Dan Turner's father's family were Romany people who travelled around the South and West Country, lived on Canford Heath before there was a housing estate.

Born in a horse drawn wagon in 1920, Diana Turner ( nee Hughes) was the third child born to John and Caroline Hughes, one of the largest Romany families in Britain.

Caroline was the 'Queen of the Gypsies' and was well known for her singing. Her voice was recorded in 1963 and 1968 when the family were living in a horse drawn caravan on the side of Old Wareham Road, Canford Heath. Her songs were published and can still be heard today from records held in the national archives.

John was injured in the Great War and spent time in Dorchester Hospital, his brother was killed in the same conflict.

Diana's siblings Mary, Annie, James, Thomas, Louisa, Caroline and Celia were all born in a horse drawn caravan. Life was very hard. John and Caroline and the children would work on local farms, picking potatoes, peas and fruit, pulling sugar beat and hay making.

Living in the caravan and in bender tents, they would eat from the land, rabbits, pheasants and chicken and plenty of vegetables cooked on an open fire in a two gallon pot. Clothes washing was done from water taken from the stream that once ran all the way through the heath.

In 1949 the family travelled on horse back to Diana and John Turner's wedding at St Clements Church, Newton. She was a fortune teller and was a well known figure at the Great Dorset Steam Fayre.

When Diana died in 1999 many gypsies around the country visited the Canford Heath Travellers site to pay their respects.

In February 2015, hundreds of turned out to bid farewell to Dan Turner's aunt Mary Bond who passed away at the age of 94. 

A large funeral cortege, including three horse-drawn carriages, wound its way from herAlderney home to St Clement’s Church, Newtown, for the funeral service.