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Showmen's Guild - History
 The formation of the United Kingdom Van Dwellers Association in 1889 was the most decisive and important event in the history of travelling showpeople as a community. For the first time the showpeople had joined together to fight what they perceived as unfair legislation - the Moveable Dwellings Bill.
Between 1884 and 1891 George Smith attempted to legislate the movements of all travelling people. These proposals caused widespread anger throughout the travelling fraternity and complaints from travellers were not long in appearing in newspapers, with vocal protest being made wherever George Smith was lecturing, by both van dwellers and Gypsies alike. Indeed at Birmingham Onion Fair he was chased through the streets of the city, and when he ventured onto the fairgrounds in Leicester and Northampton he was given police protection from the threat of attacks, whilst at Ascot Races a Gypsy woman threatened to pour paraffin over him and then set him alight.
The story of the unification of the travelling showpeople and their successful fight against George Smith is central to showpeople's history. The leading showmen of the day had been contacted by the League through the pages of The Era. The meeting at the Black Lion Hotel in Salford, on the Flat Iron fairgound, arose out of the initial contacts made by the showmen through the pages of The Era and by word of mouth on the fairground.
By the following year the outrage felt by the fairground community had expressed itself in the sending of petitions to the Government and the distribution of pamphlets in cities and towns wherever a fair was held; it culminated in a series of public meetings held throughout the country. A membership fund was started and in the first year over five hundred showmen contributed to the cost of fighting George Smith's proposed Bill. The Reverend Thomas Horne was a leading campaigner in this fight.
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