History – Page 13 – Radical Stroud

Thomas the Tank Engine and co Social Context

Thomas the Tank Engine Social Context

Ye Prologue

My childhood – and that of my older sister and brother – roughly straddles that of the children of the Rev Awdry and Margaret. We were born in Swindon, the home of the GWR and, once upon a time, the town’s railway works were the largest engineering site in western Europe. So, I grew up with steam. I may not have read any of the Rev Awdry’s books as a child but steam was my chapter and verse text in Swindon and occupied my mind and every one of the five senses every day and night.

I was born at home in a pre-fab in a street shared with families whose dads had seen service in WW2 (my dad had been in north Africa and in Burma behind Japanese lines in the Chindits); our home was regarded as a model council-house and even though we could not afford any of the Rev Awdry’s books, we had ten volumes of Arthur Mee’s The Children’s Encyclopaedia to enhance my early education. But I didn’t possess any of the Thomas the Tank Engine tales until I read the Ladybird series to my children as bedtime stories.

Yet even though I had none of the books as a child, if you were born, as I said, where I was and when I was, then steam was in your blood. And to illustrate this, here’s a piece I penned about thirty years ago about when I first went train-spotting with my brother.

Do you remember that lazy afternoon?

Back in August 1958?

Well, I bloody well do mate.

We were sitting on the bunker

At the end of platform four,

Just by the giant semaphore signal,

When 5050 ‘The Earl of St Germans’

Came steaming, Brunswick green and brass dome gleaming,

To a shrieking, whistling halt;

And you showed me how to record the numbers,

In a three-penny red memo book

(Weights and measures on the back),

And how to underline name and number

In my half-crown Ian Allan train book,

And you opened the door to magic:

Happy years at the Iron Bridge, the Greenbridge,

And the Bunky Bridge on the Highworth line,

And on Vickers Armstrong outings with our badges,

After you trapped your thumb in the leather strapped door,

And the milepost says it’s seventy-eight miles and a furlong

From Swindon Junction to Paddington;

Or sneaking on to the station

When you couldn’t afford a platform ticket,

Staring at the Five Boys Chocolate,

And the machine that stamped your name for a penny,

Or watching the trains from the Milk-bank,

Or a signal box with its clunking, clanking levers,

Then taking me inside the Railway Works

On a school holiday Wednesday afternoon,

Queuing to walk through that hallowed entrance,

Then along the tunnel into a Wonderworld

Of mechanics, machines, girders, cranes and grease,

And odd bits of steam engines, with the numbers

Chalked on steam-pipe, or funnel, or wheel,

And it counted as a cop –

You told me it wasn’t wagging and so it wasn’t!

And do you remember the men pouring out

From the Works and Pressed Steel at lunch time,

A river of men on bikes in full flood

In a frantic rush for grub and a fag;

And do you remember seeing 70030,

‘William Wordsworth’, strain and slide

In snorting steam on ice cold winter days?

Or seeing sunlight’s shimmer, gleaming

On endless heat-hot railway lines,

Until they at last disappeared

In far off main line vanishing point;

Or waiting for the Cheltenham Flyer,

Studying the semaphore signal

In the sun haze squinting distance;

And you showed me all of this Ian Allan

ABC world of names and numbers,

This alphabet of railway alchemy:

You showed me the right way: the rail-way,

The Permanent Way –

So, you’ll always be sitting beside me

On that wooden fence near Standish Junction,

As Jubilee Class 45609,

‘Gilbert and Ellice Islands’ steams into sight:

Railway Time,

Keith and Stuart Time,

Brother Time.

Kevin Hibbs and Railway Recollections From My Life

I was born in 1958 in Bournemouth and from an early age can remember sitting with my parents and grandparents being read and later reading for myself, the wonderful stories written by Rev W Awdry. This magic was later shared with my own children, who in their childhood, like me, loved an adventure on a railway.

I have never been a locomotive buff, but have a huge love and appreciation for all of the engineering and architecture, which probably contributed to my career in civil and structural engineering.

My earliest recollections of riding on railways include family holidays to the Isle Of Wight. We travelled by train to Southampton or Lymington. Then the Red Funnel ferry would take us to the island, where I believe we disembarked at Ryde. The travelling across the island to Sandown, where we always stayed, was a delight. The small tank engines used to pull a few carriages loaded with holidaymakers and luggage across the island, where we were met at the station by lots of boys with porters trolleys, who for a the price of some pocket money, would take your cases to your destination. In our case this was the Heathlands Hotel, which was run by some old friends of my parents. Travel around the island was often via train, again very fond memories.

At home, my interest was fuelled by Ian Allen’s books coupled with visits to Bournemouth Central or Bournemouth West Station to watch the trains. I think Dad enjoyed it as much as I did as we witnessed the final days of mainline steam. We used to have a treat too, which was for Dad a cup of tea from the station buffet and for me, a box of Poppets from the sweet vending machine. When at the Central Station, our going home point was watching the Bournemouth Belle depart for Waterloo and from West Station trains on the Somerset and Dorset line.

Family holidays also took the form of having a railway rover ticket for a week, which saw us travel to places such as Southampton and Portsmouth (to see the ships), Dorchester and Wimborne(for the cattle markets), Weymouth (for a day on a different beach) and London to see the sights and visit an Aunt of my Father who lived in Wallington, Surrey.

In Bournemouth, an entrepreneurial gentleman called Mr Stone used to charter trains a couple of times a year for the Lord Mayor’s Show and Christmas shopping. These trains were always rammed and involved a rush to book, including taking our postal order to the gent’s house to pay for our tickets.

Train travel seemed to be much cheaper and affordable back then, as was attending music gigs and as youngsters we thought nothing of going to Southampton and London to see our favourite bands ie Pink Floyd, Yes, ELP, Alice Cooper and the like perform. The ride home was always tedious, long and inevitably on the mail train, which stopped literally everywhere. Train travel also took me to Southampton College, where I studied for the last five of my seven years working towards my qualifications.

As I mentioned above, my own children, all thanks to the wonderful world of Thomas The Tank Engine, loved a railway adventure and in that, nothing more than camping next to a railway, which we often did on the Severn Valley Railway, where I was a member for many years, at Hampton Loade. We used to have a weekend rover and the children would ride tirelessly on the trains hopping from one station to another as well as the thrill of riding along the whole line, frequently!

We also visited many other railways closer by including Bristol Docks, Avon Valley, East Somerset, West Somerset, Gloucestershire and Warwickshire and while visiting family and friend as in Bournemouth, the Swanage and Mid Hants Railways.

As my children grew up and now have their own families, their children in turn have also dearly loved the stories of Rev W Awdry and so, the whole cycle of railway enjoyment is starting once again for these young people.

Across the years, my love of visiting preserved railways and riding on trains in general, along with the appreciation of the engineering has never faded and having retired five years ago and moved to Hebden Bridge in West Yorkshire two years ago, I’m now embarking on another railway adventure as a volunteer on the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway. It’s a great line to be involved with and has been running since 1968. There are around 700 volunteers currently covering all duties. Mine so far have included being a Ticket Clerk and I am now training to be a Tour Guide and Station Foreman. The days I spend there are a joy and I often think I should be paying for the privilege! The overall atmosphere is great an although everyone knows what they are doing, there’s a lot of room for fun and my days there often feel like being in the middle of a sitcom, Oh Dr Beeching springs to mind!

So in closing, my mind rewinds with immeasurable gratitude to where this interest and love all started, with the beautiful and evocative stories of Rev W Awdry and the dear family who read them to me.

The Railway Series and Me

It is 1959. The newly opened public library stands before me. I enter through the glazed double doors to the right. The library is one large oblong room with several floor to ceiling sets of windows bringing light onto the bookshelves assembled on three of the four walls. The librarian and her assistants are situated in a wooden island-cum-counter to the front of the library. For the next seven years the library will be a second home.

Before continuing the library visit to Rev Awdry’s Railway Series, I have, first, to pay homage to Tootles the Taxi. My pre-school years saw me learn to read before I entered full-time education. Of the books which helped me to make that modest achievement the aforementioned Tootles stands out. It was a Ladybird book featuring a range of urban vehicles each gloriously illustrated going about their duties on one page faced with simple verse describing their activities on the other. How I loved that book.

Back in the library I walk to the back wall where the children’s books are located. Over the following years I read all sorts but have a particular affinity with the antics of Gordon, James Henry and Awdry’s other creations. The first two have a further significance as they are my Dad’s two forenames. Although the books are smaller in size, the layout is not dissimilar to Tootles the Taxi. Wonderfully descriptive illustrations are faced with matching text. I am transported to the Island of Sodor albeit somewhat irritated by the juvenile behaviour of the future star that is Thomas the Tank engine.*

At the time I was able to relate the Railway Series to my own life. Not far away was a level crossing where I occasionally caught sight of an engine crossing the road en route to Bristol or Bath. It is difficult to imagine the road coping with a level crossing today. Additionally, we used to spend summer holidays visiting, by train, my grandmother on the Isle of Wight. The island is smaller than Sodor but back then had its own railway network which we travelled on. It brought the Railway Series to life.

In the 1980s, Thomas the Tank Engine and friends became a very popular animation series on children’s television narrated by, among others, Ringo Starr and Michael Angelis. My children loved watching the series and I enjoyed sitting with them while they did. We invested in the books published, ironically, by Ladybird in conjunction with the television series and revisited the stories of my own childhood. For reasons which will become apparent Trevor the Traction Engine was a favourite. We laughed and laughed when Trevor was rescued from the scrap heap with the Vicar uttering the immortal lines, “I got him cheap Jem, cheap”.

The funny thing is that I thought Trevor the Traction Engine was a new creation for the purposes of the burgeoning television series. It was only years later I discovered Trevor had first appeared in book 9, “Edward the Blue Engine”. Somehow that had passed me by or, perhaps, I never borrowed book 9 from the library. Trevor’s debut occurred in 1954, the year I was born.

Trevor Simpson

*Interestingly, Brian Sibley in his biography thinks that the reason for Thomas’ popularity is that he is the most child-like in his manner and personality and therefore the one that children most readily relate to.

But I’m getting beyond myself here. I need to go back to the time when the Rev first read a story to Christopher. Here is some railway childhood context from my brother-in-law.

Trainspotting in the 1940s

As boys, we spent hours in the summer holidays sitting between Green Bridge and Ermin Street Bridge jotting down names and numbers as Kings, Castles and Halls steamed past us. Some of the early Castles had huge name plates to hold all the lettering: ‘The Somerset Light Infantry (Prince Albert’s)’ is one that sticks in my mind.

Sometimes, we’d go to Swindon where for a penny we could spend all day on the platforms and on one memorable day a kindly driver invited two of us on to the footplate to see the firebox and watch the oil gauges while the boiler simmered ahead of us. The loco was ‘King William 1V’; unforgettable.

A special treat was to get a return ticket to Old Town Station – cost fourpence on a route known as ‘The Loop’ which went past the GWR Works where all newly repaired and re-painted locos stood. The train was usually of two coaches hauled by a class 27 pannier tank engine and on one occasion at Old Town, a driver took two of us onto the footplate while he moved the loco from the coaches and took it round to hook on at the other end for the run back to Swindon Junction. Back in the coach with notebooks ready, there would be frantic scribbling as we tried to jot down the names and numbers of everything outside the Works.

The hobby really took off in 1943 when Ian Allan’s first ABC of GWR names and numbers came out. It cost one shilling and sixpence and had to be ordered by post which had us all begging our mums for postal orders.

At home with our haul of names and numbers, out came the treasured ABC so that all could be neatly underlined, with F.P. added to ‘King William 1V’.

The Context to the 1839 Selsley Meeting

Some of you may remember Peter Griffin, the Kings Stanley historian. If it wasn’t for his wonderful generosity, I wouldn’t have written what follows below and you wouldn’t be reading it.

I think it would have been around 2011 or so when I came home to discover three or four supermarket bags crammed with papers in the porch. Peter had generously dropped off loads of photocopies and print-outs of primary sources about local history: Chartism, in particular. These were the fruits of his meticulous research. It would be a labour of love to shape all of this into some sequential order. But it would take some doing.

What exactly was there? How would I find the time to read all this, let alone make handwritten notes after laboriously underlining and highlighting and then create a structure of coherent narrative and focussed analysis, with hours spent in back-breaking lucubration typing at a computer at a table?

Well, this is how it happened … I took papers with me, piecemeal, to work on the bus and studied the texts as much as I could before I felt queasy on a bus going around village lanes and bends; highlighting and underlining and then filling a notebook and then typing it all up. This paragraph only hints at the ocular pain involved.

I wrote a few original pieces to post on the Radical Stroud website but completely forgot about the below until the last few days. So, what you are about to read is hardly hot off the press but it is about to enter the public light of day for the first time. It’s not all honed yet by a long chalk: I just don’t have the time, energy or motivation to complete the job either. But someone will … here’s the baton …

But don’t bother to ask … for the life of me, I can’t remember what I’ve done with all the shopping bags …

But here’s the new piece for the Chartist Festival.

The Local and National Context to the 1839 Selsley Meeting

Timothy Exell, a liberal observer, “in about the beginning of 1838 some of the principal manufacturers made the greatest reduction on their weavers that has ever been known since the memory of man, and, if the Government does not interfere, I can see nothing but destruction at our heels…”

Lord John Russell’s 1839 Message to the Electors of Stroud: “Of the working classes who have declared their adherence to what is called the People’s Charter, but few care for Universal Suffrage, Vote by Ballot, or Annual Parliaments. The greater part feel the hardship of their social condition; they complain of their hard toil and insufficient wages, and imagine that Mr. Oastler or Mr. Fielden will lead them to a happy valley, where their labour will be light and their wages high. They know not the general laws by which profit and wages are regulated.”

Henry Cartwright’s letter to Lord John Russell, from The Ham, near Stroud, March 11^th, 1839. “My Lord…On Saturday Evening last a meeting of the Chartists was held in Stroud, at which curiosity induced me to be present. It was out of doors, and the platform was dimly illuminated by two lamps…the language of the two principal speakers (Messrs. Vincent and Burns) was of a most violent and inflammatory description, and falls, in my humble opinion, very, very little short of seditious and treasonable. I need hardly express to your Lordship their usual practice…of…a long tirade of abuse the most gross and false against your Lordship…its excess of vulgarity…Mr. Vincent stated openly that letters passing through the General Post Office, addressed to members of the Convention had been opened and read by your Lordship, and actually went so far as to pledge himself that Mr. Frost shall appear at the next election to contest…Stroud…I am sorry to say that an Association has been formed in this neighbourhood by the parties in question…the effect of such proceedings is likely to be most pernicious on the minds of our manufacturing population here, who are but too ready to listen…The Meeting was attended numerously and a great deal of feeling manifested…”

(Henry Vincent was a Chartist national leader who was being systematically spied on by the authorities; he was eventually imprisoned; the Chartist Convention met in London as a sort of alternative parliament; local areas formed Chartist Associations. The Stroud meeting was held at the Golden Heart: “Mr. Bradford, of the Golden Heart Inn, permitted them to have the use of the market room, but the meeting was held in the bowling green adjoining.” Btw, I think the Golden Heart stood where Subway now resides in Stroud.)

