Old Wives’ Tales and the 1825 Stroudwater Riots
There are two sides to every coin
Still waters run deep
Let those who are without sin cast the first stone
A new baptism and a washing away of sins
A good deep draught of Adam’s Ale
‘We took him by his calloused hand,
We kissed both cheek and chin,
We wandered to the waterside
And we gently pushed him in.’
LTC ROLT 1944
‘There is something indescribably forlorn about these abandoned waterways; like old ruined houses or silent mills, they are haunted by the bygone life and toil which has left its deathless, eloquent mark upon them. Just as in old houses the worn steps are the memorial of many vanished feet, so on the canals it is the grooves worn by the towing-lines in the rotting lock beams or the crumbling brickwork of bridges that bring the past to life.
Most beautiful and most tragic of all is the old Thames and Severn Canal, climbing up the Golden Valley between great hills that wear their beechwoods like a mane.’
The Mill Pond
When you sit by the mute, still, mill race,
With swallows swooping low over a surface
Like glass, it’s easy to miss the water’s whispers.
I don’t mean the oozing and splashes,
The swish of the fish or the wind in the rushes,
I mean the tales of long ago when weir
And sluice meant a spuming spate of power,
A circuit of cog, belt, loom and jenny,
A revolution of the water wheels,
A pandemonium of 5 valley hammer-noise.
I laughed then in the face of precocious steam,
Bade weavers leave their homes to come to me,
Sprung cycles of boom and workhouse bust,
Told workmen to form combinations,
Threw weavers who undercut them into the waters,
Felt the red coats’ horses’ hooves pound the ground,
Forced spinners to emigrate to New South Wales
Or lodge in hulks on their way to Botany Bay,
Saw coal black gold shift on cut and railway,
Fought a forlorn battle with chimney’s steam,
Felt weed-dank choke my wooden-wheels,
Then knew my time was past.
So shed a mournful tear and took my vow of silence.
The Tow Path
When the wind blows cold in winter,
When the sun sets steep behind the Severn,
When the herons keep their unremitting watch,
And roosting cries cut the twilight sky,
It’s hard to see the outlines of striking weavers
Making their way along the canal to Chalford,
Laden with the beams of looms of erstwhile friends,
Ducking the strike-breakers in a carnival
Of Skimmington rough music censure
For those who had broken community custom
(A ‘tumultuous and riotous assembly’ to the law).
It’s hard to catch the delighted cries and laughter,
And the pleas for mercy from the men who were marked.
The reeds and rushes keep their secrets,
The soughing of the wind masks all of that;
And the ghosts make their way unheeded,
Right next to you on the tow path.
Writ in Water
John Keats died four years before the Stroudwater Riots.
His epitaph reads:
‘Here lies One Whose Name was writ in Water.’
Here lie the Tales of some of those whose Names
were writ in water in Stroudwater in 1825
William Fletcher
Of the parish of Minchinhampton,
‘Violently assaulted and ducked’
‘Now in a very weak state and not expected to live’.
William Clark
‘At the parish of Woodchester’
‘Violently assaulted and ducked’.
William Lamburn
‘Of the parish of Stroud’
Thrown ‘into a pond … and at the peril of his life …
Therein for a long space of time’.
George Teakle
‘At the parish of Woodchester’
Ducked.
William Saunders
‘At the parish of Stroud’
‘Violently assaulted’ and ducked.
John Cooke
‘At Chalford’
Thrown ‘into the canal there
to the imminent danger of his life’.
George Adlum
Weaver ‘at Chalford in the parish of Bisley’
Violently assaulted, dragged to the canal
Thrown ‘into the water
to the imminent danger of his life’.
Here lie the Names of some of Those
Sent to Horsley Gaol and Northleach House of Correction
Who writ others’ Names in water in Stroudwater in 1825
Or were indicted for Riot & Assault
George Fletcher aged 28
Riot and assault
3 months Horsley
Luke Robins aged 41
Who ducked William Fletcher,
3 months Horsley
Thomas Osbourne aged 28
Who ducked William Clark,
Also riot and assault
2 years Northleach
William Fitting aged 34 & Peter Workman
Riot
3 months Horsley
William Pickford aged 20
Riot and assault
12 months Northleach
Isaac Nutt aged 24
Riot and assault
12 months Northleach
Joseph Mint aged 19
Riot and assault
12 months Northleach
Joseph Hawkins aged 20
Assault
Verdict not recorded
George Heskins aged 35
Riot and assault
9 months Northleach
Richard Preene
Riot and assault
6 months Northleach
Thomas Weir
Riot and assault
3 months Horsley
A Stroudwater 1825 Weavers’ Riots Détournement
I’ve written three versions about the riots, all built upon the splendid foundations of John’s invaluable 1993 booklet. One at the radicalstroudwebsite is a detailed analysis and narrative; one is a guide for walking the sites and one is a shortened amalgam of both of those two: this talk, which will take us to the sites and then discuss the sentences received by some of the weavers.
