Category: History

Toll Houses and Turnpike Gates

Toll Houses and Turnpike Gates

There’s no rhyme or reason in my turnpike,

Toll house and mile post investigations,

I just walk or ride out on a whim,

But recording rather than re-imagining the past,

Just like a true old school antiquarian –

Armed with my 1967 pamphlet:

Turnpike Houses of the Stroud District.

Cox, C

Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society,

Volume 86, 1967,

Plus maps, notepad, pencils, I-phone and I-pad.

Rodborough was first and easy:

  1. The red brick Pike House by the Prince Albert at the top of Walkley Hill;

At the cross-roads as you’d expect; the adjacent, stone cottage was once the toll house –

‘Miss Pacey … had once been told by a former old inhabitant of Rodborough that the gate was fixed to the wall of the cottage.’ SO 846045

  1. Then along to Butterow SO 856040 – ‘same neo-Gothic style’ as Cainscross, ‘with typical 3-sided front’; ‘It stands where the 1825 road crosses the older hillside track from Rodborough to Bagpath’; it was a sweetshop and tobacconist in 1967; ‘Mr Holbrow of Watledge told the writer that his wife’s grandmother, whose family kept the pike, could remember when young seeing the legs of a man hanged on the gallows dangling out of the cart on the way down the hill.’
  2. The next one was easy as it’s on my way to work – if you cross directly from the Clothier’s Arms to the cobbled lane that leads down to Lodgemore, glance at the building on your left, directly opposite the pub. This was a corner shop when we moved here in the mid-1980s, but there was once ‘The Anchor Gate’ SO 844049 here, commanding the Bath Road and the canal.
  3. A walk over the canal leads you up to the Cainscross Road; cross at the pelican to reach the junction of Beard’s Lane and Cainscross Road: the site of ‘Prospect Place’ SO 841052; ‘Until recently a one-storey small toll-house stood at the junction of Beard’s Lane with the Cainscross Road, opposite Murder Lane. At present the site is only shown by a tarmac patch just outside the start of Beard’s Lane. The site was much resented in the 19th’
  4. Little Mill, Stroud, SO 854055: ‘At the far end of Park Gardens, Slad Road, is a private track, on the north side of which stood the toll-house.’
  5. Bowbridge needed a bike ride SO 858804 – ‘A toll-house stood at the NE corner of the crossing of Bowbridge Lane and the New London Road. The original route from Stroud to Chalford was up Nelson Street, along Lower Street and down Bowbridge Lane to near the canal bridge, where it turned left up what is now the “road to Gunhouse”, for the hill-side route to Chalford. This older track was cut across by the building of the new Stroud – Chalford turnpike road, and a few years ago the remaining buildings of the Bowbridge “loop” were demolished, and the old road is now blocked off.’
  6. Next up: Stroud Hill SO 869052 at the junction of Bisley Road and Bisley Old Road – ‘The spot is still known as The Pike. It may not have been long in use, but some of the stones at the base of the wall of the small enclosure are probably the remains of the house.’
  7. Burnt Ash 886012: ‘This is at the corner of the junction of the road from Tetbury and Avening with the Cirencester-Minchinhampton road, opposite the Ragged Cot. The former cottages have gone …’
  8. Hyde Gate, Minchinhampton SO 858012: ‘Just down the turning to Hyde and Chalford, near The Ragged Cot, … is a stone cottage … Across the road were said to be the shattered remains of the former gate post in the hedge, but the writer was unable to verify.’
  9. Near Forwood, Minchinhampton, 869005: An 1801 Act allowed the alteration of “the road from Nailsworth via Howcombe Hill and Iron Mill Hill up Well Hill” passing “Forwood and Trap End Gate to the West End of Minchinhampton”. ‘A cottage stands on the likely spot, at the junction of roads below Well Hill, but doeas not resemble a toll-house in position or appearance … it has not yet been investigated.’
  10. Woefuldane SO 879003: ‘The site is a long, narrow close between Hollybush Farm and Woefuldane Bottom, on the road from Hampton Fields to Minchinhampton. It is now covered by rough grass, below the level of the field behind, and is marked by a tree, though the actual house site (which was roughly in the centre of the close) has not yet been located.’
  11. Then down to the junction of Stratford Road and Wick Street – ‘Road widening has now quite obliterated the site of Stroud’s first toll-house’ (c.1734). SO 858056
  12. Salmon Springs at SO 847060 once had a toll-house: ‘This stood opposite the track to Callowell, the site being now obliterated by the brick building of the brewery.’
  13. Paganhill is handy for work SO 837056: ‘The toll-house stood at the junction of the Stroud-Paganhill-Cainscross road with roads to Whiteshill and Puckshole, opposite Paganhill Lane. This is the original road to Stroud from the west, replaced by the present Cainscross Road.’
  14. Cainscross SO 835049 is handy, if I want to walk that way home after work. This is how it was described in 1967: ‘The crenallations over the front bay have gone, the charges board has gone … the bay itself is now part of a barber’s shop, while the garden of course is no more … the smithy and cottages across the Dudbridge road have already been demolished, and the milestone temporarily removed. It is to be hoped that this interesting early neo-Gothic toll-house will not have to be destroyed… There was a riot here in 1734 (“on Sunday night, the 19th June 1734, whilst in a house situate near the turnpike at Cainscross, a tumultuous company of disguised people sounding a horn, and playing a fiddle, and armed with firearms and other weapons, came up to the turnpikes and commenced hewing with axes; and when deponent [William Bennet, innholder] looked out about two hours after, he saw that the turnpikes were utterly demolished.”).
  15. Dudbridge is handy for shopping at Sainsbury’s SO 838044: This was one of the original toll-houses of the Nailsworth Turnpike … built about 1783 … its site would seem to be covered by the Midland Railway embankment.’
  16. Then up the hill: Selsley Hill SO 835042 ‘The site is about opposite the cricket ground where the slope slightly levels out. Dwellings have been built up the left hand side of the road, but the site is probably where a track enters the road by a gate.’
  17. Lightpill next at Kitenest Lane’s junction (SO 840038) with ‘the new Nailsworth road. The building was demolished only a few years ago … the typical functional shape.’
  18. The Lightpill again SO 840041:‘Cyprus Inn – ‘This is a doubtful site, the only evidence so far being on the 1st edition 1-inch map which marks T.P. here … There is no indication on the Tithe map of a pike-house, and it may be that the site was a temporary bar, using the inn, before the piking of The Anchor Gate near the Clothiers’ Arms.
  19. The Spout, Woodchester SO 843027; ‘The site is on the N.E. corner of the junction of the road from the Bear Inn with the main Nailsworth Road, opposite Hillgrove … frequently used for meetings of Trustees in the 1780s …’
  20. Woodchester Park Stile, Southfield Road, SO 841028: ‘Pike Cottage stands on the S.E. corner of the junction of Southfields Road’ and the road from Selsley down to the A46. ‘A small hatch-like window gives on to Southfield Road.’
  21. Inchbrook (by The Crown) 843008: ‘This was on the outside of the bend of the road by The Crown and was one of the original toll-houses on the Nailsworth Turnpike. A stream passes by the site … ‘
  22. Nailsworth Turnpike 851998: ‘This is a very difficult site to identify … the main entrance to Chamberlain’s Mill’ [?] ‘but it may previously have been at slightly different points … the first site was probably below the Mill; and the keeper, John Hyde, was attacked at least twice in the early years.’ Then in 1790, after those early years, there was a start on the “New Road from the Bridge at Nailsworth through Howcombe and the Well Hill to join the Tetbury Road in Minchinhampton Town” ‘and when this road was opened , the surveyor was to be “empowered to sell the Turnpike House in the possession of John Hyde at the foot of Nailsworth Hill and to build a turnpike house where the new and old roads divide and to erect a gate across the New Road adjoining the said house.” Road alterations have complicated the issue, the earlier road toward High Beech having been … to the left of and considerably lower than the present pitch … At present the writer must confess he cannot positively identify the site.’
  23. Nailsworth – junction of Horsley and Shortwood roads, SO 847993: ‘a rectangular cottage with no obvious functional features … The house does not now stand on the actual road corner, but it seems possible that the adjoining cottage was built between the toll-house and the Shortwood road; making this now a right-angle junction, where formerly there would have been room to turn.’
  24. Horsley Road 843985: ‘3-sided front … blocked-up recess … The toll-board recess is now blocked-up but the outline of its arch is still visible.’
  25. Tiltups End (Horsley – Tetbury road; now a track) 845973: Started in 1782, demolished in 1965 – ‘The plate of the adjacent milestone was found behind the house, and has now been replaced on its milestone, which, though broken, has now been built into the new road-side wall … Mr Kimsbrey of Tiltups End informed the writer that his grandmother was the last pike-keeper, and got 2s 6d a week” and lamp oil”. She had to board some of her family as the cottage was too small.’
  26. Hazel Cottage, Nailsworth, 852996: ‘this is the complement to … Avening Pike, and barred the NW end of the new valley road … Hazel Cottage is a villa replacing the earlier toll-house … and stood opposite the track leading up to the cricket ground. Known as Hazelwood Toll House.’
  27. Avening 881980: ‘The toll-house was originally a small cottage with an asymmetrical 3-sided front. To this other building has been added …’
  28. Culver Hill, near Amberley, 845015: ‘For some time a toll-house stood near Quarry Hilll close to Culver House … probably only of short duration … The site has not been positively identified, but would most probably have been at the junction of the road to St. Chloe, nearly opposite the lane to Culver House, where the common ends.’
  29. Balls Green 866995: ‘The site lies within the ground of existing cottage where a side-track from the left enters the Nailsworth-Minchinhampton road via the Iron Mills, at Balls Green … possibly of short duration.’
  30. Up the hill to Stancombe SO 897069: ‘At the junction of the old Stroud-Bisley road with the Cirencester-Bisley –Painswick route, now largely abandoned, along which Charles the First’s army is said to have marched from Tetbury to the siege of Gloucester in 1643’; ‘To the typical 3-fronted shape have been added a porch and a wing.’
  31. Holbrook Farm, Calfway, SO 906075: ‘Twin cottages stand on the right just before the turning to Througham … This cross-route, Bath to Cheltenham, would be of little more than local importance after the improvement of the Minchinhampton-Stroud road and new routes through the Slad valley and later through Painswick. One point of interest is the date 1742 on the stone gatepost opposite the cottages.’
  32. Pass The Camp SO 914092: ‘The toll-house stood on the left immediately before the first building of The Camp, and in Autumn 1965 the site was being covered by a new construction.’
  33. Then carry on to Fostons Ash SO 914114 Opposite the pub ‘is a long, narrow enclosure now occupied by conifer seedlings. The toll house stood at the north end of this close, about opposite the milestone, and just beyond the parish boundary, the parish stone still being in situ across the inner field wall.’
  34. Holloway, Bisley, SO 906054: ‘Three stone buildings stand in echelon at the road junction of Holloway. Here meet the roads from Bisley to Chalford, to Oakridge, the Holloway to Jaynes Lane, and also an old, now abandoned, track to Rookswood in the Holy Brook Valley. The actual toll house … was probably the most southerly of the three.’
  35. A bike rode to Painswick takes in quite a haul: Washwell SO 869101 – ‘Melrose Cottage, Cheltenham Road, Painswick, stands out at the junction with the main road of Pullens Road, opposite Lower Washwell Lane. It is a straight-faced stone cottage to which later additions have been made at the back. It was identified by the occupant, Mrs Leech, who said her older relatives referred to it as the Pike … the former road from Gloucester Street towards Clattergrove before the main Cheltenham Road was built, ran behind this house.’
  36. Then the Eagle Inn, Painswick Road, at the junction with Wragg Castle Lane SO 854084: A toll-house stood ‘in the corner of the grounds of the present residence.’
  37. Near The Culls, Wick Street, SO 850062: Wick Street used to be ‘the route from Stroud to Painswick and Gloucester … a track led to down to Salmon’s Mill shortly before The Culls. The old toll-house stood on the far side of this track, though not on the site of the present building along this stretch of road. It was probably not long in existence as a toll-house.’
  38. Butt Green, Painswick SO 867101: The toll-house ‘stood at what was the top end of Painswick (Gloucester Street) opposite the pound and just before the 6th milestone, from which it is now separated by a new road. There isd a shed with a hatch on the site, but from the appearance of the stones it does not seem likely that the actual building has survived even in the vestigial form of a wall.’
  39. On another day, bike out to Haywards Field/Ryeford Road junction SO 812047/813047 – A toll-house ‘stood where the road from King’s Stanley and Ryeford enters the main Stroud-Stonehouse road, and is now obliterated by road-widening.’ There was ‘An earlier site … however … The road alignments at the approaches to Stonehouse differed from the present ones before the building of the G.W. Railway … The earlier site was somewhat to the west of the later one.’
  40. Then on to Horsemarling, Stonehouse SO 806062 – ‘This appears to have been on the east side of the road, just north of the present terraced houses before the turning to Horsemarling Lane … the site has not been positively identified.’
  41. Canal Bridge, Frampton, 746085: Similar style as The Perryway – ‘They were probably specially designed, and in brick, of one storey only, with a central chimney stack, but lack any special feature as a toll-house.’
  42. The Perryway, the junction with Nastfield Lane 763071: Similar to Frampton Canal Bridge, ‘but with a double frontage … In August 1966 it was empty, awaiting demolition.’
  43. Frampton Green 750082 – There was originally a bar ‘at both ends of the Green … and … close to The Bell … probably the pike-keeper’s hut, by the western gate … likely that this was the toll site, but that when the Berkeley Canal was extended past Frampton, the more convenient site [Frampton Canal Bridge], at the junction of the Saul and Framilode road with the road to Fretherne and Arlingham was chosen instead.’
  44. Claypits Farm, Alkerton, 767058: ‘Now obliterated, the site was close to a field boundary just south-east of Claypits Farm.’
  45. Little Haresfield SO 803091: ‘A bus shelter now occupied the site, which is at the right-hand corner of this T-junction.’
  46. Pike Lock, Eastington, 784061: ’This stood on the north side of the canal, where the Stonehouse-Whitminster road was entered by the Alkerton road, at the canal bridge … it was demolished to make way for a canal lock-keeper’s house. The writer was told in 19164 that the toll-board had been removed when the building was demolished and stored in a shed – which got burnt down …’
  47. Whitminster Cross Roads 776080: ‘This site would appear to have been on the south-east corner of these cross-roads … one of the original three toll sites on the Severn to Stroud roads, these appearing as Stroud, Cains Cross and Wheatenhurst. Nothing is known to the writer of its appearance or when it ceased to exist.’
  48. Horsepools Hill 841108: ‘This L-shaped building on the left about half-way down Horsepools Hill is known locally as Pike Cottage, though it stands in an unlikely position on a not-inconsiderable slope … it would seem to have had only a short existence as an actual toll-house.’
  49. Frocester Court 788028: ‘The toll-house is joined to a larger, later house … the southern of the two is obviously the older.’
  50. Frocester Hill cottages 793019: ‘At the base of the hill, the earlier route turned up sharp left and zigzagged up to the Nympsfield road. The present alignment to the right was made in 1784 … On a level stretch of the older route is a cottage …it may … have been a toll-house before the one at the top of the old hill-road [Nympsfield Hill 795014] … was built. But the identification is very tentative.’
  51. Nympsfield Hill 795014: ‘opposite the entrance to Woodchester Park and the road to Nympsfield stands a low shed … Inspection of the interior however [indicates] a dwelling … seems to be the remains of the toll-house that stood here before the 1784 realignment was made up Frocester Hill … the road to Uley was not built until 1822.’
  52. Tinkley Farm 824002: ‘There is cartographical evidence of a toll-site here, but the writer has not yet come across evidence of this as a turnpike road, though clearly it must have been in some group. The actual building has gone, and various farm buildings occupy the presumed site.’
  53. Ragged Barn 822983: ‘This site … stands at the junction of the old Nympsfield Road with the newer alignment from Horsley.’
  54. Brockworth SO 891152: Just by Green Street – ‘An architectural palimpsest. The front of the toll-house, recognisable by the recess over the door projects forward from a larger stone cottage apparently built round and over the first building; the large stone quins of the earlier building were left. The remains of the frontage were extended upward by brick courses, and a brick building added on the other side to the stone cottage.’
  55. Walls Quarry, Brimscombe SO 866201: ‘This is a small square cottage to which is joined a later building, formerly a bakery – it stands at a track junction nearly opposite the entrance to Brimscombe Church, on one of the few level stretches up this steep hill.’
  56. The Bourne SO 876021/2: ‘Unfortunately no relics of either site now remain’; one toll-house stood ‘just south of the railway bridge, and is probably to be identified by the track running alongside the base of the embankment, which could be the original alignment of the Stroud-Chalford turnpike road … when the railway was built, the Chalford road was realigned higher up the slope, and a new toll-house would then be built where the newer entrance to the Toadsmoor Valley road joined the newer Chalford road.’
  57. Near Brimscombe Bridge SO 867025: ‘The only evidence seems to be on the 1819 map of Stroud. It was probably only a catch bar on the lane linking the old and new roads, between the milestone and Brimscombe Bridge.’
  58. Chalford Church SO 892025: ‘Some large stones on the corner by the stores opposite the canal bridge and the church may represent the site: there seem to be old quoins built into the wall. It is a possibility … that here … an earlier toll site existed on the other side of the canal before the railway was built.’
  59. Cowcombe Lane SO 907022: ‘At the top of Cowcombe Hill the road levels out and turns left, opposite the narrow lane leading to Aston Down. The toll-house site is just before the bend. The stone footings remain, about 12 feet square, in a walled close, the well down the slope now being covered in, but with the iron hands for the turning handle still extant.’
  60. Frampton Mansell SO 925018 Pike Lane: ‘two cottages on the south side of the road to Cirencester opposite Pike Lane. In 1963 an elderly occupant told the writer that when she first moved there about 40 years before, a letter arrived for a previous occupant, addressed to ‘Pike Cottage’,
  61. Longtree Cross Roads, Chavenage Green, 877960: ‘This cross-roads, close to the presumed Hundred meeting place, was formerly of greater importance, the eastward road being called London Road or London Lane … the westward … leading to Chavenage Green probably being the connecting link with the [Roman] route from the Severn crossing’; ‘The toll-house stood in a close by the north-western corner of the cross-roads, but the site is now a dump for road materials.’
  62. Tetbury 888935: ‘the first gate on the Tetbury-Avening-Minchinhampton road … demolished to widen the road’ in 1821.
  63. Latterwood, Tetbury, 808971 and 810977: ‘The earlier site lies on the west end of the road, some way before the fork in the Old Bath Road, right to Symons Hall, left t0 Ashel Barn and Tetbury’. The second site ‘presumably dating from the construction of the new Horsley Road, is at the junction of the Old Bath Road with the road to Horsley, the site is now a road materials dump, but a toll-house of typical 3-sided frontage stood there as late as the 1930s’.