Henry Vincent (P.R.O. 525) “Sunday March 10 – Passed the day in Stroud. The population appear to be ripening into ultra-radicalism hourly…At the meeting on Saturday, when I asked the people how it was they sent such a little pettifogger as Russell to parliament, they exclaimed, ‘we did not send him – we had no votes – ‘…The people are very poor – wages being low, and work not over plentiful. The women complain bitterly of their sufferings, and express their determination of aiding the men in any measures…for…the entire overthrow of the present system of government. A meeting will be held in Stroud on Good-Friday, at which I shall be present.”

So, here I am back home in Rodborough, reading a letter to the Home Secretary, from Henry Burgh, “Rodborough, March 29^th, 1839, 6p.m. My Lord I acknowledge receipt of Your Lordship’s Directions this morning. I have taken measures to have them put into Execution. Some of the Chartists came to Stroud yesterday Evening, and today about quarter past two about 500 marched up Rodborough Hill by my house with 9 Flags and a strange Band of Musick…I have stopped the Beer Shops and Publick Houses…There are several policemen placed…”

Imagine a wagon there on the common, with the famous Chartists, Henry Vincent and John Frost speaking to a crowd of 3,000 people. Commune with the past and pay your respects, then find yourself another seat on the common and read another missive from Henry Burgh, dated May 2^nd 1839, addressed once more to the Home Secretary, one Lord John Russell. Henry, if I may be so familiar, starts off by writing about events in Trowbridge and Bristol before mentioning “reports of the Chartists having appointed a meeting on Selsley Hill on Whitmonday…I should also say that the Chartists hold meetings at Stroud, King’s Stanley and Cainscross and that I have heard a report that Firearms are secreted at Stroud. I beg on the part of my Brother Magistrates and myself that your Lordship will inform us where we may apply for the assistance of the Military, if necessary.” He concludes thus: “I have the honour to be My Lord Your Lordship’s most obedt. Humble Servant, HENRY BURGH.”

Now a letter to Lord Segrave, from J. Kingscote, headed “The Arsenal, Woolwich, May 3^rd 1839.” It continues, ” My dear Lord, Though you may be perfectly aware…I think it right to tell you that in a letter I yesterday received from Glo’shire, I was informed that the ill feeling amongst the People is greatly increasing, specially at Wotton, and they are buying up all the guns they can get and that a sample of a Bomb, sufficient to blow up any House, has been sent from the North to Dursley – that there are also hundreds in Stroud who have become Chartists since the visit of Mr. _______ from London – My informant has forgotten his name…My humble opinion is that nothing will occur locally but a general rise I think not improbable…”

The validity of the informant’s evidence is corroborated by this extract from THE WESTERN VINDICATOR, Saturday March 23^rd 1839. Vol 1. No.5 “RADICALS, Wootton – I shall endeavour to visit you shortly after Good Friday. I shall expect 2,000 Wootton people in Stroud on Good Friday. Mind and come. J. Beecham of the Cirencester Working Men’s association. To the Working Classes of Stroud, and the Clothing Districts of Gloucestershire. …Follow, then, the example of the men of Wotton-Under-Edge. Unite yourselves with the masses, by forming associations throughout your district…”

Henry Burgh, however, was not convinced about a Chartist threat in Dursley in his letter from Stroud on May 5^th, signed “I have the honour to be Your Lordship’s most obedt. Servant”. He does provide evidence of strong support elsewhere, however: “I had heard that they were making hand grenades at Wotton-under-Edge where the greatest number of Chartists reside. I employed a person that I could rely on…and find that report not true, but they are making Pikes there and also at Stroud, Cainscross and King’s Stanley. There are no Chartists at Dursley but at Uley several. I think there are more than a thousand at the different Manufactories around Stroud and Wotton-under-Edge.”

Most of the evidence above would indicate physical force Chartists in the area but a letter from THOMAS Farr Junr. to Lord John Russell from Union Street, Stroud on May 13^th, 1839 gives a different picture. “I am directed by a meeting of the Delegates…to inform your Lordship that they propose holding a meeting in the borough of Stroud on Monday next and that we are fully Resolved not to Infringe upon the Law by meeting with offensive weapons in our possession, by blocking up any Thorough-fare or by any other Illegal procedure…Of the legality of such meetings so conducted we cannot Entertain the slightest Doubt for we remember having attended numerous displays of the same kind during the period of the Reform Bill agitation, the success of which measure and the consequent rise of your Party to power those meetings were mainly instrumental in producing. And my Lord it is our humble opinion that the suppression of Public meetings and preventing the Expression of Public opinion…are calculated to produce the most mischievous if not Disasterous consequences.”

The next day saw this:

“May 14^th, 1839”, “ROYAL COAT OF ARMS WHEREAS a Royal Proclamation has been issued against certain illegal meetings, we the undersigned magistrates…do hereby warn all persons from taking part in or being present at such Meetings. And we call on all well-disposed persons to be aiding and assisting us in our object, as well as by giving us information…And for the discouraging and preventing such unlawful practices, and for the protection of the public peace, we do hereby make known our determination to use our utmost endeavours to prevent, put down, and suppress such Meetings…”

The document was been signed by the great and the good, including such luminaries as HENRY BURGH, D. RICARDO, N.S. MARLING, Wm. H. HYETT, together with another seventeen representatives of the local ‘ruling class’.

Ambiguities remained, however, and Lord Segrave (see above) sought clarification from Lord John Russell in a letter three days later from Berkeley House, Spring Gardens. “My Lord, As I am about to proceed tomorrow morning, according to your Lordship’s directions into Gloucestershire, I beg to ask, on the part of myself and the Magistrates who may be called upon to act with me, for distinct instructions on the following point, on which some discrepancy of opinion may arise. If at the intended meeting of Chartists on Selsley Hill on Tuesday next, Persons should be present armed with sticks, Bludgeons, or other most offensive weapons, shall we…be justified in taking such weapons from them by force, even if such persons are not guilty of any breach of the peace…but are merely present…The Clerk of the Peace for the County…has distinctly expressed…we shall not be justified…on this point I request…your Lordship’s instructions this evening…”

Poor Segrave, his ink well runneth over, for the very next day he writes again from Berkeley House at “Two o’ clock p.m.” “I have received letters this morning from two Magistrates…it is clear that in the Manufacturing Districts they consider the state of things to be more serious than I at first apprehended. They are very desirous that a Superintendant of Police, or some Police Officer should be sent immediately…He ought to be at the Bell Inn, Dursley at one o’ clock on Monday next at latest…it is of the utmost importance that I should receive…the instructions I asked for yesterday.”

So what happens on the law and order front? Well, on May 17^th, one William Morris (no, not that one) appears: “Who on his oath saith That a Tumult and Riot may be reasonably apprehended to arise and happen in the Town and Parish of Stroud…in consequence of a certain Meeting…convened by printed Handbills…to take place on Selsley Hill in the parish of King Stanley…the twenty first day of May…WILLIAM MORRIS Serjt. Of Police Sworn before us HENRY BURGH EDM. GILLING HALLEWELL W.H.HYETT Resworn before me the undersigned this twentieth day of May 1839 E.P CARRUTHERS”…and as a consequence “we the said Justices are of opinion that the ordinary officers appointed for preserving the peace are not sufficient…WE THE SAID JUSTICES…NOMINATE AND APPOINT the several and respective persons hereunder named…as Special Constables for the said Town and Parish of Stroud…” There follows a list of nearly 150 names.

On the same day, “Charles Jacomb…of Stonehouse” similarly “maketh oath and Saith” such that “tumult and riot may be reasonably apprehended in those parts of the several parishes of Stonehouse Randwick and King Stanley called Cainscross Ebley and Dudbridge within the Hundred of Whitstone…” In consequence, over 30 men were named as Special Constables. So, preparations were well in hand for the meeting to be held the next day on Selsley Hill.

GRAND DEMONSTRATION

To the Men and Women of Gloucestershire Take Notice! That a county MEETING

of the Inhabitants of Gloucestershire, will be holden on SELSLEY HILL In the Borough of Stroud, on Whit Tuesday, May 21^st to take into consideration the best means to be adopted in order to secure the passing of the PEOPLE’S CHARTER And to give Effect to the present Agitation A Deputation from the “General Convention” consisting of Messrs. Carpenter, Mealing and Neesom, will attend, also Deputations from various Associations in the County. The Chair will be taken at 12 o’clock. We particularly urge the attendance of all those who value their Political Freedom, and who have at heart the welfare, prosperity and happiness of the Nation, and let them remember “For a Nation to be free, it is sufficient that she wills it.”

In order to remove any misapprehension respecting the legality of the Meeting, we beg to state that we shall be entirely regulated by the Motto

PEACE, LAW and ORDER.

and sincerely hope that all those who attend will be guided by the same principles.

Here’s an unsympathetic report of the meeting: ‘…the hour announced for the commencement of the proceeding was 12 o’ clock…The first party which reached the ground was a procession of the Working Men’s Association of Wotton-under-Edge and the Radical Women’s Association of the same place in some numbers and with music, and with Banners bearing inscriptions of “Liberty”, “Equal Rights and equal Laws”, “For a Nation to be free it is sufficient that she wills it”, and others of the same nature…The greatest number of persons on the ground was from three to four thousand…The whole meeting passed off in the most tame quiet and orderly manner…Mr. Beecham, secretary of the Working Men’s Association of Cirencester…spoke…in favour of what he called the People’s Charter…prophesying that a Firebrand would be raised in the land, taking care to remark that he did not recommend, but prophesied merely.

The 1^st Resolution was moved by Thos. Farr Jnr. of Stroud, shoemaker…on Universal Suffrage…” that the principles embodied …are essential and that the Meeting will persevere in lawful agitation to obtain it.” It was seconded by a young man from Cheltenham named Meecham, of about 18 years of age who spoke of degradation of working men, of Poor Law Bastilles as worse than prisons, calling in the Almighty to inspire people with vigour and energy.

The 2^nd Resolution was proposed by a man named Witts, a mechanic of Wotton-under-Edge, who urged organisation and the refraining from exciseable articles; the following are the terms of this Resolution – “That the meeting places unbounded confidence in the Convention and pledge themselves to support all legal and constitutional orders of that body.” (Btw, the Convention will be explained later, below, in a section on the national context to Chartism.) It was seconded by a young man called Spackman of Cheltenham, who spoke of the movements of Government as a plan formed to disgust and degrade the people and their object in sending soldiers to Stroud to excite people in order to have an opportunity of cutting their throats – speaks of the soldiers as with the people, but dare not speak.

The 3^rd Resolution…”that it is highly important this County be represented in the Convention…a Delegate be appointed as soon as possible” was moved by Henry Lacey of Wotton-under-Edge…talking of Government’s opposition to people’s rights, then attacks on trial by jury and right of public meeting, their employing spies and attempting to enforce Rural police – calls Poorhouses “Damnable Whig Bastiles”, denounces separation of man and wife demanding as a remedy full representation, a Government of knowledge, no aristocracy, no priesthood and the people as supreme…

Neesom, the Delegate, was the next speaker…universal suffrage shall be the law of the land without delay…unparalleled distresses of the people…Poor Law…”damnable ”

Mealing Delegate for Bath follows …”You have made up your minds that universal suffrage shall be the law of this land – you will have ballot and no surrender, peaceably if you can, but forcibly if you must.” Tells people not to be alarmed at the Soldiers and to pledge themselves not to cease agitation but to appear at all places wherever called on.

Lacey…alluded to Vincent’s arrest… (cheers given for Vincent, groans for Ld. J. Russell)

Thanks are then given to the chairman, a democratic song is sung by some men and women of Wotton-under-Edge and the meeting disperses…’

The Gloucester Journal on the 25^th May cast a sardonic eye on Chartism, talking of “misguided Chartists” with “insane projects” which are “injudicious” and “wicked”. ”We hope all persons capable of reflection who have joined their standard, will at once abandon the mad notions of obtaining political privileges by seditious and insurrectionary means, and that they will in future trust to the arguments of reason and right for the advancement of their cause, rather than resort to threats of violence and civil war”. The ‘Journal then goes on to belittle the meeting at Selsley Hill before commenting that “Fearing, however, that something of a mischievous nature might arise…the county magistrates , in addition to a warning to well disposed persons to keep away from the meeting and cautioning all others of the consequences of attending assemblages of an illegal nature, they procured the aid of a troop of Lancers and some troops of the Gloucestershire Yeomanry Cavalry…In addition…a great number of special constables were sworn in…on the ground on horseback…” The ‘Journal goes on to accept that “the formidable nature of the precautions” deterred and intimidated, otherwise “very probably a larger muster of Chartists would have been made had it not been for these preventative measures…The cavalry and constables in the evening returned to their homes, and we have the satisfaction of not having to record a single breach of the peace…”

Blimey, what do we make of this farrago of contradiction, paradox and confusion? Well, we can make out the way that the stumbling consciousness of our betters makes sense of the world in such a way to suit their selves; and we can also see that illogicality and inconsistency matters nought when it buttresses power and profit.

So, on the one hand the Gloucester Journal and its ilk ridiculed Chartist meetings such as Selsey for a disappointing turn-out whilst simultaneously, but inconsistently, praising authorities for creating an atmosphere that at best, inhibited attendance, and at worst, intimidated attendance. Equally, Chartists are told in no uncertain terms that their 6 Point demands are utterly unrealistic; yet simultaneously instructed that the only way to obtain their demands is through peaceful, patient, stoical endurance. The authorities praised peaceful “moral force” Chartism because it was impotent and condemned “physical force” because of its potential potency. Yet, how amazed would Chartists be today: we have 5 of the Chartists’ 6 Points; we have democracy – and yet we have an accelerating inequality unknown since Victorian times. We are still peacefully, patiently, stoically enduring. Political democracy has not led to the social and economic transformation imagined as necessary by those much-maligned women and men on Selsley Hill and elsewhere. This is why Marx used the term Political Economy. It is time to use it again as part of standard speech and discourse.

But before we do, we must stay in the past and study further the aftermath of the Selsley Hill meeting. And what better way to do that can there be, than to return to our old friend, “Your Lordship’s Most obt. Servt. Segrave Lieut. Co. Gloucester”?

