A Radical History of Birmingham
stuffit | 24.11.2005 18:25 | Birmingham
To coincide with Buy Nothing Day this Saturday, here's a small history highlighting amongst other things how The Bullring has changed from being a public meeting place of much earthly pleasures to something a little more intangible; a place where lifestyles are sold back to us at a premium.
a SMALL RADICAL HISTORY of BYRMYNGHAM
"By the united voice of our historians, it appears, that as the Saxons conquered province after province, which was effected in about one hundred and thirty years, the unfortunate Britons retreated into Wales:
But the danger lies with the man of substance, and the greater that substance, the greater his anxiety to preserve it, and the more danger to himself if conquered: These were the people who retreated into Wales. Neither must we consider the wealth of that day to consist of bags of cash, bills of exchange, India bonds, bank stock, etc. no such thing existed. Property lay in the land, and the herds that fed upon it.
The Saxons, as conquerors, were too proud to follow the modes of the conquered, therefore they introduced government, laws, language, customs and habits of their own.
Hence we date the division of the kingdom into manors.
The family, or surname, entered with William the First, and was soon the reigning taste of the day. Thus the family of whom I speak, chose to dignify themselves with the name of de Birmingham.
1309 - William de Birmingham, Lord of the Manor, took a distress of the inhabitants of Bromsgrove and King's-norton, for refusing to pay the customary tolls of the market. The inhabitants, therefore, brought their action and recovered damage.
1441 – An agreement was entered into, for money instead of homage, between the Lord and the tenant - Such agreements now became common. Thus land became a kind of bastard freehold: The tenant held a certainty, while he conformed to the agreement; or, in other words, the custom of the manor - And the Lord still possessed a material control. "
William Hutton, 1783
1700s – Roads and a postal service facilitated extended political exchange
1715 – Jacobite uprising – mob attacked the Meeting House in Digbeth
1741 – Aris’ Birmingham Gazette – the first local paper.
1781 – Onion Fair – Started off an agricultural event celebrating arrival of the first onion of the season, but it became much more. There were fun-fairs, menageries, theatrical booths, and huge six day piss ups involving gingerbread and swingboats. It was also an important event for itinerant groups with a chance for them to earn a bit.
William Hutton called the Onion Fair ‘ the lowest of low amusement:riot, drunkenness and mishief’
By 1861 the fair was limited to the Bullring and Smithfield area and by 1875 it was banned altogether.
1789 – 90 - The campaign to repeal the Test & Corporations act. This excluded Roman Catholics, Protestant Dissenters and followers of the Jewish faith from public office.
There was a big campaign of dissent linked up with London, Manchester and Warrington. Revolutionary events in France were causing excitement and there were Solidarity Dinners.
1791 – The Priestley Riots
A handbill was produced promoting a dinner on the 14th of June saying that what was happening in Paris should happen here too:
‘But is it possible to forget that our own Parliament is venal? Your minister hypocritical? You clergy legal oppressors? The Reigning Family extravagant? Your taxes partial and excessive? Your Representation a cruel insult upon the Sacred Rights of Property, Religion, and Freedom? –
It was held in Dadleys hotel , in Temple Row to celebrate Bastille Day. Later that evening loyalists to the government surrounded the hotel, broke windows and later made their way to Dr Priestleys house and trashed that too, hence known as the Priestley Riots
1792 – Lecture tour by Thomas Clarkson publicizing the Slave Trade abolition petitions. A local abolitionalist society (Priestly was a member too) claimed that local people were opposed to ‘ any commerce which always originates in violence and often terminates in cruelty’
1795 – Mob of women assaulted Pickfords Mill due to high prices of grain. There were supicions that the market pushed up the price due to scarcity so the women attempted to secure some supplies through other means, but they were driven off by troops.
They attacked again , and the troops open fire killing two people.
1795 – The Two acts becomes law – banning gatherings of more than 40 people.
1800 - Riots at a protest against potato and bread prices.
1805 - James Bisset, a contemporary Birmingham writer and publisher, recalled the changes in the slogans found scratched on walls about the town. In 1791 'Church and King' was quite popular, in 1792 'Damn the Jacobins' and in 1793 'War and Pitt'. By 1800 there had been a bit if a rethink and the far more radical 'No damned rogues in grain', 'No badgers', 'No war', 'Damn Pitt', 'No King, Lords or Commons' and 'Large loaves, peace, no taxes, no tithes, free constitution' appeared. The identities of the graf artists are unclear.
1816 – William Withering wrote from Birmingham to warn the Home Secretary of 'certain indications of a tendency to riotous proceedings'
At the beginning of August Luddite nailers were reported to be plotting an attack on 'the newly invented machinery to press nails' installed at the Britannia Brewery on the outskirts of Birmingham, and Bromford Mill, about a mile outside the town and on 23 August 'some evil spirits' were said to be endeavouring to produce mischief by chalking the cryptic message 'One and All' on the walls.