Wallbridge Mill ST 848050
Nathaniel Watts first introduced the flying shuttle here in the 1790s – the start of mechanisation.
Ham Mill SO 861032
Jennifer Tann Wool and Water: ‘Ham Mill was a focus of the weavers’ riots in 1825.’ 31.5.25 Edwin Perrin suspected of working for the Marlings at too low a price. When he was at Ham Mill, he faced the collective wrath of some 200 weavers. On June 2nd, 600-700 weavers marched to Ham Mill. One of Marling’s men ended up in the brook but the next marked man managed (with poetic (in)justice) to hide in the Counting House.
Vatch Mill SO 872066
June 3rd: 200 weavers, some of whom ‘held sticks over the heads of Mr Peter Wyatt and Mr George L Wyatt, and threatened to knock out their brains and to destroy the mill.’ The next day saw 3,000 gathered; unfinished cloth woven below rates seized.
Bliss Mill SO 893025 Tayloe’s Mill 892025 Tann: ‘Little survives of Bliss Mill, save part of the clock tower.’ The Company Arms/Coffee Tavern Chalford GL6 8NS Three gabled Cotswold stone building once linked with the East India Company. A Troop of Horse sent by magistrates after tumult at Chalford: the soldiers ‘were stationed between Blisse and Tayloe Mills and their horses were stabled by the Coffee tavern/the Company’s Arms.’ Weaving in the Stroud Valley during the 19th Century by A. Phelps.
Longfords Mill ST 867992
- Jones Graeme, Major 10th Royal Hussars, Bristol ‘…William Playne, Longfords Mill, Minchinhampton from Stroud visited on me this morning to report serious event outrages which had occurred near Stroud … I think it is my duty to make this communication to you, Sir, and to request that you should let me be furnished with instructions on the subject from His Royal Highness the Commander in Chief …’.
Cainscross
‘The cessation from labour commenced on Friday 29th April and on the Monday following the weavers assembled in considerable numbers at Cainscross where they were met by several of the Manufacturers: but not coming to any satisfactory arrangement shuttles to the amount of several hundred were instantly collected’.
Break Heart Hill Stinchcombe Road Dursley GL11 6ER and Stinchcombe Hill and Nympsfield
Meetings of more than 3000 weavers were held on subsequent days on Break Heart and Stinchcombe Hills and on Monday last they congregated on Selsley Hill to the number of not less than 6000 … On each of these occasions several of their employers agreed to advance the prices but a number sufficient to satisfy the weavers not having yet consented to their terms another meeting was held on Wednesday last at
Nympsfield when deputations of workmen from several parishes attended and it was strenuously urged that they should resume their labour for those Gentlemen inclined to accede to the new prices. The majority however obstinately resisted this reasonable proposition until the whole of the Manufacturers had expressed their compliance and the business consequently remains unsettled. But it is justly due to the weavers to add that their conduct throughout has been orderly and respectful to their superiors and they gained general approbation by their quiet and peaceable demeanour even when assembled in the greatest numbers.’
But also ‘Manufacturers presented a written request’ to Justices of the Peace for an address to the Home Secretary for ‘a body of Military to be stationed in the Neighbourhood to assist the Civil Power in protecting their property.’
The ‘Woollen Manufacturers’ who signed this representation were William Stanton & Sons Stafford Mill SO 859038 Robert P Pelly Hyde Court (Chalford) Harris Stephen & Co Willam Lewis Brimscombe Mills SO 866024 Henry Wyatt & Co Vatch Mills Geo. Lewis Brimscombe Mills Jos. Partdidge & Co Bowbridge Mills ST 857043 Wm. Jn. Wood Chas. Glover Wm. Marling & Son Ham Mills.
