In the following, it is important to note that the high figures for wages usually given for “miners” only refer to the pit-face workers. The totality of the workers in each mining business had an average wage of about the half of the direct miners
.The wage levels of the miners and their working conditions were fixed by collective bargaining and strikes. The collective bargaining took place on each occasion that a new seam was opened, and also at the beginning of the year. The strikes were generally due to changes that the owners wanted to introduce in the general terms of the contracts, or when they really wanted to force down the salary level.
It was generally accepted that the male miners had a high wage level and deserved it, due to the dangerous and physically tiring nature of their work, as well as the exactness with which they had to work. Their wages were about twice those of the agricultural labourers in the same region, additional to which they could take coals home for own use, and in some coalfields the married men could live in cottages rent-free. In the majority of families two sons of from 12 to 18 years old worked in or above the mine, which increased the family income by 100 %. In the long term the wages did reflect the movements in the agricultural wages (see the graph below, for the relationship in the Northumberland and Durham coalfield, which was the largest), although it is not clear if the miners’ wages were moved by the labourers’ wages, or vice versa.
It is very difficult to estimate the percentages of increase and decrease of the miners’ wages during the first half of the nineteenth century Great Britain. This is because the wages were negotiated between owners and workers with complicated contractual conditions, and also the negotiations were carried out per individual coalfield, and thus the final figures in each case were a function of the economic conditions of the coal extraction and of the relative strength of the negotiation positions of owners and miners. The principal expert, Church, gives a general estimation that the real wages of the coal-face workers – hewers – “fluctuated greatly” between 1830 and 1842, “but the average trend was stationary or slightly downwards”; from 1842 to the mid-sixties, there was a “general improvement of at least 50 %”.
(Solomon, 2014, p. 22, pp. 49-55)
Church, The History of the British Coal Industry: Volume 3, 1830-1913, Victorian Preeminence, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1986; pp. 570-574)
(Solomon, 2014, p. 65)
However, we do have a series of average figures from 1811 to 1838, from the book by J. Symonds, “Arts and Artisans ….”(p. 5), quoting information from William Dixon, owner of a large coal company.
In the important coalfields, the wages (pit-head workers) were:
South Wales 1840 25s., 1845 17s., 1849 14s., 1860 18s.
(Bowley, 1900, pp. 108-9)
The main effect of the Industrial Revolution on the economics of the coal industry was to increase the amount of coal required by the country, and thus the number of miners employed. There were however, booms and slumps on the scale of a few years, which could lead to temporary adjustments in numbers employed or in wages.
(Mitchell, 1984, Table 5.3., p. 106)
Cobbett visited the coalfield in the area of Sunderland, in 1832, and found the living conditions very acceptable. “You see nothing here that is pretty; but everything seems to be abundant in value; and one great thing is, the working people live well …. The pitmen have twenty-four shillings a week; they live rent-free, their fuel costs them nothing, and their doctor costs them nothing. Their work is terrible, to be sure; and, perhaps, they do not have what they ought to have; but at any rate they live well, their houses are good and their furniture good; …. Their lives seem to be as good as that of the working part of mankind can reasonably expect.”
(Cobbettt, Rural Rides, II, p. 294; quoted in Thompson, 1963, p. 242)
(But conditions in the North-East coalfield were better than those in the Black Country or in South Wales.)
The Industrial Revolution also improved the conditions of working life of the miners:
steam engines with fans, installed at the base of vertical shafts, to expel poisonous or potentially explosive gases upwards;
steam engines with metal cables, to bring up the miners in cages;
metal wire rope for bringing up the boxes of coal – before, the women had to walk up steps, with the coal baskets on their heads.
“Simonin, however, provides a more detailed account of the changes in his book, Underground Life, written in 1869. He maintains that by 1860 the technology had advanced to the extent that in some collieries horses were used to draw the waggons on the underground railways in the main roads while in others the trains or trams were conveyed by locomotive engines or drawn by stationary engines (when working on inclined planes). In addition, some of the waggons, carts and trams used for carrying the coal were made of sheet-iron instead of wood and all types ran on four wheels. Simonin’s description of how the method of working mines had improved by 1869 is particularly enlightening:
“No more square-work or falls; no more narrow, winding, and badly-kept roads; no more conveyance on the backs of men: but a methodical setting off of stalls, or a regular system of working away the mineral by long-work, and a rapid conveyance along good roads on underground railways, either by horses or by engines. With all these improvements the cost of winning and raising the coal has been diminished by one-half, and the lives of the men have been less exposed to risks.”
Advances in the method of «dressing the ores» on the surface of metal mines occurred nearer the end of the nineteenth century. The process of riddling, bucking, cobbing and washing had been mechanized. Belts powered by steam engines moved the metal sieves back and forth to separate the rock and metal (riddling) and raised the hammers and anvils which crushed and pulverized the ore (bucking and cobbing). Water ran continuously with the aid of pumps over the metals to wash away dirt and impurities (washing). Machines performed the tasks which had employed hundreds of the young women and children on the surface of metal mines. The jobs of “riddlers”, “buckers”, “cobbers” and “washers” were becoming obsolete as mines modernized the dressing process.”
(Tuttle, 1999, p. 233)
To this we can add the liberation of the women and small children from underground work (although on the other hand, this reduced the total family income).
These girls and women had a very difficult life (except for a few who worked for fashion houses, or in houses of the richer class). They had to work very long hours – up to 18 hours daily – in the work-rooms; the government inspectors and doctors said that they had never seen in other industries such long hours (“The protracted labour described above is, I believe, quite unparalleled in the history of manufacturing processes”) . They often suffered from extreme exhaustion, curvature of the spine, or partial blindness. Many were only 14 to 18 years old.
(Ralph Barnes Grindrod, The Slaves of the Needle: An Exposure of the Distressed Condition, Moral and Physical, of Dress-makers, Milliners, Embroiderers, Slop-workers, &c, William Brittain, and Charles Gilpin, London, http://www.bl.uk/collection-items/the-slaves-of-the-needle, 1844)
(Children’s Employment Commission, Second Report, 1843; Millinery and Dress-Making, pp. 114-122)
Those who were in a workshop had to work two years of apprenticeship without wages (only bed and board), then one year without pay as “improver”, then as “first hand” they received 10 shillings a week; after two more years, if they were very competent, they might be promoted to “second hand” at 20 shillings a week.
(Dr. William Ord, The Sanitary Circumstances of Dressmakers and other Needlewomen in London”, 6th Report of the Medical Officer of the Privy Council, 1863), quoted in http://www.victorianlondon.org/index-2012.htm, Clothing, Dressmakers)
Those who worked on their own, usually in garrets, had very low incomes, as they were competing against the totality of girls and women in the industry. Many had recourse to prostitution.