“Berkeley Castle, May 22^nd. 1839

My Lord,

I have the honour…to forward a report…of the Chartist meeting yesterday on Selsley Hill. The report is drawn up by the officer Otway who was sent to Dursley on Monday last by your Lordship’s directions. It is impossible to speak too highly of his intelligence and activity…It seems evident that in this part of the County the stronghold of the Chartists is Wotton-under-Edge and its immediate vicinity. There, I fear, a bad spirit prevails.”

There was to be further evidence of a bad spirit elsewhere in the county during 1839, however. Just over a month later, a J.P. by the name of Peter Leversage wrote to Russell about another meeting held at Selsley Hill. It involved a sermon written by the nationally famous Chartist preacher, the Reverend Stephens (‘a Sermon supposed to be one of the notorious Stephens’ was to be read there). ‘I got a couple of Gentlemen on whom I could depend to attend, they represent the Meeting to have consisted of about 120 persons nearly all of whom were men, and that a printed Sermon supposed to be by Stephens was there read by a person named Evans, a foreman in a pin manufactory at Lightpill near Stroud.

…Similar Meetings are I am informed held at different places in the neighbourhood of Stroud every Sunday.’

“An infidel Church and an infidel Government – compared the Bishop of London to Judas Iscariot…an oppressor…the Poor Law…wives were separated from their Husbands…all who died in the Workhouses were taken out in wheelbarrows to Surgeons for dissection…under existing circumstances people were authorised to repel force by force, quoting Scripture as authority – That an old statute was still in existence by which no Cottage was allowed to be built without 4 acres of land attached to it (speaking of an equalisation of property) – That the Church must very shortly be put down.”

Fine fellow, the Reverend Stephens; did he, I wonder, see the Cheltenham Examiner (issue number 1) on the 17^th July? If he did, he would have read that “The trade of Stroud remains in the same dull and unsatisfactory state…A large number of workmen are consequently out of employment, and many hundreds are emigrating from the beautiful vale of Stroudwater to the woods of Australia. Wages are unprecedentedly low…the shopkeepers complain bitterly of the badness of the times…pauperism is extensive. The large manufacturers are with a few exceptions the only ones who pay their workmen in money, the truck system being very prevalent. Bitter complaints are made by the workmen on this score…” The Examiner goes on to blame the Corn Laws for the unemployment – rather than capitalism, per se (Explanations below for the Corn Laws and consequent furore).

Five days later, HENRY BURGH sends another letter to you know who from “Your most obedient Servant.” He writes of “Mr. Leversage” who “ gave information of the Meeting on Selsley Hill and elsewhere to read Stephens’ sermons on Sunday mornings. Those meetings have at present ceased.

I saw Vincent pass through Stroud for Cheltenham on Thursday where he preached in the afternoon being now a licensed preacher,” (Well, how serendipitous is that? What a lucky coincidental chance that their paths should cross…) “he came to Stroud on Saturday and in a fly to Wotton underedge on Sunday and preached and held forth in that place, he is to return here tomorrow and one of his Agents applied for the” (Subscription) “Rooms at three Guineas which were refused.

If the Troop of the 12^th Lancers are not wanted at any other place urgently May I beg the favour of your Lordship to permit them to remain at Stroud for some time.”

This sense of anxiety about the local lower orders is confirmed by a letter, two days later, from HENRY BURGH, E.P CARRUTHERS, W.H. STANTON and PETER LEVERSAGE to “the Rt. Honble. Lord J. Russell Secretary of State, Whitehall.” It would seem that the triumphalist feelings evinced by the likes of the local magistrates after what they saw as the Whitsun damp squib, have now changed back to paranoia. They write of a “Meeting held last night, in a Field near the Town, by Vincent the Chartist, which was most numerously attended…the workpeople in this neighbourhood have until recently conducted themselves in a peaceable and orderly manner but…very injurious effects have been produced upon them by the insidious harangues of the Chartist leaders, and that unless some legislative measure be passed…Parliament giving power to the Magistrates to disperse or prevent these Meetings the most lamentable consequences may be anticipated…”

Henry Burgh’s next letter reveals more anxiety about local Chartism in general, and about Mr. Vincent in particular, dated July 24^th, 1839:

“My Lord…Vincent held forth in a field last night near Stroud…He left off about half past 10 o’clock p.m. and the Mob separated without doing any mischief.

Vincent is now gone to King’s Stanley and has given notice that he shall give a Lecture there at 1 o’clock p.m.

I consider that it will be absolutely necessary that some Military should be stationed at Stroud as the man’s followers amount to a large number.

I have the honour to be Your Lordship’s most humble and obedient servant HENRY BURGH.”

Our final letter writer, PETER LEVERSAGE, thinks “it right to inform your Lordship that a meeting of Chartists was held in the village of King’s Stanley…on Wednesday last at one o’clock in the day.” –

“Vincent of notoriety addressed the meeting for about two hours…the only available civil power at our command was two police and a few village Constables, the latter not being a very efficient body, we thought it advisable to request the officer commanding the 12^th Lancers now in Stroud to have an Officer and 20 men in readiness should a riot or disturbance take place. We also sent a person whom we could depend upon, to attend and report what took place there. He states that Vincent spoke for two hours “but gave utterance to no sentiment that could be characterised as dangerous, or calculated to lead to a breach of the peace”, also “that the meeting consisted from 300 to 500 persons, the greater part being women and children and they all quietly dispersed at the conclusion of Vincent’s address after singing what was called a Hymn.

…Although the addresses do not lead to actual breaches of the peace, I am bound to state my opinion that they leave the minds of the class of persons who attend in a very unsettled and excited state…In the Evening of Wednesday Vincent held another meeting at Nailsworth near Minchinhampton.”

Our final evidence for the summer of 1839 comes, once more, from the pages of the Cheltenham Examiner, from the 14^th of August. The newspaper informs us that “A report is current that an anonymous letter has been received by Messrs Marling, of the Ham Mills, desiring them to close their mills on Monday the 12^th inst. to give their people an opportunity of keeping the sacred month.” It concludes with saying “that unless the request is complied with they are marked men.” So, what was the “Sacred Month” and what did it signify?

The “Sacred Month” was the interesting idea of a general strike: the idealistic plan for a national downing of tools and hands in the event of parliament rejecting the 6 Points. The name is deeply redolent of that mid nineteenth century religious fervour that could infuse material politics with a heavenly seeking of justice here on the mundane plane. It was a name that also hinted at the divisions within Chartism, already indicated by the local discussions, reports and debates above: the divisions between Physical Force Chartism and Moral Force Chartism. We will now explore this schism in a national context.

The Chartist divisions were rather more in the eyes of observers on occasions and the three great petitions of 1839, 42 and 48 indicated some degree of unity. These petitions were in favour of the 6 Points and gained considerable support: 1.25 million people signed up in 1839, many of whom were women even though the campaign was not aiming for their enfranchisement; 3.3 million signed up in 1842 (the scroll ran to 6 miles in length) and 5.7 million signed in 1848.

It is the 1848 petition that has attracted opprobrium, in particular. Parliament took three days only to say that the petition had only 1,975,476 signatures and that, “ It is further found, that a large number of the signatures were consecutively written in the same hand. It was also observed that a large number of the signatures were those of persons who could not be supposed to have concurred in its prayer; among those were the name of her Majesty, signed Victoria Rex, the Duke of Wellington, Sir Robert Peel, &c., &c. There was also noticed a large number of names which were evidently fictitious, such as ‘Pugnose,’ ‘Longnose,’ ‘Flatnose,’ ‘Punch,’ ‘Snooks,’ ‘Fubbs,’ and also numerous obscene names, which the committee would not offend the house of its dignity by repeating but which evidently belonged to no human being.”

Chartists pointed out that it would be impossible to count the signatures so quickly on a petition that required the strength of five persons to heave it into the hands of the authorities. The authorities thought that as so many signatures were in a female hand, this reduced the validity of the petition even further. Contemporaries and unsympathetic historians often focused on this petition so as to make Chartism appear comedic. We should focus, however, on the fact that millions of people signed up to a document that would lead, in all probability, to the eventual abolition of capitalism. Millions of people were signing up to a revolutionary pledge and if we take the 1842 petition as an indicator, then about 33% of the relevant population signed up for a legal revolution. But we must also remember that a rapidly rising population (about a 50% increase in 40 years) has a relatively high proportion of young people whose signatures would not be sought; then again, in many areas, the signatures of women were not sought; then we must also factor in not just the intimidating strength of the ruling classes but also the degree of illiteracy within the working class; the consequence is, in my view, a remarkably healthy commitment to the ultimate transformation of the polity, economy and society. I have always wondered why this has never been pointed out, ever since my first encounter with Chartism in the 6^th form. Be that as it may, we must now look at the first petition.

It was presented to Parliament in the first week of May in that year and contained the following words:

“Unto the Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in Parliament assembled, the Petition of the undersigned, their suffering countrymen,
HUMBLY SHEWETH,

“That we, your petitioners, dwell in a land where merchants are noted for enterprise, whose manufacturers are very skilful, and whose workmen are proverbial for their industry.

The land itself is goodly, the soil rich, and the temperature wholesome; it is abundantly furnished with the materials of commerce and trade; it has numerous and convenient harbours; in facility of internal communication it exceeds all others.

For three-and-twenty years we have enjoyed a profound peace. Yet with all these elements of national prosperity, and with every disposition and capacity to take advantage of them, we find ourselves overwhelmed with public and private suffering.

We are bowed down under a load of taxes; which, notwithstanding, fall greatly short of the wants of our rulers; our traders are trembling on the verge of bankruptcy; our workmen are starving; capital brings no profit and labour no remuneration; the home of the artificer is desolate, and the warehouse of the pawnbroker is full; the workhouse is crowded and the manufactory is deserted.

We have looked upon every side, we have searched diligently in order to find out the causes of a distress so sore and so long continued.

We can discover none, in nature, or in providence.

”

Heaven has dealt graciously by the people; but the foolishness of our rulers has made the goodness of God of none effect.

The energies of a mighty kingdom have been wasted in building up the power of selfish and ignorant men, and its resources squandered for their aggrandisement.

The good of a party has been advanced to the sacrifice of the good of the nation; the few have governed for the interest of the few, while the interest of the many has been neglected, or insolently and tyrannously trampled upon.

It was the fond expectation of the people that a remedy for the greater part, if not for the whole, of their grievances, would be found in the Reform Act of 1832.

They were taught to regard that Act as a wise means to a worthy end; as the machinery of an improved legislation, when the will of the masses would be at length potential.

They have been bitterly and basely deceived.

The fruit which looked so fair to the eye has turned to dust and ashes when gathered.

The Reform Act has effected a transfer of power from one domineering faction to another, and left the people as helpless as before.

Our slavery has been exchanged for an apprenticeship to liberty, which has aggravated the painful feeling of our social degradation, by adding to it the sickening of still deferred hope.

We come before your Honourable House to tell you, with all humility, that this state of things must not be permitted to continue; that it cannot long continue without very seriously endangering the stability of the throne and the peace of the kingdom; and that if by God’s help and all lawful and constitutional appliances an end can be put to it, we are fully resolved that it shall speedily come to an end.

We tell your Honourable House that the capital of the master must no longer be deprived of its due reward; that the laws which make food dear, and those which, by making money scarce, make labour cheap, must be abolished; that taxation must be made to fall on property, not on industry; that the good of the many, as it is the only legitimate end, so must it be the sole study of the Government.

As a preliminary essential to these and other requisite changes; as means by which alone the interests of the people can be effectually vindicated and secured, we demand that those interests be confided to the keeping of the people.

When the State calls for defenders, when it calls for money, no consideration of poverty or ignorance can be pleaded, in refusal or delay of the call. Required, as we are universally, to support and obey the laws, nature and reason entitle us to demand that in the making of the laws, the universal voice shall be implicitly listened to. We perform the duties of freemen; we must have the privileges of freemen. Therefore, we demand universal suffrage. The suffrage, to be exempt from the corruption of the wealthy and the violence of the powerful, must be secret.”

I remember Chartism being described in my school days as “A knife and fork question, A bread and cheese question”: the idea that the rise and fall in support for Chartism was intrinsically linked to the pattern of boom and slump in the economy. Thus, the Chartist petitions appeared in the depressed years of 1839, 42 and 48; when jobs were around, political mobilisation dropped. There were other reasons for the patterns of support for Chartism in its varying and differing guises, however, and one of these was the impact of an organisation called the Anti-Corn-Law League.

The League offered competition as well as opposition during the late 30s and within the first part of the decade known as “The Hungry Forties”: the Anti-Corn Law League took away a great deal of potential radical support from Chartism. The League was the first national pressure group in this country’s history and it was directed from middle class, industrial, Manchester, knowingly nicknamed “Cottonopolis”. The League wanted the repeal of the 1815 Corn Laws, a protectionist measure that kept the price of domestic corn artificially high by keeping out cheap foreign imports. This, of course, kept the price of the staple working-class diet, bread, correspondingly high. In consequence, the Corn Laws were seen as the symbol of aristocratic dominance and a reality harmful to both worker and free trade capitalists. Despite this, however, some Chartists saw the League as at best diversionary and at worst, an organisation that wanted cheaper bread only so that industrial wage cuts might follow. The laissez-faire response of the League to this argument was based upon supply-demand economics: agrarian countries would export more corn to Britain and so would therefore have more money to buy British industrial goods, so demand for labour would increase and so, in consequence, would wages.

This ideological conflict was revealed in two meetings held by the Anti-Corn Law League in Stroud in 1839 and 1841. So intense was this difference of opinion in 1841 that a Chartist agitator took the stage and disturbed the formality of the proceedings, “shabbily dressed, (he) forced himself upon the platform and with the cheers of the crowd made himself joint-chairman.” This indication of Chartist rather than bourgeois Anti-Corn Law League support is further shown when the Quaker, Mr Fewster, took the floor after Anti-Corn Law League speakers were shouted down. “ Perhaps they thought the clothiers were selfish people—(“yes they are”)—perhaps they thought farmers were selfish and that the upper classes were selfish (“yes, yes”). Why so they were, and so were they who called out “yes, yes.”

But he then went on: “We were all selfish people; for he must tell them that selfishness was in the heart of man, and there it would remain and rankle in his bosom till the evil principle was subdued by a higher principle from above . . . Suppose . . . the staple trade of this district could be increased. Suppose instead of a thousand pieces of cloth 1,500 pieces should be required, was it not plain that those who made the cloth must be benefitted?”

This was then followed by a speech from Charles Hooper, a popular employer who paid decent wages. But even he had to put up with an interruption: “If they want revenue, let them tax steam—let them tax machinery.” Hooper said that opposition to mechanisation was delusional but this view was opposed by the Chartist Charles Harris, who said that if “… any new machinery was introduced which took away the labour of any man, that man should have a percentage allowed to him out of the income of that machinery sufficient to maintain him.” Mr Harris emphasised that when the People’s Charter became law then mechanisation would be for the benefit of all rather than the few.

