The National Agricultural Labourers' Union

     The End of the 19^th Century

 

They called it ‘The Golden Age of Farming’:

The end of the Corn Laws, 1846,

Until Depression, 1873,

When foreign competition, the prairies,

Refrigeration and also steam ships,

Saw farm jobs drop by a third in our county,

With hardly a farm job left for a woman;

A 10 hour day with extra at harvest,

Shepherds and cowmen working the whole day,

Damp, cramped cottage for a home, no rights,

Children working long hours as well;

Some farm workers were content, I don’t deny,

But our children lacked an education,

And we had no vote – it was degrading,

We were backward and poverty stricken,

That’s why Joseph Arch’s union spread here,

The National Agricultural Labourers’ Union!

Imagine! A nine and a half hour day!

Thanks to William Yeats, the Stroud mechanic,

And Joseph Banks, the Slad Road chemist,

We had a lot of hot summer meetings

In Stroud and the Valley villages,

In 1872, I think it was,

With Mr Banks calling for an end to truck,

Calling for shorter hours and higher wages:

‘In sterling money, not fat bacon …or a couple of swedes,’

Is what I remember him eloquently saying

At the meeting in Stroud we all went to.

We went to another big meeting too,

All about emigration and empire,

Thomas Connolly, a London stonemason,

Talked about the wonders of Canada:

‘ Which could accept up to 100,000 people

Every year without causing a glut on the labour market.’

He said you could get three meals a day and good wages -

That’s why I am so lonely; all my boys have gone,

And my daughter is about to emigrate, too.

The joy has gone from my life,

An occasional letter ends up wet with tears,

And I don’t see how I can escape the workhouse,

Mr Hardy might write his novels about these things,

And the painters might paint their pictures,

But there is no romance in the story of my life