Stow Fair October 2025 - Photo essay by Bharat Patel

Bharat Patel is an Oxford-based  photographer who is working on a project that looks at the link between UK/European Romani cultures and traditions and the traditional nomadic cultures that still exist in India. The Romani people of Europe are – of course – descendants of migrations from India that took place around the 10th-12th centuries, which is over eight hundred years ago.

Late last month, Bharat visited Stow Fair. This is a traditional fair for Gypsies and travelling people to meet up and trade and it dates back literally hundreds of years; the Charter being granted in 1476.

Stow Fair began as a sheep fair, the Cotswolds being prime country for the wool trade, but has evolved into a horse fair with lots of horses, Vardos, horse-drawn carriages and sightseers keen to soak up the atmosphere and buy from the many stalls.

Romanies and Travellers will be there for a few days around the Fair date – which every year is the closest Thursday to the 25th October, usually beginning to arrive on the preceding Monday, and will return again in May 2026 For the next of the bi-annual fairs.

Travellers Times News

(Photographs by Bharat Patel)