym in an old stable.
As Gypsies, the art of fighting is high on their priority list.
Johnny said: “Boxing is a big part of our culture and we don’t really have a choice with it.
“We have to do it because you have to stick up for yourself.”
Abraham added: “I do cage-fighting and boxing but I don’t really want to do that when I’m older. I just want to do it to learn self-defence because if anyone comes at you and does bad stuff, you need to protect your family and protect yourself.”
Tony – a UK and World Champion – believes fighting is a necessary skill for Romany Gypsies, because scores are always settled within the Travelling community.
He said: “At any time they can be tested and they can’t go to the police so they have got to look after themselves.
“The china came from my great-granny, then it passed down to my granny, then it passed down to my mum. The vintage radio is from my other great-granny. The X-box is from Asda,"
Abraham
“Whatever happens at the end of it, they are sensible, and they will know how to fight but they will never use it against anyone else.
“I’d be very shocked if they started it but when other people want to fight them they would want to, because they wouldn’t have the embarrassment of walking away.”
The twins’ caravan is in the grounds of their grandfather’s land on Five Oaks Farm, in Essex.
On arrival to the site, we were immediately greeted by a car driven by a lad of no more than 14, who was smoking a cigarette, and was eager to know what our business was.
As soon as we mentioned we were there to meet the twins – who also appeared in the first series of Gypsy Kids – they were happy to direct us to the double gates of the family plot where we were greeted by mum Marie, grandad Sam Beaney, granny Prissy and the twins.
While they are just a stone's throw from the Dale Farm site, where Irish Travellers clashed with police in 2011, the family are all Romany Gypsies and their lives are a world apart from the illegal settlers.
Five Oaks Farm was bought by Sam nearly 30 years ago and, while he was born in an old-fashioned Romany caravan, the twins' parents and grandparents live in houses on the plot.
Next to their houses are two trailers – the twins’ caravan and another which houses Marie’s cousin and his family – and round the back is a third home, where fellow Gypsy Kids star Jack Joe lives with his parents.
Two horses are tied up and grazing on the grass at the front and numerous cars are parked in the driveway, with more coming and going all day.
The boys proudly show off their own car, a silver Smart car, which they can both drive.
Abraham said: “I can drive an automatic and I’ve just learned to drive a manual. I had a motorbike but I sold that. We have also got a golf buggy.”
Johnny added: “I tell you what I’m good at – drifting. I’d make a good rally driver. We have got a big space with all the fields and we can really do whatever we want out there.”
The two boys show us into their spotless caravan, with gleaming plastic covered seats and shelves lined with sparkling Crown Derby crockery – Marie’s pride and joy.
“My mum would kill us if we chipped the china,” explained Abraham. “It came from my great-granny, then it passed down to my granny, then it passed down to my mum.
“The vintage radio is from my other great-granny. The X-box is from Asda.”
Asked why they moved out of their mum and dad's house, Johnny said: "We're too old to live up there - plus we can't stick our parents."
Mum Marie is keen to point out that she is bringing her four children up as “modern Gypsies”.
Unlike many of their predecessors, the boys will finish school and get their GCSEs and older sister Sammy-Jo has already been chosen to take GSCEs early, as she is doing so well in her studies.
At the same time, the family are keen to keep up the Romany traditions which set them apart and the boys – who call non-Gypsies “gorgers” – are already learning to cook on an open fire, using the big iron pot that is handed down from their great-grandmother and which, they boast, is worth “about £900.”
“We cook different to gorgers because we have these old pots, and we make this thing out of bricks and put a cage over it then we light a fire underneath. Every week we cook dinner in it.”
After showing us how they light a fire he continued: “Back in the old Traveller days, they used pots like these to cook and these were the only accessories they had to do it.
"We’re trying to keep that alive by cooking in it every week – and the food tastes better as well.
"We go hunting with the catapults. You go in a barn and you shoot the pigeons. I am a master,"
Johnny
“We cook boiled bacon, potatoes and gravy, and puddings. You can cook anything.”
Johnny added: “When my grandfather was little he lived with his parents in the wagon, which was pulled by horses.
“When it was icy, they would go and find ice and snow and put it in this same pot, make a fire and heat it up. His mum made tea in the iron kettle.”
The lads also showed off their catapulting, a traditional way of hunting for the Romany community, sparking a row over who is best and what they are used for.
Johnny boasted: “We go hunting with the catapults. You go in a barn and you shoot the pigeons. I am a master.”
But Abraham insisted the pair only use the weapons for shooting tin cans, and have never shot birds.
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The Romany bloodline is important to the family, who insist that there is a huge distinction between their Gypsy heritage and the Irish Travelling community which often make the headlines.
Tony said: “Romany Gypsy and Irish Travellers are a totally different culture and those kids are being brought up like Romany Gypsies, not Irish Travellers.
“I have no disagreements with them about any of their culture because loads of them are my friends, but we believe in totally different things. It’s a different world.
“They are not Gypsies. We go back generations and we want to carry on our traditions and not be tarred with the same brush as something we’re not.
“I can’t see why people lump us all in together. It’s a totally different way of life.
“That’s what I want those boys to prove to everyone. That we are going to carry on, being respectable.”
Marie is keen to bring up her children as “good kids” and set them on the right path to make something of their lives.
The boys – who reveal they were thrown out of a local boxing club because they were Travellers – also want to challenge the traditional view of their community, who are often portrayed in a bad light.
Abraham said: “There are some bad Travellers but there are bad people in every culture in the world
“My mum and dad don’t like me to be bad and they teach us to respect others and never be brazen to the old.”
Johnny said: “There’s a lot of difference between gorgers and Travellers and some gorgers don’t like Travellers.
“We don’t think anything bad of them. We are taught to respect other people. If they are rude to you, you should be the bigger person and walk away.
“I’d like to go the people who have a bad opinion about us and say, ‘There are bad Travellers and there are bad gorgers. There’s a bad person in every culture. ‘
“When we’re older we want to go to the government to say we want this to be sorted out. Because I just think we are all the same and all deserve the same respect.”
Tony reveals that times have changed for the better for the Romany kids, and he sees a brighter future.
“I’ve had a hard, hard life,” he said. “I’ve got no education, I’ve never been to school for one day, but I’m not a criminal.
“The only education I have is from people like my godfather, Sam, who told me, ‘You’ll never get anywhere by getting in trouble. Pick what you’re good at – whether it’s building or fighting – and that’s your future. The more you work the better you get.’
"I hope to have my own show when I’m older. We’re the new Ant and Dec,"
Abraham
“These kids have got school, an education, and we’re pushing them to be anything they want to be and I know they will succeed and they will be good at it. I think it’s a good thing, because it was a lot harder when I was growing up."
Although the boys, who earn their own cash, were expected to sub their older sister when she was going to the cinema, dad-of-five Tony said the traditional role of girls was also changing.
He said: "The girls do get married quite young but it is changing.
"My mum got married at 16 but more Traveller girls are now leaving it to 25 or 26 and seeing a bit of life first.
"The girls are going out to work too. Social media has changed so many people and they can see their friends going out to work and they want to be their own bosses too.
"My own girls can do whatever they want to do, as long as they don’t get into trouble."
As for the twins, they have big dreams for the future.
“I hope to have my own show when I’m older,” said Abraham. “We’re the new Ant and Dec.”
In the first episode of Gypsy Kids: Our secret World, which airs at 9pm on Thursday, on Channel 5, a nine-year-old girl reveals what it's like to be an Irish Traveller faced with eviction.