This is the version recorded from Waterford Traveller 'Rich' Johnny Connors in 1975.
The accompanying note was included on the CD 'From Puck To Appleby.
As far as we could find out, the song is anonymous and the characters named vary from version to version.
Jim Carroll

Appleby Fair

'Tis at Appleby Top you will find a horse fair,
Which brings all these Travellers there year after year.
You'll see all the dealers with diddys* all there,
Sat cooking their scran* around smoky wood fires.

They'll have piebalds and skewballs, and flea bitten greys,
Like the most of their owners they've seen better days,
With a greasy-heel* here, and a bog-spavine* there,
We'll take knacker-prices* for those at the fair.

Sure you all know Bob Ferris, and young Billy Brough,
Sure they've all had it off and they sold some good stuff,
Between wibbling and wobbling, and speaking of grai*,
Sure we all will be thinking of Appleby Fair.

Sure you all know Dan Mannion, he's a man who is game,
He kept trotting horses which have brought him great fame,
In company with Chick and he smokes a cigar,
And he speaks of his daughter who drives a posh car.

The small town of Appleby in Cumbria has held an annual fair every June since permission was first granted in 1684 by James II for 'a fair or market for the purchase and sale of all manner of goods, cattle, mares and geldings'. Nowadays it is solely for horses. It is officially a one-day affair, although it usually lasts a week and is claimed to be the largest gathering of Travellers in Britain. The fair is held on what was The Gallows Hill but is now known as Fair Hill. The layout of the town, built as it is on both sides of the River Eden, makes Appleby a convenient site for a horse-fair as can be seen by this picturesque description by a young gypsy girl:
"When the little chavvies* get up, they take the grais down the pani* and they wash the grais down, and then they ride the grais up and down the drom*."
While this song is usually identified with English Travellers, it seems to be fairly popular among the Irish. We recorded it from three singers and we knew of several others who also sang it.

* Diddys (Romany; orig low slang) = Didikei, a gypsy of mixed marriage origins.
* Scran (low slang) = scraps of food.
* Greasy-heel, * Bog Spavine = ailments in horses.
* Knacker-prices (from dialect) = prices paid for horses intended for slaughter.
* Grais (Romany) = horses. * Chavvies (Romany) = boys.
* Pani (Romany) = water (river).
* Drom (Romany) = road]

Ref: The Gypsies, Angus Fraser, The Peoples of Europe series, Blackwell, 1992