Nottingham Rising
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Nottingham Rising The Great Cheese Riot of 1766 & the 1831 Reform Riots Valentine Yarnspinner Loaf On A Stick Press Nottingham Dedicated to the lawless rabble. Nottingham Rising The Great Cheese Riot of 1766 & the 1831 Reform Riots Valentine Yarnspinner Published by www.peopleshistreh.wordpress.com [email protected] Free digital edition. Nottingham, November 2014 Distribute and quote as you like (non-commercial use only!). References are not only helpful to those reading anything based on this work, but also polite. Paperback version: ISBN 978-0-9569139-6-8 Original pamphlets To the Castle!... and Damn his Charity… first published in 2010 and 2011. Acknowledgements We owe thanks to many people who continue to help us with our projects. There are of course the librarians at the Local Studies Library, the archivists at Nottinghamshire Archives, the University of Nottingham’s Manuscripts and Special Collections department, as well as at the National Archives (may all their budgets never be cut). We also want to express our gratitude to those working and volunteering at that marvellous hidden gem right in Nottingham city centre, Bromley House Library. We very much thank all our comrades, friends and families who have supported us in many ways, especially by being very patient with us.1 We are also very grateful to all the booksellers and stallholders who agreed to flog our stuff, as well as all those individuals and groups who have advertised and supported our activities, especially our friends from the Nottingham Women’s History Group.2 Of course we owe much gratitude to all those researchers and writers without whose books and papers we would not even have been able to start the projects resulting in this little book. Special thanks must go to Richard Gaunt from the University of Nottingham, whose extensive and meticulous work, especially with the Duke of Newcastle’s diaries, has proved to be invaluable as well as highly entertaining. Richard has also repeatedly done an excellent performance of Newcastle’s words during our guided walks ‘To the Castle!’. Indeed, it is our many friends’ and comrades’ awesome and powerful performances that bring these events to life, so thanks to everyone who has helped with our walks, especially Colin for his passionate contributions, gleefully voiced with the perfect local twang. Finally, we would very much like to thank you, the reader who picked up this book and all the people who come to our talks and events. We continue to be delighted as well as astounded by how many people have joined us over the years in commemorating all those who stirred things up over the course of the city’s and county’s turbulent history. You keep us motivated to keep on digging for weird and wonderful, but also tragic and infuriating stories from our tumultuous past. 1 Given that ‘To a Worm in Horseradish, the World is Horseradish’, many an enthusiastic researcher has tested her/his peers’ patience with going on just a little bit too much about their respective project. 2 Please see www.nottinghamwomenshistory.org.uk for further information on the NWHG group and their current program of talks and guided walks. Contents Foreword to this edition .............................................................. 7 Damn his Charity! ...................................................................... 9 Introduction ............................................................................................. 9 1. Cake and Orwell ............................................................................... 11 2. Nottingham’s Great Cheese Riot ................................................... 14 3. Patterns of direct action ................................................................. 18 3.1. Enforcement of price reductions ......................................... 19 3.2. Expropriations ..................................................................... 21 3.3. Stopping the export of provisions ....................................... 22 3.4. Smashing up property ......................................................... 23 3.5. Clashes with constables, soldiers, gentlemen ‘&c.’ ............ 24 3.6. Arrests and liberation attempts .......................................... 29 4. Preventative appeasement ............................................................. 33 4.1. Measures to cap prices......................................................... 33 4.2. Threats and blame ............................................................... 37 5. The depiction and identities of the rioters ................................... 40 6. (Silly) explanations for rioting and price developments .............. 44 Conclusions ............................................................................................50 Appendices ............................................................................................. 53 I. Weights and Money ............................................................. 53 II. Summary of the Food Riots ................................................. 54 Bibliography ........................................................................................... 58 To the Castle! ............................................................................ 60 Introduction .......................................................................................... 60 1. The Setting ...................................................................................... 64 1.1. The reputation of Nottingham’s crowds ............................. 64 1.2. The ‘Garden Town’ ‘sinks into slime’ .................................. 65 1.3. Industries in Nottingham .................................................... 69 1.4. Living and working conditions ............................................ 71 1.5. The struggle for parliamentary reform ............................... 76 2. The Reform Riots ........................................................................... 83 2.1. Sunday ................................................................................. 83 2.2. Monday ................................................................................ 89 2.3. Tuesday ................................................................................. 95 2.4. Wednesday and Thursday ................................................... 99 2.5. Riots in other parts of the country ...................................... 99 3. The aftermath ............................................................................... 102 3.1. Praise for the soldiers, the scaffold for the rioters ........... 103 3.2. Newcastle’s compensation................................................. 109 3.3. The Third Reform Bill ......................................................... 115 4. Looking at and glimpsing into the crowds .................................. 119 4.1. Dreading the crowds .......................................................... 119 4.2. Spotting faces in the crowd ............................................... 122 4.3. Rioting for the Reform Bill, bounty or class war? ............ 126 Conclusions .......................................................................................... 135 Appendices ........................................................................................... 138 I. Timeline of the Nottingham Reform Riots ....................... 138 II. Alleged rioters .................................................................... 143 III. The rioters’ targets ............................................................. 147 IV. The early nineteenth century electoral system................. 149 V. The Castle ............................................................................ 151 VI. The attack on Colwick Hall ................................................ 152 VII. Impressions of a burning castle ........................................ 153 VIII. The attack on Lowe’s mill .................................................. 154 IX. The shooting of Thomas Auckland ................................... 155 X. The Special Assize .............................................................. 156 XI. Miscellaneous ..................................................................... 158 XII. Maps ................................................................................... 159 XIII. Images ................................................................................ 163 XIV. Timeline of riots in Nottingham 1766-1831 ...................... 166 Bibliography ......................................................................................... 168 Foreword to this edition Writing a foreword is a weird and daunting thing to do. Ideally you get a clever and well respected person to praise your work. Alternatively you write something deep yet catchy yourself, allowing the reader to dive into the subject matter with a smile on their face and well-chosen words of wisdom resonating in their mind. If you expect either of that, better skip this passage now and just get on with the book. We, the People’s Histreh group, are a small circle of friends, united also by a shared passion for history and a deeply felt aversion to the past and present state of power and production relations dominating our society, as well as revulsion for those upholding or trying to change them for the worse. A few years ago, a memorable event with the late Ray Gosling at Nottingham’s fabulous Sparrows’ Nest3 eventually led to us meeting up every now and then to eat significant amounts of cake, and