#tolpuddle martyrs

[zippocreed501]

We will, we will, we will be free.

Tolpuddle Martyrs' Sculpture by Thompson Dagnall

[thepastisalreadywritten]

By Connor McGovern

16 October 2023

We’ve a lot to thank the trees for. Other than their vital role in the ecosystem, they’ve played an important part in mythology, agriculture, industry, and medicine since humans first walked the Earth.

Remarkably, a good number of the UK's most ancient trees — most of them yews and oaks — still stand today as living, breathing witnesses to centuries of British history.

We take a look at some of the UK’s most fabled trees — and the intriguing stories that surround them.

1. Ankerwycke Yew, Berkshire

Yews are guardians of churchyards throughout Britain. Many represent the oldest and most storied tree specimens.

Few are more spectacular than the Ankerwycke Yew, in the village of Wraysbury, near Staines-upon-Thames.

Measuring 26ft in diameter, it’s a botanical behemoth that’s believed to be around 2,500 years old, making it one of the oldest trees in Britain.

It long outlived the now-ruined St Mary’s Priory, a Benedictine nunnery whose grounds it stood in, and some even believe it to be the true site of the signing of Magna Carta in 1215, rather than Runnymede on the other side of the river.

Its intrigue doesn’t end there — it’s also alleged to stand on the spot where Henry VIII wooed a young Anne Boleyn. If only trees could talk.

2. Isaac Newton’s apple tree, Lincolnshire

Numerous trees are cited as being the very one that inspired the young physicist to investigate the theory of gravity.

But the apple tree in the grounds of Woolsthorpe Manor, near Grantham, has arguably the greatest right to this claim, with a scion planted (and still growing) at Trinity College Cambridge, where Newton once studied.

While the apple story is probably the stuff of scientific myth, it’s almost certain that Newton would’ve been familiar with the tree — which today is at least 350 years old — as it’s the area in which he was born and raised.

The county is also home to another of the country’s stalwarts: the Bowthorpe Oak, reputedly the UK’s girthiest oak, with a hollowed-out trunk so wide that it’s said to have hosted the Earl of Bowthorpe’s parties.

3. The Tolpuddle Martyrs’ Tree, Dorset

Beneath the boughs of a 350-year-old sycamore in the village of Tolpuddle, a small group of agricultural workers gathered in 1833 to lament their poor working conditions and paltry wages — only to be arrested, tried, and sentenced to penal transportation in Australia for seven years.

The six men became known as the Tolpuddle Martyrs, and after much public outcry, they were pardoned and returned to England.

Their cause was a key step in the workers’ rights and unionist movements. It is remembered in the annual Tolpuddle Martyrs’ Festival; a memorial plaque sits beside this great tree.

4. Fortingall Yew, Perthshire

Widely believed to be one of the oldest living trees in the UK (and indeed in Europe), the Fortingall Yew spills over its walled enclosure in a village churchyard like a great shower of dark green needles.

Some experts estimate the tree to be the ripe old age of 3,000, which would make it date as far back as the Bronze Age — some 1,000 years before the Romans had even come up with the name ‘Caledonia’ for Scotland.

The sheer age of the tree means that over time, the trunk has split that it now resembles several smaller yews, rather than one sole, mighty plant.

The future of the Fortingall Yew, however, is precarious, with souvenir-seekers stealing needles and branches, and so compromising its health.

Ongoing conservation efforts that preserve the tree’s DNA by planting saplings in other Scottish churchyards will be key to maintaining its history.

5. Spanish chestnut trees, Herefordshire

Of all the ancient trees at Croft Castle, near Leominster (including the 1,000-year-old Quarry Oak), most noteworthy are perhaps the huge Spanish chestnuts.

Planted in one grand avenue, their origins are believed to hark back to the battle with the Spanish Armada in 1588, when chestnuts were salvaged from the wreckages and planted here at Croft.

In fact, the planting arrangement is said to represent a flotilla when viewed from above.

But it’s at ground level that the trees truly amaze, as they’re almost fantasy-like in their size and contortion.

Take time to admire the gnarled, grotesque trunks and the twisted branches reaching towards the sky.

6. The Chained Oak, Staffordshire

This old oak in scenic Dimmingsdale is now bound in rusty chains.

Local legend has it that in the early 1800s, the Earl of Shrewsbury was accosted by a beggar as he was passing by.

He snubbed the old woman, and in retaliation, she placed a curse on his family that held that every time a branch fell from the oak tree a member of the Earl’s family would die.

That night during a storm, one of the branches fell from the tree and — lo and behold — a relative of the Earl died.

Seized by paranoia, he chained up all the branches to prevent any more falling from the oak.

Even today, as you approach the tree through the thick woodland, there’s a mysterious air to this gnarled old giant.

Just moments away at Alton Towers, the legend is the inspiration for Hex — a psychological hair-raiser of a ride set within the Alton Towers building itself.

[dailyhistoryposts]

On This Day In History

March 18th, 1834: 6 English farmers are sentenced to Australia for attempting to form a labor union.

[londonedge]

Part of the Y-shaped James Hammett House on the Dorset Estate in Bethnal Green

If you are wondering who James Hammett was, he was one of the Tolpuddle Martyrs, a group of agricultural workers in the early 19th century who sought basic workers’ rights

[lesbiansandgayssupporttheminers]

Today is the first day of the 2020 Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival.

The Tolpuddle Martyrs and the events surrounding them were an important moment in the early British trade union and (small l) labour movement, as well as in politics of protest.