Spillmans Court Rodborough GL5 3RU
Letter from the Justices of the Peace, Henry Burgh and Peter Hawker, to the Home Office. ‘…the weavers are soon become so violent that we think it almost impossible to have an Offender lodged in safe custody without military assistance … Manufacturers consider all their property in most imminent danger…’
June 15th: Henry Burgh’s letter to the Home Secretary: “on Tuesday the 7th large quantities of weavers, masons and others assembled and proceeded to many acts of violence, which obliged me to read the Proclamation against tumultuous assemblies.” The assembly did not disperse, however, “and having thrown stones at the Military as well as those who had come forward to assist the Civil Power,” the troops were “requested” to “disperse” the assembly “which was effectively done in a short time in as humane manner as possible.” Several were arrested and some “committed to Gloucester Gaol.”
He went on to say that he had printed a notice “to convince the People that the Combination Laws are not repealed and I have put it into execution against several Weavers and Masons for intimidating Workmen. The county is now quiet …” He adds that appeals for help, sent by the weavers to Wiltshire, the districts around Wotton-under-Edge, Dursley and Uley, have received no support.
Stroud
4.6.25 P Wyatt of Vatch Mills was ‘assaulted by a mob’ in front of the Magistrates Office. (Old Town Hall, The Shambles)
7.6.25: ‘the mob was as great as on the preceding day and committed many acts of violence. Some acts of intimidation were also committed by Masons towards others of their trade who had not struck for wages.’
Bristol June 7th 1825
‘Sir … I received orders yesterday morning … to detach one squadron of the regiment under my command to Stroud which was immediately carried into effect. I suppose it arrived at Stroud by 8 o’clock last night.’ T. Jones Graeme, Major 10th Royal Hussars
June 8th 1825 J.C. Wallington, Captain commanding detachment Royal Hussars: ‘the squadron under my command was called out yesterday evening to disperse a mob collected in the town, which proceeded to acts of violence. We accomplished this object with some trouble including the slash of the sword only. We made prisoners of some of the most disorderly, no accident occurred.’
“On the 10th of June a paper was vended at Stroud signed ‘The True British Weavers’ purporting to be a relation of events that had lately occurred in the Neighbourhood respecting the Weavers and the Clothiers – the paper had no Printer’s name on it – the vendor of the paper (Henry Beeseley) was apprehended and committed to prison as a vagrant.”
John Williams D.D. Minister of Stroud, Gloucestershire to the Home Secretary asking for clemency to be shown to William Fitting, serving three months imprisonment at Horsley with hard labour:
‘On the Saturday preceding the arrival of the Cavalry, there were about 2,000 weavers assembled in the Town, and a very large concourse of them, before the door of the Clerk of the Magistrates, demanding the release of prisoners … On enquiring, I found that the prisoners were dismissed respecting whom the tumult was made, as the aggression was on the part of the Master rather than the Men.’
Mr Holbrow’s fish pond Badbrook mill pond was Mr Holbrow’s fishpond in 1825. The road and bus station by cinema and Five Valleys shopping centre are there now
4.6.25 members of the ‘mob’ ducked a number of their opponents ‘in Mr Holbrow’s fish pond’‘
Saint Monday’, June 6th ‘at Stroud a mob of about 2,000 continued to duck persons in Mr Holbrow’s fish pond’.
Chalford
‘I despatched Lieutenant Dent with 20 men to Chalford … to protect a factory which the mob had threatened to destroy … This morning I have sent another party with the High Constable to execute warrants against some of the ringleaders. The town seems perfectly quiet today … The Clothiers met yesterday and agreed to give the weavers the increase of price they demanded. The Masons, Carpenters and Millwrights have also struck for more wages.’
13.6.25 The Gloucester Journal
‘JOHN RUDGE weaver OBADIAN GARDINER weaver ENOCH WEAR weaver NATHAN PEARSE weaver ENOCH STEPHENS weaver JAMES BAXTER jun weaver JOHN TURK weaver SAMUEL GARDINER weaver JOHN STEPHENS weaver JOSEPH HUNT weaver THOMAS HUNT weaver THOMAS STEPHENS jun weaver JAMES CROOK weaver AMOS HUNT weaver JOHN BARTLETT weaver JANO CORNISH weaver WILLIAM POULSON weaver
The above persons are charged upon Oath with having on Thursday 2nd June and on several successive days riotously and tumultuously assembled together at Chalford in the Parish of Bisley and Minchinhampton in this county and in Company with many others at present unknown committed acts of violence whereby several Individuals were much injured and the Peace of the Neighbourhood greatly disturbed.’