See for a complete description of the working conditions and wages: Mayhew, 1850, Letter VI to XI, and Letter LXXV to LXXVI . There are a number of very distressing situations of poverty.
These workers in London worked individually in their workshops for masters, and were formed into two unions.
The wages of the journeymen shoemakers in London remained the same from the strike in 1812, until 1842, when they were reduced by 15 percent, reflecting the lessening of duties on imports, particularly from French production. From 1842 to 1849 they were from 15 to 17 shillings. There was much price competition from Northampton, where there was a sort of “assembly line system” (Mayhew, 1850, Letter XXXII and Letter XXXIII).
The main region outside London for the boot and shoe industry was the city and the county of Northampton. The structure was of small home workshops of a few people (almost all the establishments were of one to nine adult males, to which would be added wives and children). There was no use of machines before 1850.
“In Northampton, and some of the neighbouring towns, upwards of a thousand hands are employed, in making shoes for the supply of the army and navy, and the shops in London, and also for exportation to different parts of the world. About 7000 or 8000 pairs are manufactured weekly in time of peace; but at present (July 1794), in consequence of the war, from 10,000 to 12,000 may be manufactured in the same period. The price runs from 3s. 6d. to 5s. and upward the pair. The medium price may be reckoned at 4s. 3d. of which about 1s. 6d. is paid for labour.
The leather is purchased partly in this and the neighbouring counties, but chiefly from the London market. A journeyman earns from 7s. to 14s. the week; but from 9s. to 10s. may be considered as the general average.”
(General View of Agriculture of Northampton, 1794, James Donaldson, p. 10)
In the 1790’s wages in Northampton were from 10 to 15 shillings a week for the cheap work. The wages fell by 20 to 25 % from 1812 to 1850 (Greenfield, 1998, p. 28); but this would be approximately compensated by the decrease in living costs in the same period. The number of active male shoemakers in Northampton borough changed from 500-600 in 1818 to 1,800 in 1841, and to 4,600 in 1871.
In 1857-9 there occurred an important change in the industry in Northampton. The manufacturing companies decided that the workers instead of working manually, would have to use sewing machines for “closing”, that is, sewing the parts of the uppers together. Further, the work would be carried out in large factories, instead of in the family workshop.
This was rejected by the workers and their families, and they went on strike. But the strike did not prosper, and as the companies managed to convince the workers that they would not suffer a reduction in wages or lose their jobs, the workers accepted the change. One of the manufacturing companies took out a full-page advertisement in the “Northampton Mercury”, promising the workers good working conditions, reasonable hours, separate work places for men and for women, and noting that they would now not have to use their homes as workplaces.
In 1861, steam engines were introduced in the factories, and in 1865 they were producing 100,000 pairs of shoes a week. By 1864, there were 1500 closing machines in the town.
The average weekly wage of hand closers of less than seven shillings, could be doubled, or even trebled, by working on machine closing.
(Greenfield, 1998, p. 74, n. 20, quoting the Children’s Employment Commission, Second Report, 1864, XXII, p. 164)
In 1869, in small factories (more exactly, large workshops), the young women working as “machinists”, sewing uppers on the Singer machines, were earning 9s. to 18s. a week; the “fitters” joining up the parts were earning 7s. to 12s. a week.
This gives us a very important example of the effects of mechanization and the change to factory work. The men and women were able to improve considerably their income, find more employment, and have better working conditions, because the shoemaking industry could increase considerably its sales volume at low prices.
In Lancashire in 1839 to 1859, they had an increase from 26 shillings to 32 shillings (“bootclosers”) and from 22 shillings to 25 shillings (“bootmakers”). This was supposed to be due to the introduction of sewing machines.
With reference to the 376,000 common labourers, we do not have any detail as to their activities. The administrators of the Census of 1851 did not know. “… who undoubtedly include many agricultural labourers, many road labourers, many bricklayers’ labourers, many dock labourers; and also many who are ready to work in any of the ordinary mechanical employments.” (Registrar-General of Great Britain, 1854, Census of Great Britain 1851, Occupations of the People, p. 72). This title would probably include: building construction, road building, urban infrastructure, excavating canals, opening railway cuttings, and laying railway lines.
The major academic study is from Clark, “The Condition of the Working-Class inEngland, 1209-2003” (2004), which gives the development of daily wages for craftsmen and helpers in the building industry for the given period. It made use of 43,000 quotes of day wages, 85,000 price quotes of 44 commodities, and 20,000 quotes of house rents. The wage data come from all regions of England, and from payments by town governments, estate managers and charitable foundations.
Building Wages, the Cost of Living and Real Wages by Decade, 1209-2003
Decade
Helpers day wage (pence)
Helpers day wage (1780-9 = 100)
Cost of Living (1780-9 = 100)
Helpers real wage (1780-9 = 100)
1780-9
17.4
100.0
100.0
100.0
1790-9
20.0
114.9
116.3
98.7
1800-9
26.3
151.1
156.2
96.7
1810-9
32.4
186.2
174.8
106.5
1820-9
29.1
167.2
143.1
116.8
1830-9
29.8
171.2
129.7
132.0
1840-9
30.7
176.4
125.7
140.3
1850-9
31.4
180.4
119.3
151.2
1860-9
35.3
202.8
126.4
160.4
(extracted from: Clark, 2004, Table 4, p. 54-55; converted to 1780-9 index = 100 by this author)
The Clark figures as to craftsmen are commented in the section carpenters, joiners, bricklayers, stonemasons, while the data about helpers are used in this section, as they are unskilled workers.
We see that the nominal wages increase continuously from 1780-9 to 1810-9, and remain practically without movement to 1860-9. The real (corrected for inflation) wages remain stable from 1780-9 to 1810-9, and then improve by 50 % to 1860-9. This is arithmetically due to the increases in the price of food (especially corn) in the first period, and the decreases in the second period. It is not clear why there is such an improvement from 1810. These are workers with basic skills, and with not much individual bargaining power. Apparently the “trick” was to retain their nominal daily wage amounts from 1810, even while the cost of living was diminishing. If they did receive these increases, we would have to suppose that all the non-skilled working class also experienced this amount of movement, otherwise the building workers would “leapfrog” over them.
There is another investigation, by B. Eccleston, referring to building labourers and building craftsmen, estate workers, and road labourers in five Midland counties (Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Northamptonshire, Warwickshire, and Staffordshire) for 1750-1834, and with a large volume of documentation. The data for building labourers are commented in this section, and the data for building craftsmen in the section below on carpenters, joiners, bricklayers and stonemasons.
