Walks

“No Pasaran!”

“Where Are the Faces We Seek?” This extract from a contemporary poem gives a flavour of the 1930s. You’ll hear about the Means Test which was, in essence, a vicious attack on the unemployed living on the dole during the Great Depression when unemployment as a national average reached 25%. The extract shows how domestic and foreign policies were intertwined,   ‘Where are the faces we seek, the British faces? Let the living answer the roll call of the dead … Where are those who tramping on Means Test marches Knew that the road they had taken against oppression Led to the front in Spain The shouts in Trafalgar Square of “No Pasaran!”’   Narration: The rise of Hitler in 1933 and his aggressive foreign policy led socialists and communists and liberals and men and women of all persuasions that a stand had to be taken when Franco led a fascist revolt against the democratically elected Spanish government in 1936. There was a belief that if fascism could be stopped in Spain, then that united front would show fascist powers such as Italy and Germany that war would not pay. In short, victory against fascist aggression in Spain could deter further wars. Working women and men, the unemployed and the intelligentsia began to make their way to Spain in the face of opposition and disapproval from British government. Many without passports walked the Pyrenees and made their way to the universal front that separated freedom from oppression and the rise of European fascism. The British government refused to heed the warnings from Spain.  Ignoring German and Italian aggression in Spain,...
Jo Cox Memorial Walk: the Ghosts of Five Valleys Past and of  London Present and Future

Jo Cox Memorial Walk: the Ghosts of Five Valleys Past and of London Present and Future

9.3 % Swing

A red island in the sea of Cotswold blue
A red outcrop in these blue remembered hills
We’re not 25 grand smug shepherd’s huts
We’re red brick, spit and sawdust, woollen mills

A red rose amidst the snarling thorns of May
A red flag sewn from Stroudwater Scarlet
We’re not the headmistress’s blue-rinse smile
We’re the crimson kiss of a wanton harlot

We’re not Farrow & Ball “complacent blue-tit”
We’re not weekend waxed-jacket and tweed knickers
We’re not honey-dipped, chocolate-box bollocks
We’re not mimsy-boo-boutique more tea vicars

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Jo Cox Commemorative Walk: Saturday June 17th

Jo Cox Commemorative Walk: Saturday June 17th

Jo Cox Commemorative Walk Saturday June 17th: 4 miles or so, around Nailsworth; meet by the clock near Hobbs at 10 o’clock. A performative walk: referencing FGR’s success; David Drew’s success; Jo Cox’s first speech to parliament: “We are far more united and have far more in common than that which divides us”, and, finally, working class local history. Please wear FGR colours or red or whatever.

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Sixty People Gathering

Sixty People Gathering

Sixty people gathering
In the welcoming woodland of Stroud Brewery,
Watching the preview of Day of Hope,
Listening to tales of weavers’ riots
And Chartist dreams;
Quaffing Chartist porter
While Paul Southcott sang us songs
Of the world we have lost …
Resting by a sun warm red brick bridge,

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Hidden Stroud Walks

Announcing two new walks in collaboration with the Hidden Stroud project this weekend:

Stroud History Reimagined

The walk will reimagine the history of Stroud, touching upon springs, streams and weavers; radical canal history, Stroud Scarlet, slavery and the Black Atlantic.

A walk for anyone interested in walking, history, literature and an imaginative blurring of genres.

http://www.subscriptionrooms.org.uk/whats-on/stroud-history-reimagined-with-stuart-butler/

https://www.facebook.com/events/340825872919858/

For ages 14+
08 October 2016
Start times: 10:00-13:00
Tickets: £2 donation on the day
Box office: 01453 760900

A History of Radical Stroud

A performative walk from the front of the Subscription Rooms, up to Rodborough Common along the Frome, re-imagining the history of Stroud by looking at the Captain Swing Riots in Gloucestershire; Chartism in Stroud and the Five Valleys; the relevance of John Clare to our landscape and history, and then down to The Prince Albert.

A walk for anyone interested in walking, history, literature and an imaginative blurring of genres.

http://www.subscriptionrooms.org.uk/whats-on/a-history-of-radical-stroud-with-stuart-butler/

https://www.facebook.com/events/1770295653243313/

For ages 14+
08 October 2016
Start times: 14:30-16:30
Tickets: £2 donation on the day
Box office: 01453 760900

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From Lechlade to Newbridge

From Lechlade to Newbridge

The day started early in Cirencester, where our Chartist Allen Davenport was a cobbler before he married Mary, And moved to London, where the writings of Thomas Spence Led him into revolutionary politics, writing, and action – But that was less on my mind than...

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