He carried on with a prescient hint of an appreciation of the Marxist concept of false consciousness: he pointed out that workers who were seduced by the League’s arguments were examples of either a “willing slave” or a “hired fool”. He went on to say that the middle classes who supported the League “wanted cheap bread only because they wanted cheap labour….” Thus, the clear implication of this admittedly scant evidence is that Chartism commanded a great deal of support within Stroud. This is backed up statistically by the fact that 3.7 thousand people signed up for the petition in Stroud out of a population of some 10,000. And as Lindsey German and John Rees point out in their “A People’s History of London”, nationally, 3.315 million people signed up for the 1842 Petition: “over half the adult population of Britain.”

If only Timothy Exell hadn’t been such a stern opponent of Chartism; if only Lord Ducie hadn’t mobilised the clothiers in support of the League; if only the Anti-Corn Law League hadn’t been as critical of Chartism as it was of aristocratic protectionism; if only there wasn’t such an overwhelming snobbish rejection of the idea ordinary people should have the vote; if only a collectivist, non-capitalist route to “Great Expectations” could have been accepted, rather than an individualist, competitive, meritocratic one…then, who knows? The world’s entire history might have turned out differently…no Imperialism, no World Wars, no Fascism, no Stalinism, no ecological catastrophes …that’s how important the defeat of Chartism was…As it was, Chartism had fewer supporters in 1848 for the 3^rd petition…the ruling class’s offensive had been successful: an offensive all the more effective as it was a consequence of zeitgeist-snobbery rather than a calculated, coordinated strategy. As one historian commented on our locality: “A modern working class, like its preindustrial predecessors, deferred to the social leadership of its masters.”

But before we bid adieu to Chartism, we should take a short trip out of the valleys and go beyond Gloucester on the road to Ledbury. In the vicinity of Corse and Staunton, there is a community at Snig’s End, with a large pub, The Prince of Wales. This is a settlement of epochal importance in working class history and national significance in the story of Chartism. As you travel along the A417 towards Ledbury, it would be easy to miss the symmetrical bungaloid settlements on your left. There is a rectilinear pattern to the housing that suggests suburban planning and an idiosyncratic modification to the dwellings that implies suburban home improvements. How wrong one would be! This is Snig’s End. One of the monuments to the Chartist Land Scheme.

As we have seen before, there was a fundamental division within Chartism. There were also varieties of Chartism that might reflect local enthusiasms: Teetotal Chartism, Non- Conformist Chartism and so on. The Land Scheme was a national rather than local enthusiasm and represented a sort of wish to escape to a supposed agrarian Golden Age. It was a Chartist strain that rejected industrialism and operated as a sort of lottery. Members would pay in subscriptions; these funds would pay for the purchase of settlements where lucky Chartists and their families could escape from the horrors of the city and establish communities of smallholders. So, the Chartist National Land Company built 80 odd cottages on 268 acres here at Snig’s End.

I visited the site and the pub at the tail end of the last century. It was a gloomy mid-November afternoon, just the sort of atmosphere to walk around these fields of broken dreams. I seem to recall calling in at the pub and reading, or imagining, that the Chartist Physical Force leader, Feargus O’Connor spoke here. The pub was originally a Chartist school – and, again, it seems entirely correct to pay one’s respects here and raise a glass to what was and what might have been. The National Lottery today is about conspicuous consumption; back then, the Chartist Land Scheme was about inconspicuous non-consumption: a plot of land for vegetables, pigs, poultry and the gleaning of fuel.

The excellent website www.utopia-britannica.org.uk provides further information about Snig’s End and nearby Lowbands. Lowbands was a model settlement of 23 cottages built around the lanes, with a schoolhouse, a common meadow, and with the provision of working horses, seeds, fruit trees, manure, firewood, individual water supplies and privies. The provision was similar at the larger Snig’s End settlement. One further wonderful fact to try and remember: the cart that carried the 3^rd Petition to parliament in 1848 was made at Snig’s End and was pulled by Snig’s End horses. There is an exhibition at nearby St. Margaret’s.

Overton’s Window

Trade Unions and Chartism and Trade Unions and a People’s Assembly

The concept of Overton’s Window

Connotes some sort of casement on fashion:

A window of acceptability

And unquestioned validity:

A sort of Zeitgeist vista on the Zeitgeist.

And so, let’s open a historical Window,

Out upon the 19^th century

Limning Trade Unions and Chartism,

Peering through the glass darkly,

Or, like Alice through the Looking Glass:

Chartism as a political movement

To empower the British working class,

Developed partially as a result

Of the failure of working-class economic action:

The attempts to form a general, total,

All-encompassing trade union,

With the consequent ability to win a general strike:

The General Consolidated Trade Union

And the National Association for the Protection of Labour,

Smashed with the trumped-up charges

Brought against the Tolpuddle Martyrs in 1834.

There were other reasons for the rise of Chartism, of course;

The new workhouses and criminalisation of poverty:

Conditions inside the workhouse were to

Be worse than the worst paid job outside;

The immiseration caused by the development

Of industrial and agrarian capitalism;

The growth of proto-Marxist definitions

Of capitalist profit as stolen wages –

And so came the Chartist Six Points,

And the notion of an alternative parliament,

A People’s Assembly, if need be,

And working-class political power.

The narrative of Chartism need not concern us here,

Suffice it say that a sort of Chartist palimpsest

Could be just about discernible

In the late decades of the 19^th century –

But I get ahead of myself.

What about the mid-19^th Century

After what my school teachers

Would call ‘The Defeat of Chartism in 1848’?

What about what my history teachers

Termed ‘The Age of Equipoise’? –

The 1850s and the rise of craft unions,

Skilled unions such as the Amalgamated Society of Engineers,

Unions, which to use a modern term,

Accepted trickle-down economics,

And rejected proto-Marxist analysis.

Following this new Overton’s Window,

The urban working class gained the vote in 1867,

Agricultural Labourers in 1884;

The secret ballot arrived in 1872,

The abolition of the property qualification

As a prerequisite to stand as an MP came in 1858,

Equal electoral districts in 1885:

A gradual incremental progress

Towards the Chartists’ Six Points …

But windows quickly opened and closed

Towards the end of the 19^th century;

And what well-heeled commentators thought impossible,

Happened and happened in a rush:

The unskilled – and even women and girls – formed trade unions:

The Matchgirls strike of 1888,

The Gas workers strike

And the Dockers in 1889:

This was the so-called New Unionism:

More assertive than the craft unions.

The early twentieth-century opened up a new window,

And not just because another of the six points was realised –

Payment of MPs in 1911,

And not just because all adult males gained the vote in 1918

(Though not conscientious objectors),

And women over 21 in 1928,

But also because of the growth of the Labour Party,

And that tantalising Parliamentary Road to Socialism –

But trades unionism was still at the forefront too:

The Triple Industrial Alliance

Of miners, dockers and railway workers before the Great War,

The stuttering growth of Syndicalism,

‘Red Clydeside’ during the Great War,

Support for miners after the war,

The 1926 General Strike,

Not a nine-day wonder

But rather more a climacteric …

More of that next year when we celebrate

And commemorate the centenary of the General Strike,

But for now …

Trade Union power was restricted

After trade union defeat in the General Strike,

And the second Labour government of 1929-31

Collapsed over cuts to unemployment benefit

In the face of bankers’ demands:

Whither the parliamentary road?

And whither trade unions?

In the decade of ‘The Hungry Thirties’,

With mass unemployment in the old staple industries

And the hunger marches and the Jarrow Crusade?

Memories of the 1930s and the Great Depression,

The impact of the Second World War:

‘The People’s War’,

The Beveridge Report and its implications,

The Labour Government of 1945 and the Welfare State,

The seeming permanence of a two-party system,

The rise of consensus politics nicknamed ‘Butskellism’

The grudging acceptance of periodic trade union strikes

In the 1950s and 60s,

Seemed to open up a window that would never close …

But that window was to be smashed in 1979 –

It had already started to drip with condensation,

With the Labour Party’s ‘In Place of Strife’

And Ted Heath’s Who Governs Britain’s

Politicisation of trades unionism,

But Mrs Thatcher put a milk bottle through the window …

Attacks on unions, the miners in particular,

Attacks on the welfare state,

Privatisation, selling off of council and social houses,

Equation of a nation’s budget with a domestic one,

Monetarism,

De-industrialisation,

A sense of triumph for some and hopelessness for many,

And didn’t she call Tony Blair her greatest triumph?

And now, one whole quarter into a new century,

We are still living with the consequences

Of that window smashed in the late 20^th century,

And then further smashed into shards

With the 2008 banking crisis,

Austerity, Brexit, culture wars,

Fiscal straitjackets …

The new window reveals a decline in optimism,

A dramatic fall in the turn-out at elections,

A break-up of the two-party system,

A loss of faith in liberal democracy,

An institutionalization of Culture Wars,

The divisive impact of social media,

Scapegoating echo chambers …

The gig economy, zero hours contracts,

The Precariat,

AI …

And so, we see how history repeats itself:

Just as our opening window in this piece

Looked out on the duality of economics and politics,

The duality of Chartism and trades unionism,

So, once more, in the 21^st century,

We look at a People’s Assembly,

And we look, once more, to trade unions:

‘The People’s Assembly was set up in 2013 to create a mass movement against austerity. Our aim, then, as now, was to bring together the major unions and campaigning groups on an issue we all agreed on: to end the government’s cuts programme which punishes us whilst enriching the wealthy.

Since then, we’ve mobilised millions against austerity, for our NHS, for better jobs, housing and education and brought any people into the movement.

Over time, we’ve evolved into a movement against all cuts, privatisations, racist division, and any policies that harm ordinary people. That won’t change whoever is in government.

At the heart of the People’s Assembly are our local groups – members active in their communities, fighting to save public services, standing in solidarity with striking workers and in opposition to attempts to divide us.

When we come together, we can make a difference. Our strength lies in our numbers. If you want to be a part of that change, find your nearest People’s Assembly group today on our website or get in touch with the national office if you would like to start a new group.

THE PEOPLESASSEMBLY.ORG.UK

IT’S ONLY BY JOINING TOGETHER THAT WE CAN FIGHT AND WIN THE CHANGE THAT IS SO DESPERATELY NEEDED.

JOIN THE PEOPLE’S ASSEMBLY TODAY THE POWER IS IN OUR HANDS

THE PEOPLE’S ASSEMBLY

PEOPLE’S

CHARTER

OUR SIX DEMANDS

AN ECONOMY THAT WORKS FOR THE MAJORITY AND NOT THE RICH. Redistribution of wealth … closing loopholes on tax evasion. No more bank bailouts … An end to the financialisation of our economy … rebuilding our industries with a green revolution. A real living wage … An end to food poverty …
BETTER PAY AND CONDITIONS IN THE WORKPLACE AND A GREEN REVOLUTION Put workers at the heart of a just transition to a carbon-free economy … A reduction in working hours … Repeal the anti-trade union laws … a radical new deal for working people which genuinely shifts the balance in favour of workers and their representative trade unions.
A MASSIVE HOUSE BUILDING PROGRAMME – DECENT RIGHTS FOR RENTERS & AN END TO HOMELESSNESS.

Build a raft of affordable, publicly owned, good quality homes … enable young people to live in security. Regulation of the rental sector, with security of tenure … an end to repossessions, taking power away from landlords … End homelessness as a priority. Rent controls …

NO MORE CUTS IN PUBLIC SERVICES – INCREASE SPENDING TO MEET OUR NEEDS.

Put an end to cuts … Invest in local government, the welfare state, public health services, education, and transport. A publicly funded social care system free at the point of need … Energy, mail, telecommunications, water, and transport to be taken into public hands … A fully funded NHS and public education system, stripped of the private system …

JUSTICE, EQUALITY, AND FAIRNESS FOR ALL – FIGHT RACISM.

Unity against all discrimination. Challenge racism, xenophobia … petty nationalism – refugees are welcome. Fight disability discrimination. End sexism … End child poverty … A social security system that provides a real safety net …

WELFARE NOT WARFARE.

Conflict resolution and human rights … Stop the war on Gaza. End the supply of weapons to Israel. End genocide. A massive investment for a greener, safer, more just world … No more warmongering …

A People’s History Chapter 5

A MISCELLANY OF HISTORY

A TEXTUAL WEAVING OF A CABINET OF CURIOSITIES

A TEXTUAL SAMPLER

Chapter Five

Now to the subject of emigration: I recall meeting a woman in the churchyard at Randwick who had just completed her tending of a grave one early snowdrop day in February 2024. I chatted about a name on a gravestone and wondered if that person was descended from the village namesake transported to Australia in the 19^th century. In a scene reminiscent of a Dickensian or Hardyesque coincidence, the woman with her trowel and flowers stopped to tell me about Simeon Pearce who emigrated to Australia in 1842 and became mayor of the Australian Randwick. Her family, she went on to tell me, later bought the land and farm owned by the local Pearce family in the village: ‘We don’t all move far,’ she told me.

Here is another tale of local emigration, with thanks to ‘Moving On: Stroud Local History Society exhibition of emigration research by Penny Gay; layout by Marion Hearfield (both of SLHS) 2015:

‘In May 1850, Thomas Freeman (b 1780) and his wife Hester (b 1782) left Brownshill and sailed from London to join their children in Wisconsin. The arduous journey took many weeks. The parishioners of Eastcombe Baptist church were astonished, as the Church Book shows: “gone to America May 1850!” it says, including exclamation mark. Thomas Freeman had been a deacon of the church for years and, in the cloth trade, had risen to the status of Mill man, but now the once thriving local cloth mills were being used to fashion umbrella handles and walking sticks. He lived at Prospect Cottage at Blacknest (now Blackness) – a freehold house which gave him the right to vote – but what was the point of a family house when there was no longer a family to fill it? Prospect Cottage survives at the very top of Blackness, though now with a taller first floor, and two dormer windows. The ground floor front rooms are unchanged …’

And:

‘The collapse of Stroud district’s cloth trade in the 1830s caused hardship and despair. The huge hand-looms were idle and many fulling mills fell silent. Within a few years, 350 people had left for Canada, Australia and America. By 1840 there were nearly 200 empty houses in Bisley and Uley alone.

On the 16th April 1839, the 530-ton Bussorah Merchant sailed from Bristol. It carried 236 passengers, all from Gloucestershire and most from the Stroud district.

William Beard of King’s Stanley, his wife Ann and their four children were on board. He was 28, a mill labourer with farming and building experience, but almost certainly out of work by then.

