Reuben Ward

Reuben Ward was in a group of travelling gypsies who encamped on slum clearance ground near to Coronation Street for two weeks in October 1970, along with John Smith and his family.

Reuben got off to a bad start with the denizens of the street when he and Smith went collecting rag-and-bone and crossed paths with Tommy Deakin who angrily told the pair that they were on a patch that he had covered since the Second World War. A fight almost broke out between Reuben and Tommy and Ray Langton interceded. Later in the Rovers, Tommy provoked the two men with a series of slurs and threats and another fight almost broke out when Reuben went for Tommy. Much to Annie Walker's anger, Billy threw Tommy out, rather than the gypsies.

Soon afterwards, Reuben clashed with Ray Langton when he let himself into the Builder's Yard and started going through a pile of scrap, with the intention of making Ray an offer on the junk. Ray had promised Tommy first call on the materials and all he saw was a gypsy man in his yard going through his property. He angrily threw him out.

One man who Reuben did click with was Stan Ogden who noticed that they both wore the same blue checked-shirt. Stan took him back to No. 13 for a meal which went along very successfully until Hilda discovered that her well-mannered guest was a gypsy, at which point her attitude towards him dramatically changed. Reuben showed Stan a trick with coins and said that he realised that Hilda didn’t like him. Stan told him to take no notice as all women were the same. Reuben happily concurred and they talked about curses, saying that if they could work they could turn both of their shrewish wives into Raquel Welch lookalikes!

The gypsies' time in Weatherfield was coming to an end though as Annie had handed in a petition to the police demanding their eviction and, at the same time, violence had broken out between the menfolk when the pile of scrap in the yard went missing. Ray brought in some heavies to get back the property back though he had no proof that it was in the encampment. A full scale fight was in progress when the police interceded and the gypsies were abruptly moved on.

List of appearances
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1970

 * Wed 14th Oct
 * Mon 19th Oct
 * Wed 21st Oct
 * Mon 26th Oct