The Brook Nailsworth GL6 OJQ
‘Saint Monday’, June 6th, saw weavers who undercut ducked in ‘the Brook in Nailsworth bottom by a large mob’.
Horsley Gaol (site at Priory Fields, Horsley)
George Fletcher Riot and assault 3 months Luke Robins ducked William Fletcher 3 months William Fitting & Peter Workman Riot 3 months Thomas Weir Riot and assault 3 months
Northleach House of Correction
Thomas Osbourne Who ducked William Clark, Also riot and assault 2 years William Pickford Riot and assault 12 months Isaac Nutt Riot and assault 12 months Joseph Mint Riot and assault 12 months
George Heskins Riot and assault 9 months Richard Preene Riot and assault 6 months
I JUST WANT TO BO BACK A GENERATION NOW the atmosphere at Chalford in 1825 appears to be very different from when ‘the most dangerous man in England’, that ‘radical fox’, Citizen John Thelwall, stayed at Chalford in the summer of 1797. He portrays an almost Edenic community:
‘… pleasant haunts! brakes, bourns,
- And populous hill, and dale, and pendant woods;
- And you, meandering streams, and you, ye cots
- And hamlets, that, with many a whiten’d front,
- Sprinkle the woody steep; or lowlier stoop,
- Thronging, gregarious, round the rustic spire …
- Nor, as yet,
- Towers from each peaceful dell the unwieldy pride
- Of Factory over-grown; where Opulence
- Dispeopling the neat cottage, crowds his walls
- …to the yoke
- Of unremitting Drudgery …
- Therefore I love Chalford, and ye vales
- Of Stroud, irriguous …’
Here Follows a Short Discourse on the Epithet ‘The Mob’
My memory of O Level History sees my ever so posh chain-smoking History teacher (I was so in thrall that my handwriting changed into an echo of his) telling us that the 18th century term ‘The Mob’ derived from In Perpetuum Mobile: constant movement, no structure, no hierarchy, no culture – a patrician view upon the lower orders: a mob. A worthless, inchoate rabble.
Next up, Edmund Burke, Bristol MP, immediate opponent of the French Revolution, who coined the term ‘a swinish multitude’ to describe the lower orders: ‘Along with its natural protectors and guardians, learning will be cast into the mire, and trodden down under the hoofs of a swinish multitude … ‘
The great radical Thomas Spence replied with withering sarcasm with the title of his famous journal: Pig’s Meat: or Lessons for the Swinish Multitude
The mob! No wonder EP THOMPSON in his Making of the English Working Class wrote of the need to rescue the ‘poor and anonymous from the enormous condescension of posterity’.
And here’s an example of how we do that:
I mentioned the term Skimmington in my prose-poem introduction. The Skimmington: The carnivalesque placing of a miscreant backwards (often with rough music beating of pots and pans) was a signal feature of the ‘Skimmington’ whereby locals who transgressed community values were lampooned (as in Thomas Hardy’s The Mayor of Casterbridge). What was a cacophonous, tumultuous and riotous assembly from the point of view of the ruling class, could, in fact, contain structure and order, in a subversion of the theatre of traditional bewigged courts of law.
And here in Stroud, we had the transgressors placed upon the beams from their looms and ceremoniously ducked; a subversion of courts of law. But rules and order and structure and ceremony and ritual/
But the higher orders could only see a mob in an echo of Edmund Burke: Along with its natural protectors and guardians, learning will be cast into the mire, and trodden down under the hoofs of a swinish multitude … ‘ 24 minutes
And yet, having said all that, when I finished my first piece of writing, I couldn’t help but think that the sentences eventually handed out were relatively lenient. And I wrote the following:
First Conclusion
All of this happened in an age when Gloucestershire had one of the highest rates of transportation in the country and Stroudwater had one of the highest rates in Gloucestershire. So, after finishing making my notes from John’s book, I thought the sentences appeared to be quite lenient – especially if it were true that some of the ducked weavers feared for their lives.
