A woman from a group of borough Travellers has issued a plea for people to "end the discrimination" her family is facing.

Mum-of-six Eileen Ward, based at Farnworth Central Park, has lived as a Traveller in Bolton for seven years and urged for community interaction as “you’ll be surprised how human we are".

Earlier this month they were evicted from a site in Moses Gate and have now moved to Farnworth after the closure of their home in Crompton Lodge caravan park by the council in June.

When the Travellers were based in Moses Gate (Image: NQ staff)

Eileen, 38, who grew up in Manchester, said: “We want people to stop believing what’s being said about us and to put an end to the discrimination that our family is facing.

“People want us out of Bolton, and they won’t stop until they get us out of Bolton. 

"But I’ve lived here for six years, my son goes to high school here, we are a part of the community too.

“I agree we shouldn’t be on playing fields, but we have nowhere else to go.

“Everything we get, we struggle to provide for. People have said we’ve stolen, and it feels like we’re being forced to live in houses."

She added: “Seven years ago I lived in a house in Manchester, but I was more or less living in Manchester Infirmary when my four-year-old son was poorly.

“We ended up losing him, the site was the only place he knew how to be a child.

“I tried to take my own life twice, my parents moved me into the trailer, and it became my home. I don’t think I’d be here today if it wasn’t for my parents.

“There’s a background to why we live together on the site, we all have a troubled past.”

Ms Ward fears that if she was to move to a house, she would lose custody of her six-year-old son who is currently looked after by her mother as well as her contact with the community that she relies heavily on.

She said: “If us or our kids are upsetting you, we urge people to come to us and we will sort it, we’re constantly asking to meet with members of the community.

“We’re blamed for all these things, but I don’t go out doing crime, I don’t go out beating up old people and shoplifting like what’s being painted.

“We always make sure to clean the site after we leave, and I make sure to film before and after for evidence that we’ve left it in good condition.

“It’s a public place, anyone could be dumping rubbish there. I’ve seen other local people doing it at the playing fields.

“We're not monsters, we’re trying to live.

"We don’t want to hurt no one we need support. Without the support from each other, we’ll have no one.”