North East History North East History Volume 39 2008 ISSN 14743248 NORTHUMBERLAND © 2008
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north east history north east history Volume 39 2008 ISSN 14743248 NORTHUMBERLAND © 2008 Printed by Azure Printing Units 1 F & G Pegswood Industrial Estate TYNE & Pegswood WEAR Morpeth Northumberland NE61 6HZ Tel: 01670 510271 DURHAM TEESSIDE Editorial Collective: Willie Thompson (Editor) John Charlton, John Creaby, Sandy Irvine, Lewis Mates, Marie-Thérèse Mayne, Paul Mayne, Matt Perry, Ben Sellers, Win Stokes (Reviews Editor) and Don Watson . journal of the north east labour history society www.nelh.net north east history north east history Contents Recollections Editorial 5 Notes on Contributors 7 John Toft interview with John Creaby 153 Douglas Malloch interview with John Charlton 179 Acknowledgements and Permissions 8 Educating René pt. 1 René Chaplin 191 Articles and Essays 9 Poem Special Theme – Slavery, Abolition and North East England Splinters (For my Father) (Keith Armstrong) 198 Introduction John Charlton 9 Appreciations Black People and the North East Sean Creighton 11 America, Slavery and North East Quakers Patricia Hix 25 Bill Griffiths Bill Lancaster 200 The Republic of Letters Peter Livsey 45 Don Edwards John Charlton 205 A Northumbrian Family in Jamaica - The Hendersons of Tony Hepburn Fergus Campbell 208 Felton Valerie Glass 54 Sunderland and Abolition Tamsin Lilley 67 Reviews Articles Lewis H. Mates, The Spanish Civil War and British Left: Political Activism and the Popular Front (Keith Armstrong) 211 1819:Waterloo, Peterloo and Newcastle Town Moor Malcolm Chase, Chartism – A New History (Matt Perry) 221 John Charlton 79 Jill Liddington, Rebel Girls: Their Fight for the Vote Chartism – Repression of Restraint? Ben Nixon 109 (Val Duncan) 224 Smallpox Vaccination Controversy Candice Brockwell 121 Robert Lee, The Church of England and the Durham The Society’s Fortieth Anniversary Stuart Howard 137 Coalfield – Clergymen, Capitalists and Colliers; (Win Stokes) 227 People's Theatre: People's Education Keith Armstrong 144 Byran Talbot, Alice in Sunderland – an Entertainment (Win Stokes) 229 Bill Griffiths (compiler) Pitmatic: The Talk of the North East Coalfield ; A Dictionary of North East Dialect (Michael Chaplin) 230 2 3 north east history north east history Jane Bowen, ed., and Members of the Belford and District EDITORIAL Local History Society, Aspects of Belford (John Charlton) 235 Jacky Longstaff & Chris Wharton, Room: photographs & essays from the Town Moor, Newcastle upon Tyne (John Charlton) 237 In 1807 the British government was at last pressured (after Kevin Morgan, Gidon Cohen and Andrew Flinn, Communists procrastinating for nearly two decades supposedly to protect British and British Society 1920-1991 (Willie Thompson) 238 liberties from French revolutionaries) into declaring the prohibition Grigor McClelland (ed), Arthur McClelland: From Tyne to of the slave trade which had flourished for nearly a century and Tsar – a cargo steamer’s voyage in 1905 (Nick Howard) 242 a half –though this measure did not abolish slavery itself, which Joan Allen, Joseph Cowen and Popular Radicalism on remained wholly legal in the British Empire (mostly the West Tyneside, 1829-1900; (Nigel Todd) 246 Indies) until 1833 – and even then the slaves were not fully freed Ian Roberts and Bellingham WEA, Telling Tales Out of until five years later. The trade itself continued illegally of course, School: A History of Education in North Tynedale and but at least this was a start. Redesdale from 1870-1944 (Nigel Todd) 248 Forced, or virtually forced, labour in various forms was Dave Renton, Colour Blind? Race and Migration in intrinsic to the Industrial Revolution; slavery was the tip of the North East England Since 1945 (Nigel Todd) 250 iceberg. Marx commented on the most advanced form of industrial Ken & Jean Smith, The Great Northern Miners production being tightly linked to the most primitive – Lancashire (Bernard Newbold) 252 cotton mills with the slave plantations in the USA. In commemoration of the bicentenary, North East History At the Back... No. 39 features a selection of items dealing with various aspects North East Labour History Society notebook 255 of connections between the North East, the slave trade, slave Secretary’s Report 256 production and the campaign for abolition. It is surprising to Sid Chaplin Memorial Trophy 260 discover how significant both slave connections and the abolition WEA 2008 Report 261 campaign were to the North East, as had been generally assumed Enthusiasms 264 that, so far as slavery was concerned, the west coast and its ports Constitution 265 were the only really important areas. These article provides the main Public Meetings 266 section of the issue. 2008 also sees the 40th anniversary of the North East Labour History Society’s foundation and we are publishing in this issue a special article by Stuart Howard to mark the event. The article is based on an interview with Archie Potts, a founder member of the Society and well known to our readers. 