Knowing that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, I contacted Steve Poole, formerly Professor of History at UWE and this is what he messaged me:
“Hi Stuart. Well, we’re still in the era of new penitentiary-style prison building in 1825, so longer sentences than those you’ve listed might have seemed exceptional. Of course, Paul’s Gloucestershire county prison was actually a much earlier (1790s) ‘new style’ prison than most so you might have expected longer sentences there than at old gaols elsewhere in the south west. But by and large, courts still regarded prisons as holding cells and they were simply not equipped to contain felons for lengthy sentences. The big innovation of the 1820s was the treadmill – pretty much every male prisoner would have been ordered to hard labour – not a principle that would work practicably on longer sentences (prisoners would probably die from exhaustion!) So I’m not sure that these would be regarded as particularly lenient. Did they not single out one or two scapegoats on capital charges and have them transported for 7 or 14 years to discourage the others?
Steve’s question at the end focuses our minds.
Why didn’t they?
Remember William Fletcher, ‘now in a very weak state and not expected to live’ after violent assault and a ducking? Luke Robins got 3 months at Horsley for that. And John Cooke, thrown ‘into the canal … to the imminent danger of his life’ by Joseph Hawkins (Verdict not recorded)?
I’ve just checked the transportation lists, wondering about Joseph Hawkins … nope.
So, no sentences of transportation.
My brother-in-law, a retired probation worker, suggested that there could have been a possibility that the local magistrates and justices of the peace took into account the possible implications of a severe sentence: provocation rather than deterrence sort of thing. Trevor also speculated on the possibility that there could have been covert political influence on sentencing from the government in London.
Or perhaps, as Steve messaged, the punishment fitted the crime and the prison system and with no capital charges for any offender then there would be no transportation and no scapegoats to deter others in the future.
With all this in mind, let’s visit the description of the sentencing from The Gloucester Journal, 18th July 1825 in great detail. ‘… The Learned Chairman, the Rev. Dr. Cooke, now proceeded to pass sentence, in an address to the prisoners, full of energy, argument, and feeling, and which, for the sake of the manufacturing class in general, we wish we could give at length to our readers. Their cases, he observed, had received the most mature and deliberate consideration from the whole Bench of Magistrates; and however anxious they might be to extend lenity to the prisoners, yet a sense of duty to the laws, to the public and to the prisoners themselves, called for a heavy visitation upon them. They had shown to what lengths they could go, in contravention of the laws and of the public peace; and by the sentence he was about to pronounce, the court was actuated, amongst other reasons, by an earnest wish to protect the prisoners against themselves. He then enlarged upon the grievous nature of the outrages which had marked their conduct – outrages which had become so alarming as to render it necessary to call in the aid of the military. But for this, probably they might have proceeded to still greater extremities, and have committed acts for which their lives might have become forfeited to the offended laws of the country.
He brought to their recollection the combination, which had been entered into by the weavers in 1803 … after that, arose the combination then well known by the name of Luddites … Most of these occurrences had originated with similar beginnings to the present, but had assumed such alarming aspects, as to call for the active interference of the Government. Special Commissions … eight rioters at Manchester, two at Chester, and eighteen in Yorkshire, paid with their lives … besides others whom it was found necessary to banish from their native land, to spend their days in exile and ignominy. As in these instances, the prisoners, in this case, unless checked by the heavy hand of the law, might have proceeded in their mad career till it had terminated in murder, or some other capital offence. As it was, their conduct had on occasions been marked by acts of excessive violence; and it was his duty to tell them, that, had death ensued to any one of those individuals who had been so severely ducked, it would have been deemed murder, and they would have been tried for their lives at the Assizes, and in all probability have suffered death upon the scaffold! But most fortunately for them, no such fatal termination had occurred. The Learned Chairman feelingly exhorted them to bear in mind the narrow escape they had, and made some pertinent and impressive observations upon the relative duties of employers and workmen. He pointed out to them the ruin which must fall upon themselves and their families, should such scenes be persisted in or renewed …’
Second Conclusion
John Loosley: ‘There was trouble again at Chalford in 1828 and at Dunkirk and Longfords in 1834. Nationally this period of labour history reached its climax in the early 1830s with Robert Owen’s Grand National Consolidated Trades Union. Notice that his principle of uniting all trades under one banner was briefly foreshadowed in Stroud when other trades struck at the height of the demonstrations.’ (My italics)
A consequential thought: if the Stroudwater Riots had happened some ten years later after the Captain Swing agricultural riots of 1830 and the riots that accompanied the passage of the Great Reform Act 1830-32 and, of course, the Tolpuddle Martyrs of 1834 … would the sentences have been different?