 

 

 

‘This survey does not claim to be exhaustive. Some toll-gates mentioned in documents have not yet been identified’ – for example, ‘Rockness Hill near Horsley, Bowle Hill near Rodborough.’

Standing by some deserted country cross-roads,

Twilight gloom, the flight of a bat, the cry of an owl –

It’s hard to imagine that this was once an important thoroughfare,

An admired example of enlightenment modernity:

A turnpike road, improved by turnpike trust funds,

By labourers with barrow, pick and shovel,

By surveyors with rod and line, shouting instructions.

It’s hard to imagine that there was once a toll house here,

With lumbering carts led by teams of eight horses,

Coaches fleet of wheel and horn,

Passengers muffled against the rain and storm,

Farmers with flock and herd,

Travellers with tall tales of highwaymen,

Would-be rioters in barn, inn and beer house,

Itinerants criminalised by Vagrancy Acts,

Enclosure and toll-gates,

Sightseers following in the wake of King George,

On their way from the waters at Cheltenham,

To view the locks at Wallbridge,

The tunnel at Sapperton,

All stopping here to pay their dues at the turnpike gate.

But now, all there is,

Is a tell-tale quoin within a Cotswold stone wall,

A milepost,

A deserted crossroads,

The screech of a bat,

The cry of an owl,

And darkening Cotswold cumulus.

But if like Coleridge, Wordsworth and de Quincey,

You place your ear to the road,

You might just catch the sound of a far-off coach,

The reverberations heralding its advent:

‘You either see it, or you don’t’:

Si monumentum requiris, circumspice.

 

 

Chartism and Voting 1839-2024

(With thanks to Deborah Roberts for the memories above

from our tribute to the Chartist meeting at Selsley in 1839)

Getting the Right to Vote Wasn’t Easy

An Easy Guide to this History

 

In 1819, in Manchester, a perfectly legal peaceful meeting of over 60,000 women and men campaigning for the vote for working people was attacked by the military. Over 400 were wounded and 18 died: ‘The Peterloo Massacre’.

 

At that time, the aristocracy essentially controlled parliament: less than 10% of men had the vote. Then in 1832, middle class men gained the vote. This increased the electorate to about 20% of men. Working-class men and all women were still voteless. Many working-class people had campaigned hard for the vote and had helped the middle classes but were left excluded, disappointed and angry.

 

This disappointment helped lead to the movement known as Chartism. It was called that because it had a Charter (‘The People’s Charter’) with Six Points that would bring political rights to ordinary people.

 

The Six Points: 1. All adult males to have the vote rather than needing to own property to vote. 2. Ending the law that you had to own property to be an MP. 3. Make sure that industrial working-class towns and cities had the right number of MPs. 4. MPs to be paid so that it wouldn’t be a hobby of the rich and ordinary working-class people could afford to become MPs.5. Secret voting to stop bribery and intimidation by bosses and landlords etc. 6. Annual parliaments to ensure MPs and governments kept their promises.

 

The Chartists presented three petitions to parliament (1839, 1842, 1848) with millions of signatures in support: each one was rejected by a parliament setting its face against democracy. Indeed, Chartist leaders faced not only imprisonment but also transportation and execution. It needed courage to stand up for the right to vote and millions showed that courage. Let’s not let them down: this is our heritage!

 

Remember that! Please honour this memory by ensuring that you are registered to vote!

 

And also remember the mass-meeting of 5,000 people in support of the People’s Charter on Selsley Hill in 1839 (twenty years after ‘Peterloo’). Our local ancestors took a lot of risks on that day to show their support for the Six Points – so let’s remember that in Stroud and the Five Valleys and beyond by making sure we are registered to vote. They showed courage up there on Selsley Common. Let’s not let them down.

 

Now for a short quiz: 1. Which of the Six Points has not become law? 2. Can you find out when each of the other five became law? 3. When did all women over the age of 21 get the vote? 4. And men? 5. About what percentage of soldiers in the First World War did not have the vote? 6. When did people over the age of 18 get the vote? 7. What are your opinions on lowering the voting-age to 16?

 

Finally … Chartism was a movement of its time and focused on men … but not solely …

The following is from the hugely-popular Chartist newspaper, the Northern Star, from 1839:

‘Address of the Female Political Union of Newcastle-upon-Tyne

to their Fellow-countrywomen’
‘We have been told that the province of woman is her home, and that the field of politics should be left to men; this we deny … For years we have struggled to maintain our homes … greet our husbands after their fatiguing labours. Year after year have passed away, and even now our wishes have no prospect of being realised, our husbands are over wrought, our houses half furnished, our families ill-fed, and our children uneducated … We are a despised caste, our oppressors are not content with despising our feelings, but demand the control of our thoughts and wants!’

