North East History North North East History Volume 47 East • A Home Rule Hotbed • The Cult of the Savoury Succulent • Welfare Work and Women’s Rights in Newcastle History upon Tyne during the Great War North East History Volume 47 2016 • Radical Voters in the 1835 Newcastle Parliamentary Election • The Genteel Militant. Elizabeth Spence Watson’s Work for Women’s Suffrage and Peace • We Need to Talk about the Secondary Moderns. A Conversation about a Local History Project • Heroes all at the Royal Albert Hall • Campaigning at Craigielea • NUPE in the North. Union Organising and 47 2016 Activism • Ruskin College, Oxford 1956-58 • Terry Conway, Folksinger, Songwriter, and Working Man, 1943-2013 Front cover: Students from Ruskin College, Oxford, including two from the north east, protest against In Place of Strife in 1969. Reproduced courtesy of Nigel Todd The north east labour history society holds regular meetings on a wide variety of subjects. The society welcomes new members. We have an increasingly busy web-site at www.nelh.org Supporters are welcome to contribute to discussions Journal of the North East Labour History Society Volume 47 http://nelh.org/ 2016 Journal of the North East Labour History Society north east history North East Volume 47 2016 History ISSN 14743248 © 2016 NORTHUMBERLAND Printed by Azure Printing Units 1 F & G Pegswood Industrial Estate Pegswood Morpeth TYNE & Northumberland WEAR NE61 6HZ Tel: 01670 510271 DURHAM TEESSIDE Journal of the North East Labour History Society www.nelh.net 1 north east history Contents Note from the Editors 5 How to submit articles 8 Notes on contributors 9 Articles: ‘A Home Rule Hotbed’. Adam Woolley 13 An examination of Anglo-Irish relations in Newcastle upon Tyne, 1850-1890 The ultC of the Savoury Succulent. Brian Bennison 29 Competitive Leek Growing in East Northumberland, 1843-1913 ‘In the thick of help of every description’. Elizabeth O’Donnell 43 Welfare Work and Women’s Rights in Newcastle upon Tyne during the Great War James Aytoun’s Plumpers. Mike Greatbatch 61 Radical Voters in the 1835 Newcastle Parliamentary Election The Genteel Militant. Elizabeth Spence Watson’s Ann Craven 73 Work for Women’s Suffrage and Peace We Need to Talk about the Secondary Moderns. Peter Brabban 87 A Conversation about a Local History Project and Patrick Candon History, Heritage, and Nostalgia. John Stirling 109 How We Remember the Past 2 north east history NUPE in the North. Union Organising Phil Lenton 113 and Activism Campaigning at Craigielea Keith Hodgson 131 Heroes all at the Royal Albert Hall Neil Griffin 133 Ruskin College, Oxford 1956-58 Archie Potts 137 Blitheringly Fantabulous. Nigel Todd 143 Ruskin College 1967-69 Ruskin College 1967-1969 Ruth Todd 151 Ruskin Days Rob Turnbull 159 Terry Conway. Folksinger, Songwriter, and Working Man, Brian Bennison 165 1943-2013 Book Reviews 173 2015 Secretary’s report 187 NELH Officers, Committee Members, and Society contact details 188 Consititution 189 Sid Chaplin Labour History Trophy 191 How to join the society 192 3 north east history 4 north east history Note from the Editors Almost half of this year’s journal articles are what might be termed `oral history’, in that they are written in the first person style and are based on the recollections and first-hand experiences of the authors. As our region’s economy and employment pattern continues to change following what some people have called deindustrialization, it is essential that the histories of workers, trade unionists and Labour activists are recorded whilst the events they describe are still within living memory. Our front cover image depicts a protest march carried out by students of Ruskin College, Oxford, in 1969. Its relevance lies in the presence of two students from our region, and their reflections of how Ruskin College opened up new worlds of experience and opportunities for them are part of our group of articles penned by former Ruskin students. Ruskin College was founded 1899 and from its inception it was part of a broader adult education movement with deep roots in the trade unions: exactly as our four contributors have. The Region has a long history of sending students to Ruskin, with miners making a particularly important contribution to its student community. Ruskin College is still with us today and still offering courses for trade union activists. Education has been a crucial strand within radical and reformist tradition, and with the current Government’s emphasis on Academy status for state-funded schools, it is good to see a discussion on the legacy of the 11-plus examination and the secondary moderns that it produced. At least two of your editors are products of a secondary modern school system (and seem to have done ok) but there is no denying that this system blighted the lives of a great many people from one generation to the next throughout our region. Peter Brabban and Patrick Candon’s `conversation’ format lends itself well to this debate, and hopefully as their work progresses we will publish further articles on this important subject. 