We have the following movements in daily wage rates for building workers, estate workers, and road labourers. The figures are in nominal pence per day.
Fig. 9, Building Workers, mean wage rates
(Ecclestone, 1976, Fig. 9, p. 73)
Fig. 14, Estate Workers, mean wage rates
(Ecclestone, 1976, Fig. 14, p. 93)
Fig. 17, Road Labourers, mean wage rate
(Ecclestone, 1976, Fig. 17, p. 109)
From detailed figures in the appendices of the thesis, plus the data from Allen, we have:
Labourers (shillings per week)
Building
Building
Estate
Road
Helpers
labourers
Workers
labourers
1780
8.7
7.6
6.5
6.3
1785
9.3
8.0
6.8
6.4
1790
10.0
8.7
6.8
6.7
1795
11.6
9.5
8.1
7.7
1800
13.2
11.2
9.8
9.4
1805
14.7
13.5
9.8
10.5
1810
16.2
15.0
12.2
12.3
1815
15.3
15.8
12.9
12.2
1820
14.5
13.6
11.3
10.2
1825
14.7
13.6
11.4
9.9
1830
14.9
13.2
11.2
9.4
1835
15.1
13.1
10.9
8.9
1840
15.3
1845
15.5
1850
15.7
1855
16.4
1860
17.1
Labourers (loaves per week)
Building
Building
Estate
Road
Helpers
labourers
Workers
labourers
1780
14.4
12.6
10.8
10.4
1785
16.7
14.3
12.2
11.5
1790
16.7
14.5
11.3
11.2
1795
15.0
12.3
10.5
9.9
1800
12.5
10.6
9.3
8.9
1805
13.7
12.6
9.2
9.8
1810
12.3
11.4
9.3
9.3
1815
14.8
15.3
12.5
11.8
1820
17.5
16.4
13.6
12.3
1825
17.8
16.5
13.8
12.0
1830
19.0
16.9
14.3
12.0
1835
20.8
1840
20.6
1845
22.3
1850
25.8
1855
22.2
1860
25.7
Labourers (shillings per week)
Labourers (loaves per week)
We note that the data from Clark and the data from Ecclestone show a close coincidence, which allows us to state that the real incomes of unskilled labourers increased in the period from 1815 to 1860.
Another class of hard manual work was that of the railway labourers, when the railways started to be introduced in the 1830’s and 1840’s: “For many years the country was covered by armies of “navigators” or “navvies”, whom contractors employed to translate the grandiose dreams of the railway projectors and the capital of their shareholders into solid cutting, embankment, tunnel, and permanent way. In 1848 nearly 200,000 labourers, many of them Irish, were engaged in this vast task. With their rough habits and speech, high wages – pay day was usually a brutal debauch – and their generous taste in steak, plush waistcoats and whisky (they called it “white beer”), they uprooted ancient ways of living in every place where they encamped.”
(Bryant, English Saga, 1942, p. 83)
Group of Manchester workers 1848
James Cox, centre on the front row, surrounded by some of the men he worked with. The photograph was taken circa 1848. James Cox came to Manchester from Ireland in 1846 during the famine years. He first lived near Oxford Road Station, Mary Street, an area known as “Little Ireland”. He also worked on the Manchester Ship Canal in the later years of the 19th century. Mr. Cox, although he lived in the worst slum in Manchester, “Little Ireland”, does not appear to be poor or to have suffered hunger!
There does not seem to have been any negative effect from the Industrial Revolution on the wages on this segment of the working class, rather, they had a good life. What we can note, is that the invention of the steam engine, its use for long distance transport, the production in large volume and at low costs of the railway stock and the rails, and the increase in the purchasing power of a large segment of the public, made it possible for 200,000 men to have a well-paid job.
If we want to have a correct “picture” of the development of wages in the working class during the first stage of the Industrial Revolution, we have to inspect the most important branches of employment, collect the figures, and see in which cases the wage level was fixed by factors apart from the general economic situation, i.e. it was influenced by the Revolution.
Following, we have a list of the most common occupations in Great Britain, according to the Census of 1851 (the first one to collect these data in detail).
Occupation
Number
Agricultural labourer (males, outdoor)
1,006,000
Domestic servant
1,038,000
Cotton, calico, manufacture, printing, dyeing
501,000
Labourer
376,000
Farmer
306,000
Boot and shoe maker
274,000
Milliner, dressmaker
267,000
Coal miner
219,000
Carpenter, joiner
182,000
Army and navy
178,000
Tailor
152,000
Washerwomen
146,000
Woollen cloth manufacture
137,000
Silk manufacture
114,000
Blacksmith
112,000
Worsted manufacture
104,000
Mason, paver
101,000
Messenger
101,000
Linen, flax manufacture
98,000
Seaman (merchant service)
89,000
Grocer
85,000
Gardener
80,000
Iron manufacture, moulder, founder
80,000
Innkeeper
75,000
Seamstress, shirtmaker
73,000
Bricklayer
67,000
Butcher, meat salesman
67,000
Hose (stocking) manufacturer
65,000
Schoolmaster/mistress
65,000
Lace manufacture
63,000
Total of these 30 occupations
6,221,000
(Registrar-General of Great Britain, 1854, Census of Great Britain 1851, Occupations of the People, pp. 72-73)
Note: the investigations of Feinstein and of Allen do not include any data as to the numbers supposed to be employed in each occupation (Feinstein’s working papers appear to be lost).
Of these occupations, it is not useful or possible to present data about wages or movements of the same: domestic servant, farmer, army and navy, washerwomen, blacksmith, messenger, seaman (merchant service), grocer, gardener, innkeeper, butcher, schoolmaster/mistress. It is probable that their incomes moved in step with the costs of food. In some of these cases, food and lodgings were provided by the employer, additional to a small cash payment weekly.
The following occupations have been commented in detail in earlier chapters: agricultural labourer, cotton manufacture, woollen cloth manufacture, worsted manufacture, iron manufacture.
Monetary system Pounds (L.), shillings (s.), pennies or pence (d.) 1 Pound = 20 shillings, 1 shilling = 12 pence
Wage of farm labourer = 9 to 12 shillings per week Wage of male worker in textile factory = 20 to 30 shillings per week Dry weight measures 1 bushel wheat = 60 lb., 1 quarter = 480 lb.
Price of 4 pound loaf of wheaten bread = 6 to 8 pence Energy supplied by 4 pound loaf = 4,500 calories Price of butcher’s meat = 4 to 6 pence per pound
In the years after 1830, there was often friction between the farmers and the labourers, with respect to the standard wages. In many cases, the farmers could not pay the new wages out of their margin, and had to use their capital.
