James Drake a Norfolk horse-dealer lived the gypsy life as a young man but later in life settled in an old cottage in the West End at Costessey.  The author of this page remembers him well in the 1930's and 40's.  He drove a pony cart with a high stepping Norfolk Trotting pony between the shafts. He visited the Cattle Market on Norwich hill most Saturdays and his faithful pony would bring him safely home in spite of its master imbibing liberally in the Fox and Goose in Ber street. His wife, who always wore the typical gypsy garb, was kindly to us village boys, she grazed her goats and  ponies on the common were we played called the "Cricket Field ".  His son Walter Drake lived as a gypsy, having married into the Price family.  He often parked his vans and family on a meadow opposite my home in West End, Costessey.  He is one of the persons who accompanied my father on a poaching expedition.

(see  COSTESSEY POACHERS  IN THE 20th CENTURY)  T.G.B

    Munnings introduces Jimmy Drake thus :-

    " At this time a white pony came into my life.  I bought him one Saturday in Norwich from Drake, an old acquaintance, a dealer in horses, who was always about near the Bell Hotel on Saturdays.  I see him now; his pale- blue, watery eyes, his scrubby moustache, his horsey clothes trimmed with velvet, a black silk scarf round his neck, a gold ring on his finger.  He carried a long brass-bound whip.  The grin on his face showed he possessed a kind soul.  "Look, Mr Munnin's "  said he, "  'e 'on't  'ev nothin' to dew wi' a cart or 'arness but what a beautiful pony for a picture ! "  And so the pony came to Swainsthorpe. "

Click to see larger image of the pony Augereau.

And again later he accompanied Drake to his camping place at Alby :-

 "One Saturday in September,....,I saw Drake in the sale yard near the Bell Hotel at Norwich.  He was with the usual throng of horse- dealers and trotting fraternity of the Fox and Goose, Ber Street.
    "Mr Munnin's, " said he, staring with his queer blue eyes "me and the missus and kids with the caravan and hosses are up near Alby. There's a common with geese , ducks,cows, ponies, and I don't know what else, for ye to paint ; and you'll see all sorts of blokes at the Horseshoes. Why don't ye come for a week ? "

  In planning his painting trip to Ringland Hills and Costessey,  Drake was the obvious man to supply the horses and equipment for Munnings to camp out for a few months on Ringland Hills.
 

 "In 1910, I think it was, Varnishing day being over, the usual vexations that followed roused me to action.  On my return I planned another, longer and more serious painting expedition to Ringland.      The gorse was in bloom;  to hesitate was foolish. ................
    Already I had arranged matters with Drake who often stayed with his family and caravan near the Bush Inn in Costessey, an establishment of lesser fame - a haunt of harpiesof the lower world, connected with the trotting fraternity of Norwich.
      (My grandfather George Barley had his pewter pot hanging in the Bush at this time....T.G.B.)         Dependent on Drake,to supply ponies, horses or figures, I was full of resolutions, boiling over, impatient to be straight away at Costessey and Ringland Hills, making pictures out-of-doors, in the right environment, with the models I needed.
Here was a lucky start, full of possibilities - the landlord,  the place,  the river, the the hills, the gorse beginning to bloom; horses, ponies and above all Shrimp, that utterly uneducated, wild, ageless youth who slept under Drake's caravan...........He was a good bare-back rider and as sly as a fox.

    I found Drake in his usual haunts near the Bell Hotel.  Then for twenty pounds I bought a beautiful old white Welsh mare,.........I bought her as a model.  My next deal was a little dark-brown Dartmoor mare, fat and round with flowing tail and tail for five pounds  .....................No man alive could harness her to a cart.  If placed between the shafts she would certainly kick the cart to pieces.............   Then I bought a bay yearling colt and a small dun coloured horse...............A blue caravan was shown to me
- a real, proper boaty, curved van with the stove- pipe sticking out of its roof on its right side.  The figure was reasonable and I agreed to buy it.
    .......I next bought a long, shallow cart, of the kind so often seen with a gypsy family, with brass- bound harness and all complete for, for fifty shillings.  The same evening at the Fox and Goose in Ber Street ..........I again contacted Drake, who had found Shrimp, and after considerable beer-drinking and arranging for the moving of the caravan, horses and ponies to Swainsthorpe, I bought another pony and a donkey: a poor humble donkey, impervious to all our talk - so patient.
    .......Not so many days after, at about four o'clock on a perfect May morning the van was loaded..........Colours, white, turps, oil, copal, canvases,rags etc. ..............and, most important, brushes in piles....
    At length all was ready to set out to Ringland Hills.  The white Welsh mare was in the shafts of the caravan, the white pony Augereau, on a whipple tree at her side.  Shrimp with a yellow handkerchief around his neck was in charge of these.  Two ponies tied to the caravan; the rest with the donkey following loose, stood ready behind and at the rear was Bob, my new man, seated in what was called the long cart packed with more belongings..........There was a thrill of adventure about the whole thing, and soon, with rumbling of caravan, sounds of wheels, hooves and voices, they ........had started on their fifteen- or sixteen-miles journey to Ringland via Costessey, where they were to call and leave my personal luggage with the landlord Mr Lyons, at the Falcon Inn. I had given Bob strongly expressed instructions not to let Shrimp drink anything on the road."   (Munnings had written in chalk on the vehicles "Jasper Petulengro , Swainsthorpe, Norfolk" and went home to breakfast)
   " About ten o'clock......... I rode off without a care. This state of bliss lasted until I reached the Falcon.  Ot came Mr. Lyons, red in the face, wearing a bowler hat and a serious look of deepest concern.  My happiness died out.  What had happened was this :
    "Your men and ponies and van arrived about mid-day, sir.  Both men were drunk. " "

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 Return to.......... Tom Barley's "COSTESSEY" Page.

Part Two.   Costessey from 1555 to present day