Dr Robert Fyson who has died aged 83 regarded himself primarily as a local historian, and as he himself said, ‘you are drawn to the area where you live’. True to his word, his best known work dealt with Chartism in the Staffordshire Potteries, where he spent his academic career, and the history of the Isle of Man, where he lived in retirement. Born in … Continue reading Robert Fyson (1940 – 2023)
In Union, a major new television series for the BBC, historian Professor David Olusoga examines questions of national identity, social class and inequality, ‘shining a light on our fractured modern society through the lens of the past, exposing the fault lines dividing the UK’, as publicity material for the four-episode series puts it. And in episode three, The Two Nations, he reaches the nineteenth century, … Continue reading A touch of labour history for BBC Union history series
My PhD focuses on the literary activism of the Chartist poet and autodidact, Thomas Cooper. Unlike several other members of Chartism’s leadership, who came from middle-class or even aristocratic backgrounds, Cooper was proudly a working-class leader who worked as a shoemaker in Gainsborough before his entry into the movement. Aspiring to a career as an author, Cooper wrote prodigiously throughout his life, particularly during a … Continue reading Duncan Hamilton (Manchester) on the abandoned romances of Thomas Cooper
Dramatists have been slow to pick up on the events at the heart of the great strike of 1842 and its complex relationship with Chartism. Michael Crowley, the author of Waiting for Wesley, explains how he went about bringing the story to life on stage Waiting for Wesley is being staged at Calderdale Industrial Museum on Sunday 6 August at 3pm Tickets are available via … Continue reading Chartism, the great strike of 1842 and the possibilities of drama
G.W.M. Reynolds emerged as a significant figure in London Chartism in the spring of 1848, and would later gain a substantial level of fame as the publisher of radical newspapers and author of gothic novels. In an evening meeting at London’s Bow Street Police Museum titled Writing Up a Storm in Paris and London: GWM Reynolds, Dickens’ Radical Rival on Thursday 20 July, Dr Jennifer … Continue reading Writing up a storm in Paris and London: G.W.M. Reynolds
This year’s Chartism Day was in Sheffield, with papers on the land plan, the poet Thomas Cooper, the ‘paper pantheon’, Chartism’s first historian of the modern era, and the lives of Chartists in France Held on Saturday 17 June, Chartism Day 2023 opened with a fitting tribute to Stephen Roberts – the organiser of the first such event in 1995, and a leading Chartist historian … Continue reading Chartism Day 2023 report: ‘You tyrants of England! Your race may soon be run…’
Set during the events of August 1842 in the Calder Valley, the specially written play Waiting for Wesley is to be performed this summer at Halifax Museum. Commissioned by Heptonstall Museum, written by Michael Crowley and first performed in August 2022 by The Brutish Multitude Theatre Company, the play has since been developed as a result of audience feedback to include the character of Ben … Continue reading Waiting for Wesley: torn between church and rebellion
Mike Sanders, Professor of Nineteenth Century Literature & Culture at the University of Manchester and a member of the Society’s executive committee, delivered his inaugural professorial lecture at the John Rylands Library on Wednesday 31 May. The lecture was titled ‘Singing Sweet Liberty’: John Stafford and the creation of radical memory from Luddism to Chartism. The lecture explored the role played by song in creating … Continue reading ‘Singing Sweet Liberty’: Michael Sanders’ inaugural professorial lecture
In 1839, the radical London Chartist George Julian Harney was out on bail awaiting trial for sedition. Two letters to his lawyer reveal his anxiety about the case and his desperate lack of cash. Mark Crail tells the story of Harney’s anxious summer. The letter shown here is filled with the angst of a man facing a possible gaol sentence and badly in need of … Continue reading The Chartist, his lawyer and a matter ‘of vital importance’
The annual Newport Chartist Convention takes place this year on Saturday 4 November at St Woolos Cathedral, Newport. The convention runs from 9.30am to 4pm. The Convention is part of the Newport Rising Festival, which celebrates the Chartist rising of 1839, and is held annually. Speakers will include: Tickets cost £15.00 including lunch, tea and coffee, and will be available nearer to the Convention date … Continue reading Newport Chartist Convention 2023
Society for the Study of Labour History 