William and Ann – and all the other passengers – met the requirements of the Australian Government’s new Bounty Scheme. They were under 30, in good health, with useful skills, and vetted by their Parishes. It was a bonus that both could read and write. The scheme offered each couple £30 towards their passage but they also had to be able to take £10 with them. Unemployed William was already receiving parish relief and Ann’s uncle, a Leonard Stanley churchwarden, ensured that their £10 would come from the parish Vestry. They packed up and took their belongings, and their children, and a nephew, down to Bristol.

(In 1833 a distant cousin, George Beard, also from King’s Stanley, had been transported to Australia for theft of 12 yards of woollen cloth. George settled there and married, and letters home might well have persuaded William and Ann of the benefits of migration.)

During the voyage, William was made a Mess Captain, responsible for drawing rations and cooking for a group of passengers. For this he was paid about £6 – an unexpected and useful sum to have.

The Return shows that William was offered a job by Mr Quinton of Pitt Street, Sydney, at £1 4s a week – the Beard family was going to be alright.

William was then recruited as a stockman for a new farm in New Zealand and in May 1840 a small group of families set sail once more. Within a year, William was dead.

The Beard family had been some of the first settlers in Sydney, and they were amongst the first immigrants to New Zealand’s South Island. During a river trip to the new site near Blenheim, William and three of his companions were either killed in a fight with the local Maori tribe over land ownership, or drowned because of poor seamanship – evidence to the subsequent Inquiry was contradictory. Ann, pregnant once more, had no choice. She stayed, and re-married. ‘

Moving On: Stroud Local History Society exhibition of emigration research by Tony and Rosalind Mooar (NZ), Diane Odell (Leonard Stanley), Howard Beard and Marion Hearfield (SLHS)

‘Joseph Brown’s journey in 1882 was very different to that of William Beard and his family, forty years earlier. In March 1882 Joseph stopped being a wine merchant and landlord of the Corn Exchange hotel in Stroud’s High Street, and took his wife Jane (whom he called Jenny, a keen Temperance advocate) and their five children to Auckland. They sailed from Deal on 27th March on the 890- ton Easterhill, with 27 passengers on board. The ship arrived in Auckland 103 days later, on the 10th July. Joseph kept a journal for part of the journey and his descendants in New Zealand sent a transcript for this display.

March 28th: We find the berths rather close and make up a bed for Jenny on the boxes in the berth which answers very well. We are served out with our rations by the steward. We found the provisions very fair except the salt beef which was well matured. The butter was very good indeed also the flour, rice, and salt pork.

April 14th: We have been scrubbing out our berths today – everyone able has to help. The Captn. threatened to stop Walter Lewis’s rations if he did not do his part. I have had plenty to do as the reader will find should he ever go to sea with a wife and five children.

April 19th: I am keeping school again today but the rolling of the ship makes it most awkward for writing. We have now got our sea legs pretty well and walk the deck without tumbling – especially the boys. Our Bertie is the pet of the crew and he goes and eats pea soup and fat pork with the seamen. We have tea at half past five soon after which it is dark. Then there are several musicians on board so the young ones have a dance and sometimes singing and most of us go to bed between eight and nine.

April 25th: We see shoals of flying fish being chased by boucatas which is a very pretty sight. The sailors caught two boucatas on Sunday. They weighed about twenty pounds. I tasted them when cooked but did not care much for them. We have seen shoals of porpoises but have not been able to catch any.

In Auckland, Joseph set up a furniture- making business in Stroud Buildings on the Karangahape Road. The garden of his family home bordered the Waitemata Harbour at Northcote Point. By this time emigration was not a once-only journey; Jenny returned to Stroud for a visit in 1888 and their son Robert Birt Brown was sent ‘home’ for his trade apprenticeship. He played rugby for Stroud in 1906 and, back in New Zealand, became a noted yacht designer.

From Moving On: Stroud Local History Society exhibition of emigration; research by Laurie Gordon (NZ) and Marion Hearfield

DIY Christmas Truce

Christmas tree(s) or something similar go up on the German line. “Do you like our tree(s), Tommy?” “Merry Christmas, Tommy.” “Peace today, Tommy. No shooting today. Nor tomorrow, Tommy.” “We sing you a carol, Tommy. And then you sing one back. And then we meet in the middle, yes?” Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht, Alles schlaft; einsam wacht Nur das traute hochheilige Paar. Holder Knabbe im lockigen Haar, Schlaf in himmlischer Ruh!

British response:

General murmurs of “What’s goin on?” “Can we trust old Fritz?” “I bet it’s a trap”. “No come on let’s give it a go. Let’s sing ‘em a carol”. Good King Wenceslas. “We like your trees, Fritz.” “Merry Christmas to you, Fritz” “We agree, Fritz. No shooting today. Nor tomorrow. And we’re going to sing you a carol too” “And then we meet in No Man’s Land, Fritz.” Good King Wenceslas last looked out on the feast of Stephen, When the snow lay round about, deep and crisp and even, Brightly shone the moon that night, though the frost was cruel, When a poor man came in sight, gathering winter fuel, “Hither page and stand by me if thou know’st it telling, Yonder peasant who is he? Where and what his dwelling?” “Sire, he lives a good league hence underneath the mountain, Right against the forest fence, by Saint Agnes fountain.

German response: Soldiers advance into the middle. British response: British soldiers meet and both sides exchange addresses; take pictures; drink, eat and smoke. A German shouts: “Fussball, Tommy. We play fussball.” A kickabout but many stand and watch and cheer. British onlookers sing It’s a long way to Tipperary, It’s a long way to go, It’s a long way to Tipperary, To the sweetest girl I know, Goodbye Piccadilly! Farewell Leicester Square! It’s a long long way to Tipperary, but my heart’s right there!

And German onlookers sing “Oh Tannenbaum”: Oh Christmas Tree O Christmas Tree How lovely are your branches! In beauty green will always grow Through summer sun and winter snow. O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree, How lovely are your branches! O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum, Wie true sind deine blatter, Du grunst nicht nur zur sommerzeit, nein auch im winter wenn es schneit O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum Wie true sind deine blatter.

Match perforated with an officer’s whistle; an officer tells each side that the unofficial truce is over; fraternisation means disobeying orders and will result in a court martial. Soldiers begrudgingly return to their trenches. A GERMAN SHOUTS “Today we have peace. Tomorrow you fight for your country; I fight for mine. Good Luck.” BRITISH SOLDIER SHOUTS BACK: “I do not wish to hurt you but (Bang!) I feel I must. It is a Christian virtue to lay you in the dust. Zip that bullet got you, you’re really better off dead. I’m sorry that I shot you … Pray let me hold your head”

All sing In the bleak mid-winter Frosty wind made moan Earth stood hard as iron, Water like a stone; Snow had fallen, snow on snow, Snow on snow, In the bleak mid-winter Long ago.

And then retire back indoors or have a drink outside.

A People’s History Chapter 4

A MISCELLLANY OF HISTORY

A TEXTUAL WEAVING OF A CABINET OF CURIOSITIES

A TEXTUAL SAMPLER

Chapter Four

A few short years after our walk along Stroud’s High Street in the previous chapter, William Cobbett made his way through Stroudwater, as recorded in Rural Rides:

“From AVENING I came on through NAILSWORTH, WOODCHESTER, and RODBOROUGH, to this place. These villages lie on the sides of a narrow and deep valley, with a narrow stream of water running down the middle of it, and this stream turns the wheels of a great many mills and sets of machinery for the making of woollen-cloth. The factories begin at AVENING, and are scattered all the way down the valley. There are steam-engines as well as water-powers. The work and the trade is so flat, that, in, I should think, much more than a hundred acres of ground, which I have seen today, covered with rails, or racks, for the drying of cloth, I do not think that I have seen one single acre where the racks had cloth upon them. The workmen do not get half wages; great numbers are thrown on the parish; but … Here are a series of spots, every one of which a lover of landscapes would love to have painted. Even the buildings of the factories are not ugly … At present, indeed, this valley suffers; and, though cloth will always be wanted, there will yet be much suffering here, while at ULY and other places, they say that the suffering is great indeed.”

Now let us travel south in the county, courtesy of Trevor Simpson on one of his Bristol Rides, to Kingswood.

Kingswood Miners

‘Coal mining is recorded as taking place in the Kingswood area from at least the 13^th century. By the end of the 17^th century the community had developed a fiery reputation. Lawless and ungovernable or potential revolutionaries?

Most lived in the forest which gave its name to the area. It was seen as being independent and outside of societal norms. It was also largely impenetrable to the authorities across the border in Bristol and even more so to those in Gloucester to whom they were supposedly answerable.

The miners did venture out when their livelihoods were threatened by economic downturns or legislation which seemed to serve the same end, for example, the Turnpike Act 1731. Such actions invariably led to trips into Bristol with violent outcomes to and from the miners. A bit like Orgreave.

Throughout its existence the Kingswood coalfield’s main consumer was the ever-growing city of Bristol. By the end of the 18^th century times were more settled, the forest had largely disappeared and the arrival of Methodism had changed the nature of Kingswood (although the impact of Methodism has tended to be overstated). Mining continued until the first half of the 20^th century when it became no longer viable.’

I asked Trevor if he thought Bristol’s demand for coal in the 18^th century was fuelled by sugar refining expansion rather than population growth. He replied: ‘It fed the pre-industrial machine of which sugar and tobacco would have been a feature. Glass for wine etc. The population of Bristol in 1700 was 20k and in 1801 was 64k. In 1901 it was 330k.’

Post script from Trevor:

‘Hanham, near the River Avon, was also a mining village. Its football team, Hanham Athletic, still has the nickname, ‘The Miners’.

The Heavens in the Snow

Walking into the Past
On a winter’s day with friends;
The Heavens, where Bisley sat
In the cleavage of the hills.

Sunlight and clean bright water
Pooled together to concentrate life,
To bring people, sheep, grass and stone;
Final gifting, leats, to complete this idyllic painting.

But nostalgia has rubbed out the old noises,
The clatterings, natterings and smashings,
The belchings and smellings
Of smoke and dust from frost cracked stones.

From wheels grinding and spinning,
Weaving and teasing out life
From Blake’s little lambs
‘Over the stream and o’er the mead.’

Time passes, erases and changes
Those borders and walls, that noise and smoke,
Leaving only brambles and twists of the stream
Where we clung to life on the sunny side of the hill.

(Martin Hoffman)

The Heavens

The snow wandered into Stroud on a gusting wind,
Leaving a Lowry scene of red brick factories,
Serrated roofs, and mouldering mills,
All garlanded with icicles.

There was a silence that yearned for horse hooves.
Children tobogganed down car-free roads,
Matchstick women, men and tufted dogs
Tottered along the freezing canal towpath.

The fields at The Heavens were shrouded,
Though Thomas Bewick branches
Etched a January-tree-tapestry,
Across the muffled, white clad fields.

We walked down Daisy Bank and Spider Lane,
Past medieval window panes and casements,
Beyond the spring line below Field House,
To walk a footpath, once the main route to Lypiatt.

We marked hidden ruins by the first cottages,
The search for water and daylight,
Obvious in the silver afternoon sky
And spring line emerald fronds.

Sliding through the snow drifts,
We reached the site of Weyhouse Mill
And cottages, down by the fashioned slopes,
Between the bridge and the telegraph pole.

The forgotten groan of the water wheel,
And the long dead splash of the sluice,
Mournful memories in the wind,
Led us on to Widow Petett’s.

Here, the apothecary gathered waters
For tinctures and medicines,
By Fairy Spring at Turnip End Bottom,
Down by the crossing of the stream.

The hollows and brambles on the other side,
Indicated a sheep-house and springs,
Where seventeenth century residents
Had rights to water and an apple orchard.

The scattered remnants of weavers’ cottages
Came next, up there at Dry Hill,
In the woodland, above the spring line,
There by the ruined walls and wells.

We wandered on through our time line,
Crossing the stream at the water fall,
To drop down into Kinner’s Grove,
And further hidden ruins.

The rivulet was once diverted here,
To long vanished buildings on the right,
Where we sat and stared at the westward sky,
And a red-shift Neolithic sunset.

We climbed back up to Horns Road,
Lowry figures in red brick streets,
Pints of Budding in the Crown and Sceptre,
Reflecting on the past, in the here and now.

Madeleine moments in The Heavens,
The past beneath your footsteps,
For those with eyes to see, ears to hear,
And an archaeologist like Neil Baker.

The Heavens 2024 and beyond

Emma Kernahan:

‘A packed @stroudtrinityrooms on a wet and windy Sunday night to discuss the future of the Heavens Valley. The agreement to sell to the community is there but @friendsoftheheavens are in a race against time to raise the funds.

£850k is the goal. £300k has been pledged by the community, with half of those pledges realised.

A community benefit society has been formed, and two *incredible* individuals have provided bridging loans for the remainder, to purchase all 102 acres. They are locals who have taken a big risk, because they believe in the magic of this place, and want to see it belong to everyone. But we all still need to raise a *lot* of money to make this work. So – what can you do?

Donate! As much or as little as you can – *every penny is crucial*.
Become a shareholder – it costs £50 and you get a say in the future of the Heavens from the moment the land is purchased. You become a part of its story.
We need fundraisers, admin experts, ideas people, connectors, social media types, cattle owners (really), facilitators, ecologists, lunch makers and morale boosters. If you have the skills then you’re in.
Got a mad scheme or a big challenge in aid of The Heavens? Want to have a party or make buying a bit of magic land your Christmas gift this year? Tell your friends, family, colleagues! Get organising and spread the word 🙂

You don’t have to be from Stroud – we have fundraising happening in San Francisco, donations from Australia, people cheering us on from Canada to Cornwall to Cape Town.

It’s only a bit of land, someone said last night., but it’s really *important*. The fight for our access to the land is happening in so many places, and has been going on for so long. Maybe we are used to our resources being progressively sold off into private hands, rather than being offered to us, that this one bit of good news has rippled out a long way beyond a Gloucestershire valley. Idk – it really feels like a lot of eyes are on this at the moment, just waiting to see what’s possible.

Anyway, it might be a stormy night out there at the moment, but the community hall lights are definitely shining in Stroud for those who are looking x.’

Emma had previously posted this moving personal piece a few days before the meeting:

‘The owner of The Heavens has agreed to sell it to the community instead of another private landowner. Everyone in Stroud knows this already, but I wanted to put it here to mark the serious graft of the Friends of the Heavens – and also because I feel it marks something important about the fight for our relationship with the land everywhere in England, a little victory among all the battles going on right now across the country for access to what is already ours.

For the last fifteen years or so I’ve felt like this secret little valley was mine. It’s 102 acres of streams and fields and waterfalls and ruins and ancient woods and hidden Roman remains and very loud owls. In the lockdowns, I walked a groove around it, I examined every pocket, path and hedgerow portal, every day through the 52 seasons of the year here. My children have walked home from school through it, played in it, grown up surrounded by its views, listened to its noises through open windows at night.