“In what state are the poor?” “They are generally in employ.”
“Have they been so continually?” “Since the year 1831.”
“Were they in employ before 1831?” “No, not so generally employed.”
“To what do you attribute their being better employed since 1831, than before that?” “One thousand eight hundred and thirty was the time of the riots. We came to an arrangement with the labourers in our neighbourhood, without any difficulty; then, when we found that the great cause of the disturbance was the want of employ, we agreed voluntarily among ourselves to take each so many of the surplus labourers, and by that we set all to work who had nothing to do.”
“Had the riots been occasioned by men being out of employ?” “I fancied at the time that that was the case.”
“Had you rick-burnings in your neighbourhood?” “Yes, we had a considerable number of fires.”
“Did the rick-burnings and riots cease on the men being well employed?” “Yes.”
“Can you afford, according to the present prices, to employ your labourers and pay them the same wages you are now paying?” “We make it our first object to pay them the amount we think them entitled to, to ensure them necessaries and comforts; but, certainly, we cannot afford to pay our rents of tithes and our labour at the present price for the produce of our farms.”
(Select Committee on Agriculture, 1837, Mr. John Thomas Twynam, Farmer, Hampshire, Q. 574, p. 30)
“Are the poor dissatisfied in that country?” “They have been much.”
“What rate of wages do they receive?” “Two shillings a day.”
“Have you been obliged to lower them?” “No; we think it dangerous to reduce them.”
“For what reason?” “The fear of damage to the property.”
“Have there been many incendiary fires?” “There have been two fires in our place within the last five months; in the neighbourhood of Maidenhead.”
“What do you think is the occasion of the incendiary fires?” “From the dissatisfaction among the labourers. They have no interest towards their employers at all; they have no energy to work an hour longer without being paid for it, which used to be the case formerly.”
“Are the labourers in a much worse condition now than they were formerly?” “I think not; their wages were high.”
“Can the farmers possibly continue the payment of the present rate of wages?” “Not from the present price of corn.”
“Would the lowering of the rate of wages produce the consequence you refer to, of more general dissatisfaction among the labourers?” “I think it would.”
(Select Committee on Agriculture, 1837, Mr. Samuel Kendall, Manager of His Majesty’s farms, Berkshire, p. 60)
“What is the state of the labourer?” “When they are employed I do not think it can be said to be very bad, but we are paying them double the money we can afford.”
“Can you keep up the present rate of wages?” “It is totally impossible. We do, fearing if we did not we should be burnt down; it is a sort of insurance on property. I am paying 40 per cent. more than I can afford, but not more than I conceive the labourer ought to have.”
“Has there been any apparent uneasiness among the labouring people who are out of employment?” “They are in a most feverish state. I have two men employed for no other reason than that should not rob on the highway, they having declared to me, that rather than go to the poorhouse they would rob. I do not believe there are two more honest men in the village.”
“They are driven to a state of great distress?” “Yes, they are.”
(Select Committee on Agriculture, 1837, Mr. William Thurnall, Farmer and owner, Chairman of the Agricultural Association of Cambridge, p. 123)
“Have you had many fires in Kent?” “Some.”
“Do you think the farmers are at all afraid of reducing the wages of the labourers?” “No, I do not think they are afraid; I think the present rate of wages is continued on principle.”
“Do you think they pay on principle more than they can afford?” “I am sure they do in many cases. It is not pleasant to have a man going away on Saturday night grumbling, and saying that he cannot support his family.”
“Can farmers go on paying these wages?” “They cannot go on, they must be losing their property.”
“What will be the end of that?” “Ruin.”
(Underline by this author)
(Select Committee on Agriculture, 1833, Mr. William Taylor, Farmer, Kent, p. 294)
“Are the wages you mention given on fair competition, or is it found prudent to give that rate of wages to the people?” “I think the probability is, we might get it done at a less price if we were to select our people in the market; but the persons we employ are those that have lived in the parish, and worked on the farm, and we think they cannot live for less.”
“Does it arise from any fear on the part of the farmers of any acts of outrage?” “Decidedly not.”
“There is none of that apprehension in your part of the country?” “No.”
“Have you had any fires of late?” “No.”
“What do they pay for their cottages?” “About 3 l. a year.”
“Do you think cottage rents in the east of Sussex are generally as low as that?” “That is what I pay at East Dean”
“Have most of them gardens?” “Yes, small gardens; we hire them of one person at 3 l.; but 1 s. 6 d. a week is a very common rent, with a garden.”
“Do you think the labourers live as well as they used to do?” “They never lived so well.”
“Do they eat as fine bread as they used to do ?” “They eat as fine bread as I do; finer than they used to do.”
(Select Committee on the State of Agriculture, 1837, Mr. James Hudson, Farmer, Sussex, p. 179)
Another factor which affected the labouring people in late 1830 was beer. The Beer Act was passed in 1830, and came into effect on 10th October. This allowed any rate-paying person to open a beer-shop on the payment of 2 guineas annually. This was in addition to the existing public houses, which needed a licence from a magistrate. Further, the tax on beer was reduced, such that the effective price of beer to the client was reduced by 20 %.
24,000 beer-shops were opened in England and Wales in the following six months, and we know that many were established in the following days in the principal areas of the Swing Riots, as there are many references to the plots hatched in them. The consumption of beer in the country – measured by the malt tax received by the Government – increased by 40 % from 1829 to 1831.
The effects on the “disturbances” were various:
much of the conspiration was carried out in them;
many labourers were convinced to join in the riots, while they were under the influence of drink;
the men in the violent mobs going from town to town were often intoxicated (but, in general, not the groups who were negotiating wage increases with the farmers);
the men spent more on drinking than in the previous months, and thus required more income.
It is clear that men who are spending their evenings drinking, are not starving.
“A mob of 180 persons collected at his house, demanding “bread or blood.” The greater part of them were intoxicated, but they said, that they and their children were starving. The larger part of that mob consisted, not of agricultural labourers, but of smugglers from the small villages upon the coats of Sussex, whom the vigilance of the Government prevented from carrying-on their trade.”
(Mr. J. Smith, M.P. for East Sussex; Hansard, Special Commissions – Amnesty, House of Commons, 08 February 1831, p. 252)
“I have Reason to know that during the Agricultural Riots the Persons so excited were acted on in those Beer Houses, and that the Delegates who travelled and who preceded the Mob met them at the Beer Houses, and there met with them in a State of Excitement and Inflammation of Mind.”