 

We remember the fallen at Remembrance-tide.

Let’s also remember the Chartists and register to vote at Election-tide.

 

If you want to find out more about Chartism nationally, you can visit https://radicalstroud.co.uk/the-5-ws-and-the-h-of-chartism/

 

If you want to find out more about the meeting on Selsley Common, you can visit https://radicalstroud.co.uk/we-put-on-our-best-blouses-aprons-and/

And also https://radicalstroud.co.uk/selsley-hill-august-2nd-2013-and-may/

 

A Repertoire of Opposition to Enclosure

A Repertoire of Opposition to Enclosure

The Northampton Mercury contained an ‘advertisement for a football match’ at the end of July 1765 to take place over two days, August 1st and 2nd: ‘This is to give notice to all Gentlemen, Gamesters and Well-Wishers to the cause now in Hand. That there will be a FOOT-BALL play in the Fields of Haddon … for a Prize of considerable value … All Gentlemen Players are desired to appear in any of the Public Houses in Haddon aforesaid each day between the hours of ten and twelve in the Forenoon, where they will be joyfully received and entertained.’

On Monday 4th August 1765, the Northampton Mercury reported thus:

‘We hear from West Haddon in this County, that on Thursday and Friday last a great Number of People being assembled there in order to play a Foot-Ball Match, soon after meeting formed themselves into a Tumultuous Mob, and pulled up and burnt the Fences designed for the Inclosure of that Field, and did other considerable Damage; many of whom are since taken up by a Party of General Mordaunt’s Dragoons sent from this Town.’

 

Football matches are just one example

Of a whole repertoire of opposition

To the supporters of enclosure:

Grumbling, counter-petitioning,

Refusal to cooperate with surveyors,

Tearing down hedges and fences,

Writing formal letters of opposition,

Leaving threatening letters of opposition,

Refusal to sign enclosure bills,

Refusal to sign sundry legal documents,

Stealing boundary markers,

Removing indicators of field boundaries,

Writing local landscape poems,

Expressing anger in public,

Expressing feelings of violation,

Ensuring those feelings were shared communally

And transmitted through the generations:

Here is an example – a full generation

After enclosure had hit this particular village:

‘To the Gentlemen of Ashill, Norfolk,

This is to inform you that you have by this time brought us under the heaviest burden and into the hardest Yoke we ever knowed; it is too hard for us to bear … You do as you like, you rob the poor of their Commons right, plough the grass up that God send to grow, that a poor man may feed a Cow, Pig, Horse, nor Ass; lay muck and stones in the road to prevent the grass growing. If a poor man is out of work and wants a day or two’s work you will give him 6d. per week … There is 5 or 6 of you have gotten the whole of the land in this parish in your own hands and you would wish to be rich and starve all the other part of the parish…’

And here’s John Clare:

‘Inclosure came and trampled on the grave

Of labours rights and left the poor a slave

And memorys pride ere want to wealth did bow

is both the shadow and the substance now …’

And John Clare again:

‘That good old fame the farmers earnd of yore

That made as equals not as slaves the poor

That good old fame did in two sparks expire

A shooting coxcomb and. hunting Squire

And their old mansions that was dignified

With things far better than the pomp of pride …

Where master son and serving man and clown

Without distinction daily sat them down …

These have all vanished like a dream of good …’

And the folklore passed through the generations:

‘The law locks up the man or woman

Who steals the goose from off the common

But leaves the greater villain loose

Who steals the common off the goose.’

And when we look at the opposition to enclosure,

And the repertoire of dissent,

We must remember that not only

Are the textual records incomplete

(You have to keep secrets, don’t you?),

But that the repertoire of dissent’s

Oral opposition within an oral culture

Is, of course, impossible to recapture:

The hatred, bitterness, sense of violation,

Feelings of robbery, jobbery, misery and theft,

The loss of gleaning rights and rights of estover,

The loss of pasture and right to roam:

All, of course, the intangible history

Of all those villagers and commoners

’Condemned to the enormous condescension of posterity’.

In conclusion, john Clare again:

The Lament of Swordy Well:

In Swordy Well a piece of land

That fell upon the town

Who worked me till I couldn’t stand

&crush me now Im down

There was a time my bit of ground

Made freeman of the slave

The ass no pindard dare to pound

When I his supper gave

The gypseys camp was not afraid

I made his dwelling free

Till vile enclosure came & made

A parish slave of me

Alas dependence thou’rt a brute

Want only understands

His feelings wither branch & root

That falls in parish hands

Addendum

What of letter writing & formality,

Using the goose and common trope?

A case study:

A letter sent to the Marquess of Anglesey:

‘Where is now the degree of virtue which can withstand interest? …

Should a poor man take one of Your sheep from the common, his life would be forfeited by law. But should You take the common from a hundred poor mens sheep, the law gives no redress. The poor man is liable to be hung from taking from You what would supply You with a meal & You would do nothing illegal by depriving him of his subsistence; nor is Your family supplied for a day by a subtraction which distresses his for life! … Yet the causers of crimes are more guilty than the perpetrators. What must be the inference of the poor? when they see those who should be their patterns defy morality for gain, especially when, if wealth could give contentment, they had enough wherewith to be satisfied.  And when the laws are not accessible to the injured poor and Government gives them no redress.’

The Marquis replied thus:

‘Excepting as the mere fact of the Inclosure, the forming of which no one has a right to contest, All your statements are without foundation & as your language is studiously Offensive I must decline any further communication with you.’

 

‘The law locks up the man or woman

Who steals the goose from off the common

But leaves the greater villain loose

Who steals the common off the goose.

  The law demands that we atone

When we take things we do not own

         But leaves the lords and ladies fine

        Who take things that are yours and mine.’

For anyone for whom John Clare is a new discovery:

https://radicalstroud.co.uk/john-clare-150th-anniversary-of-his/

and

https://radicalstroud.co.uk/john-clare-day-july-13/

 

A People’s History

 

A People’s Local History

I thought it would be a great thing to try and stimulate a collective writing of a People’s History: a textual tapestry of life, work and landscape around Stroud, the Five Valleys and the county in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries (and then eventually the 21st.)

 

How?

 

If you are interested in contributing, all I ask is that you might use your imagination and whatever historical knowledge you might have (might be family history) to write a few sentences or so about jobs, or work, or landscape, or industry, or farming, or the home and email me. You can, of course, write more if you wish.

 

We will then meld everything together into a sort of textual tapestry: a collective work: a People’s History.

 

Deadline for contributions: May 31st.

 

Here are 3 links that might help: First look at the inspiration for this idea at https://radicalstroud.co.uk/workshop-of-the-world/

 

Then a bit of relevant local history at https://radicalstroud.co.uk/an-a-to-z-of-the-jobs-of-those-transported-from-gloucestershire/

 

Then if you wanted to look at a quick guide for some ideas for writing: https://radicalstroud.co.uk/creative-writing-guide/

 

 

You can find my email address at https://radicalstroud.co.uk/about-us/

 

Creative Writing Guide

A GUIDE TO WRITING YOUR OWN

If you fancy it, here’s a practical easy guide to creative writing.

(If any readers are into the intellectual side

of all this slipping through wormholes of time stuff,

and fancy some prompts about psychogeography,

Radical walking and the imagination –

an A to Z of Psychogeography

follows the creative writing guide.)

 

A guide to creative writing: An A – Z Writing Guide

A is for ALLITERATION and ANECDOTES

and ASSONANCE and ATMOSPHERE

B is for BATHOS and BLANK VERSE and BACKSTORY

C is for CHARACTERS and CLIFFHANGER and COUNTER-HERITAGE

D is for DIALOGUE and DRAMA

E is for EFFECT and ELLIPSIS

F is for FIRST PERSON and FORESHADOWING

and FACT and FICTION and FREE VERSE

G is for GENRE (which will you choose?)

and GUERRILLA MEMORIALISATION

H is for HONESTY and HEART (and soul) and HERITAGE

I is for IMAGERY and IDIOM and IAMBIC PENTAMETRE

and IMAGINATION

J is for JUSTICE and the JUST word

K is for KINDNESS and KINESIS

L is for LUCID and LUDIC and LIMINALITY

M is for METAPHOR and MOOD and MEMORIALISATION

and MYTHOPOEIC and METRE

N is for NARRATIVE and NOTEBOOK (necessary)

O is for ONOMATAPOEIA

P is for PERSONA and PLOT and PACE and PUNCTUATION

and PARENTHESIS and PEN and PENCIL

and PAPER and POETRY and PROSE

Q is for QUEST (for the right word) and QUESTIONS

R is for RULE OF THREE and RHETORICAL QUESTIONS

and RESEARCH and READING and RHYME and RHYTHM

S is for SIMILE and SIBILANCE and STRUCTURE

and STANZA and SETTING and SENSES and SENTENCES (varied)

and SYNTHESIA

T is for TRIPLES and THIRD PERSON

U is for UNDERSTATED

V is for VARIED SENTENCE STRUCTURE and VOICE

and VERSE and VARIED VOCABULARY

W is for WANDERING and WRITING and WORMHOLES

X is for X-ROADS (liminal wormholes through time)

Y is for YEARNING (for the past and for the right word)

Z is for ZEN and the ART of STATIONERY MAINTENANCE

An A-Z Psychogeographical Guide

A is for Ambulatory Art; the Arcades Project; Alienation; Ambience/Ambiance; Aleatory Walking; Ackroyd (Peter); the Association of Autonomous Astronauts; Autism and Walking; Ambling.

B is for Beach (Beneath the Pavements!!); Benjamin (Walter); Baudelaire; Bohemian; Barthes (Roland); Baudrillard Jean) and Bucolic.

C is for Commodity Fetishism; Crowds; Chtcheglov (Ivan); Coverley (Miles); Cartography (Re-imagined); Critique of Everyday Life; Commodification; Cultural Terrorism; Choreographed Walking; Cadogan (Garnette); Cyberflanerie; Crowds; constitutional.

D is for Derivee; Detournement; Debord (Guy); Defoe (Daniel); de Certeau (Michel); Disabled Walking; Dementia and Walking; Dreamtime Walking.

E is for Edgelands; Existentialism; Experimental Exeats; Egressions; Ecophilia.

F is for Flaneur; Flanerie; Flaneuse; Five Valleys; Fete (see Potlatch); Foucault (Michel) and Feminist Psychogeography; Field Walking.

G is for Geography.

H is for Hessel (Franz); Huizinga (Johan), Homo Ludens; Harvey (David); Hawksmoor (Nicholas); Home (Stewart); hollow-ways; hike.

I is for International Situationniste (the S.I. journal); Infraordinary; Interpellation; Indolence.

J is for Journals; Journeys; Jorn (Asger); jogging.

K is for Kaleidoscope; Kafkaesque.

L is for Ludic; Lefebevre (Henri); Lettrist International; Literary Communism; Ley Lines; the Loiterers’ Resistance Movement; Languid.

M is for Marxist-Materialists; Mythogeographers (discovering political and/or multiple meanings in landscapes; Maps (mmm …); Manifestos; May ’68; the Materialist Psychogeographical Affiliation; the Museum of Walking; Multicultural Inclusive Psychogeography ; Memory Retrieval through walking (dementia sufferers); POPS (Privately Owned Public Spaces).

N is for Noctivigant; Noctambulist; the Neoist Alliance; Navigation; Navigators (inland); Navvies.

O is for Occultist Walking (invoking de Quincey, and William Blake for a harder political edge.); Oldfield Ford (Laura); Ocularcentrism.