I was away or ill for a few weeks this summer, and when I returned to my walks in the Heavens for the first time after hearing the news, I realised that what I had done before wasn’t ownership, it was permission. I was allowed to walk that land. Somebody permitted it, perhaps for now but not for ever. What I have now is belonging. The folds of these old hills will belong to my community, and we will belong to them. We have a chance to show what can be achieved when we work together and don’t take no for an answer.’

Now for news reports from James Felton stroudnewsandjournal.co.uk

‘The meeting at the Trinity Rooms … outlined the urgent need for donations … solicitors for the Heavens Valley Community Benefit Society (HVCBS) and the current owner are now discussing details of the proposed sale.

Some 65 per cent of the £300,000 … in pledges towards the £850,000 needed has already been converted into actual donations …

More than 300 people bought shares in the Heavens Valley Community Benefit Society … The push is now on to get everyone who’s pledged to convert their pledges into hard cash and find new donors.

Coordinator Martin Whiteside said: “This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity … we can save the valley for ever – or possibly see it lost forever.”

He explained that if the entire £300,000 initial target can be raised soon, it will mean only £550,000 needs to be borrowed from the two local lenders. “So there is an urgent need now to get all of the £300,000 …”

Ben Challis, another member of the HVCBS coordinating team, said there were two main priorities: protecting community access and enabling biodiversity and nature recovery. “This will involve, among other things, improving and maintaining paths and looking at ways to increase accessibility …”’

‘HVCBS spokesperson Karen Thomas said: “Stroud people are … being incredibly generous, but we still need more to be sure of saving the land.

All the money raised in this first phase means that the Society will have to borrow less from the two local individuals who are providing bridging loans to help the community purchase the land.

Once the £300,000 milestone is passed, the HVCBS will forge ahead with raising the remaining £550,000 to repay our lenders and so secure the land for the community for ever.

I urge everyone to visit our website to find out more about becoming a shareholder and making a donation.”’

www.heavensvalley.org.uk

James Felton stroudnewsandjournal.co.uk

Ashley Loveridge Stroud Times

Update 4th October 2024

Matilda Jones (Heavens Valley Action Group Facebook page)

‘It means so much to us to have the official support of the countryside charity the CPRE …

The HVCBS has to raise £850,000 … So far, it has realised its initial target of £300,000 … The rest of the money is being provided in the form of low interest loans from two local supporters …

Once the purchase is complete the HVCBS will continue fundraising to repay the loans within two years. As lump sums are repaid to the lenders, parcels of land will be released from a “charge” that the lenders hold as security, and the land will come piece by piece into full community ownership.

HVCBS coordinator Karen Thomas said: “There has been huge interest and support from local people with more than 340 having bought shares and hundreds more having made donations. Some have offered to organise fundraising events while many more have signed up to volunteer for practical tasks …

we still have an enormous amount of money to raise, so we are urging people to dig deep to make our vision of full community ownership a reality.”‘

October 22 2024

Emma Kernahan:

‘We now have 9 days to put the Heavens into community ownership for ever …with just £15k to raise by the end of the month. The total amount of land in community ownership in England currently is just 250 acres. The Heavens is 102 acres. If we pull this off, we’ll be doing far more than saving an ancient Gloucestershire valley, we’ll be taking a stand for land rights everywhere. There’s this story we see all the time that ordinary people, communities, cannot take care of the land around them. That only wealthy people can be “custodians” of the land. Well, we know different …’

Stroud Times

‘The team behind the community purchase of the iconic Heavens Valley is on an urgent mission to raise the final £30,000 needed to fund the initial purchase. Contracts have to be exchanged by the end of October … “We are at an absolutely pivotal stage,” said Martin Whiteside … “… We urge everyone who has pledged money to fulfil their pledges if they can and we ask everyone else who can afford to, to help and donate urgently. One of the kind people supporting the purchase with a loan has stepped up to offer £5,000 in match funding at this stage. And we have received a further £10,000 in match funding from another generous individual – so every £1 raised from the community is, in effect, doubled so the target can be reached …”’

Donations can be made at https://www.heavensvalley.org.uk/donate

And shares purchased at https://www.heavensvalley.org.uk/donate/#shareholder

From Facebook:

Q. ‘…how will the people who have loaned the big amount be repaid?’

A. ‘Essentially through further donations, share sales and fundraising events to repay the loans within two years.’ (Heavens Valley Action Group)

Some of the fundraising and other events in October:

Freestyle expressive dance event at the Trinity Rooms

Stroud Suzuki Violin Group outside the Subscription Rooms

Drop-in meeting for admin/fundraising volunteers at Stroud Brewery: ‘If you’ve been wondering about whether you might like to volunteer to help out, do pop along anytime between 7 and 9 pm on the 22nd for a chat. Our priority right now is on finding people who can run fundraising events or help out with admin tasks: these might include, among other things, data entry, maintaining spreadsheets and organising the photo library. There will be a future session in due course for people who fancy volunteering for hands-on land management work. We look forward to meeting some of you!’

A workshop to Help Raise the Spirit of the Heavens at the Trinity Rooms, Stroud, Thursday October 24^th 3-4.45 pm, with artist Alison Cockcroft. All ages: ‘share your memories of favourite places, and walks … Draw, print and paint onto cloth that will become part of a costume embodying the spirit of the Heavens for the Raising of the Spirit event on November 1^st.’

Stroud Walking Football walking the Heavens October 27

November events

Every year, Neil Baker gives up his time to lead an Archaeology Walk of the Heavens … and it books up every time. This winter, Neil is running eight walks … we’re sharing the funds raised with our good friends at Heavens Valley Action Group, who are also helping us organise these events.’ First one is Saturday November 2^nd. https://www.stroudvalleysproject.org/events

Heavens Valley Action Group November 1

‘Thank you so much to everyone who came to – or helped organise or performed or spoke at – tonight’s emotional and inspirational Raising the Spirit fundraising event, whether at a packed Crown & Sceptre for pre-drinks or lining Horns Road for the procession of The Stroud Red Band, or to the sold-out ticketed event at the Trinity Rooms Community Hub with a huge line-up of fabulous performers and speakers.’

Stroud Times November 3

‘The Heavens Valley Community Benefit Society (HVCBS) has now raised enough money to go ahead with the purchase of Thrupp Farm in Stroud, writes Sue Fenton.

A recent appeal helped raise an extra £30,000 which boosted HVCBS coffers to £300,000, which combined with loans from two unnamed people, have contributed bridging funding, will fund the £850,000 purchase cost.

The purchase will be the end of the first phase of the campaign to bring the Heavens Valley into community ownership … more than £300,000 donated and more than 600 people buying shares so far, with more shareholders signing up every day.

The next phase will be to raise a further £550,000 to repay the loans, as technically, the lenders will own some of the site until repayments are completed; each chunk of money repaid will bring more of the land fully into community ownership.

Karen Thomas, one of the HVCBS team negotiating the purchase said: “Our lenders want this beautiful land to be completely owned by the CBS as they are themselves part of the local community and are not in a position to manage large areas of public land themselves so we will be redoubling our fundraising efforts and we are confident that the community will continue its support.

In the new year we will consult with the community for ideas about how to move forward … We all love the Heavens and we all have our own vision of what this beloved landscape should look like. There are so many amazing possibilities, especially once we, as a community, own the entire 102 acres.”’

Emma Kernahan

‘It’s official 🙂

Everyone who donated made it possible, hundreds and hundreds of people who gave what they could, from 50p to 50k and then some. And given how much we’re led to believe this kind of stuff is impossible and we shouldn’t even try, I find it so remarkable that a bunch of individuals have, in just a few months, pulled together to make a *historic* community purchase of 102 acres of fields, streams, woods and valleys.

Just wanted to say that I’ve watched from the sidelines as the team at @friendsoftheheavens have put in hours and hours (and hours) of hard graft and skill, from the first meeting round a table at the Crown and Sceptre pub a year ago to (I believe, please fact check me if I’m wrong) the largest single community land purchase in England. None of this would have been possible without a small group of very clever, resourceful and determined people.

The work is now just beginning, to see what we can achieve together as neighbours in this place. More fundraising, more planning, more imagining to come – but in the meantime, I just want to point like mad to this incredible thing that’s happened and say look, if we can do this here, what else is possible? Where else can we raise the spirit of the land and community? If there’s one thing I’ve found out over the last few years it’s that once it’s been summoned, there’s no telling what might happen. Anyway that’s enough weird and wonderful for one weekend …’

Jon Seagrave

‘Bloody hell, Friday night was a good ‘un! We raised the Spirit of the Heavens with a gloriously shambolic neo-pagan community happening and I’m dead proud to have been a part of it. Poets, musicians, archaeologists, a socialist street band, radical historians and – of course – everyone’s favourite Morris dancing fashionistas, Boss Morris. Nice one @crappyliving for pulling it all together. All in aid of the community pulling together to save our beautiful valley from being flogged off to wrong ‘uns, and WE’VE DONE IT. The community buyout has been successful. Now to buy the Trinity Rooms for the people. The People’s Republic of Stroud is a good place to be living.’

Stroud Times

‘Emma Kernahan told Stroud Times : “Throughout the campaign to put the Heavens into community ownership, we’ve seen this incredible outpouring of support from the people who live here. Everyone locally has a connection to this place, and it’s deeply rooted in our sense of identity …

There’s such a spirit of resistance in this town, and a really strong community spirit … By making a ‘spirit of the place’ we wanted to create something that represented that, and also give us a chance to celebrate what we can achieve when we work together.

The whole event was a collective effort – it was organised by more than 20 local creatives and campaigners, and the response was so much more than anticipated. We thought summoning a genius loci in a community hall might be a bit niche – but we sold out so quickly, we were inundated with people wanting to come. People even came from places like Herefordshire, Brighton and Norfolk.

We’ve had messages of support from all around the world too. I think we tapped into a much broader need right now for community and our rights to the land around us – and if the Heavens campaign is anything to go by, once that spirit has been summoned, there’s nothing it can’t achieve.”’

A People’s Local History Chapter 3

A MISCELLLANY OF HISTORY

A TEXTUAL WEAVING OF A CABINET OF CURIOSITIES

A TEXTUAL SAMPLER

Chapter Three

‘I like to think of your tapestry as a piece of woven cloth – the weft weaving through the warp – with all these occupations being carried out at different times. As Stroud and its surrounding parishes grew and developed, the different generations of my family seem to blend into the pattern of the ever-changing history of the Five Valleys.

“History makes people and people make history”

What will Chapter 3 be?’

Shortwood and Montego Bay

At first glance, it might seem an improbable leap

From Newgate Prison, and William Pitt’s spies,

From the febrile atmosphere of London

In the early years of the French Revolution

(‘No War! No Pitt! No King!’),

And the year of the naval mutinies

On the Nore and Spithead in 1797

(‘The Floating Republic’),

To Shortwood Baptist Church, and Nailsworth,

And thence to Montego Bay, Jamaica.

But let’s give this leap a second glance,

And so, reveal a hidden radical landscape,

And a hidden colonial one, too.

The minister there in the early nineteenth century,

One William Winterbotham,

Had done time in Newgate between 1793 and 97,

Incarcerated after sermons deemed near seditious:

‘First of all, government originates with the people.

Secondly, The people have the right

to cashier their governors for misconduct.

Thirdly, The people have a right to change the form of their government if they think it proper to do so.’

‘The people make the laws and the laws were made for kings.’

William Winterbotham was well known in London,

After his transportation from Plymouth,

And consequent imprisonment:

William Godwin would visit Newgate,

Tom Paine would reference William’s writings,

While outside in the streets, Thomas Spence,

And his revolutionary Spencean comrades,

Would take Paine’s political radicalism much further,

With their slogans all over London’s walls and pavements:
‘No Landlords, you Fools!’

And where ‘that Jacobin fox’, John Thelwall

‘The most dangerous man in Britain’,

Would entrance audiences with his oratory.

William became minister at Shortwood in 1804,

Perhaps attracted by the area’s artisanal radicalism,

Perhaps attracted by the area’s nonconformist conscience,

Perhaps entranced by Citizen John Thelwall’s visit

To the area in the summer of 1797,

And consequent lyricism:

‘…For I must leave ye, pleasant haunts! brakes, bourns,

And populous hill, and dale, and pendant woods;

And you, meandering streams, and you, ye cots

And hamlets, that, with many a whiten’d front,

Sprinkle the woody steep; or lowlier stoop,

Thronging, gregarious, round the rustic spire …’

William would be pastor here for twenty-five years.

He was buried in the churchyard in his sixty-sixth year,

After a ministry that not only looked to the heavens,

But also asserted the need for free trade,

Rather than corn laws that kept food prices high,

And inflated aristocratic landlord profits;

After a ministry that asserted the need

for an extension of the vote,

Rather than the Prince Regent’s approval

of the JP’s actions at Peterloo in 1819;

After a ministry that asserted the need

For the abolition of slavery

Rather than merely the abolition of the slave trade.

Attendance at Shortwood Baptist Church grew and grew:

A Pilgrim’s Progress up the hill to the Celestial City.

And there, in the burgeoning congregation,

One Thomas Burchell,

Just five years old when William arrived.

But so inspired by the developing and enveloping Word,

That his Pilgrim’s Progress would take him

Across the Black Atlantic archipelago

And thence to Montego Bay, Jamaica;

A Baptist missionary, but, abolitionist, too,

Not just promoting chapels and schools

And free villages for the enslaved,

But also campaigning for abolition,

And while Lord John Russell contemplated the vote,

As the United Kingdom tottered on the edge of revolution

In ‘The Days of May’ in 1832,

Thomas Burchell’s Baptist colleague,

Samuel Sharpe, would face execution

In a summary wave of judicialized racialised hangings,

And worse,

After the so-called ‘Baptist War’.

No white Baptists were executed.

You can find Samuel’s image on a Jamaican bank note;

You can find a memorial to Thomas in Nailsworth,

At Christ Church,

And at Abney Park Cemetery in Stoke Newington.

Perhaps we should take that bank note,

On a journey from Shortwood to Stoke Newington.

Walks from Kemble Railway Station from the Black Ark Media Group from the Gloucestershire Black History Map: Ewen

The quaint village of Ewen, birth place of Allen Davenport (1775-1846) a shoe maker, poet, socialist and advocate of women’s rights. As a Chartist and Spencean, Davenport supported the working-class movement for political reform and advocated the common ownership of all land alongside his close confidant Robert Wedderburn, a British-African-Caribbean revolutionary and son of a Scottish slave master and plantation owner, he provoked sympathy for his 1824 publication, The Horrors of Slavery’, influencing the Abolitionist movement.

