Snaps show rubbish strewn across the fields where the horse fair was held
A MASSIVE clean up has started after piles of rubbish were left behind as thousands of travellers attended the Appleby Horse Fair.
Around 10,000 travellers flocked to Appleby-in-Westmoreland, Cumbria last week to buy and sell horses.
They brought along more than 1,000 caravans and 3,000 horse-drawn vehicles.
The travellers tethered their horses to railings outside pubs and shops on the market town’s main street.
Now snaps show rubbish strewn across the fields where the horse fair was held.
A small bulldozer scooped up cardboard boxes, plastic bags and packing foam.
One clean-up worker told the Mail: “Some of the fields look a state at the moment – but they will be cleaned up in no time.
“It might look a mess, but that’s what you get when you have a gathering of thousands of people.
“I can’t imagine it is different at any music festival. Our aim is to restore the fields to normal as soon as possible.
“In a few days’ time you won’t be able to tell that the fair was ever here.”
The annual meet-up has only ever been cancelled twice – one in 2001 amid a foot and mouth disease breakout and again in 2020 due to coronavirus.
The fair originated in the 1770s on Gallows Hill where sheep, cattle and horse dealers went to sell their stock.
It is considered the biggest horse fair in Europe for the travelling community.
Horse riders typically take the animals for a dip in the nearby River Eden.
This year travellers on horseback braved the overcast weather and drizzle to wade through the river.
Others led cobs through the streets pulling traditional caravans as hundreds of people arrived for the first day of the centuries-old fair.