A crowd of 500 broke the windows first of Richard Jabet, publisher of the antiradical Commercial Herald, then of a baker's shop next door, and finally of one of the constables. On both 28 and 29 October the Riot Act was read and the crowd dispersed.
Riots over the falling price of pig-iron also occurred and immediately afterwards a camp of 2,000 troops was created at Sutton Coldfield. In Birmingham a permanent force of about 200 special constables 'composed of the principal inhabitants' was recruited to aid in maintaining order.
The radical working-class Hampden Club was founded by George Edmonds, a local publisher.
1817 – Newhall Hill meeting led by George Edmonds. It was the first of a famous series of radical gatherings on the Hill. Ten to twenty thousand people were present, though some workmen had been threatened with dismissal by their employers for attending, and the meeting decided in favour of universal suffrage and annual parliaments.
1819 – A new radical club, the Union Society, began to meet in Slaney Street, Snow Hill. The club acquired its own 'Union Rooms', where it was proposed to open a library, a reading room, and a Sunday school. Membership is said to have reached 2,800.
Repressive activity dates from shortly afterwards. On 27 July Isaac Spooner, a Birmingham magistrate, was directed by the Home Office to buy radical books as a preparation for future prosecutions. In August Joseph Russell was convicted for selling Hone's Political Litany.
In the next few months the Treasury spent more than £1,000 on four trials for libel, and other prosecutions were initiated locally. Among those who were harassed in 1819 or 1820 were Edmonds, the booksellers Osborne, Joseph Brandis, and R. Mansfield, and George Ragg, who was prosecuted in December 1819 and sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment. The chairman of the Union Society, Charles Whitworth, was also arrested in December, for an 'inflammatory handbill' printed by Ragg.
1825 - Radical ‘Birmingham Journal’ founded.
1828 – Test and Corporations act repealed.
1832 - Henry Hetherington arrived to spread iideas and information for the National Union of the Working Classes
1832 – Reform Act – This created some political representation where there was none before, but it mainly benefited middle classes. The liberals had become entrenched as councillers, eldermen and magistrates. The economic and social masters of the working class now entered the political realm and dominated there too.
A Poster from 1832 made feelings clear:
“The Whigs are at their dirty work again…No Middle Class Government…No Cotton-Lord Mayors!”
1837 - The Birmingham Political Union was revived – its aims were Universal Suffrage. The revival was celebrated with a mass meeting on Newhall Hill which advanced a programme of parliamentary reform:
1. household suffrage (changed to universal manhood suffrage in November)
2. vote by ballot
3. triennial parliaments
4. payment of MPs
5. abolition of the property qualification for MPs
These set of demands came to be known as the Peoples Charter and the Chartists were born. They came about in response to the Reform Act which didn’t go far enough and which gave the vote to the majority of the male middle classes, but not to the working class. Many people made speeches on the 'betrayal' of the working class and the 'sacrificing' of their 'interests' by the 'misconduct' of the government.
1838 - A rally was held on Newhall Hill, attended by about 200,000 people. Delegates were chosen for the first Chartist Convention.There were diverse voices within the movement, some pacifist and some prepared to use other methods. This is reflected in their slogan 'peaceably if we may, forcibly if we must'
1839 - Regular public meetings held in the Bull Ring, where dense crowds listened to agitational speeches.
13th May - National Chartist Convention Julian Harney addressed huge crowds at Holloway Head with the words, 'It might be if the government began the reign of terror, the people would end it... It might be that the people should oppose them with the musket and the pike'.
17th May - John Fussell, and John Powell , local Chartists organisers arrested. Meetings banned in the Bull Ring.
June 1st - The Charter was presented to Parliment.
4 July - Riots at the Bull ring. Chartists held a meeting and demonstration at the Bull Ring. As gatherings had been banned there since may Central government sent a unit of Metropolitan police on the newly opened railway line . Eye witness account by James Jaffray :
"The police fought their way to the standard bearers and demolished the flags, whilst others knocked down all who opposed them. For a moment they partially cleared the area, but people rallied; some tore down the shutters of the shops; others smashed them in pieces and supplied the crowd with bludgeons; other again picked up heavy stones. The police, who were by this time scattered, were surrounded and most of them overpowered...had it not been for the arrival of the military the entire of them would have fallen a sacrifice to the fury of the people."
5 July - 2 more organisers arrested.
12 July - petition and Charter were rejected by parliament
15 July - More riots in the Bull Ring
A handbill was circulated saying:
Dear brothers!