But let’s take a walk down the High Street in Stroud in 1820 taking in the sights. It may not be chocolate box Quality Street but it has a homespun warmth, does good old Stroud High Street.

William Addis joiner

Richard Barrett victualler Crown

CW Bailey hat maker and straw manufacturer

James Bishop patten maker

JP Brisley printer, book seller and sub-distributor of stamps

Betsy Brown huckster

James Butt ironmonger

Richard Camm watchmaker

Jonathon Coleman currier and leather seller

Darke M.D.

Thomas English glover

Isaac Gardner tailor and draper

Joseph Gardner boot and shoe maker

Samuel Gurner farmer

Sarah Hambridge milliner and dress maker

Henry Hawkins attorney

Leonard Hawkins grocer

Peter Hawker attorney

William Hiles watch and clock maker

John L.B. Hill chemist and druggist

Joseph Hinksman butcher

William Hodges victualler Marlborough Head

Joshua Holder tailor

Ann Howell brass founder and tin-plate worker

T. Howell baker

John Hudd eating-house

James Knowles Swan Inn and Excise Office

Martin, Mills & Wilson bankers

Ambrose May ironmonger

J.B. Millard auctioneer

Jasper Millard pastry cook

John Mills & Son grocers and tea dealers; soap and candle manufacturers

Thomas Mills mercer

William Moody coachman

James Morgan linen draper and haberdasher

Thomas Mozley tailor

George Mynett victualler Crown & Anchor and Sheriff’s Officer

Mynett & Pugh cabinet makers and upholsterers

Charles Newman attorney

Thomas Nicholls basket maker

Thomas Osbourne linen and woollen draper

Richard Packer attorney

John Parry hat manufacturer

John Pegler butcher

Charles Ranger ironmonger

Hannah Shatford dress-maker

John Sims hop merchant and brewer

Sims & Sutton linen and woollen drapers

Richard Sims spirit merchant

Stephen Saley china and glass warehouse

John Vick watch and clock maker

Francis Vigurs printer, bookseller, stationer & agent to the Imperial Fire offices

Samuel Webb boot and shoe maker and leather cutter

John Welshman linen draper

John Whippy near the Swan tailor

Richard White linen draper and haberdasher

William Wilson banker

From the 1820 Trade Directory

(With grateful thanks to John & Marion Hearfield)

The Diggers at Slimbridge

The Slimbridge Diggers

Every Age Rewrites History

But not always textually

And the History may not even have been textual

To begin with tbh

‘Every Age Rewrites History?’: well, that takes me right back to 6^th form scholarship-level history (yes, I did get a distinction); and now, rereading Christopher Hill’s The World Turned Upside Down, that adage seems ever more relevant, as we try to discover the site of that mysterious, elusive Digger settlement at Slimbridge.

Thus wrote the magisterial Christopher Hill in 1972: ‘History has to be rewritten in every generation, because although the past does not change the present does; each generation asks new questions of the past, and finds new areas of sympathy as it re-lives different aspects of the experiences of its predecessors. The Levellers were better understood as political democracy established itself … the Diggers have something to say to twentieth-century socialists. Now that the protestant ethic itself … is at last being questioned … we can study with a new sympathy the Diggers, the Ranters, and the many other daring thinkers who in the seventeenth century refused to bow down and worship it.’

And here we are in the twenty-first century, in the age of the Anthropocene, or Capitalocene (call it what you will): a new age of climate crisis, and here we are ready to try and discover the possible location of the possible Digger community at Slimbridge. And I imagine you are thinking as you read this: Why Slimbridge? Slimbridge? Somewhere on the edge of nowhere? That seems literally incredible. And why only ‘possible’ Digger community? And how did you find out about this possibility? What’s fact and what’s conjecture? (And so on and so on and scooby dooby do …)

I’ll try and answer some of these questions – and also, perhaps, provoke some more.

I first came upon the Slimbridge reference over ten years ago in the online Utopia Britannica: “Diggers Colony 1649-50? One of a series of ‘other’ Diggers colonies. (See St George’s Hill, Surrey, for more details) GRID REF: Possibly on Slimbridge Waste. REF: World Turned Upside Down.”

And then followed this up by going back to Christopher Hill and running my fingers down the index. And we read thus on page 90: “It has been suggested that the unknown Digger community in Gloucestershire may have been at Slimbridge, where in 1631, during the Civil War, and again in 1650, ‘rude multitudes’ were ‘levelling enclosures.’ The waste of Slimbridge, John Smyth of Nibley had said in 1639, could yield £1500 a year but was not worth one-fifth of that now. On the contrary, it draws ‘many poor people from other places’ and burdens the township with ‘beggarly cottages … and ale houses and idle people’.”

The very knowledgeable local historian Owen Adams messaged me after I asked him his view on where the site might have been in Slimbridge: ‘Hi Stuart, all I know about it is that it gets a very brief mention in one book Brave Community as a possible site, however there was a long history of enclosure riots and disputes against the Berkeley family and their steward John Smyth in preceding decades over the new grounds, now the site of the wetlands centre … Also seems Slimbridge was known as Slymbridge, pronounced slime, as there was an industry of collecting alluvial river mud, quicksand known as slime, for spreading on agricultural land and improving it … I have a fair bit of information on an attempted Skimmington riot in June 1631 at Slimbridge New Grounds, which I will mention when I do a talk at Yate in June.’

(How this made me think about that old phrase used in my parents’ generation about the looked-down-upon: ‘common as muck’ … but here we can see a very different meaning involving the spread of muck on a common … one phrase implying social hierarchy … another implying equality … more on this later from the quill of Gerard Winstanley).

The next stage in wider research came in the spring this year when Bob Blenkinsop (‘Blenko’) lent me The Lefties’ Guide to Britain after a visit to the Cragg Vale Coiners trail when on a different mission: ‘Slimbridge Waste. A Digger community was set up on the Waste around 1650; the precise location, somewhere in the neighbourhood of the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, is unknown.’

A fruitless search of my bookshelves for Nigel Costley’s West Country Rebels (who did I lend that to?) meant buying another copy. Nigel wrote on page 11 about the 17^th century Skimmington riots against enclosures and de-forestation in Wiltshire and Gloucestershire (the Western Rising). His succinct description of the skimmington tradition will serve us as well as any other we could use: “A ‘Skimmington’ was a public shaming of individuals” who transgressed local community values, with the transgressor mocked in effigy with rough music. “The term was used for other actions that caused the community’s displeasure including enclosures … Riots were reported against the ‘new-gained grounds of Lord Berkeley’ at Frampton and Slimbridge …”

Nigel writes further about Slimbridge on page 25: ‘A Digger settlement was established on Slimbridge Waste by the River Severn in Gloucestershire. Little is known of the community and it is likely that it was brutally suppressed.’

So where was the Waste? Presumably an area of uncultivated land. Who defines an area as Waste? Definitions could vary according to wealth. Common land may not be waste from the lower orders’ point of view: it offers subsistence and a possible roof. But a landowner in pursuit of profit … might have a very different lens (see John Smyth above). So where was that Slymbridge Waste? The Moors? On the battle ground of the New Grounds? At the Warth (meadow land by a river)? Lost in the lands and waters of the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust?

Buchanan Sharp wrote thus on page 111 in his In Contempt of All Authority

Rural Artisans and Riot in the West of England, 1586-1660: ‘When the Berkeleys came to consider enclosure at Slymbridge in Gloucestershire in 1639, the main argument in favour of it was that the open common drew people from other places who lived in beggarly cottages, erected alehouses, and led lives of idleness and petty crime. Division into severalty would support honest husbandmen who could pay rents, instead of useless beggars and other such lazy and idle people.’ This was eight years after the offer from the other side of the river to assist in the skimmington destruction of enclosures. And seven years before the ‘order for Lord Berkeley’s quiet possession of the enclosed newly gained ground at Slymbridge’: Buchanan possibly points our way and compass with this sentence on page 156: ‘During the first Civil War the inhabitants finally rioted and destroyed the enclosure of 300 acres of ground new-gained from changes in the course of the River Severn.’

So, although John Gurney in Brave Community writes on page 185 that ‘Nothing is known of the location of the Digger colonies in Gloucestershire and Nottinghamshire. Enclosure riots took place in the Gloucestershire parishes of Slimbridge and Frampton in June 1650, and the Forest of Dean was the site of agrarian conflict later in the decade, but again no evidence has been found to link the Diggers to these places’, you might say there certainly seems to be a good deal of circumstantial evidence.

Circumstantial evidence: ‘Circumstantial evidence is indirect evidence that does not, on its face, prove a fact in issue but gives rise to a logical inference that the fact exists. Circumstantial evidence requires drawing additional reasonable inferences in order to support the claim.’

And on that basis, we shall walk along Moorend Lane, past Berkeley Court, and Shepherd’s Patch, over the canal towards the Warth and the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, then return and walk along the towpath towards Gloucester, glancing towards the Severn and the New Grounds.

Why 1649-50?

Times were particularly hard in the decade before the putative settlement at Slimbridge: war; high food prices; poor harvests; and times were especially hard between 1647 and 1650, when, as Hill commented, ‘food prices rose steeply above their pre-war level; money wages lagged badly behind, and the cost of living rose significantly’. Corn was seized in the Severn valley, while away from Slimbridge, the Levellers were active within the army, and then in the spring of 1649 poor labourers began to dig the waste land at St. George’s Hill near Windsor.

The total number of people involved there – male labourers, women and children within families, numbered under one hundred; ‘we know the names of seventy-three of them’(Hill). Like Slimbridge, that area had a tradition of radical direct action – and traditions of agrarian communism may well have revived in the 1640s. (For evidence of these traditions, see Spenser’s The Faerie Queen, Book 2, canto 9, stanza 13; Book 4, canto 1, stanza 28; Book 5, canto 2, stanza 35-52; canto 11, stanzas 57-9; Shakespeare’s Coriolanus Act 2, scene 3; Henry 6^th, Part 2, Act 4, passim.) In short, although the numbers of people involved in Digger experiments in England in 1649-50 may have been few, St. George’s Hill was far from unique: the support for people whom the Levellers would have disenfranchised (servants, labourers, the indigent etc.) spread through Digger pamphlets penned by Winstanley – and through word of mouth. Digger ‘ambassadors’ would have been few in number wandering the parishes of southern England and the midlands, but wander did they did.

The fact that Digger ideas did spread through word of mouth (‘oral culture’) means that we should not be surprised to find it hard to pinpoint the exact spot of Gloucestershire’s Digger experiment. Out of all the Digger communities in 1649-50, St. George’s Hill is the best documented but if any of those involved in other short-lived experiments, such as Gloucestershire, could read and write, the speedy destruction of these essays in egalitarianism would have resulted in the burning, loss or destruction of Digger-penned documents. And, anyway. Why would you pen something that might incriminate you?

But back to Winstanley and Christopher Hill: ‘In the years 1649-50 Winstanley issued a series of pamphlets … and some at least seem to have borne fruit. Other Digger communities appeared at Wellingborough in Northamptonshire, Cox Hall in Kent, Iver in Buckinghamshire, Barnet in Hertfordshire, Enfield in Middlesex, Dunstable in Bedfordshire, Bosworth in Leicestershire, and at unknown places in Gloucestershire and Nottinghamshire. Not enough local work has been done on most of these places, but we know something about Wellingborough.’ (This was written in 1972.)

Hill outlines Wellingborough’s Puritan, Quaker and Leveller background – and its level of poverty: and, in consequence, the poor started to ‘dig up, manure and sow corn upon the common waste ground’. (We can see how Slimbridge fits into part of this template with its history of direct action and its poverty – and contested common waste ground.) Hill further comments: ‘So from Nottinghamshire and Northamptonshire to Gloucestershire and Kent, Digger influence spread all over southern and central England … intensifying ill-feeling between landlords and tenants … they may have contributed to the class consciousness of Fifth Monarchists and early Quakers …’

Locally, the Quakers were a notable presence in not-so-far-away Painswick; the spirit of freedom was alive and smoking in the illegal tobacco plantations around Winchcombe, and there was the tradition of direct action in the Forest of Dean and along the eastern banks of the Severn too. Slimbridge sits between these places. Perhaps we can imagine itinerant ambassadors, or local Diggers and preachers, with Gerard Winstanley’s message, spreading the Digger gospel through valley and over the wolds. And as Hill pointed out: ‘a Quaker of the early 1650s had far more in common with a Leveller, a Digger or a Ranter than with a modern member of the Society of Friends.’

The next section of this disquisition will follow in the word-steps and thought-footsteps of Winstanley. We shall walk in these word-steps when in Slimbridge and we shall call this section A Light Shining in Gloucestershire.

‘If the waste land of England were manured by her children, it would become in a few years the richest, the strongest and flourishing land in the world.’

‘Work together; eat bread together.’

‘He that works for another, either for wages or to pay him rent, works unrighteously … but they that are resolved to work and eat together, making the earth a common treasury, doth join hands with Christ to lift up the creation from bondage, and restores all things from the curse.’

[I must] ’go forth and declare it in my action’ [to organise] ‘us that are called common people to manure and work upon the common lands.’

‘True religion and undefiled is to let everyone have quietly earth to manure.’

‘the bondage the poor complain of, that they are kept poor by their brethren in a land where there is so much plenty for everyone, if covetousness and pride did not rule as king in one brother over another.’

‘in the beginning of time the great creator, Reason, made the earth to be a common treasury, to preserve beasts, birds, fishes and man, the lord that was to govern this creation … Not one word was spoken in the beginning that one branch of mankind should rule over another … But … selfish imaginations … did set up one man to teach and rule over another. And thereby … man was brought into bondage, and became a greater slave to such of his own kind than the beasts of the field were to him. And hereupon the earth … was hedged into enclosures by the teachers and rulers, and the others were made … slaves. And that earth that is within this creation made a common storehouse for all, is bought and sold and kept in the hands of a few, whereby the great Creator is mightily dishonoured, as if he were a respecter of persons, delighting in the comfortable livelihood of some and rejoicing in the miserable poverty and straits of others. From the beginning it was not so …’

Ye Lords of the Manor: ‘The power of enclosing land and owning property was brought into the creation by your ancestors by the sword; which first did murder their fellow creatures, men, and after plunder or steal away their land, and left this land successively to you, their children. And therefore, though you did not kill or thieve, you hold that cursed thing in your hand by the power of the sword; and so you justify the wicked deeds of your fathers, and that sin of your fathers shall be visited upon the heads of you and your children to the third and fourth generation, and longer too, till your bloody and thieving power be rooted out the land.’

