When you stay at a
posh gastro-pub like the Red Lion,
Just by the River
Avon at East Chisenbury, near Pewsey,
With a prehistoric,
Saxon, medieval and tranquil landscape all around,
It’s hard to remember
that you are deep in Captain Swing land:
‘ In taking my leave
of this beautiful vale I have to express my deep shame, as an Englishman, at
beholding the general extreme poverty of those that cause this vale to produce
such quantities of food and rainment. This is, I verily believe it, the worst
used labouring people upon the face of the earth. Dogs and hogs and horses are
treated with more civility; and as to food and lodging, how gladly would the
labourers change with them!”
Sunday November 21st
1830, is when it all kicked off,
With 200 labourers demanding
higher wages
And an end ‘To them
damned threshing machines’;
Sir Edward Poore met
the labourers at Manningham:
“I am satisfied that
your wages ought to be raised and I will do my utmost to obtain for you a more
adequate compensation for your labour”,
And he tossed them a
sovereign and believed order had been restored.
But a sense that the
old moral economy would prevail over new and base capitalism,
Encouraged the
rioters, and in a long chat with Augustus Hare, the rector of Alton Barnes,
They said that a
magistrate had informed them that they would be breaking no laws
If they were to smash
the threshing machines with their hammers and iron bars.
So they marched from
the wharf at Honey Street,
Allington, All Cannings, Patney, Maningham
Abbots and Woodborough,
Until some 250 men
met at the Rose and Crown at Little Woodborough,
Had their customary
bread, cheese and beer,
Then smashed
machinery (threshing, chaff-cutting and haymaking machines)
At farms in
Woodborough, demanding money from farmers
(John Clift at Church
Farm offered two half-crowns –
It needed another ten
shillings before they dispersed),
They then traversed
the bridge over the canal at Honey Street,
And so to Alton
Barnes and Manor Farm, next to the church.
The tenant (Robert
Pile) had been to Marlborough, with the yeomanry,
Putting down riots at
Rockley,
But returned to use
pistol and shotgun against the labourers as they tried to wreck machinery;
He was attacked, in
turn: “God damn your blood, you tried to shoot me, and now I’ll do for you”.
The rioters dispersed
after attacking the house and receiving a ten pound note;
They moved on to
Stanton St. Bernard, then back to the Rose & Crown,
Where the yeomanry captured
28, before taking them to prison in Devizes
(En route an attempt
was made to rescue the prisoners at Chirton),
Two sentences of
death (Charles Davis and Laban Stone) were handed out,
Commuted to transportation;
The yeomanry remained
on alert,
But the new poor law
would soon do its work,
And the labourers
were rendered docile for a generation,
Until ‘Hodge’
listened to Joseph Arch
And a trade union was
born.
November 24th 1830 --
About two o’clock we were summoned by two half drunken men who professed to be
„sent on‟. They came to the door and asked for money, “any trifle‟, announcing
that two hundred were coming at their heels. After failing of their errand,
they went down to Pile’s House opposite, whither I followed them. He was gone
to Marlborough, and there was none but the women in the house. As the only
chance, I had the church bells rung, but none of the labourers came; perhaps
they were too far off, and did not hear. About ten minutes after the troop
arrived. The machine had been taken to pieces, but that did not satisfy them;
they must break it. And breaking it they were, when Pile dashed in on
horseback, and fired … they dragged him down, and have nearly killed him. Then
they burst into the house and broke everything to pieces, and for sometime I
expected they would serve us in the same way; so irritated were they, and so
mad with drink. Indeed they talked of coming back tonight and burning down all
his ricks and barns … The Yeomanry were here by six and I have just heard that
they have surprised several of the rioters in the public house at Woodborough.
(Letter of Augustus Hare)
November 25th 1830 --
We have had no further alarm beyond the many reports, of which, if we believed
one half, one could not have much rest…… Troops are at Devizes and Marlborough.