P is for Psychogeography; Potlatch (the S.I. journal) and Potlatch (devoid ‘of all Productive logic in which everyone may Participate’ – A Fete*); Performance (Poetic and subversive Potential of ordinary life revealed); Pranks and Property Defacement; Praxis; Papadimitriou (Nick); Postmodern Flaneur; Psychogeography and the Deriviste;

Q is for de Quincey (Thomas); Queues (bus stop).

R is for Rural (reading and writing the rural – individually/collectively); Romantic (literary tradition); Rhythmanalysis; Reverie; Richardson (Tina); Rimbaud; Relational (cf solitary) Walking and Recollection.

S is for Signifier; Signified; Semiotics; Situations; Spectacles; Situationist International; Society Of The Spectacle; Stroud; Site Specific (art/performance); Solnit (Rebecca); Subversion; Spatial Interruption (cf Temporal Interruption); Sinclair (Ian); Savage Messiah; Social Critique ; Schizocartography; Smith (Phil); the Situational Derive; Situational Walking Arts; Sensory Mapping; Soundscape and Smell Walks.

T is for Time; Temporality Interruption (cf Spatial Interruption);

Three Sided Football.

U is for Urban (reading and writing the city/town – individually/collectively); Unitary Urbanism; Utopianism.

V is for van Ratingen (Witold Jerzy) (see * Potlatch above); Virtual Psychogeography.

W is for Watkins (Alfred); Walking as ‘A Pedestrian Speech Act’ (de Certeau); Wrights and Sites and the Walking Artists Network and Walking Women and Walking While Black.

X is for Cross Roads and X marks the spot of whatever you wish to bury or find.

Y is for Yearning/Nostalgic walking.

Z is for Zen-Fullness; The Art of Zen and Shank’s Pony Maintenance.

 

 

An A to Z of the Jobs of those transported from Gloucestershire

An A to Z of People at Work in Gloucestershire

in the late 18th and early 19th Centuries:

The professions and jobs and sometimes status

Of those who were transported

When I look out of my window I descry

The following on their way to Van Diemen’s Land

and to New South Wales:

An accountant, an apothecary, an ash-carrier,

an attorney-at-law, and an awl-blade maker;

Followed by

A baker, a baker’s boy, a barber, a bargeman,

A basket-maker, a billy-spinner, a blacking-maker,

A blacksmith, a boatman, a boiler-maker, a brass-founder,

A brazier, a bricklayer, a brick-maker, a brush-maker,

A brush maker’s apprentice, a burler, and a butcher;

Next in line:

A cabinet-maker, a calf-dealer, a carpenter,

A carpet-weaver, a carrier, a carver, a chair-maker,

A chimney sweep, a clerk, a clock- and watch-maker,

A clock-cleaner, a cloth dresser, a cloth-factory man,

A clothier, a clothing-mill boy, a cloth-mill worker,

A cloth-rower, a cloth-worker, a coach-horse tender,

A coach-painter, a coach-plater, a coach-smith,

A coal miner, a collar-maker, a collier,

A colt-breaker, a comb-maker, a confectioner,

A cooper, a cordwainer, a cork-cutter,

A cotton-spinner, and a cutler;

Then this queue:

A dealer, a dealer in marine stores, a deserter,

 A donkey-driver, a draper, a dress-maker,

A drummer in the militia;

Succeeded by this procession:

An earthenware dealer, an East India Company member,

An edge-toolmaker, an engine-maker, an errand boy;

Then this column:

A farmer, a Fenceler (Royal Marines), a field blacksmith,

A file-cutter, a fireman, a fish- and bacon-carrier,

A fish- and orange-carrier, a fish-carrier, a fisherman,

A fishmonger, a flock-dresser, a fly-man,

A framework-knitter;

In the rear of those:

A gardener, a Gentleman, a gig-mill worker,

A glazier, a glover, a grocer, a groom, a gunsmith, a gypsy;

Then a sinuous line:

A hairdresser, a handle-setter, a harness-maker,

A hatter, a haulier, a hawker, a hawker of hardware,

A haggler, A horse-dealer, A horse-doctor,

A horse-keeper, A hurdle-maker;

Then in quick two step:

A japanner and a joiner;

Followed by this quintet:

Labourer, lace-factory worker, lawyer, leather-dresser, lemon-carrier;

And then a longer row:

A marine, a mason, a merchant, a merchant seaman,

A metal-smith, a militia-man, a milliner, a miller, a millman,

A millman and cloth rower, a millwright, a mole catcher,

A miner, a mortar-boy, a moulder in foundry, a musician;

Then a trio:

A nailer, a nail-maker, a navigator;

Then a singular

Oyster- and cider-seller;

Followed by this chain:

A painter, a paper-maker, a pargeter, a pensioner,

A pedlar, a pig-dealer, a pipe-maker, a plane-maker,

A plasterer, a plumber and glazier, a porter, a post-boy,

A potter, and a prostitute;

And a then this string:

A rag-gatherer, a razor-grinder, a recruit for the army,

A ribbon-weaver, a rifle corps member, a rope-maker,

A rope-spinner, and a rowling-slitter;

And then this motley:

A sack-weaver, a saddler, a sail-maker, a sailor,

A sawyer, a scamp and bone picker, a scribbler, a seaman,

A servant, a shearer, a shearman, a shepherd, a shoe-binder, a shoe-maker, A shop-keeper, a silk-weaver, a slater and plasterer, a smith,

A smelter, a soap-boiler, a soldier, a spinner, a sprig-maker,

A stable boy, a stenciller, a stocking-maker, a stocking weaver,

A stock-worker, a stone-cutter, a stone mason,

A straw- and hay-dealer, a straw- bonnet maker, a surgeon, a sweep;

Then this cavalcade:

A tailor, a tailoress, a tailor’s apprentice, a tanner,

A tea-dealer’s clerk and traveller, a thatcher; a tile-maker,

A tinker, a tin-man, a tramp(er), a traveller, a traveller with an ass,

A traveller with fruit etc., a traveller with hardware,

A turner and filer, a twine-spinner;

Coming up the rear:

An upholsterer;

A volunteer for the army;

And finally:

A washerwoman, a waterman, a weaver,

A wheelwright, a whitesmith, a wire-drawer,

A wood-dealer, a wood-sawyer, a woolsorter.

This is, of course, not the number of people transported,

But a list of the professions and jobs

and sometimes status of those transported.

But it is a window on a lost world.

 

Rodborough Ridge and Furrow

 

 

Just over the road at Rodborough Glebe allotments,

In Rodborough Fields, beyond Kings Road,

Castlemead Road and Arundel Drive,

You can see a clear pattern of ridge and furrow

(‘Like corrugated fields or waves in a land-sea’),

Particularly on frosty midwinter days:

A glimpse of a world before enclosure

Parcelled up and privatised the landscape

With fences and gates and hedgerows.

But there’s nothing in the landscape to tell you

Just what this pattern of ridges and humps

In grassland, sward and pasture implies,

Or connotes: no plaque or information board

To let us know that where we tread

There was a whole different way of carrying on

From what we regard as normality today:

The tyranny of the clock and pursuit of profit;

Instead, there was a community

Based upon sharing and mutuality.

It wasn’t just the sharing out of the strips

Of arable land in the open fields,

Or the gleaning.

The tending to and milking of a cow.

The looking out for rabbits.

The gathering of fruits, berries and nuts.

The being satisfied with that you have.

The exchanging of surplus so as to just get by.

The lending or borrowing of tools.

It wasn’t just the fuel – wood, turf, furze, bracken,

Or the crops, gleaning or grazing that gave sustenance,

It was also the community of reciprocity;

The sharing, the mutuality

That fashioned a community,

And the arranged or happenstance meeting

In field, lane, pathway, holloway, baulk or common,

And the ensuing conversation

And sharing of the time of day

(‘Good morrow, Gossip Joan,

Where have you been a-walking? …’);

And ‘wasting time’ didn’t mean laziness,

It might have been incomprehensible to the elite,

But the lower orders could have an eye for the picturesque too,

You didn’t have to be educated to have an eye for the sublime:

John Clare textualized what many saw and felt:

‘How fond the rustics ear at leisure dwells

On the soft soundings of his village bells

As on a Sunday morning at his ease

He takes his rambles just as fancys please

Down narrow baulks that intersect the fields

Hid in profusion that its produce yields

Long twining peas in faintly misted greens

And wing leafed multitudes of crowding beans

And flighty oatlands of a lighter hue.’

And, in a way, we carry on this tradition

On Rodborough Glebe allotments:

‘Social events, BBQs, plant and seed swaps, surplus food for food banks, educational activities for children, local history events,

compost toilets, a wildflower and wildlife area’

And,

‘As we all know, nature left to itself would take over and so effort is needed from the members to keep the site workable – trimming edges, keeping pathways clear, cutting back brambles and nettles, maintaining the fences to keep badgers and deer out and keep the allotments safe, replacing and servicing gates and padlocks, keeping trees and hedges at manageable sizes, servicing the water supply, restoring neglected plots – the list is almost endless…’

This cooperative community

Is an ideal and a reality:

Everyone needs to chip in;

But when the work is done

And you have a spare moment,

Follow the footpath down to Kwick Fit

Through Rodborough Fields

And glance to your right:

Let your imagination run free

As you pass the ridge and furrow

Frozen in time and space in the pasture;

Walk with the ghosts at their toil

And at their joyful recreation,

Then put in another stint on the allotment,

Both for yourself and the community;

Keep the continuity going

That runs from medievalism to modernity:

For as William Faulkner said:

“The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”

Radical Road Trip

Radical Antiquarians on Tour
The Antiquarians’ Road Trip
Plus ca change

Look! There’s Mr Jingle and Mr Pickwick in Stamford,
A town astride the Great North Road,
All tortuous turnpikes and honey stone,
Coaching inns and listed buildings:
‘GOOD STABLING AND LOOSE BOXES’;

And beyond Stamford, heading east?
There’s John Clare revenants walking the roadside,
And channels and rivulets and watercourses,
With high embankments above the roads,
And a cloud filled sky that meets the fields
In a cumulonimbus towering clasp
Across a dark shadowed numinous dreamscape;

But there, leaping out of the flat lands’ fastness,
The vaporous tower of Ely cathedral,
And all around, the oozing of the fens:
Tick Fen; Langwood Fen, Great Fen, ChatterisFen,
Ouse Fen, Mildenhall Fen, Burnt Fen …
And all around, the waters of rivers and dykes,

And a boatyard down below the cathedral,
Constant trains rattling across the freight line rails,
As twilight softness gathers around the streets,
And swifts soar high above the Maltings,
And high above the roof of Oliver Cromwell’s house,
Just as their seventeenth century ancestors did,
When Cromwell strode forth with his righteous bible,
Imagining a New Model Army
That would vanquish Charles Stuart’s Royalists,
While swifts screeched and eavesdropped high above,
And a parliament of rooks observed and noted.

Radical Antiquarians on Tour
The Antiquarians’ Road Trip
Plus ca change

Look! There’s Mr Jingle and Mr Pickwick in Stamford,
A town astride the Great North Road,
All tortuous turnpikes and honey stone,
Coaching inns and listed buildings:
‘GOOD STABLING AND LOOSE BOXES’;

And beyond Stamford, heading east?
There’s John Clare revenants walking the roadside,
And channels and rivulets and watercourses,
With high embankments above the roads,
And a cloud filled sky that meets the fields
In a cumulonimbus towering clasp
Across a dark shadowed numinous dreamscape;

But there, leaping out of the flat lands’ fastness,
The vaporous tower of Ely cathedral,
And all around, the oozing of the fens:
Tick Fen; Langwood Fen, Great Fen, ChatterisFen,
Ouse Fen, Mildenhall Fen, Burnt Fen …
And all around, the waters of rivers and dykes,

And a boatyard down below the cathedral,
Constant trains rattling across the freight line rails,
As twilight softness gathers around the streets,
And swifts soar high above the Maltings,
And high above the roof of Oliver Cromwell’s house,
Just as their seventeenth century ancestors did,
When Cromwell strode forth with his righteous bible,
Imagining a New Model Army
That would vanquish Charles Stuart’s Royalists,
While swifts screeched and eavesdropped high above,
And a parliament of rooks observed and noted.