5 north east history We start our journal with last year’s winner of our Sid Chaplin Labour History Trophy. Adam Woolley’s study of Anglo-Irish relations reveals the crucial role of established political figures in fostering good inter-ethnic relations, something increasingly relevant to politics and community relations in Britain today. As Woolley says in his conclusion: `In Newcastle’s Joseph Cowen MP, the Irish found their greatest advocate. In his tenure as MP for Newcastle (1874-1886) he tied the Irish cause to his brand of ultra-radicalism; unwaveringly opposing coercion, defending the actions of nationalists and championing Home Rule’. By his personal example and leadership, Cowen thus prevented the anti-Irish and anti-Catholic xenophobia so prevalent elsewhere in Britain during these years. With this year’s centenary of the First World War dominated by events on the Somme, it is good that our journal contains two essays that focus on events closer to home, and in particular the contribution of north east women to society during those tumultuous years. Both essays highlight the activities of an individual, and both these individuals were daughters of middle class industrialist families whose upbringing suited them for a life of leadership in their chosen reformist role. Throughout our region there will be various community based projects commemorating the Great War and those who served, at home as well as overseas. One such project is Fenham Remembers and this too has brought to light the story of a young woman (Ruth Nicholson) for whom the war created an opportunity to demonstrate that women are easily the equal of any man and often significantly better. Details of Ruth are included in the form of an advertisement, which we hope will encourage greater interest and dissemination of similar stories. Finally, a word of encouragement to all those currently engaged in, or thinking about, a labour history research project. Our journal depends on the submission of essay material and we welcome contributions from throughout the region. We encourage the use of endnotes, to help readers identify source material that authors have used in their research, and we hope that these detailed citations are of value to others, by revealing the wealth of archive material readily available, both on-line and in regional 6 north east history archive collections. A set of guidelines is available to help potential authors in preparing and submitting an article to the journal, so please contact us if you have a story to share, be it a local study or a personal history that illustrates the importance of working people, their lives, conflicts, and campaigns. Mike Greatbatch John Stirling Win Stokes Sue Ward 7 north east history How to Submit an Article to the Journal The North East Labour History Society is committed to making our journal reflect the diverse range of historical experiences of working people in the North East region. We aim to reflect all communities and groupings in the North East and would encourage contributions from those who live and work in them, those who research them and those who write about them. We want to hear from individuals, community organisations, local history societies, students and teachers and all who have something to say about our region. If you have a research interest that could form the basis of a written article and would like to discuss this, please contact our Secretary or the Editors – contact details are on page 188. If you have an existing article that you would like to submit for publication, we can send you a set of guidelines to ensure that the article and its endnotes are presented in a format that is appropriate to our journal’s style. The Society holds limited numbers of back issues of the North East History journal, and details of how to obtain copies can be found on the Society’s website: http://nelh.net/ A searchable index of articles and reports can also be found at our website: http://nelh.net/ 8 north east history Notes on Contributors Brian Bennison served as Secretary of the NELHS. He taught for decades at the former Newcastle Polytechnic and has published on local history and social history in various books and journals. For a few years he was simultaneously the President of the Literary & Philosophical Society and chairman of a leek club. Peter Brabban was born in County Durham and attended Burnopfield Secondary Modern School. He worked as a photographer (commercial and documentary) and in the voluntary sector as a campaigns organiser for War on Want, Oxfam, Age Concern and the National Trust.