(Select Committee of the House of Lords on Charges to County Rates in England and Wales, 1834, Evidence of Rev. Harry Farr Yeahman, Magistrate in Dorset and Somerset, p. 318)
“… I should state likewise, that the men who suffered the extreme penalty of the law, for setting fire to places in Hampshire, the whole of it came under my own investigation; I sat six weeks every day till I had sufficient evidence to convict; I had before committed them to prison, but finding the evidence not satisfactory to my own mind, I let them out on bail, and it was not till a twelvemonth afterwards that I procured sufficient evidence, by my own exertions, and by a little police I established, to carry the law into effect; these men I saw continually, and from the time of their committal till the day before their death, they entreated me to use every exertion I had in my power to put a stop to the beer-houses, for they said that those beer-houses brought them to their disgraceful end; I am likewise the chairman of the visiting magistrates, in the absence of Sir Thomas Baring, and I have had a good deal of conversation with the characters committed at the special assize for punishment; I think we had 97, and I do not think out of the 97 there were twenty that did not date their misery to arise from those beer-houses.”
“How many were sentenced to death that you alluded to just now?” “Four were sentenced to death; one to transportation for life. I think I had 120 witnesses before me.”
………
“Were either of those men who were under sentence of death or transportation, keepers of beer-houses?” “No, they were not; it is very remarkable, that all the leaders and agitators in that riot were petty tradesmen, such as journeymen blacksmiths, journeyman carpenters; not labourers, but men that really did not want; it arose from a love of mischief with them.”
……..
“During the time you have acted as a magistrate for the county, have you seen any alteration in the habits and morals of the lower classes, since the law was passed enabling the beer-houses to be set up?” “Not a week passes without having five or six women attending and complaining of the money which their husbands spend in the beer-houses, which is not brought home to their houses.”
…….. “You said that those persons that were convicted, two of whom were sentenced to death and one to transportation, admitted that the origin of their crimes arose at those beer-houses?” “I constantly attended them, and they begged me to warn every person that came before me, that they owed their untimely end to nothing but the company they met with in those beer-houses, and being enticed to do what they did.”
……..
“Have not the riots occurred during the last two years?” “They were in December 1830.”
“Did not those arise from other circumstances besides the beer-houses; was there not great distress at the time?” “I think they arose more from people being led away by false views of things, and having placards placed in those houses, which were regularly sent round.”
……..
“You have stated that crimes have been concocted at the beer-shops; in you opinion did any incendiary fires take place previous to the passing of the Beer Act?” “None.”
“Have any incendiary fires taken place since the passing of the Beer Act?” “Yes; all the fires that have happened, have been since the passing of the Beer Act; I suppose 20 or 30 fires in the county.”
“Have any of the offenders that have been detected been traced upon the night when the fire happened to beer-shops?” “All of them to beer-shops that very evening.”
(Cobbett, Political Register, Vol. 81, 3rd August 1833, pp. 286-310, reporting on evidence from The Rev. Robert Wright, magistrate of the county of Hampshire, resident in Winchester)
“Do you attribute any thing to the better Economy pursued by the Poor themselves?” “No, I cannot say that I do. I think that there is a great deal more Money spent by the Poor in Beer now then there was some Years ago.”
“In consequence of the greater Cheapness of Beer?” “Yes.”
“And perhaps to the greater Facilities of buying it at the new Beer Shops?” “Yes; I am sorry to say that is very much so indeed.”
“Have you found any sensible Diminution in the Sums of Money lodged in the Savings Bank the last Year?” “No, I have not; they are generally contributed by those Persons who are regular, and do not frequent the Beer Shops; but I hear very great Complaints from the Wives of poor Men at present, that their Husbands are tempted daily to go to those Beer Shops; and asking me whether there is any Remedy for their remaining in the Shops from Morning ‘till Night.”
“What Answer did you give to that Question?” “That I was not aware there was any Remedy.”
In the West Country, those labourers who had fixed employment with a farmer, did not take part in the violent riots and machine breaking. Rather, they volunteered to guard the property of the farmer or the landowner:
“During the riots which disgraced this county and the country in the latter part of the year 1830, my labourers rallied round me as one man; we conquered upwards of 300 of the rioters, as I have always found that 5 men embarked in a good cause, are equal to 50 in a bad one. I left my home without apprehension, and assisted in putting down riots in other parts of the county. During my absence my thrashing machine was at work; on my return my property was as secure as when I left it; and I feel proud to say, that throughout the parish of Winterbourn, there is not a single labourer but would at this moment risk his life in defence of his master or his master’s property.”
(Mr. Bott, Labourer’s Friend Society Meeting, Devizes and Wiltshire Gazette, 21 February 1833)
”Do you conceive that any of your Parishioners had any thing to do with that fire?” “No, I have not the most distant Idea of it. The whole of them offered to watch every Night if I would let them; and there are Twenty-eight Men that watch nightly by Turns; they take it alternately; Four watch each Night once a Week, for which I pay them; but they are all anxious to watch; and they would be very glad, I believe, to detect any Person that was to commit that sort of thing, and they would stand by to protect any of our Property, to a Man.”
(Select Committee to Consider the Poor Laws, 1830-1, Minutes of Evidence, p. 111)
Sir Thomas Baring, a progressive landowner, had heard of a band of several hundred man, “… advanced resolutely expecting to fight when conceive his surprise he found that the band was composed of his Stoke men who heard he was in danger, had mustered over to the Grange armed themselves out of the carpenter’s shop, stuck spruce in their hats and called themselves the Spruce body. He was affected even to tears ….”
(Afton, “The Motive which has operated…..” 1998, p. 114)
“Have any of your pauper Tenants joined in the late Disturbances in the County of Wilts?” “None; on the contrary they have come forward to a Man to defend Property if necessary; there has been within Seven Miles of this Place some Disturbances, at a Place called Sherston, but they did not join in.”
(Minutes of Evidence, Poor Law, 1830-1, Mr. Richard Pollen, Chairman of the Quarter Sessions of Hampshire, but referring to North Wiltshire, p. 66)
“Had you fires or disturbances in your neighbourhood?” “In my neighbourhood we had fires, though not very much in North Wilts. I am happy to say in my parish the labourers behaved themselves very wisely; they all willingly came forward to assist me in case of any dissatisfied people coming into the village, to prevent them doing me any mischief.”
“You had some fires not far from you?” “Yes, we had; my labourers all volunteered to keep watch nightly, to detect incendiaries.”
“Have you a thrashing-machine?” “Yes.”
“Do you keep it?” “Yes, I have kept it.”
“It remains unbroken?” “Yes.”