A re-read of Jennifer Tann’s Wool and Water added strength to that food for thought. Here we are in 1829 in Stroud: “The Stroud magistrates were nearly all clothiers and were sufficiently alarmed to attract the attention of the Home Office which sent a spy, one Frances Fagin, a Bow Street runner, to inveigle himself into one of the weaver’s lodges and report back. He observed a theatrical ceremony of induction for new members involving swords, masks, turbans and skulls and an oath of loyalty and secrecy to the union. Timothy Exell and other leaders were quietly warned of the danger of transgressing the Conspiracy Act … and were warned to abandon secrecy and oath taking.”
It was this Act, adds Tann, that led to the transportation of the Tolpuddle Martyrs five short years later ….
Third Conclusion
In the spirit of EP Thompson, let’s once more
‘rescue the poor and anonymous from the enormous condescension of posterity’:
Here lie the Tales of some of those whose Names
were writ in water in Stroudwater in 1825
William Fletcher
Of the parish of Minchinhampton,
‘Violently assaulted and ducked’
‘Now in a very weak state and not expected to live’.
William Clark
‘At the parish of Woodchester’
‘Violently assaulted and ducked’.
William Lamburn
‘Of the parish of Stroud’
Thrown ‘into a pond … and at the peril of his life …
Therein for a long space of time’.
George Teakle
‘At the parish of Woodchester’
Ducked.
William Saunders
‘At the parish of Stroud’
‘Violently assaulted’ and ducked.
John Cooke
‘At Chalford’
Thrown ‘into the canal there
to the imminent danger of his life’.
George Adlum
Weaver ‘at Chalford in the parish of Bisley’
Violently assaulted, dragged to the canal
Thrown ‘into the water
to the imminent danger of his life’.
Here lie the Names of some of Those
Sent to Horsley Gaol and Northleach House of Correction
Who writ others’ Names in water in Stroudwater in 1825
Or were indicted for Riot & Assault
George Fletcher aged 28
Riot and assault
3 months Horsley
Luke Robins aged 41
Who ducked William Fletcher,
3 months Horsley
Thomas Osbourne aged 28
Who ducked William Clark,
Also riot and assault
2 years Northleach
William Fitting aged 34 & Peter Workman
Riot
3 months Horsley
William Pickford aged 20
Riot and assault
12 months Northleach
Isaac Nutt aged 24
Riot and assault
12 months Northleach
Joseph Mint aged 19
Riot and assault
12 months Northleach
Joseph Hawkins aged 20
Assault
Verdict not recorded
George Heskins aged 35
Riot and assault
9 months Northleach
Richard Preene
Riot and assault
6 months Northleach
Thomas Weir
Riot and assault
3 months Horsley.
PS
Remember George Heskins? I found him in gaol again in 1833. In Horsley.
George HESKINS aged 48 Weaver Rogue and Vagabond 3 months
What do you read into that?
These are my memories of what I saw and did, together with others in the Stroudwater Valleys in 1825. I know I am supposed to show remorse but I cannot dissemble. I have no remorse.
My name is Alice Ayliffe Bingham and I am 25 years old.
It was after Eastertide, at the end of April, when we had enough of not having enough. Me and my sisters Charlotte, Sarah and Elisabeth and my mother are spinners. My brothers, Tom and Sam, and my father are weavers. We had been working ever longer time for ever cankered pennies all the year. Something needed doing.
So we laid our shuttles and looms to rest and joined the Stroud Valleys Weavers Union. I straightway joined 50 others at a congregation at Ham Mill. There was 700 of us the next day. We threw transgressors in the brook. We all joined the next assembly a few days later. 200 of us congregated at Vatch Mills. There were 3,000 of us by the following evening. We baptised more strike breakers and master clothiers’ men in Mr. Holbrow’s fish pond. I won’t name names but the same happened at Woodchester, Minchinhampton, Frogmarsh, aND Chalford. It was all over Stroudwater.
