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Tolpuddle ( also called Tolpuddell & Tolpiddle) is a village and parish on the River Trent or Piddle, it is 7 miles north east from Dorchester. These days it is famous for being the birthplace of the Tolpuddle Martyrs when six farm workers who had a wage of nine shillings a week tried to establish a trade union. The parish church is a stone and flint building dedicated to St John. In Victorian times there was in the village a post office, a small Wesleyan chapel and a National School constructed in 1857. The2040 acres of land are light loam and the chief crops used to be wheat, barley and roots.
In 1891 the population was 288.
On 16th March 1832 Michael Sadler introduced a Bill in Parliament that proposed limiting the hours of all persons under the age of 18 to ten hours a day. After much debate it was clear that Parliament was unwilling to pass Sadler's bill. However, in April 1832 it was agreed that there should be another parliamentary enquiry into child labour. Sadler was made chairman and for the next three months the parliamentary committee interviewed 48 people who had worked in textile factories as children. Sadler discovered that it was common for very young children to be working for over twelve hours a day.
At
the turn of the 19th century high corn prices and low labourers' wages had
led to a several years of unrest, with incidents of rural sabotage and
numerous uprisings.
In March 1834 six English farm labourers were sentenced to 7 years transportation to a penal colony in Australia for Trade Union activities. The labourers were arrested ostensibly for administrating unlawful oaths, but the real reason was because they were trying to protest at their already meagre wages. The labourers at Tolpuddle lived in meagre poverty on just 7 shillings a week and wanted an increase to 10 shillings (50 Pence in today’s money), but instead the wages were cut to 6 shillings a week.
The
Whig government had become alarmed at the working class discontent in the
country at this time. The government and the landowners, led by James
Frampton, were determined to squash the union and to control increasing
outbreaks of dissent. Six of the Tolpuddle labourers were arrested: George
and James Loveless, James Brine, James Hammett, Thomas Stansfield and his
son John. It was George Loveless who had established the Friendly Society of
Agricultural Workers in Tolpuddle. At their trial the judge and jury were
hostile, and the six were sentenced to 7 years transportation to Australia.
After the trial many public protest meetings were held and there was uproar
throughout the country at this sentence, so the prisoners were hastily
transported to Australia without delay. The people were incensed at this
treatment and after 250,000 people signed a petition and a procession of
30,000 people marched down Whitehall in support of the labourers, the
sentences were remitted. After some delay, the six were given a free passage
home from Australia.
The
tree under which the 'martyrs' met is now very old and reduced to a stump,
but it has become a place of pilgrimage in Tolpuddle, where it is known as
the 'Martyrs Tree'. A commemorative seat and shelter was erected in 1934 on
the green by the wealthy London draper Sir Ernest Debenham.
The
Tolpuddle Martyrs contributed a proud chapter in the history of Trade
Unionism and in 1934 the T.U.C. erected six memorial cottages in the
village. Once a year, leading socialist politicians, under colorful banners,
march past the green where now a commemorative seat and shelter have
been erected.
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The Morning Chronicle (London), Thursday, March 20, 1834. This newspaper cutting gives the Dorchester Crown Court hearing details. (This will open in a separate window) |
The Martyr's Tree' Tolpuddle |
Diet
was basic - tea, bread and potatoes. As a result, the people were badly
nourished and small.
Wages
of 9 or 10 shillings a week reduced families to starvation level unless they
could be supplemented by working wives and children.
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