‘The poorest man hath as true a title and just right to the land as the richest man … True freedom lies in the free enjoyment of the earth … If the common people have no more freedom in England but only to live among the elder brothers and work for them for hire, what freedom then have they in England …’

‘Whilst this kingly power reigned in one man called Charles, all sorts of people complained of oppression … Thereupon you that were the gentry, when you were assembled in Parliament, you called upon the poor common people to come and help you … That top bough is lopped off the tree of tranny, and the kingly power in that one particular is cast out. But alas, oppression is a great tree still, and keeps off the sun of freedom from the poor commons still.’

‘wheresoever there is a people … united by common community of livelihood into oneness, it will become the strongest land in the world; for then they will be as one man to defend their inheritance … Whereas on the other side, pleading for property and single interest divides the people of a land and the whole world into parties, and is the cause of all wars and bloodshed and contention everywhere … But when once the earth becomes a common treasury again, as it must, … then this enmity of all lands will cease, and none shall dare seek dominion over others, neither shall any dare to kill another, nor desire more of the earth than another.’

‘…they tell the poor people that they must be content with their poverty, and they shall have their heaven hereafter. But why may not we have our heaven here (that is, a comfortable livelihood in the earth) and heaven hereafter too …’

‘Oh ye hearsay preachers, deceive not the people any longer by telling them that this glory shall not be known and seen till the body is lain in the dust. ‘

Here endeth A Light Shining in Gloucestershire

There is, then, a compelling argument for placing the Gloucestershire Digger experiment at Slimbridge, while simultaneously accepting that we might have got it wrong. But, so what? We are walking in a liminal landscape: the storm surge of 1607 would have turned the world upside down too. We are also walking through a liminal time-scape, rescuing ‘the poor and anonymous from the enormous condescension of posterity’, following our practice of ‘footsteps and footpaths not footnotes’; indeed, exemplifying that practice.

Perhaps there’s something of William Blake about our practice too:

‘To see the world in a grain of sand

And a Heaven in a wild flower

To hold Eternity in the palm of your hand

And Infinity in an hour.’

Conclusion

Jonathan Meades on page 3 of An Encyclopaedia of Myself:

‘Every time I write once upon a time I am, anyway, already exhuming the disputable, conjuring a photocopy of a faded print made from a detrited negative. I am striving to distinguish the original from its replays. So why add to the store of the provisional? The forms and shades of what used to be are already hideously mutable, every act of recall is both an erosion and an augmentation. I remember therefore I reshape.’

So here we are contributing both to a history and a mythology.

We may be in the wrong place in Slimbridge. Perhaps it’s not the New Ground. Perhaps it’s not on the site of the Wetlands Centre. Perhaps, it is or isn’t on the area called the Warth. On top of that, Slimbridge may not even be the right place.

But does that matter?

John Gurney wrote on page 180 in Brave Community that “Winstanley’s claim that digging ‘is the talk of the whole Land’ may not have been too much of an exaggeration, for it is evident that the Digger experiment did have an appreciable impact in radical circles.”

Perhaps it had an impact down here in Slimbridge. Perhaps a Digger experiment here, was, as Nigel Costley suggested, ‘brutally suppressed.’ Perhaps there might be a record somewhere in the Berkeley archives. Perhaps there isn’t.

But perhaps no record survives anywhere because this Digger experiment was more performative. A 17^th century ‘happening’. A short-lived carnival of misrule possibilities to show how the world could be turned upside down. Which is what we are doing today: ‘it is evident that the Digger experiment did have an appreciable impact in radical circles.’

Every Age Rewrites History

But not always textually

And perhaps we are contributing to a mythology

MYTHOLOGY: a quick google search: ‘A mythology is a collection of myths or stories about a specific person, culture, religion, or any group with shared beliefs.’ The as it were and so to speak common-sense definition is that ‘Most people don’t consider mythology to be entirely true, but they still take it seriously.’

A slightly loftier definition: ‘Myth is a genre of folklore consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society. For scholars, this is very different from the vernacular usage of the term “myth” that refers to a belief that is not true. Instead, the veracity of a myth is not a defining criterion.’

Talking of which, when we carried out a Slimbridge recce in late May, Bob spotted a poster pinned to a post:

Vale Friends of CRUK presents

A MURDER MYSTERY EVENING

In collaboration with Slimbridge Variety Showgroup

MURDER AT THE AGM

It is 1963 and the 40^th anniversary of “Diggers” Allotment & Gardening Society.

The committee is making the AGM a celebration evening … it will be a night to remember!

Do come dressed in 1960s costume,

there will be a prize for the best dressed male and female.

Saturday 1 June 2024

7.30 pm at Slimbridge Village Hall

Tickets £15 to include Supper

ADDENDA:

Hello Stuart,

I saw in Radical Stroud you are planning a walk to Slimbridge on July 2nd, to look for a Digger settlement. That sounds interesting! But what info do you already have about where it is, and what happened there? I live in Paganhill, Stroud, and im a fan of the Diggers but i never heard of this before. It would be useful to know what route and length you were envisaging this walk to be.

Good morning Stuart,
Apologies for the delay in getting back to you on this one. Our colleague kindly contacted the Slimbridge Local History Society and sent over the below and recommends that you speak to the Berkeley Castle Team. Do you have a contact for them? We can provide one if not.
‘I did come across this when researching a religious seal found on the Slimbridge Dig site, which was connected to Beckford Priory and probably lost here whilst visiting the Berkeley Minster area.
There was a Digger Settlement in 1649 at St George’s Hill in Surrey and one here in Slimbridge – if this were on the site at WWT – I would expect it to be recorded within the Berkeley Castle Archives.
Here is what I found when researching the seal – it’s in old English, but understandable when you get your eye in!

“I was a good pupile ande hearkened Ezekiel to make me learnne the Digger words of Gerard Winstanley offe by my hearte. I have them stille close bye me nowe by my bedde side. ‘Every one shall lookke upon each other as equalle in the creationne. We are all the sonnes and daughterres of Gode and Adame and Eve.’ ‘Governmente that gives liberty to the gentry to have all the earthe, and shutte out the poore commoners from enjoying any partte, ruling by tyrannical laws. This is the governmente of the Antichrist.’
Whenne I hearde that the Diggers had commenced the creationne of the rule of Godde with a commune at Slimbridge downe by the Severne, I made my waye alonge the Frome to reache the widde river and thence to Slimbridge. It was a welcome to meete with so manye fellowe Diggers. We tore down fences and enclosures so as to sow, till, ploughe and harveste in commone.
Just as the true borne leveller soldiers were shot down by Cromwell’s armie at the church in Burforde, so our Eden was to be laide waste bye his menne too.
I escaped with a bloddied heade ande made my waye to the Quakerres at Painswicke. Here I knewe I woulde receive succourre. The Grande Juryye of the Countyye spoke of our communitye as ‘Ranters, Levellers and atheists, undere the name of Quakerres’. This to uss was praise. I stayed some goode yeares there and witnessed the praiseworthie practicse of namelesse internmente. The beliefe was in equalityye in deathe as in life. We used noe titles. Alle were thou to a goodlye Quakkerre.

Esau Bingham”’

(My initial sense of exhilaration that we had nailed it was subsequently followed by a guilty sense of embarrassment when , shame-faced, I remembered that I had written this piece some ten years ago when playing around with documentary fiction …)

‘I have just checked the book “Frontiers of a Barony” which covers the history of the New Grounds, but there is no reference to the diggers.’

Hi Stuart,

Thank you for contacting me and please accept my apologies for the slow response.

Please visit the Archives page of our website https://www.berkeley-castle.com/archives here you will find lots of helpful information / contacts / faq section, which will hopefully answer any questions you may have and further your research.

Kind regards,

Helen

Helen Berryman

Visitor Business Coordinator

The Berkeley & Spetchley Estates, Berkeley Castle, Gloucestershire, GL13 9PJ

T: 01453 810303 F: 01453 512995

www.berkeley-castle.com

www.spetchleygardens.co.uk

Flooding in early modern England: Cultures of coping in Gloucestershire and Lincolnshire John Emrys Morgan’s PhD thesis University of Warwick has some interesting observations for us in our Slimbridge quest. He looks at areas like the fens and the eastern banks of the Severn which, in the 17^th century, ‘were increasingly seen as places of potential profit’ whilst simultaneously and in opposition, ‘the challenges of agricultural production on floodplains’ generated ‘communal action’. And in this Slimbridge context, John Smyth appears again; this time as regards warths (‘lands that lie directly on the shore of a body of water’). He moans about warths “used as common pasture”, for then, they “yeild not the 5^th part of their true value” and “drawe many poore people from other places, burden the township with beggerly Cotages, Inmates, and Alehouses, and idle people; where the greater part spend most of their daies in a lazy idleness and petite thieveries and fewe or none in profitable labour.”

Morgan pointed out how warth land on the upper Severn offered opportunities for seasonal grazing; whilst recurrent floods left clay deposits that helped the soil retain nutrients and so improve the grasslands for subsequent grazing. So, in general terms, warth lands were very much a liminal shapeshifting world; and using our Slimbridge lens, we can imagine the area from the Warth (on today’s OS map) running through the Wetlands Centre and on to the New Ground as a formerly liminal shapeshifting contestable landscape.

Here’s John Emrys Morgan again: ‘Warths that accreted naturally were often held in common, whereas deliberate attempts to create warths by “inning” or “warping” usually led to the resultant land being privately owned. “Warping” involved driving stakes into or erecting fence on the foreshore, so that at each inundation sediment would be retained and land would accrete faster.’

Disputation between privatisation and commonality seems to be a constant theme – and further local evidence for this comes just upstream from that elusive possible Digger settlement at Slimbridge and just afterwards too: Frampton, Saul and Fretherne in 1653. Surveyors examined 112 acres and reached the conclusion that if the lands were “improved” then rents could be increased nearly twentyfold.

Now all this improvement of land suggests improvement of pastoral rather than arable farming. But the Diggers and ambassadors, with their experimental innovations in the south and midlands, broadcast the planting of crops (with roofs over heads too) in their assertions of agrarian communism. Does that then argue against Slimbridge as our locale?

Not necessarily. As I have said elsewhere, perhaps the Digger settlement at Slimbridge was more performative.

Or perhaps the local Diggers at Slimbridge were following their long tradition of asserting communal grazing rights in the face of landlord encroachment. For example, the Slimbridge Warth (owned by the Berkeley Manor which had itself fought a suit against the Crown over land rights) had grown by 300 acres since the 13^th century through ‘successive increments’ of reclamation. In 1596, a hundred tenants from Frampton and Slimbridge brought a case against ‘wealthy local yoeman’ at the Court of Chancery. The villagers had enjoyed rights of common on the warth since medieval times: at “all tymes and seasons of the yeare with all manner of Beasts at their pleasure.”

But we note that those same communities also ‘sought to restrict access to the landless’: in 1613, cottagers (who grazed sheep); those on rack-rents (lacking an annually determined rent), and lodgers faced exclusion. These are people at the bottom of the pile. This appears to be a contestable landscape throughout the social hierarchy: but with the poor at the bottom suffering the most, needless to say.

Morgan again: ‘David Rollinson has referred to early modern rural landscapes as “memory palaces”, in which certain places and landmarks were invested with meaning beyond their immediate practical utility or aesthetic qualities.’ Perhaps we are evoking that image and metaphor – turning the world upside down with a ‘memory palace’ for the lost and elusive Diggers of Slimbridge.

So, I almost conclude with a memory from childhood –

the tune from Bill and Ben:

‘Was it NEW GROUND,

Or was it WARTH,

Where the DIGGERS sallied forth,

Which one is it on our walk,

Was it NEW GROUND or was it WARTH?

It was both, children.

Or, children, it was it neither.’

So, what do we know and what do I know? I’m hardly an authority – just read a few books, talked to a few people, cycled out for two recces, and yet I have been asked to give a talk at the Gloucester Heritage Centre. What on earth would Prospero say? ‘We are such stuff As dreams are made on …’

Plot and Conspiracy!

A focus on anarchy within Gloucestershire collections

Saturday 7 September 2024, 1pm-4pm

Talk and film: [booking essential due to room capacity limits]

15pm – The Digger Experiment in Gloucestershire: Was it at Slimbridge, 1649-50? by Stuart Butler of Radical Stroud

30pm – Showing of the community film, ‘Days of Hope – the Chartists in Stroud’ introduced by John Bassett, of Spaniel in the Works Company

Document display of records relating to anarchy and insurrection taken from collections held at Gloucestershire Archives

Free refreshments throughout the afternoon.

Up in arms or hiding from trouble? Discover your personal heritage at the Gloucestershire Family History Resource Centre, open from 10am

[Main event starts at 1pm]

Booking essential for the talks. Heritage Hub, Clarence Row, Alvin Street, Gloucester GL1 3DW. Parking on-site. For more information see our website at www.heritagehub.org.uk.

Now, for what will absolutely be my tautologically speaking, conclusion, for as T.S. Eliot said, “We shall not cease from exploration. And the end of all our exploration Will be to arrive at where we started. And know the place for the first time.”

Every Age Rewrites History

But not always textually

And the History may not even have been textual

To begin with tbh.

For even though my historical practice involves footpaths and footprints rather than footnotes, the thrust of this disquisition points at the necessity of research in the Berkeley archives. But what if nothing is there about the Slimbridge Diggers? Would that mean ‘End of Story’, as Louis Armstrong said at the end of High Society?

‘It aint necessarily so.’

Is it?

After the Civil War

At Slimbridge Waste
A ragged band of Diggers came to settle with good haste,
They defied the landlords
They defied the laws
They were the dispossessed reclaiming what was theirs

We come in peace they said to dig and sow
We come to work the lands in common and to make the waste grounds grow
This Earth divided we will make whole so it will be a common treasury for all

The sin of property we do disdain
No-one has any right to buy and sell the Earth for private gain
By theft and murder they took the land
Now everywhere the walls spring up at their command
They make the laws to chain us well
The clergy dazzle us with heaven or they damn us into hell
We will no worship the God they serve
The God of greed who feed the rich while poor women starve

We work we eat together
We need no swords
We will not bow to the masters or pay rent to the lords
We are free people, though we are poor
You Diggers all stand up for glory stand up now

But all has gone and disappeared
Even though the Diggers stood firm and upright without fear
Where were their cottages, where was their corn
They were dispersed but still the vision lingers on
You poor take courage you rich take care
This Earth was made a common treasury for everyone to share
All things in common, all people one
The Diggers’ heritage still lingers in this song.

So, when you walk by Severn’s grace

Make sure you visit what was Slimbridge Waste

And stand around and sing this song

All things in common and all the people one.

Another addendum:

Chas Townley September 2024: The Digger Movement 1649 Leslie S. A. Jones

1650: ‘In June there were serious riots at Slimbridge and Frampton … where “rude multitudes” were “levelling enclosures”.

STROUD GLOUCESTERSHIRE Monday 13th July 2026

Category: History

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