And so, we strode through Ely’s eely dreamscape,
Shapeshifting in the gathering dusk,
To claim food and drink at the Prince Albert;

Then dreaming of the cathedral,
‘The ship of the Fens’, moored with an anchor
Whose foundations rest on clay and sand,
And a water table higher
than that that of the nearby river,
Until the morning’s ganglion of railway lines
And succession of level crossings:
‘That’ll be the Ely north avoider loop at Queen Adelaide. Enables trains to run direct from Norwich to Peterborough, and vice-versa, and for Kings Lynn freight traffic to head to/from the yards at March. Really tight curves. Ely is a junction for five directions.’ (Jon Seagrave)

We drove on past giant fields of barley and wheat,
Right next to equally giant fields of flowering potatoes
(‘Its only bondage was the circling sky’),
Past where the agricultural rioters of 1816
Would have congregated, voicing demands
For a moral economy with fair prices and wages,
Before marching on to Ely and Littleport:
The response was transportation and execution;

And all the while, embankments and water,
And Will Kemp’s actor-ghost Morris-dancing his way,
In a forlorn attempt to prove that he
Was more popular than William Shakespeare,
Until we reach the flint city of Norwich,
To witness the cathedral’s taking of the Eucharist,

And, outside, Robert Kett’s Rebellion of 1549,
Hand to hand combat along cobbled Elm Street,
Betwixt two flint churches at either end,
The Earl of Warwick’s army guarding the Bishop’s Gate,
Right there where the Red Lion now stands,
And there, by the thick girth black poplar,
Just where we stand and gaze and imagine,
The rebels swimming the shallow waters by Cow Tower
(Built to hold hand held cannon and bombards),
To try and outflank the massed armed ranks on the bridge;

We wandered past the proud Kett memorial plaques,
Past the pub called Lollards Pit
(Mutter that you can find God in your own conscience.
You don’t need an archbishop’s hierarchy),
(Lollards: the link between the Peasants’ Revolt,
Kett and co and then the Diggers and Levellers.
Lollards Pit: the place of execution:
The faggots piled high for the burning
Of these religious radicals.),

Then up Kett’s Hill, past Kett’s Bakery,
To Mousehold Heath where at least 10,000 rebels
Camped high above the city, and its authorities,
Both ecclesiastical and secular,
And where their memory lives on, not just
With plaques and ruins and information panels,
But also, with an assertion of commonality
And historic rights of estover,
For here signs tell us to help ourselves to wood,
And timber and fuel from the felled trees:
Robert Kett’s moral economy
And opposition to enclosure lives on
In its quiet, understated manner
Up here, still, on Mousehold Heath.

I picked up a stone as a keepsake
As we descended back towards the city:
‘Oh, whistle, and I’ll come to you, my lad.’
I’ve now placed it in the backroom fireplace,
Awaiting my whistle on some dark winter night.

The next day saw us in the Norfolk Broads,
Driving past Three Hammer Common,
And the parish of Barton Turf, with a verger,
Who looked as though he were from a Pre-Raphaelite painting;
Discovering fern and nettled footpaths
Behind massive churches distant from any village,
To reach lonely staithes down on the river bank,
And wander close to a causeway on a pilgrimage
To an isolated red brick windmill,
Built upon the site of St Benet’s monastery,
Where a spectral monk sometimes surveys
His haunting ruins and landscape:

A seeming labyrinth of watercourses:
Sails gliding by just above one’s head,
Yachts and wherries making their way
Parallel with our pilgrimage,
Lanyards clangourous in the breeze,
Skylarks ascending, ducks keening,
Osiers and sedges and willow and aspen
All rustling in the gathering wind,
Sunlight glistening on the rippling waters,
An elemental harmony of air, earth and water,
And fire, too.

For where we were standing and musing,
Just in front of the abbey gateway,
Was where abbey documents detailing
Bonded work, were burned by villeins
In the 1381 Peasants’ Revolt.
Right where we stood.
What happened to them, I wonder,
Out here in this watery world.
Did the words of King Richard the Second
Condemn them to a worse servitude?
Or death?
‘You wretches detestable on land and sea; you who seek equality with lords are unworthy to live. Give this message to your colleagues: rustics you were, and rustics you are still; you will remain in bondage, not as before, but incomparably harsher. For as long as we livewe will strive to suppress you, and your misery will be an example in the eyes of posterity. However, we will spare your lives if you remain faithful and loyal. Choose now which course to follow.’

By strange and unhappy happenstance, by the way,
Six hundred and forty years ago on this day,
John Ball was hanged, drawn and quartered:
‘When Adam delved and Eve span,
Who was then the gentleman?’

The next day saw us homeward-bound –
But antiquarian detours were necessary:
Wymondham, first, and this proud plaque:
‘Seeking a fairer society in Norfolk,
Robert Kett, supported by his brother William,
led a rebellion of more than 15,00 people in 1549.
The rising was crushed and over 3,000 died.
On 7th December 1549 Robert was hanged for treason
at Norwich Castle and William from Wymondham Abbey’s
west tower. This plaque was erected in 1999 to remember
the man and his struggle for a more just society in Norfolk.’

Chastened by the image of William,
Dangling, broken-necked, from a rope
Attached to the Abbey’s soaring high west tower,
We made our final East Anglian call at Bury St Edmunds.
Yet another abbey. Yet another memorial.
This time about Magna Carta; placed there in 1847.
‘THE 25 BARONS APPOINTED
TO ENFORCE THE OBSERVANCE OF MAGNA CHARTA
AT BURY St EDMUNDS NOV 20th A.D. 1214’
A detailed list follows;
And, on an adjacent wall, another memorial
To signify Victorian admiration
For this precursor to Runnymede in 1215;
In Gothic rhyming couplets too …
‘WHERE THE RUDE BUTTRESS TOTTERS TO ITS FALL,
AND IVY MANTLES O’ER THE CRUMBLING WALL …’

Sellar and Yeatman’s 1066 And All That
Came along some eighty years later;
Here are a few salient points
from their subversive 1930 classic:
‘1. That no one was to be put to death, save for some reason – (except the Common People)
2. That everyone should be free – (except the Common People)
3. That everything should be of the same weight and measure
throughout the Realm – (except the Common People)
4. That the Barons should not be tried except by a special group of other Barons who would understand …
Magna Charter was therefore the chief cause of Democracy in England, and thus a Good Thing for everyone –
(except the Common People).’

Well, we had to get home and live like common people,
And so, we called in, as everyone,
apart from barons, do,
At a motor way service station;
This one was on the M6, newly opened near Rugby,
And there I read in the Morning Star
(Bought in the Co-op in Wymondham)
Of a strike at the Weetabix factory in Kettering,
Over pay for working unsocial hours …

Plus ca change …
We still seek that elusive moral economy …
The barons are doing okay though.

Plus ca change.

Radical antiquarians on tour.
(Stuart Butler)

AA [Antiquarians Association]

RAC [Radical Antiquarians Collective]

Stroud and Abolition Aftermath

Stroud and Abolition after 1834
(Derived from a reading of Slave Empire
How Slavery Built Modern Britain
Padraic X. Scanlon)

I’m sure you know the arch near Archway School in Stroud:

ERECTED TO COMMEMORATE THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY
IN THE BRITISH COLONIES THE FIRST OF AUGUST, A.D. MDCCCXXXIV

Four year later, as the author tells us:
‘On 1 August 1838, more than 800,000 people were finally free.
But their freedom was circumscribed’.

Apprenticeship not Freedom

Traineeship Training Period Studentship Novitiate Initiate
Probationary Period Trial Period Indentureship
Direction Discipline Guidance Lesson Preparation
Teaching Training Coaching Drilling Tutelage

Apprenticeship not Freedom

So perhaps I should say,
On 1 August 1838, more than 800,000 people were finally ‘free’.

British hypocrisy does not stop there, of course;
I’m not talking about cups of tea
Constantly sweetened with sugar from
Slaveholding Brazil, Cuba, and Louisiana,
Although we could;
But something more fundamental
In the growth of British economic power:
The global dominance of ‘King Cotton’,
The nineteenth century dominance
Of Manchester and Lancashire –
That could not have happened, of course, without
Slavery in the cotton growing southern states of the USA.

Stroud and Abolition after 1834
(Derived from a reading of Slave Empire
How Slavery Built Modern Britain
Padraic X. Scanlon)

I’m sure you know the arch near Archway School in Stroud:

ERECTED TO COMMEMORATE THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY
IN THE BRITISH COLONIES THE FIRST OF AUGUST, A.D. MDCCCXXXIV

Four year later, as the author tells us:
‘On 1 August 1838, more than 800,000 people were finally free.
But their freedom was circumscribed’.

Apprenticeship not Freedom

Traineeship Training Period Studentship Novitiate Initiate
Probationary Period Trial Period Indentureship
Direction Discipline Guidance Lesson Preparation
Teaching Training Coaching Drilling Tutelage

Apprenticeship not Freedom

So perhaps I should say,
On 1 August 1838, more than 800,000 people were finally ‘free’.

British hypocrisy does not stop there, of course;
I’m not talking about cups of tea
Constantly sweetened with sugar from
Slaveholding Brazil, Cuba, and Louisiana,
Although we could;
But something more fundamental
In the growth of British economic power:
The global dominance of ‘King Cotton’,
The nineteenth century dominance
Of Manchester and Lancashire –
That could not have happened, of course, without
Slavery in the cotton growing southern states of the USA.

And talking of British hypocrisy:

‘Freedom – free elections, free labour and free trade – were the watchwords of the Victorian British Empire. This free empire, however, was sustained by the exploitation of wage-earning colonial workers – given the lustre of morality by anti-slavery – and by continuing demands on the labour of enslaved people outside the colonies.
Modern Britain has inherited this legacy. Capitalism and liberalism emphasises ‘freedom’ – for individuals and for markets – but were and are built on human bondage.’

It seems as though we are talking paradox and oxymoron

‘Free trade was built on slave labour, Britain’s Pax Britannica of the nineteenth century was an illusion. Relative peace in Europe was made possible by vicious colonial wars, where European empires settled scores and casualties were written off as the price of civilisation.’

And in a graphic illustration
Of the Keynsian multiplier-effect,
Scanlan quotes W.E.B. Du Bois
From The World and Africa:

‘frightful paradox … that a blameless, cultured, beautiful young woman in a London suburb may be the foundation on which is built the poverty and degradation of the world.’

The suburb as metonymy? As synecdoche?

And the impact of imperial expansion upon Stroud?

The Seven Years War, 1756-63:

‘In total, Britain mobilised more than 167,000 soldiers and sailors, and spent more than £18 million on the war effort. In 2020, a war costing the same proportion of gross domestic product … would require a loan of nearly £39.5 billion. Crucially, 45,000 more soldiers were deployed to North America, a force five times as large as the army mustered by France and its allies.’

That’s a lot of redcoats

(This force included General Wolfe, of course,
Killed in the storming of the heights of Quebec,
Who a few years before, as Colonel Wolfe,
Had commanded redcoats in action against
The Stroudwater weavers who made the redcoats.)

While in Africa
‘As the slave trade rose, West African manufacturing declined … textiles, ironwork and goldsmithing. The slave trade gutted these industries.’

Rule Britannia
‘About one out of every five families in Britain in the eighteenth century was directly involved in colonial trade.’

Abolition
‘Shortly before 1 August 1834, Edward Stanley sent a circular to the colonial governors of the slave empire. Apprenticeship, he explained, “was … a temporary provision for the continued cultivation of the soil, and the good order of society, until all classes should gradually fall into the relations of a state of freedom.”’