4 5 north east history north east history It is accompanied by articles dealing with labour struggles NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS along with social and cultural issues in the region during the nineteenth century – principally an account of the strike action Keith Armstrong is a poet, freelance writer and community and radical agitation in Newcastle in 1819; the authorities response publisher living in Whitley Bay. He was awarded a doctorate at the to Chartist activity later in the century; the issue of compulsory University of Durham in 2007 for his work on Jack Common. An vaccination towards its end and a first-hand account of the archive of Armstrong's literary output is available for consultation Newcastle People's Theatre. Poetry, an innovation in North East at Durham University's Palace Green Library. History and is represented in this number with a striking poem by Candice Brockwell, graduated from Newcastle University in 2007 Keith Armstrong. and is currently completing a masters in British History there on The next main section takes us into life histories in the Victorian Sexuality and the Beetons. Here article is adapted from twentieth century, two in the form of a lengthy interviews with the dissertation which won her the Sid Chaplin Prize. labour activists John Toft and Dougie Malloch, another the other John Charlton was born and educated in Newcastle. He taught the first part of an engaging and thoughtful account by Rene history at Leeds Polytechnic and Leeds University for thirty years Chaplin of her early life. The section following consists of a number before returning ‘home’. His published work includes books on of obituaries of recently deceased Society members and friends. Chartism and New Unionism. His new book, The Slavery Business Reviews on a variety of themes complete the main part of this and North East England will be published in October 2008. He is number, ranging from an analysis of Chartism to a striking and very Secretary of the North East Labour History Society. innovative history of Sunderland in comic-book but very substantial Sean Creighton is a freelance historian. He was Archival Mapping format, and is followed by the usual reports and announcements and Research Officer for the Tyne & Wear Remembering Slavery which keep members and the public in touch with what the Society Project 2007. He is volunteer co-ordinator of the North East is doing. Slavery & Abolition Group. His historical involvements include North East History welcomes articles and short items labour, mutual and social action, UK Black & Asian, and culture. submitted for publication and is particularly keen to encourage new www.seancreighton.co.uk writers on any relevant historical subject. Valerie Glass became interested in Caribbean History through teaching pupils of Caribbean origin in Primary Schools in Bedford, Leicester and Leeds. She retired from her position as Head Teacher in 2004 and now lives in North Northumberland. She is Secretary of the local branch of the Northumberland and Durham Family History Society. Patricia Hix taught in Hampshire Primary Schools with special responsibility for Environmental Studies including History. She 6 7 north east history north east history became Hampshire's Multicultural Development Officer and then SPECIAL THEME Intercultural Resources Officer. From 1991 until she retired, she was Slide Librarian and then Lecture Service Co-ordinator for the National Trust. Her special interests are social history and the history of race relations. She is currently secretary to both Fawdon and Coxlodge Local History Society and the Association of Northumberland History Societies. (At the time of writing,) Tamsin Lilley was Curatorial Assistant for the Tyne and Wear Museums' Remembering Slavery 2007 programme. She is now working as Heritage Officer for the Greater Morpeth Development Remembering Slavery: Trust, working with the local community to develop and promote some north east connections Morpeth's heritage. Peter Livsey was Senior Education Inspector - Secondary with Durham LEA. He is a member of the Literary and Philosophical Introduction Society and was a volunteer on projects commemorating the The ending of the slave trade in the British Empire in 1807 was marked abolition of the transatlantic slave trade. last year with a range of commemorative activities across the British Ben James Nixon is a postgraduate at Newcastle University and a Isles. As part of the north east’s contribution four archives [Tyne & Wear, native of Wallsend. He is a self-proclaimed all-rounder with interests Northumberland, Robinson Library Special Collections and the Lit & ranging from the Classical World to the Modern period. He looks Phil] made a successful Heritage Lottery bid to conduct a deep search forward to a restful break and seeing his work on Chartism in print. of their records for evidence of connections between the area and the business of slavery and the campaigns to abolish it. A team of volunteers was assembled. Very few of them had previous experience of historical Acknowledgements and permissions research but they applied themselves with enormous enthusiasm to the task.