Villagers close roads and batten down the hatches as hundreds of travellers arrive for traditional 750-year-old horse fair

Residents of a usually sleepy Hampshire village have battened down the hatches as hundreds of travellers arrived for an annual horse fair which dates back 750 years. 

The Wickham Horse Fair sees scores of Gypsy and Roma travellers descend on the village, a short drive from Portsmouth, every year on May 20. 

On what is a day of trading, the groups buy and sell horses and ponies while parading animals through the village in front of large crowds.

The event traces its origins back to the 13th century, when Roger De Syres obtained a royal charter from King Henry III to have a weekly market

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