Stroud Scarlet after Abolition

‘The military power of the slave empire
was called into action to enforce apprenticeship’;
In Jamaica,
There were strikes; demands for freedom; for wages;
And in response?
Floggings,
Until the 39th Regiment was called into action,
Two companies under the command of Sir Henry Macleod:
‘The strikers, faced with ranks of armed redcoats, returned to work, and Macleod left behind one of his two companies to maintain order.’
In Guiana:
Some 1,000 apprentices
Gathered in a churchyard;
There were demands for wages;
Redcoats were called into action;
‘Faced with the redcoats, the apprentices dispersed.’
Execution and exile followed.
Redcoats were used in Montserrat and Nevis, too:
‘Once it was clear that the Army would break strikes, apprentices retreated to slow-downs, and small-scale resistance, old weapons from the days of slavery.’
So, redcoats broke strikes in Stroud,
And, redcoats broke strikes in the slave empire;
And as King Cotton dominated the world from Lancashire,
And as Britannia sweetened its tea and coffee,
While jolly Jack Tars drank their rum and smoked their pipes,
So, ‘London solidified its position as the financial capital of the nineteenth century, British investors financed infrastructure that carried enslaved people and the things they produced, and bought up the debt of slaveholding states’;
In short, the secessionist South
Had previously been partly funded by Britain.

But, you say, ‘Be balanced and fair’:
What about the abolition of the slave trade
Back in 1807, and Britain’s moral compass,
As the Royal Navy patrolled the west African coast?

The Royal Navy had just fourteen ships on patrol;
They intercepted, on average,
one slave-ship every two weeks;
It was estimated that 150,000 people
Were still being enslaved and transported
Across the Atlantic Ocean, each year,
After the end of apprenticeship:

‘Neither 1807 nor 1833 had actually ended Britain’s entanglement with slavery. British industry and finance remained deeply connected to enslaved labour in the United States, Cuba and elsewhere. The conviction that the new liberal British empire had transcended the ugly history of its birth crabbed and stunted the political and moral imagination of a new generation.’

Or, generations.

Rule Britannia,
Britannia waives the rules.

Stroud Valley Emigration

Emigration from Stroudwater in the 1830s and 40s
(‘Documentary Fiction’)
Foreword
My emigrant’s passage started in Bisley
Along a snowdropped Sunday footpath to the church;
The service had just ended –
I sauntered in through the open door,
And there to my surprise, in a glass case,
Lay a nineteenth century list of parish accounts,
With an italicised card:
‘cost to the Parish of Bisley of ‘emigrating’ 68 persons from the parish’,
Together with a bible open to the fronts-piece:
‘The Bible which was presented by the Reverend Thomas Keble who was the Vicar of Bisley when they and 66 others emigrated to Sydney, Australia in August 1837 [The Bible has been rebound].
Two other information cards lay partially hidden beneath the bible, I could pick out a few words, however:
‘hoped they might have a more prosperous life. They were equipped with clothes, transport and food to Bristol and Thomas Keble also presented each family with a Bible and a Prayer Book.’

Prologue the First: Mr Ricardo

EMIGRATION
CONSIDERED AS A MEANS OF RELIEF
IN THE PRESENT DISTRESSED
CONDITION OF THE POOR
IN THIS
NEIGHBOURHOOD

BY DAVID RICARDO, ESQ.

STROUD:
PRINTED BY J.P. BRISLEY
1838.
Price One Penny each, or Five Shillings per Hundred.
EMIGRATION

The distress of the Poor at all times forms a strong claim upon our sympathy and compassion – and though in some cases it may be brought on by their own idleness and improvidence, and therefore require the application of strong measures to check its growth … like a parent who chastises his child … But in the present condition of the Poor in this Neighbourhood … we have to encounter all the difficulties of a failing trade, and our inability to substitute any other means of independent labour … their patience and resignation is urging on their more influential neighbours to make efforts to assist them.

Emigration from Stroudwater in the 1830s and 40s
(‘Documentary Fiction’)
Foreword
My emigrant’s passage started in Bisley
Along a snowdropped Sunday footpath to the church;
The service had just ended –
I sauntered in through the open door,
And there to my surprise, in a glass case,
Lay a nineteenth century list of parish accounts,
With an italicised card:
‘cost to the Parish of Bisley of ‘emigrating’ 68 persons from the parish’,
Together with a bible open to the fronts-piece:
‘The Bible which was presented by the Reverend Thomas Keble who was the Vicar of Bisley when they and 66 others emigrated to Sydney, Australia in August 1837 [The Bible has been rebound].
Two other information cards lay partially hidden beneath the bible, I could pick out a few words, however:
‘hoped they might have a more prosperous life. They were equipped with clothes, transport and food to Bristol and Thomas Keble also presented each family with a Bible and a Prayer Book.’

Prologue the First: Mr Ricardo

EMIGRATION
CONSIDERED AS A MEANS OF RELIEF
IN THE PRESENT DISTRESSED
CONDITION OF THE POOR
IN THIS
NEIGHBOURHOOD

BY DAVID RICARDO, ESQ.

STROUD:
PRINTED BY J.P. BRISLEY
1838.
Price One Penny each, or Five Shillings per Hundred.
EMIGRATION

The distress of the Poor at all times forms a strong claim upon our sympathy and compassion – and though in some cases it may be brought on by their own idleness and improvidence, and therefore require the application of strong measures to check its growth … like a parent who chastises his child … But in the present condition of the Poor in this Neighbourhood … we have to encounter all the difficulties of a failing trade, and our inability to substitute any other means of independent labour … their patience and resignation is urging on their more influential neighbours to make efforts to assist them.

The question is, – what is the best means of affording them effectual relief? …In the first instance, a Subscription was proposed, and the Rev. Thos. Keble, with that spirit of kindness and benevolence which characterize all his proceedings … raised a considerable sum among his own immediate friends; but it is quite clear that a sum of money thus raised could never be sufficiently large to meet the emergency of the case – and besides, it would only meet half the evil, for the question is, not to provide the poor with bread by the hand of Private Charity, but to devise some means by which they may earn it for themselves.

This proved to be the case – the Funds raised were found to be inadequate … shortly after, the first attempt was made to introduce a more sound and effectual system of Relief. A ship was sent to Bristol, and a portion of the unemployed Labourers were invited to go to another country … but from an indisposition to engage in anything new, and from a general misapprehension … this attempt did not meet with all the success it deserved; still, some families availed themselves of the offer, and the accounts they have sent home of their prosperous condition in New South Wales have tended to dispel the natural prejudices which all must feel against a country of which they know nothing. All parties agree to the relief occasioned by the departure of the few that went – and if at any future time Emigration should be conducted on a larger scale, we must still look back to this first Attempt, as the step from which all our further efforts have sprung.

About this time, Her Majesty at the suggestion of the House of Commons sent down a Commissioner to enquire into the distressed state of the Neighbourhood, and to see if any means could be devised to alleviate it. The Commissioner came down, and gave the fullest and most patient attention to the subject: he enquired of all classes … and the result was … with our failing Trade … the only means likely to give us real relief, was Emigration …

application was again made to Government to facilitate Emigration … but the engagements already formed prevented them from giving us a ship this year – however,–they showed their good will by requesting Mr. Marshall, the private Agent of the Colonial Government to come down, who has offered a passage to 205 persons; they hold out to us the hope of further and more effectual assistance next year, and there is every reason to hope, that Emigration may be carried on to a larger extent.

The following is a brief account of the nature of the assistance offered by Government …The expense of the Passage of a man and his wife to Sydney … is £35, but this sum is not raised by a Tax on us, but is supplied by the Funds, which the Colonial Government has raised by the Sale of Lands in Australia. It is of importance to bear this in mind … the Colonial Government very reasonably claims the right to itself of refusing to convey persons who would not be serviceable to them – the Government tells us, “all that you have to do for your Emigrants is to provide them with proper clothes and to put them on board the Ship …”

The quantity of Clothing required for each Passenger is, besides a Bible and if possible a Prayer Book, 12 shirts or shifts, 2 flannel petticoats (for females,) 12 pair of dark stockings, 3 towels, and such other articles of dress as are essential to cleanliness, health, and comfort; also a knife and fork, table and tea-spoons, peter or tin plate, tin pots, comb, soap, &c.

These articles are very expensive … it will often happen that a man may sell all his household goods, and yet not be able to raise a fund sufficient to provide them: if no fund were raised to assist … the poor man must linger on here … while the outlay of 30s. would convey him to a land of plenty …

The means of providing the Funds … are by a Rate upon the Parish. By a recent law, Parishes are allowed to borrow any Sum not exceeding half the Rates of the Parish for the purpose of Emigration, and to repay it in five years … this Neighbourhood is but one vast Family, and if we were to take away a portion of the more active and put them in a situation to fend for themselves, the bread that supported them is still left behind, and will be divided among those who remain … in the shape of an increase of Wages …

No! These are not the evils of Emigration … Expense … Clothing …Landlord … Tenant. A thousand other little interested considerations cross our thoughts and influence our minds, while we overlook the real and great objection to sending our Emigrants abroad – the sending them to a place where there is no Church Establishment regularly formed, and where they will often be placed in situations such, that they will not have the opportunity of having the blessed truths of the Gospel brought home to them. – But the eye of the Lord is in every place … if in the conscientious discharge of the duties committed to us, we should provide some of our neighbours with the means of going to New South Wales, I feel convinced that He will follow them there; – we shall in the mean time be looking upon that Country as the Land of our relations and friends … it must be our unceasing endeavour to send to them all the advantages of Religious Worship we enjoy at home.

Gatcombe, 15th Nov. 1838.
HINTS

For the consideration of Persons desirous to Emigrate

1. Large Families of young Children will in no case be taken at the expense of the Colonies. Young married people with families just coming on are the most eligible.
2. Each Applicant should be provided with Testimonials of his Character signed by the Clergyman of his Parish, or the Minister of that religious persuasion to which he belongs, and the respectable persons who may know him. Character is of great use.
3. Each Applicant should be provided with proper Certificates of his Health and the Health of his Family.
4. No woman would be received on board, who is so far advanced in a state of pregnancy, as to render it probable that she might be confined before the termination of the voyage.
5. None would be received on board, unless they have been previously vaccinated or had the Small Pox. Persons having families would do well to look to this, and get their Children vaccinated at once.
6. Linen made up of Calico of inferior quality may be had at the Market House School, Minchinhampton. Shirts, price 1s 3d. Shifts, 11d. and other Articles in the same proportion.

There is still room for a few young married persons of good character and not having large families of young children, by the ship Roxburgh Castle, on 28th December next. The fullest information on all subjects connected with Emigration may be obtained by applying at Gatcombe, on Monday and Tuesday in any week, between the hours of nine and ten.

J. P. Brisley Stroudwater Printing Office.

Prologue the Second
Royal Commission into the Condition of the Handloom Weavers

‘In Gloucestershire I found an acrid feeling existing among the workmen to their masters.’ (William Augustus Miles)

“Beggarly Bisley has long been a proverb, and the improvidence of the people has been as conspicuous in the way they have married young in spite of this, and also the way in which they have kept their children at home hanging on to a miserable and uncertain pittance, in preference to sending them out to work for their bread elsewhere. The way in which parents keep their grown-up children at home to this day is quite vexatious…”

“ In the winter, you must remember the frost hinders their work very much, for they cannot afford fires in their shops and working by candle-light, which they are forced to do for a full six of their sixteen hours…takes a good deal from their earnings.”