The Tolpuddle Martyrs were 6 men who worked as agricultural labourers and lived in Tolpuddle, Dorset. During a labour dispute in 1834, they swore a secret oath to the Friendly Society of Agricultural Labourers and were later arrested for this and sent to Australia.

In England, a huge number of people signed a petition for the Martyrs to be pardoned, and their supporters organised a march. In 1836, the 6 men were finally pardoned and able to return to the UK (although the last of them didn’t get back to the UK until 1839). Five of the six later emigrated to Canada, probably due to pressure from local landowners.

On their return, the six men were active in the Chartrist movement for worker’s rights, and their cause had a big influence on the early worker’s rights movement.

If you’re not already a member of a union, why not consider joining one in their honour today?

[thephantomofthelibrary]

18 March 1834

Six farm labourers from Tolpuddle, Dorset are sentenced to transportation after trying to form a Trade Union. Ten years prior the Combination of 1799 had been abolished therefore this shouldn’t have been illegal. However, when James Frampton, a local landowner and magistrate, wrote to Home Secretary Lord Melbourne to complain about the union, Melbourne brought up an obscure act known as the Unlawful Oaths Act of 1797. It was under this law which the Tolpuddle Martyrs, as they became known, got sentenced. 

Upon their sentence one of their number, George Loveless, wrote a short poem entitled ‘The Gathering of the Unions.’

God is our guide! from field, from wave, From plough, from anvil, and from loom; We come, our country's rights to save, And speak a tyrant faction's doom: We raise the watch-word liberty; We will, we will, we will be free!

In their absence in Australia, a petition was signed with 800,000 signatures for their release and a march was organised. It was successful and the majority of Tolpuddle Martyrs returned to England in 1837. 

[kimboatfloats]

The Tolpuddle Martyrs

The first project in my summer to do list is the Jackdaws serials (? I guess that’s what they are.) that came across my desk. Of the titles, the one that caught my eye first was the bright yellow jacket of The Early Trade Unions Including the Founding of the National Trades Unions and the Prosecution of the Tolpuddle Martyrs : A Collection of Contemporary Documents Compiled by Sheila Lewenhak.

Yes, that's the entirety of the title. It even looks just as wordy as the title suggests.

So what intriguing papers are included in Jackdaws No. 35? Copies (facsimiles they were called back in 1966) of original documents relating to the Tolpuddle Martyrs. Who were the Tolpuddle Martyrs and why did they matter? Well, in the early 1800s, British Tradesmen and Craftsmen (I didn't see any Proof that women were members of these groups) began to form unions under the threat of cheap labour destroying their livelihoods. That cheap labour? Why the steam-powered factories that exploited women and children. Unions controlled who could enter the trade. They controlled the quality output of the work (so as not to create crap product). They also controlled pricing.

Some of these unions were all esoteric and shit. With initiation rites and secret handshakes. They had to swear to secrecy about the groups because it seemed that trade unions were also trading amongst themselves. They figured out value of goods based on hours spent creating them, and then bartered goods amongst themselves for that value. Banks (at the time) created their own money, but this was creators basically making their own currency and keeping the banks out of it. Very much communal commerce.

It's no wonder that The Man (I'm not quite sure who exactly The Man was in this case, but I could guess by following the lack of pound notes) made unions illegal.

Yeah. Liable to be transported. I mean now I would love to be sent to Australia and live there for 7 years. Beaches. Sun. Kickass wildlife. Back then, it was like being sent to the end of the earth. I'm not even going to touch the bullshit that was/is colonialism and how it destroyed places like Australia, but hey I could understand their fear. Everything you know, everyone you know, you cannot see them for 7 years. It's like going to the Moon. Or Mars. And instead of minutes to be able to communicate with someone, it's months if not years to send letters. If you could even return, there's no telling whether your life will be waiting for you. I have a 2 year old daughter and I can tell you that 2 years is a massive amount of difference.

So with all this backstory, we come up to the Tolpuddle Martyrs. Six men from Tolpuddle were convicted under the anti-union laws (? though I don't know if actual laws were created) and sentenced to 12 years transportation. Check 'em out. I'm loving the waistcoats. Mssrs James Brine (25), Thomas Stanfield (51), John Stanfield (25), James Loveless (29), and George Loveless (41).

One is missing, a James Hammett (22). I'm not sure why they didn't draw him. So off they were sent to Australia. And not just them, but also their families.

Check this out:

This is a public poster of support for the Tolpuddle Martyrs. It's the most British thing ever.

Dinner on table at half-past two precisely.

The Dinner will be served hot, of the best description, in the large Room of the Tavern, and will consist of every sort of Roast and Boiled Meats, Hams, Vegetables, Bread, Porter ; Plumb Pudding, and Tarts.

CONCERT AND BALL

Eventually public support got their transportation overturned. Only one (our buddy Hammett) stayed in England. The rest emigrated to London, Ontario, Canada where they lived out in quiet obscurity until people recognised their names and put up memorial plaques over a century later.

There's more information to be had in the files and I'm sure if I did a deeper dive I could come up with some great articles in academic databases. But I have more Jackdaws to catalogue and I want to add them to my tumblr!

[newsandmediarepublic]

The fight for a high-quality economy not in-work poverty

The fight for a high-quality economy not in-work poverty

Every year thousands of trade unionists descend on the small village of Tolpuddle in Dorset, to remember the Tolpuddle Martyrs.

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