Tag: 1850s

Commentary

Baddiley churchyard: a place in labour history

In our continuing series on places in labour history, Mark Crail visits a rural churchyard to pay his respects to the first translator of the Communist Manifesto. Drive along the narrow country lanes of Cheshire for far enough that you begin to question whether your satnav is working properly and you will eventually come across St Michael’s Church in the small, scattered settlement of Baddiley. … Continue reading Baddiley churchyard: a place in labour history

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Events

The Chartist Revolution: a challenge to liberalism and market capitalism

Liberal interpretations of the Chartist movement continue to dominate the views of historians and of general society, Professor Peter Gurney argued in delivering the Society’s fourth annual John Halstead Memorial Lecture at the John Rylands Library in Manchester in June. Setting out to challenge the dominance of liberal readings which commonly argued that those Chartist demands which had proved feasible had eventually found their way … Continue reading The Chartist Revolution: a challenge to liberalism and market capitalism

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Labour history news

Transactions: 170th anniversary of the Preston strike and lock-out of 1853–1854

Six months into the Preston lock-out, the most famous novelist of the day visited the town in search of a story for Household Words and inspiration for his novel-in-progress, Hard Times. After three days at the Bull Hotel Charles Dickens declared Preston a ‘nasty place’ and the whole situation a ‘deplorable calamity’. He returned to London with his suspicions of trade union leaders intact and … Continue reading Transactions: 170th anniversary of the Preston strike and lock-out of 1853–1854

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Events, Labour history news

Remembering the Preston Lockout 170 years on

Mike Sanders reports from a conference and exhibition marking a nine-months long industrial dispute that shaped the work of Charles Dickens and Elizabeth Gaskell. 2023 sees the 170th anniversary of the start of the Preston Lockout which began as a series of isolated strikes in August/September 1853 and became a general lockout in October 1853 before reverting to a strike in February 1854 which lasted … Continue reading Remembering the Preston Lockout 170 years on

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Events

Marking the Great Preston Lockout 170 years on

The Great Preston Strike and Lockout was a momentous national event. It began as a series of isolated strikes at a small number of mills in August/September 1853, and became a general lockout involving most textile operatives that October. It once again became a strike in February 1854, though this time on a much larger scale, and continued until May 1854. The dispute was immortalized … Continue reading Marking the Great Preston Lockout 170 years on

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Notes & queries

Researching the Preston lock-out

Dr Andrew Hobbs writes… I’m writing something on weekly publications produced during the 1853-54 Preston Lock-Out in North-West England, when thousands of cotton workers were locked out of the mills over their demand for a 10% restoration of wages (the event which inspired Charles Dickens’s Hard Times and Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South). These publications called themselves balance sheets — they list donations to the … Continue reading Researching the Preston lock-out

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Documents & objects

‘Be united and industrious’: the emblem of the Amalgamated Society of Engineers

The Amalgamated Society of Engineers was by no means the first trade union to produce an emblem for its members. But just as the constitution and structure adopted by the ASE in 1851 proved influential among the New Model unions that followed, so the design of its emblem inspired numerous imitators. James Sharples, a blacksmith and founder member of the ASE (more properly, the Amalgamated … Continue reading ‘Be united and industrious’: the emblem of the Amalgamated Society of Engineers

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