”The last few years of extreme distress seemed to have caused an alteration…and many of the young people now go out to service, though not before they were clean starved out.” (The Reverend Jeffreys, to Miles)

“I am brought so weak … I and my children are very destitute of clothes. The Word of God tells me to provide things honest in the sight of all men, but I cannot do it; it also tells me I shall get my bread by the sweat of my brow, but I have the sweat of the brow and not the bread and all through oppression…I have four miles a-day to walk to my work.” (George Risby, a Nailsworth weaver, in a letter to Miles)

“The weavers are much distressed; they are wretchedly off in bedding; has seen many cases where the man and his wife and as many as 7 children have slept on straw, laid on the floor with only a torn quilt to cover them … has witnessed very distressing cases; children crying for food, and the parents having neither food nor money in the house…These men have a constant dread of going into the Poor Houses…witness has frequently told them they would be better in the house, and their answer has been “We would sooner starve.” (Erasmus Charlton, Police Serjeant at Hampton, writing to Miles)

“That when he earned only 4s. a week he contrived, by living upon bread and water, to save 3d. one week, but could save no more for a long time; the ‘coppers’ were cankered before he could put more to them…” (Jonathan Cole, Horsley weaver)

“At one time he considered the weaver to be as well off as any mechanic, but now he is the worst off of any…very great distress prevails…many of them cannot afford tea, and content themselves with a sop of bread and some hot water…The men look spent and wan, and the females thin and exhausted…In his opinion the low rate of wages arises from the men underselling one another in work, and the competition of masters to get their goods as cheap as possible in the market.” (Woodchester grocer)

“The weavers at Uley are in great distress, but relieved in some measure by allotments and emigration. The amount of wages is low; they are paid in truck…some few took the workhouse, some went to other districts, some to Canada, some to Australia. The distress …is extreme (and the most suffering are the most silent)…children are half naked; they have scarcely any bedding and actually sleep under rags…” (Wm. Augustus Miles)

The Wider Context

Janet C. Myers has said that ‘we can read the emigrant as a liminal figure who crosses geographical and textual boundaries’ (on that 3 month, 14,000 mile voyage), ‘allowing us to track the tensions and to address the complex imbrications of domesticity and imperialism’: the transportation and creation of the pleasures of the hearth – the bridge to ‘home’ and a wall against Australian convict and gold rush reputation.

We can read characters from the pages of Dickens, Trollope, Ellen Clay and Clara Morrison in this way: will not debt-ridden Mr Micawber become ‘An important public character in that hemisphere’? We can read the lives of real genteel middle class ladies and would-be governesses in this way: I ‘Can’t quite make up my mind about the Colony’. Or, I ‘fear that I should not fit into English ideas again’, or, ‘as soon as I have paid my debts and saved … for my passage I shall come back to dear old England.’

Leaving England
The last of England! o’er the sea, my dear,
Our homes to seek amid Australian fields.
Us, not the million-acred island yields
The space to dwell in. Thrust out! Forced to hear
Low ribaldry from sots, and share rough cheer
With rudely nurtured men. The hope youth builds
Of fair renown, bartered for that which shields
Only the back, and half-formed lands that rear
The dust-storm blistering up the grasses wild.
There learning skills not, nor the poet’s dream,
Nor aught so loved as children shall we see”.
She grips his listless hand and clasps her child,
Through rainbow-tears she sees a sunnier gleam,
She cannot see a void, where he will be.
Ford Madox Brown, Sonnet (1865)

The Local and National Context

The late 30’s and early 1840s
(‘The Hungry Forties’, as they were known),
With unemployment, short time working, low wages,
High food prices, the Workhouse, Chartism,
And the suppression of trade unions,
All helped contribute to an exodus from Stroudwater:
Empty houses with their crumbling plaster,
Smokeless chimneys, deserted streets and lanes,
A melancholy silence,
(‘This town is getting like a ghost town’),
Ships sailing from Bristol bound for New South Wales,
Like the Orestes in 1839:

I intend to keep something of a diary, or memoir, to record my observations of the strange events that have befallen me in recent months, but particularly to record my observations derived from my forthcoming voyage to Sydney on the Orestes. Jack Reece (formerly of Bisley)
N.B. There is no record of a Jack Reece on the Orestes. We think the diarist used a pseudonym for reasons both obvious and more obscure. We speculate on his real identity at the end of his journal – the passenger lists give a clue. We think he was actually from Horsley.
Preamble to the Voyage:

Well, I am more than relieved to be at last on board down here in the dock at Bristol. Not because the Orestes is such a fine looking vessel, but rather more that I am so pleased to have put recent events behind me. These have been the strangest of days and the decision to emigrate has not been an easy one. It has been a long-drawn-out and clamorous affair. Our village has been like a parliament – but of warring rooks rather than of decorous parties of politics.

Some spoke of the virtues of industry, temperance, frugality, opportunity and hope. Why stay in poverty when you could build a new life for yourself and a new colony for the Queen? Letters will keep us connected whilst we remain on God’s earth. And ye shall spread the word of the one true God to heathen lands.

Others, more cantankerous perhaps – those whom Mr Augustus Miles chose not to report – asked why should we have to uproot hearth and home. It was all very well for the Reverend Keble and his ilk to bestow books, flannels, shirts and petticoats upon us, they said, but his church and class should SHARE their wealth with us, not condescend with charity and Bibles. These Chartists added that we had no right to take aboriginal lands either.

Older rooks were rather more lachrymatory, anticipating a lonely future devoid of family and friends – the workhouse loomed for them. ‘17,000 miles across tempest-tossed ocean! Four months in the company of God knows who and what! Why put yourselves at the mercy of wind, tide and current? Take a chair by the family fireside. Times could be better next year! We could all be in work again!’

That was the litany of my grand-father. I have it word perfect. I can see him now, at the table, head in hands: his frail voice betraying the truth. We all knew times would not get better.

The anguish of parting; the sorrow; and the tears rent the air all over Stroudwater. The day we departed was the worst. It wasn’t a retinue, more of a spread-eagle: the crying lasted all day. Some, through the benevolence of the clergy, had assistance to travel the turnpikes. Some took their goods and chattels down to the canal, thence to Gloucester, Sharpness and Bristol. We all arrived at staggered times at the docks.

August 13th 1839

All has been a hustle and bustle and a division into messes and berths. We have a ‘captain’ for the mess who ensures the table is laid and thoroughly cleansed after meals. Our berths are but 6 feet long, 3 feet wide and 1 foot 8 inches below the roof. We sank down with a mixture of heavy heart and elation tonight after waving goodbye to old England’s shore. We watched the spires of Bristol disappear slowly but ineluctably into the vapours of the day. Some cried; all waved; some waivered and wore regret on their faces. All accepted that there is unlikely to be any return.

August 13th 1839

Something of a storm today and some fellow passengers screamed in alarm as tables, chairs, barrels and emigrant accoutrements began to roll with the motion of the vessel. Many sick; many praying. Some loss of faith and hope on the part of a few. But no loss of charity on the part of the many.

August 18th 1839 Latitude 47.58

A fine day; beds aired; books read; some smoking and just a little toping and gambling. Apart from the Bible, the Book of Common Prayer and Wesley’s Sermons, the favoured reading would seem to be Mr. Dickens. I am not alone in keeping a journal.

August 23rd 1839 Latitude 39.45 Longitude 16.37

Our Sunday service needs description. The Godly needed no arousal, but the grog-men needed the bell to summon them to the Quarter Deck. The beauty of the occasion: the Captain reading the service as the ship’s sails caught the wind: ‘In the beginning was the Word.’ Other denominations gathered below decks later in the day for their discourse and prayers, less disturbed by the bleating of sheep and the cackle of hens, perhaps. The Irish had their own devotion.

August 26th 1839 Latitude 32.28 Longitude 16.45

The silhouettes and shadows of life on board can enchant .A cascade of water from a bucket as fellow emigrants cleanse; the Captain taking the noon-time with quadrant or sextant. There was a concert today, followed by theatricals and a dance.

September 2nd 1839 Latitude 24.48 Longitude 18.42

Still an unwelcome degree of sickness, ague and complaints of the bowel. The water is foetid, the beef objectionable and the potatoes deceiving. Tea and coffee disappoint in equal measure, although the coffee is just slightly less vile to the taste. Peas and rice and soup are best. Otherwise the amount of salt in the meat causes such a thirst and the water is, of course, unreliable.

September 4th 1839 Latitude 23.21 Longitude 16.45

Nearing the Tropic of Cancer – calm sea – extremely hot – porpoises in abundance -. I could not say with any veracity, as an exemplar, that Horsley folk are cleaner in their habits than Bisley, or Wesleyans cleaner than other Dissenters. There is great variability in attention to washing, scrubbing and scraping both of selves and berths. The same variation applies to both males and females, adults and children, married and singleton. The Irish have been of the finest company, fastidious in their cleanliness and circumspect in their worship. Fellow emigrants from the North and other parts of the kingdom have been mostly polite and gregarious. We number some 239 passengers, I think. About the half comprise emigrants from Stroudwater. The demise of the cloth trade being the cause.

September 11th 1839 Latitude 14.48 Longitude 22.30

Calm seas – flying fish – becalmed: ‘As idle as a painted ship Upon a painted ocean’ – wind then up – seven or eight knots and good progress – but then a thunderous storm – consternation – but with the lightning came torrents of rain – all on deck with every receptacle that could be found – truly the case that empty vessels make most noise – but what a welcome and laudable noise – fresh water!

September 14th 1839 Latitude 6.5 Longitude 22.30

I am pleased to say that the schooling of the children has improved. There has also been less drinking and gambling. The advance towards the equator appears to have freshened rather than dulled the appetite for self-improvement amongst my fellow emigrants. Attendance and participation in service on the Sabbath is for the better for too: a marked improvement in the singing of the hymns. As our foods and preservatives deteriorate, so our capacity for moral and spiritual advancement strengthens.

September 19th 1839 Latitude 0.38 Longitude 26.45

And so we cross ‘The Line’, that tribute to the mathematical knowledge and imagination of humanity, a girdle etched across God’s creation. The equator was toasted with water by some, porter by others and grog by fewer. The sea is radiant silver in the day. The water closets are disgusting. You are about one hour and a half of the clock ahead of us back in Horsley. I wonder what you are doing now, dear mother, father and grandfather? I have taken to walking the deck at night to find some solitude to think of you. I like to gaze at the moon and wonder if you too, stare at the moon, thinking of me.

October 7th 1839 Latitude 29.2 Longitude 24.0

It is a remarkable sight: the beasts of a Cotswold farm on board the deck of a heaving vessel, and beyond, the occasional glimpse of shark, sperm whales and dolphin. It is a scene of unsurpassable incongruity.

We have had a death, and burial at sea. The sonorous tolling of the bell, the emigrants and crew all clad in their best apparel, the complete attendance at the service … the tiny corpse was placed in a canvas shroud, the Captain read the burial service … and the body slid into the depths and vastness of the deep. The sombre and majestic setting affected all greatly for some days.

October 21st 1839 Latitude 38.5 Longitude 0.0

The weather balmy, the sea calm, the winds light but favourable, as we heave to the East and away from dear old England’s chronometry – God speed! I have become good friends with two brothers from Stroudwater, Thomas and George Luker. They saw me writing my journal and have asked if I might help them improve their writing, orthography and reading. They are willing pupils: keen and down to earth, although lacking a little poetry in their souls perhaps. But that is more than compensated for by their utter and complete faith in the Lord – their devotion takes them far away from the mundane affairs of this world.

October 30th 1839 Latitude 41.37 Longitude 26.10

There has been another burial but a birth, too. Just as the winds arose to fill our sails, so an infant cry announced a new birth: The word of God, the breath of God, Divine Inspiration.