The stone masons then joined in. They were angry about the Combination Acts. The carpenters and millwrights joined them too. So, the gentry swore in special constables. Then the Hussars rode in a couple of days later. When we re-congregated, they read the Riot Act. So we threw stones at them. They dispersed us with horse and smack of sabre. A friend was arrested for selling ‘The True British Weaver’, so more congregations followed: Break Heart Hill near Dursley, then 3,000 on Stinchcombe and then 6,000 on Selsley. If anyone broke the strike then we stuck some of them backwards on a donkey and paraded them through the lanes while we all beat pots and pans in a cacophony of rejection. I think they stuck them on beams from looms in Chalford and then pushed them in the canal and brook. They read the Riot Act there too. We kept it going though, and followed up with another big congregation in Stroud at the end of August. We called for the release of our friends in prison.
This is my true and faithful account. I cannot dissemble. The Good Book tells us that we should get our bread by the sweat of our brow. We had the sweat but no bread. What could we do?
There are two sides to every coin
Still waters run deep
Let those who are without sin cast the first stone
A new baptism and a washing away of sins
A good deep draught of Adam’s Ale
‘We took him by his calloused hand,
We kissed both cheek and chin,
We wandered to the waterside
And we gently pushed him in.’
Stroudwater 1825
An unmarked Radical Heritage:
But if you concentrate hard,
Then your sixth sense might secretly sense it:
Create Theatres of Memory in your mind,
Invoke Stroud’s Spirit of Place
Then invite Spectators to their Seats.
Above is a first-person piece I wrote around 2012 on reading John’s booklet a second time. I wanted to create something compelling, foregrounding women (I used my daughters’ names), playing around with creative non-fiction and WG Sebaldian documentary fiction. I little thought that people would take it as true … I remember how nervous I was when I read this piece out at a history talk at Oakridge and well remember the relief and joy when John who was in the audience told me how much he liked the piece.
Here’s a new piece below written in a different voice:
ADDENDUM
What I did in 1825 in Stroudwater in the Summer
Call me Ishmael.
I’m an old man now but will try to tell you in this account my personal history in all those years gone by. But I will not be telling all and will not be revealing any names. Call me Ishmael.
I’m not proud of what I did back then as my family have always supported our fellow weavers. My father at the beginning of this century and my grand-father sometime towards the end of the last. But I’d a wife and five children and I needed a wage to bring in some sustenance and pay for a roof over our heads.
I’d been working thirteen hours a day and been in the pits of despair. I was too ashamed to attend church with the family as we look so ragged. Our bedding was shameful and wretched. Tattered, torn quilts to cover us all and straw below when my wife washed the threadbare sheets.
What follows now is what I wrote back then on pages I kept in our Bible. I can still just about read it with a candle.
It pulls at my heartstrings when I finish my labours for the day. My children crying for something to put in their mouths and the only treat we can afford them to take their little minds off the constant monotony of stale bread, mouldy cheese, greying bacon and milk is a few potatoes with a bit of flick or suet.
The children are constantly down with coughs and colds and fevers and my wife is ailing too. And she is with child. I go without food on occasions to aid her and the children but they are stinted and stunted in their growth, I think. So, when the master asked me if I could carry on at my loom through the summer of the tumult and the duckings and earn a steady pocket of coin, it was need not greed that enabled temptation to get the better of me.
But as I toiled at my labours, with my head going clickety clack with the loom, I would recite the Lord’s Prayer to keep me on the task in hand. But, then the line, “Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil’ echoed in my head all day and then at night too. Was it evil to feed my family? But was it evil to turn my back on lifelong friends?
I eventually arrived at the question: “Which of the two was the greater evil?” And I eventually reached the answer to that question in the dog days of August 1825.
I went to see he who shall remain anonymous to confess my sins. And said that I would duck myself three times to within an inch of my life as an act of penitence and contrition. This I duly did betwixt Chalford and Brimscombe at night under the watchful eye of the Combination. Each time, I recited in my submerged pounding mind, “I baptise thee in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit”. Afterwards, I had to endure a silence whene’er I came into the company of fellow weavers and families. As soon as I arrived all conversation would cease. This lasted a month. For a month I was Ishmael cast into the wilderness.
Once the month’s sentence had passed, I was welcomed back into the fraternity and community of my hamlet. Better poor together than working alone. And better in New South Wales than Bisley said my wife.
And so, we emigrated in 1839 I think it was. And I have never looked back until this day.
These are my recollections of the summer of 1825. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.
Call me Ishmael.
Radical Stroud is grateful for the support of UNITE 007 Gloucester Branch in putting on this and associated events, exhibitions, research, leaflets and more discursive or creative writing. So grateful. Past and Present conjoined.