“Are there many more labourers out of employ than there were in 1812 in your parish?” “There are more labourers; but I have made a sacrifice of property to keep them employed; I could perhaps have had my labour done at less expense than I had; and that is the reason perhaps why I have not gained so much as some others.”
“From feeling you paid a higher rate of wages than your labour would allow?” “No, I employed a greater number; I paid the same rate of wages as other persons.”
“Do you think others from intimidation are doing the same thing?” “I do not know that they are; I did not do it from intimidation.”
“Do you think any farmers in North Wilts are employing a larger number than their profit will allow, from whatever cause?” “Yes.”
(Select Committee on Agriculture, 1833, Mr. William R. Brown, Farmer, Wiltshire, p. 515)
“Have you had any riots in Hampshire within these 14 or 15 years? “There were riots in the year 1830; but that was quite upon another question; that was upon the question of machinery; the labourers rose because they objected to the thrashing machine, not on account of game.”
“Was it in consequence of low wages?” “No; it was in consequence of their not being employed, and their attributing their non-employment to the thrashing machines which were put up; there was that cry at the time.”
“Do you know whether gentlemen preserved game before and in the year 1830, and consequently resided upon their properties?” “Quite as much as now.”
“That did not prevent the riots, and it did not prevent the outcry against the use of machinery?” “I cannot say whether it prevented the riots or whether it caused them; but I know that upon my estate, and on the estates contiguous to mine, our men assisted to put down the riots with great energy, and that the ringleader, a man who was afterwards hung at Winchester, who had come from Kent, was taken very near my place by some of our own labourers.”
“Were the riots in the neighbourhood of your property?” “They were all, I believe, men from Sussex, Kent, and from the eastern end of Wiltshire, but they were not joined by any people in Hampshire that I could make out, for that part of the country rose against the offenders. It was entirely attributable to that that they were defeated, for we had no troops within 50 or 60 miles; they were entirely put down by the farmers and the labourers.”
“Then it was not the labourers in Hampshire that complained of the machinery?” “It was not; I only said that those were the complaints of those men who had met them; we had no thrashing machines.”
“Then the riots were occasioned by the invasion of persons from East Wiltshire and from Kent, complaining of the use of machinery in those counties?” “They began in that way, and they proceeded to every sort of violence, attacking houses and marching with armed force to the westward; they were stopped near Ringwood, and were defeated and dispersed.”
“Do you happen to know whether there were riots in the neighbouring counties of Dorsetshire and Wiltshire?” “Yes, there were.”
“Do you know whether those were occasioned by the people themselves, or by a similar invasion to that which you had in Hampshire?” “I believe that the leaders came from other parts of the country; in fact, I know that they did; that was proved at the trials: I believe that in Dorsetshire the people in a certain district rose of themselves.”
“Do you know anything about the preservation of game in those counties?” “I know very little about it.”
“Do you know whether gentlemen reside upon their properties in those counties?” “Very much; perhaps in Dorsetshire more than anywhere.”
“But there were riots in Dorsetshire owing to the lowness of the wages?” “I do not know what they were owing to.”
“You do not happen to know what the rate of wages is either in Hampshire, or Dorsetshire, or Wiltshire?” “I can only speak of my own estate. The farmers are now giving about 9s., and I give from 9s. to 12s.; the farmers make those men pay 40s. a year for their cottages, and I give them their cottages rent free.”
(Select Committee on the Game Laws, Earl of Malmesbury, 31 March 1846, Parliamentary Papers, Volume 9, Part 2, Reports from Committees, Game Laws, Part II, Session 22 January – 28 August 1846, Ordered, by the House of Commons, to be printed, 6 July 1846)
The “Riots” in these counties took place in the southeastern half of Wiltshire, some parts of northern Hampshire, and the southwestern quarter of Berkshire, with a few events in Dorset; all were wheat areas.
(See detailed maps in: Trevor Wild, Village England, I. B. Taurus, London, 2004, Fig. 5, p. 58, using information from Hobsbawm and Rudé; Bethanie Afton, “A Want of Good Feeling”, 1830, Fig. 1, p. 238; Berkshire Record Society, Historical Atlas of Berkshire, 1998)
In these counties, the events started and ended very quickly. In the total of these counties, they took place from 15th to 30th of November; in each village or parish, they were suppressed within 3 days. Bands of men (100 to 300) went from one village to another, breaking threshing machines, and extorting money from the farmers; there was little burning of ricks, and no threatening letters.
The routes taken by the men, and the dates, were as follows:
(Andrew Charlesworth, ed., An Atlas of Rural Protest in Britain, 1548-1900, Taylor & Francis, 2017, p. 154)
This map shows that the uprising was not spontaneous in each place, rather it was transmitted from village to village by the groups of men. “It was a curious fact, that most of the riots in Wiltshire took place on the same day. Nine-tenths of the riots in that county occurred upon the 25th of November, and the whole of them took place from the 23rd to the 26th of that month.”
(Mr. Benett, M.P. for Wiltshire; Hansard, Special Commissions – Amnesty, House of Commons, 08 February 1831, p. 289)
Apparently Cobbett knew that something was going to happen!:
“The very week that he gave a good character in that House to those men in the county of Wilts, Mr. Cobbett expressed himself to this effect – “Ah!, Mr. Benett, you know little of the county of Wilts, you will not see the peasantry peaceable there many days.” He had certainly spoken of their peaceable disposition ten days previous to those riots, and they were peaceable when he described them as such.”
(Hansard, Special Commissions – Amnesty, House of Commons, 08 February 1831, p. 289)
Recorded Incidents of the 1830 Unrest in Hampshire:
(Afton, 1987, “A Want of Good Feeling”, Fig. 3, p. 240)
(Afton, 1987, “A Want of Good Feeling”, Fig. 4, p. 241)
The numbers of threshing machines broken were: Berkshire 78, Dorset 10, Hampshire 52, Wiltshire 97. These numbers are not strictly indicative of the size of the outbreak. In many cases, the farmers destroyed the machines themselves, or left them unattended so that the rioters could break them up. The farmers did not want violence on their properties.
Mr. Henry Hunt, M. P.
“With respect to the destruction of thrashing machines, of which the public had lately heard so much, it was important to bear in mind — what he was prepared to prove at the bar of that House — that in nineteen out of twenty cases the misguided labourers were encouraged by the farmers whose machines they were destroying. In some instances the farmers gave money for this purpose; and in one case the farmer, his own machine having been broken, cried out, «Smash away, let us all be on an equality.» Some actually offered their machines to be destroyed on condition that they should be all put on a level.”