We have our own special constables, patrols and fire engines and I trust are in
a better state of preparation than we were. Poor Mr. Pile is not out of danger,
I fear, though I hope he will do well. A large fireball was found in his field
the morning after the attack. We hear of five great fires over the hills
towards Calne, and at Salisbury dreadful work is going on. Our ring leaders are
chiefly taken and we had the pleasure of seeing some of them go past with the
cavalry yesterday morning. All the villages round about us seemed to have
contributed their fair share of men, and I fear there are some very bad ones
amongst them. Our village had not one, and only two were from Great Alton
(Alton Priors), but of course they all rejoice secretly at what is being done
to bring them greater wages. At the same time some of them are frightened to
death, and the wives come crying about their husbands, they are sure they will
get their heads broken. At all hours people are coming - farmers to consult
about what should be done, and with fresh stories. In short, we live in a
strange nervous state; and if we do not make an example, and that speedily, of
some of the worst, there will be no end to these outrages …
The greater part of our rioters are men who earn from twelve
to twenty shillings a week at the wharf and spend it all in the beer shops. (Letter of Maria Hare)
November 26th 1830 -- The activity of the magistrates and
yeomanry have struck a panic which will, I trust, spare us any further alarm.
Yesterday a Bow Street Officer came to get information. He came out of Kent and
says his own impression is certainly that the fires proceed from the people of
the country. He hoped to have got a good clue to one of our incendiaries. The chiefs of our ring leaders are in custody
and Augustus went this morning with Mr. Miller to identify some of the
prisoners. He was doubtful about one, till the man put an end to his hesitation
by saying, “You, Sir, can witness I was not breaking the machine, for I was
talking to you.” I have written so confusedly before that I think you will have
no clear idea of my share of the day, so I will tell you what I saw. On the
approach of the troop, as they came over the bridge, Augustus said to me “Go
home and keep in the house” and so amid the cook’s entreaties that “master
would come home too”, which I knew was in vain, we betook ourselves to the
house, locked and bolted the doors and windows, and had just retreated upstairs
when a thundering knock came at the front door. Finding my plan of concealment
would not do, I presented myself at the drawing room window and held a parley
with them. “They wanted to do no harm”. “What have you got those clubs and
hammers for, then?” I refused money and went away, but the continued knocking,
and threats of breaking doors and windows, soon made me pull out some shillings
and throw to them, with which they went away content. Meanwhile I saw in the
churchyard all the women and children collected; leaning over the wall of Mr.
Pile’s yard I could distinguish Augustus and one or two others; and in the farm
yard and all round it were a mob, with shouts, hammering the machines to
pieces. I suppose this had gone on for about twenty minutes or half an hour
when we (the cook and myself, for the other servants were all gone nearer the
scene of the action) heard a tremendous gallop, and in an instant saw Mr. Pile
riding furiously amongst the mob, who gave way directly, and had he kept his
ground there, all had been well. There was a confusion, and all I could
distinguish was that the farmyard was cleared; a report of a gun came from the
ricks behind the barns, there was a great scream set up, loud shouts, and to my
horror I saw Augustus and those with his rush into the field amongst them.
However, the alarm for him was not long; after a few minutes I distinguished
him leaving the crowd, and making his way to the house, and never did my legs
carry me more willingly than as I flew down the stairs to open him the door.
When I again got to my station the mob were all come round and advancing upon
the Pile’s house, and the noise was terrible of breaking their windows and
doors. As they had vowed vengeance against Augustus for having brought the gun
out of the house, he kept out of sight, whilst I sent away the few who came for
money, and who were easily contented. After they had completed their
destruction at Mr. Pile’s, which was not till the poor mangled victim was
brought downstairs again, and had given them £10, we had the satisfaction of
seeing them file away across the fields to Great Alton. In about half an hour they
returned to break the Crowe’s machine which we had put in the field, and then
we saw no more of them; but as they went off to Stanton, declaring of their
intention of returning at night, it was an amazing relief when Mr. G. and some
other men arrived, who said they had just left Devizes, and heard the troops
ordered “on Alton‟. And so ended our
siege, which it must be owned was as little resisted as ever enemy was; but the
best labourers were all at a distance, and those near, far too frightened to
give any help. (Maria Hare)
December 10th 1830 -- 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 half of the
discontented, are men who spend their money at the beer shops, and who might
get ample if they chose, it 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. (Maria
Hare)
