Photographs and information about documents and objects with some significance in labour history. Many of these items can be found in archives represented on the SSLH archives and resources committee.
This image reproduces a letter from a group of North Yorkshire ‘Radical Reformers’ to a Mrs Lawrence of Studley Hall, c. 1817. A keen eye will discern a very definite threat, mainly that the Hall and Fountains Abbey would be blown up unless Mrs Lawrence gave the out-of-work men £100 in alms! The letter reads: ‘[They] are all hungering to death for want of work … Continue reading North Yorkshire ‘radical reformers’
Our image shows one page from a scrapbook of manuscript and printed material collected in the mid 19th century and now held at Senate House Library at the University of London. The creator of the scrapbook was William Pare (1804-1873) a Birmingham tobacconist, who was one of the founders of the first Birmingham Cooperative Society. He left Birmingham in 1842 to become acting governor of … Continue reading William Pare’s scrapbook
This cotton flag or banner is a rare survivor of thousands of banners carried at meetings calling for electoral reform and suffrage. It has a remarkable story. It was designed and made in 1819, to honour the victims of the Peterloo massacre in Manchester. It was mounted on poles and taken to meetings throughout the 19th Century, starting with a reform meeting at Almondbury Bank … Continue reading Skelmanthorpe Banner 1819
Society for the Study of Labour History 