(Hansard, Special Commissions – Amnesty, House of Commons, 08 February 1831, p. 254)
“My Lord, you will perhaps be surprised to hear that the greatest number of the threshing machines destroyed have been put out for that purpose by the farmers themselves.”
Letter from Mr. Williams, J. P. in Marlbourough, to the Home Secretary
(Hammond and Hammond, The Village Labourer, p. 241)
“Some of the farmers [Norfolk] are now breaking their own thrashing-machines, in order to keep the mob off their premises.”
(Cobbett, Political Register, Vol. 70, State of the Country, Suffolk, 4th December 1830, p. 914)
It is not, and was not, clear why the labourers should revolt at this date. The harvest had been sufficient, and the weather was good. We have letters sent by the wife of the parish priest at Alton, East Hampshire, to members of her family. Mrs. Hare had arrived at Alton in early 1829, and experienced the violence of a mob in November 1830.
“Alton, Nov. 25:- …….. The greater part of our rioters are men who earn from twelve to twenty shillings a week at the Wharf, and spend it all at the beer-shops.”
“Alton, Dec. 10:- The odd thing about the riots is, that this is not a year of scarcity. There has been no hard winter and no uncommon pressure of any sort to raise this outcry. And when one sees that half of the discontented are men who spend their money at the beer-shops, and who might get ample if they chose, it rather hardens one against sympathy with their distress, and inclines one to think the lenity and indulgence granted in return for their proceedings, not the best-judged. Our carpenter alleged as a reason for the riots here – “O they are so ignorant in this county, ….“ “
(Letters from Maria Hare, wife of Augustus Hare, parish priest of Alton Barnes, Hampshire)
“Do not you think that the persons concerned in the disturbances in Wiltshire might have got work if they had wished?” “I have no doubt of it.”
“Do not you think they arose from delusion among the peasantry, and attempts to inflame their minds, rather than from pressure or actual distress?” “Certainly.”
(Select Committee on Agriculture, 1833, Mr. Richard Webb, Land agent, land surveyor, farmer, Wiltshire, p. 52)
“The weather remained cold until the end of February (Hampshire Chronicle 8/2/1830). The spring and summer, however, were warm and sunny (op. cit. 5/4/30, 7/6/30, 12/7/30,6/8/30). The harvest in July and August was good – “wheat was excellent in quality and abundant in quantity”; barley and oats yielding “an extraordinary quantity and better in quality for some years past” (op. cit.6/9/30). “October was changeable but good for field labour and winter wheat sowing was largely completed that month” (op. cit. 8/11/30).
(Afton, Bethanie, 1987, “A Want of Good Feeling”, p. 246)
“I am sorry to say that Stratton and Micheldever [villages] have been the most active. Those I have been most kind to and who were best provided have taken the lead. The motive which has operated on the minds of my people has not been distress but a revolutionary spirit.”
(Thomas Baring, the major landowner in Wiltshire, Journals, quoted in Afton, Bethanie, “The motive which has operated on the minds of my people”: 1988, p. 114)
Statistics of the Savings Bank at Alton:
22,000 people in the Division, 4,200 families, 2,400 employed in agriculture.
Wiltshire: 6,779 depositors in 10 banks, average 37 pounds.
Hampshire: 7,311 depositors in 10 banks, average 38 pounds.
Berkshire: 7,007 depositors in 10 banks, average 34 pounds.
The uprisings in Wiltshire, Hampshire, and Berkshire were not caused by hunger and poverty. With respect to exactly those persons who were arrested and tried at Winchester, we have a report of their earnings:
“I have brought with me a Return which was prepared by The Reverend Mr. Hodson, the Chaplain of the County Goal of Wiltshire, with respect to 101 Persons who were committed to Prison, and tried at the late Special Commission of the County of Wilts, stating the Names of the Individuals, their Age and Profession, also the Parish in which they resided, and the Rate of Wages they received weekly, and the Amount of Parish Relief they received in addition. The Persons to whom it relates come from a Number of Parishes in the Southern Part of the County. It appears by this Return, that out of the 101 Individuals, One of them received 15s. per Week; One of them received 12s. per Week; One of them received 9s. per Week; Seventeen of them received 8s. per Week; One of them received 7s. 3d. per Week; Forty-eight of them received 7s. per Week; Three of them received 6s. 6d. per Week; Nine of them received 6s. per Week; Eight of them received 5s. per Week; Five of them received 4s. per Week; Six of them received 3s. per Week; and One of them received 2s. 6d. per Week.”
“Have you had an Opportunity of observing, whether, in cases where the Labourer’s Wages are made up out of the Poor’s Rates, they are managed as economically as where the Labourer receives the same Amount entirely in consequence of his Labour?” “Perhaps I am not a fair Judge of that, but I am inclined to believe that they are quite as economically managed; and the Wonder has always been to me, how it is possible so small a Sum as the Wages amount to so economically as the Poor do.”
“Is any Addition made to the Wages in Harvest?” “There is, invariably, I believe.”
“To what Amount?” “I think, upon the Average, 2s. a Week in Addition; from Eight to Ten Shillings a Week is the Harvest Price, and they generally add a Pound for the Harvest Month.”
(Select Committee of the House of Lords appointed to consider of the Poor Laws, Minutes of Evidence, 1830-1, Ordered to be printed, 7th December 1830)
(We have similar information from riots in Essex. “… the rioters were in good employment for men in their condition. All those brought before the magistrates were said to be in full employment and receiving wages of 11/- of 12/- a week or more with beer. An examination of the overseer’s accounts of Great Clacton confirms that the ringleaders were not dependent on poor relief before the riots. The thirteen leaders of the Arkenden mob were found to have £ 4 9s. 0d. and six silver watches on them when arrested.”)
(Amos, 1971, pp. 136-137)
With the bushel of wheat at 7 to 8 shillings, these wages as such are just enough for a family to eat well, taking into account the harvest wage, and the extra earnings from task work.
But the bad feeling of some of the labourers in Wiltshire may well have been influenced by the fact that they had had two decreases in wages in the previous 18 months.
“What is the common Rate of Wages in your Parish?” “They were reduced again in the early Part of this Winter to 7s., without the Allowance usual for families; a Man with Two Children had 7s. I think that is lower than in any preceding period; last Year it was 8s. during the Winter, and 9s. during the Summer.”
