In the winter of 1830-31 the agricultural labourers of southern and eastern England showed that they
In the winter of 1830-31 the agricultural labourers of southern and eastern England showed that they would endure desperate poverty and hardship no longer.The Swing Riots were a widespread uprising by agricultural workers; it began with the destruction of threshing machines in the Elham Valley area of East Kent in the summer of 1830, and by early December had spread throughout the whole of southern England and East Anglia. The upheaval of protest, usually referred to as the ‘Swing’ riots, was principally a response to low wages, inadequate poor law allowances and the labour-displacing effect of threshing-machines which took away one of the few remaining opportunities for work during the winter months. Hampshire was one of the counties most severely affected by the protest and it was the first to experience the systematic, chillingly deliberate judicial terror by which protest was repressed. Men from Cliddesden were involved in two incidents. The first was on Friday 19th November when John Gold and William Astridge acted as spokesmen for a mob of some 50 labourers at Down Grange, Basingstoke, demanding money from the widow Cassandra Hankey. This was resolved peacefully with the gift of a guinea, whisky and water for all concerned and a promise by Mrs. Hankey’s bailiff to write next day to the farmers on their behalf. -- source link
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