November 3rd 1839 Latitude 44.12 Longitude 40.35

High seas last night: cries of lamentation and consternation and profuse biliousness in consequence. The smell in the berths is far beyond that of the most noisome of pits or privies in the village of my youth. But it is a tribute to the honesty of my fellow emigrants that even though domestic utensils flew hither and thither last night with the pitching and rolling, not one soul felt anything lacking this morning when calmness returned to sea and sky.

November 10th 1839 Latitude 39.46 Longitude 74.56

George and Thomas continue to improve. Favourable winds have meant a rapid transit across the ocean over the past week. The decks have been busy with emigrants gathering to witness the birds of the air, the likes of which have never been witnessed in a Cotswold valley. Some Horsley poachers talked of downing an albatross, but a few words from me from Mr Coleridge dampened their ardour.

November 15th 1839 Latitude 39.10 Longitude 105.1/2

The Captain calculates that we may have a fortnight only before we reach harbour. Two weeks only before fresh water! And a change from the tedious uniformity of our repasts: Beef pudding; Pork and Pea Soup; Beef and Rice. Could the workhouse be worse? But just as the mercury rises in the barometer so do our spirits too. A second shark caught today.

November 20th 1839 Latitude 39.18 Longitude121.1/2

An excellent breeze and our larboard bow flies through the briny! Discussed a position of employment with George and Thomas last night. It is a paradox, I said, that I want the voyage to end, but yet, somehow, it has been like a Jubilee, or a suspension of time and from care. But shortly, the vicissitudes of Life will once more be our burden.

November 22nd 1839 Latitude 39.13 Longitude 126.00

Perhaps only four days before we taste fresh cheese again; drink tea and coffee without immediate regret; take unsullied sugar; eat bacon and ham un-tinged with green. A stalwart eight knots at times, today.

November 25th 1839 Latitude 39.1 Longitude 135

The anchor chains are being made ready. And like an anchor, my journal must shortly come to rest. Tis time to provide a register of births and deaths on this voyage: Anne Gazard of Horsley died at sea, 14 months. Edwin Griffiths, died at sea, 7 months. Tristran Carpenter, died at sea, 2 months. Sarah Derrett, wife of John, died at sea. Isabella Derrett, child, died at sea. Three gleams of light only: Orestes Trantor of the Nailsworth Trantor family, born at sea and two other infants, but I do not know their names.

November 27th 1839

I was staring at shoals of fish sparkling like rainbows when I heard that dramatic cry” ‘Land Ahead!’ I turned to see William and Anne Gazard, gazing out behind, no doubt thinking of infant Anne. I wished them well in their new endeavours. We shed both tears of joy and despair.

November 28th 1839

We have dropped anchor. I have husbanded my clothing well – and I must now attend to how I present myself on shore in my new surrounds. No need for canvas trousers and jacket again, I hope! I shall shortly bid my farewells to Stroudwater friends, old and new: Horsley families as well as new friends from Avening, Nailsworth, Randwick and Stroud. And, of course, dear Ann … I hope the brothers Luker can assist me – they have a position at a Sydney mill; the master is a Pitchcombe man.

We shall see.

I hope to recommence my journal when on shore, but tis time to pack now and secure it well.
Jack Reece once of Bisley, Gloucestershire, England, November 28th 1839.

The following extracts from the following letters are included thanks to the generosity of John Loosley
Letters written by THOMAS and GEORGE LUKER who emigrated in 1839 to Sydney, Australia.
The original spelling and capitation being maintained throughout.

Sydney, December 29, 1839

Dear friends we take the first opertunaty of writing to you hoping to find you all in good health and prosperity as it Leaves us at present we should have wrote before but there was no ship to sail we are happy to inform you of our safe arrival at our jurneys end after a very pleasant voyage we came to arbour Nov.28 we came ashore December 2 where there was plenty of masters waiting for us to go up the Cuntry but we are both at work at the Albion Steem Mill Sydney Hudges and Hoskings are propriators but our masters name is fowles he is a very good master he lived at pitcho comb 3 years ago … there was nothing particklar to write about the Voyage there was 2 Sharks Cought and 4 Porpercoes and several flying fish and a good many sea fowles … we crost the line 19 of September … there was 7 men hanged the day we came ashore and ever so many since for bush rangin but they are come down … meet is very cheap here you can go to a shop and have a pound cut of any part for 31/2d.pr. pound … wed desired to be remembered to all relations and friends … tell them we don’t repent coming … You may expect a few news papers in a few weeks but we could not get any not yet if you write to us direct to F. & G. Luker – Albion Mills Sussex Street Sydney to be left with Mr. fowles for us but we should rather you did not until you hear from us again we are not certain of stoping you may expect to hear from us in 2 monthes are less … do not persuade any Person to come because we are come but Any body might do better hear than in England if they would keep from the grog shop, woman earn 5s. a day and the very commonist of Labourers 26s. pr. Week some part of the people hear was transported to this part do now live independent and they might all save mony … so adue we have no more to say Though we are seprated now and far from one another yet we shall allways think on you our Dear and tender Mother your most afectshinate son

THOMAS LUKER

GEORGE LUKER

We Paid the Post to London

Sidney, April 9, 1841, in Answer to your kind letter Dear sister Mary

Dear friends one & all wee write to you & sincerely hope & pray that life & health & piece is now with you all for wee are far away although wee are seperated now & far from one another yet wee do offtimes think of you our dear & tender friends and Mother. Dear Sister it gave us much pleasure in reading your kind letter wee humbly pray that the Lord will grant that your advice may be a token of love & respect as long as wee live & and a happy releace for us in death it is our humble prayers that the Lord will reward you & prosper you in this world that when you are called upon to depart this vain World you may be ready to answer wee hope that you will all make sure your way that you will steatfastly follow the strait & narrow path never to bear or follow the vain pleasure of this World do never slight the Glory of God for the sake of all the treasures this World can produce that to day is & tomorrow is cut down & fadeth away … there have been thousands of Emegrates arrived here within a few weeks so that all the places is filled very fast but there is plenty of room for thousands more wee are both doing very well wee are more got to the ways of the place then wee was the first year wee have got several good friends because of our being steady genteelmen & tradesmen …

please to send back how you are all doing how you are getting on in this world … all though wee are far from you wee will gladly help you at anytime … please to send word if ever you think of coming here send word if you should be willing for us to be married here as there is every prospect of a fine flourishing trade here if no one else think of coming let William & John come it would be the making of their fortune … if wee was to get married here wee should never think to leave the coloney of New Southwales but if not wee might come home again in a few years let us know if you think that wee should be able to get a living in a honest way at home as we should rather be with you because if not most likely we shall get married & settled here we are like Mariners now we dot know one year what part of the world wee shall be the next we want to get settled either here or to see a prospect of coming home again we shall soon save money enough to bring us back if we here that wee should be able to get a good living at home if you have not any thought of coming & you think that wee should be able to get in to work so as to live respectable …

Sydney, January 1, 1842

My dear friends I write these few lines hoping it will find you in good health as it leaves us both at present but farther hope that you are living under the banner of faith wrestling with God preparing to follow dear Mary I could not say poor Mary she is not poor but rich in deed I receaved your letter that brought the tidings of her death on Monday the 19th of december just as I came back from dinner I was not able to work any more that day so I went to inform George about it of the news that was come it took a great affect of me I did not sleep but little that night after all the people was gone to bed in the house I got up to praise the Lord for his loving kindness toward dear sister for me to say that I was sorry of her death I could not although I shed many a tear but when I come to consider the wisdom of the Lord in taking her it brought joy and gladness to my Soul … i hope you will not moun for her dear mother but rather praise the Lord that you should train up a daughter that shall to open the door of heaven for you to enter in … the trade is very dull all through the country in every part there is people out og imploy in Sydney there is hundreds out of work of every trade the wages is comeing very fast men that 15 mionths ago would hardly like to work for 2 pound per Week are glad to get 25 shilings now .. this place will be almost as bad as England soon some time ago the Peoples talk was the times will get better but they get worse every month … I was talking to Mr. Capell that came from the grove near Stroud a few days ago …

Sydney, February 1842

‘Dear Father & Mother Brothers and Sisters i now write these few lines to you in answer to two letters one that Mary wrote June 26 wee rceaved January 10 one wrote Agust 15 reced. January 25 please to let us know who wrote this Samuels name was put to it but it was not his writing it was the worst that I ever saw both for writing and mistakes … I am living with David Beard that married Elizabeth Blanch they are both very well i pay 16s. per week and find my own bed and everything else except what i eat i am in a very good place at the tin plate work i earn nearly 2 pound a week but i work till 9o’clock nights except Saturday George is in a good place at a thrd. mill living with his Master he is earning 1 pound and Board and Lodging. We ask you if you was willing for us to be married your answer was that you should have no objection but you ask for a wedding ribond it was not that we had any idea of being married whatever we shall stay a good while longer yat so you may expect a batchlors ribond I cannot tell what may come to pass but i do not think in the least thought that either of us should be married in the country if so our wives are not here yet if all be well i live in hopes to see you again someday …

Sydney, August 12/ 1842

Dear Father & Mother Sisters & Brothers with our kindest of love and well wishes far more than my pen can express we write these few lines to you hoping it will find you all in good health and prosperity as it leaves us both at Presant we should have wrote before but we have not heard from you for six months Past so wee have been stoping week after week expecting to hear from you … we was never so long without hearing from you befor since wee received the first letter and wee was anchious to know something … I have got a very good master But I cannot say how long I might stop there as there have been several men offering to work for less wages than I am getting some of them ten shillings a week less … George & a youngman that came out with us from Randwick his name Ruben Beard they too are doing business for their selves they have got a windmill about two miles out the town they have been there about three months … I let them have all the money I had to help them to begin …

Samuel dear brother as I know you was always a person for a sprack & lively life wanting to see the world let me tell you if you was in Sydney you would soon see more than ever you saw in all your life in the first place is one of the finest Arbours in the World Vessels from all parts … ports with very large cannons plenty always ready for an enemy with about from five to seven hundred soldiers always ready the next here is about one hundred and fifty constables always walking the streets day & night then there is the government men by troops some cleaning the streets some diging stones some with the irons on their legs …

Sydney, March 25, 1843

… I could not tell what I would give to see you once more but the Lord’s will be done if the times get much worse I shall come home will I can if I was to stop here to long praps I might not be able to come to think of making a fortune is all out of my thoughts wee have both a few pounds enough to bring as home respectable by the time wee got there we should have but little I have not saved any thing lately … George & is partner is doing very well considering the times are so bad David Beard is at work for them they are living in the house with George they are well desire to be remembered to henry Blanch and all relations …

Valparaiso, December 29, 1843

Dear Mother Sisters & Brothers I received Yor Letter dated October 30 yesterday and was happy to hear that you was all well and that you received the twenty Pounds I sent you – but I have to tell you some bad news my Wife is dead … I had the best doctors advice that is in Chille but it was no good … there is John 41/2 years old Nimrod two years and two months George 7 Weeks …. My Wife was very respectable … she is buried in a Vault that will hold all my family it lost all together about 2 hundred dollars but thank god I am doing a Good business I Got 5 men and two Boys with plenty to do …

Valparaiso, September 30, 1861

Callebachrane 105 My Dear Grand Mother, Uncles, Aunts & Cousins, We received your kind letter, dated June 6, a few days ago and was glad to hear that you was pretty well … I am quite well, 7 my father but he sometimes feels Poorly about that Crack on his head he was mad for sometime, but he is much better now, we lost nothing by the earthquake …

From your grandson Father will fill it up

JOHN T. LUKER

and tell you more about things.

Dear Mother.

… i whould be very glad at any time to see any of the news dear John Land although I never saw you my prayers is that Almighty God may bless you for your kindness to my poor old Mother and Sister Ester tell them that my best respects to all of them but i do not think it possible for me to run away from church to go down to Framlords passage to see the tide come up are to lose my way on the Westeguth to see the ships when mother took us to Gloster to see uncle Sam …