(Minutes of Evidence, Poor, 1830-1, Rev. Stephen Demainbray, Wiltshire, p. 34)
“ ….. I was asked with regard to the Rate of Wages in the Parish of Long Newnton; there is a considerable Difference between the Rate of Wages in that Part of Wiltshire and the Rate of Wages in the central Part of Wiltshire; in the central and Southern Part the Wages are considerably lower than they are in the Northern. For a great length of time, in both Parts, it has been an invariable Practice of Overseers, where Persons are receiving a very low Rate of Wages, and requiring much more than their Wages to maintain their families, to make up the Difference out of the Poor’s Rates; and the Consequence has been, that in some of those Parishes they have reduced the Wages to a very low Amount; and I am sorry to say that to that we in a great measure attribute the unfortunate State of Insurrection in which the Southern Part of the Country was during the last Autumn. ….”
(House of Lords, Minutes of Evidence … Poor Laws, 1830-1, Mr. Thomas G. B. Estcourt, M. P., referring to Gloucester and Wiltshire, p. 373)
But if the bad feeling among the men was caused by decreases in wages in 1828-30, then we may have doubts that they were hungry in the previous years.
“You had some riots in that neighbourhood, had not you?” “The riots began where the men were best paid.”
“Did the rate of wages rise there?” “Yes, it was 10s. and 11s. there before, and it rose to 12s. and 13s., and it has gone back to 10s. and 12s.; but that is as great now, because the price of wheat is reduced in that proportion.”
(House of Commons, Select Committee on Agriculture, 1833, Mr. Charles Osborn, Farmer, surveyor, and land agent, Havant, Hampshire, p. 465) (Havant “the most easterly part of Hampshire”)
There is a different tone in a letter from the M. P. for Devizes:
“My Lord, I have great satisfaction in informing your Lordship that this country is become perfectly quiet, the poor people having returned to their work with great good humour. I lament that they should have obtained an increase of Wages by such violent means but such is the total want of feeling of the Farmers towards the common labourers that I fear they would never have got it without. Their crying wants would never have reached the unfeeling hearts of these people otherwise. In most of the villages mostly agricultural they paid the labourer only 7/- a week and in Hungerford 8/- a week whearas by common consent they ought to receive 10/-. I am speaking of course of able bodied labourers – lesser wages will be paid to others according to their power of earning their pay. I never saw such happiness as has been produced by this change. It is a great step from 7 or 8 to 10/-, more than they ever expected to receive but no more than meets their want. “
(Letter of John Pearse, M. P. for Devizes, to the Home Secretary, 5th December 1830)
The labourers in Wiltshire (3 % of the agricultural labourers in England) did have, probably, the lowest basic wages in England in 1830. But they had a great advantage … the allotments. Wiltshire was generally supposed to have the largest number of allotments in England. With these plots of ground, rented from the farmer, the labourer could grow potatoes, barley and wheat; the larger part of the potato crop was eaten by himself and his family. A part of the potato crop, together sometimes with barley, would be used to fatten a pig, which could be sold or eaten. Another advantage was that the labourer could work on his plot, on those days when the farmer had no work for him.
Cobbett found a large number of labourers working their potato plots in Wiltshire in 1830.
“As I came on the road, for the first three or four miles, I saw great numbers of labourers either digging potatoes for their Sunday’s dinner, or coming home with them, or going out to dig them. The land-owners, or occupiers, let small pieces of land to the labourers, and these they cultivate with the spade for their own use. They pay, in all cases a high rent, and, in most cases, an enormous one. The practice prevails all the way from Warminster to Devizes, and from Devizes to nearly this place (Highworth). The rent is, in some places, a shilling a rod, which is, mind, 160s. or 8l. an acre!. Still the poor creatures like to have the land: they work in it at their spare hours; and on Sunday mornings early: and the overseers, sharp as they may be, cannot ascertain precisely how much they get out of their plot of ground.”
(Cobbett, Rural Rides, 1830, road from Devizes to Highworth, September 1826, p. 439)
“A little way before I got to TUTBURY I saw a woman digging some potatoes, in a strip of ground, making part of a field, nearly an oblong square, and which field appeared to be laid out in strips. She told me, that the field was part of a farm (to the homestead of which she pointed); that it was, by the farmer, let out in strips to labouring people; that each strip contained a rood (or quarter of a statute acre); that each married labourer rented one strip; and that the annual rent was a pound for the strip. Now, the taxes being all paid by the farmer; the fences being kept in repair by him; and, as appeared to me, the land being exceedingly good; all these things being considered, the rent does not appear to be too high.- This fashion is certainly a growing one; it is a little step towards a coming back to the ancient small life and lease holds and common-fields! This field of strips was, in fact, a sort of common-field; ….. “
…………..
…….. The far greater of these strips of land have potatoes growing in them; but, in some cases, they have borne wheat, and, in others, barley, this year; and these now have turnips; very young, most of them, but, in some places, very fine, and, in every instance, nicely hoed out. The land that will bear 400 bushels to the acre, will bear 40 bushels of wheat; and, the ten bushels of wheat, to the quarter of an acre, would be a crop far more valuable than a hundred bushels of potatoes, as I have proved many times, in the Register.”
(Cobbett, Rural Rides, 1830, Tutbury, road from Marlborough to Gloucester, September 1826, pp. 474-475)
Cobbett gives us information about disturbances in other counties:
(Suffolk) “On Monday morning, at a very early hour, labourers, to the number of at least eighty or ninety, met in the parishes of Sturry and Westbene, and proceeding fron farm to farm, forced every man to join their body, who did not receive wages to the amount of half-a-crown a day, which they had fixed as the minimum. In many instances they were unsuccessful, as the workmen refused to accompany them.”
(Cobbett, Political Register, Vol. 70, Labourers’ War, Suffolk, 20th November 1830, p. 791)
(Norfolk) “Some of the farmers are now breaking their own thrashing-machines, in order to keep the mob off their premises.”
(Cobbett, Political Register, Vol. 70, State of the Country, Suffolk, 4th December 1830, p. 914)
(Gloucester) “On Wednesday morning a mob of between 2 and 300 persons surrounded the farm of Mr. Allen, at Iver, and began to pull it down. They were, however, opposed by the Magistrates and a strong party of constables, and several of the ringleaders were taken into custody. Some of the men who were captured were in full employ, and receiving 12s. per week.”
(Cobbett, Political Register, Vol. 70, Rural War, Gloucestershire, 11th December 1830, p. 982)
(Bedfordshire) “On Thursday, a desperate riot took place in the village of Stotfield, Bedfordshire. For some days previous, indications of the pending storm were discoverable in the conduct and declarations of the labouring classes. On Wednesday evening, they began to assemble, and many of the more peaceable inhabitants were forcibly dragged from their beds; and compelled to join the rabble. They then proceeded to the residences of the more respectable inhabitants, demanding an increase of wages, &c.”
(Cobbett, Political Register, Vol. 70, Rural War, Bedfordshire, 11th December 1830, p. 983)