Now are the times to try men's souls! Are your arms ready? Have you plenty of powder and shot? Have you screwed up your courage to its sticking place? Do you intend to be freemen or slaves? Are you inclined to hope for a fair day's wages for a fair day's work? Ask yourselves these questions, and remember that your safety depends on the strength of your own right arms. How long are you going to allow your mothers, your wives, your children and your sweethearts, to be ever toiling for other peoples' benefit? Nothing can convince tyrants of their folly but gunpowder and steel: so put your trust in God my boys and keep your powder dry. Be patient a day or two, but be ready at a minute's warning; no man knows today what tomorrow may bring forth: be ready then to nourish the tree of liberty
WITH THE BLOOD OF TYRANTS.
First published in the Brave New Brum fanzine - check the www.bravenewbrum.org for details
"By the united voice of our historians, it appears, that as the Saxons conquered province after province, which was effected in about one hundred and thirty years, the unfortunate Britons retreated into Wales:
But the danger lies with the man of substance, and the greater that substance, the greater his anxiety to preserve it, and the more danger to himself if conquered: These were the people who retreated into Wales. Neither must we consider the wealth of that day to consist of bags of cash, bills of exchange, India bonds, bank stock, etc. no such thing existed. Property lay in the land, and the herds that fed upon it.
The Saxons, as conquerors, were too proud to follow the modes of the conquered, therefore they introduced government, laws, language, customs and habits of their own.
Hence we date the division of the kingdom into manors.
The family, or surname, entered with William the First, and was soon the reigning taste of the day. Thus the family of whom I speak, chose to dignify themselves with the name of de Birmingham.
1309 - William de Birmingham, Lord of the Manor, took a distress of the inhabitants of Bromsgrove and King's-norton, for refusing to pay the customary tolls of the market. The inhabitants, therefore, brought their action and recovered damage.
1441 – An agreement was entered into, for money instead of homage, between the Lord and the tenant - Such agreements now became common. Thus land became a kind of bastard freehold: The tenant held a certainty, while he conformed to the agreement; or, in other words, the custom of the manor - And the Lord still possessed a material control. "
William Hutton, 1783
1700s – Roads and a postal service facilitated extended political exchange
1715 – Jacobite uprising – mob attacked the Meeting House in Digbeth
1741 – Aris’ Birmingham Gazette – the first local paper.
1781 – Onion Fair – Started off an agricultural event celebrating arrival of the first onion of the season, but it became much more. There were fun-fairs, menageries, theatrical booths, and huge six day piss ups involving gingerbread and swingboats. It was also an important event for itinerant groups with a chance for them to earn a bit.
William Hutton called the Onion Fair ‘ the lowest of low amusement:riot, drunkenness and mishief’
By 1861 the fair was limited to the Bullring and Smithfield area and by 1875 it was banned altogether.
1789 – 90 - The campaign to repeal the Test & Corporations act. This excluded Roman Catholics, Protestant Dissenters and followers of the Jewish faith from public office.
There was a big campaign of dissent linked up with London, Manchester and Warrington. Revolutionary events in France were causing excitement and there were Solidarity Dinners.
1791 – The Priestley Riots
A handbill was produced promoting a dinner on the 14th of June saying that what was happening in Paris should happen here too:
‘But is it possible to forget that our own Parliament is venal? Your minister hypocritical? You clergy legal oppressors? The Reigning Family extravagant? Your taxes partial and excessive? Your Representation a cruel insult upon the Sacred Rights of Property, Religion, and Freedom? –
It was held in Dadleys hotel , in Temple Row to celebrate Bastille Day. Later that evening loyalists to the government surrounded the hotel, broke windows and later made their way to Dr Priestleys house and trashed that too, hence known as the Priestley Riots
1792 – Lecture tour by Thomas Clarkson publicizing the Slave Trade abolition petitions. A local abolitionalist society (Priestly was a member too) claimed that local people were opposed to ‘ any commerce which always originates in violence and often terminates in cruelty’
1795 – Mob of women assaulted Pickfords Mill due to high prices of grain. There were supicions that the market pushed up the price due to scarcity so the women attempted to secure some supplies through other means, but they were driven off by troops.
They attacked again , and the troops open fire killing two people.
1795 – The Two acts becomes law – banning gatherings of more than 40 people.
1800 - Riots at a protest against potato and bread prices.
1805 - James Bisset, a contemporary Birmingham writer and publisher, recalled the changes in the slogans found scratched on walls about the town. In 1791 'Church and King' was quite popular, in 1792 'Damn the Jacobins' and in 1793 'War and Pitt'. By 1800 there had been a bit if a rethink and the far more radical 'No damned rogues in grain', 'No badgers', 'No war', 'Damn Pitt', 'No King, Lords or Commons' and 'Large loaves, peace, no taxes, no tithes, free constitution' appeared. The identities of the graf artists are unclear.
1816 – William Withering wrote from Birmingham to warn the Home Secretary of 'certain indications of a tendency to riotous proceedings'
At the beginning of August Luddite nailers were reported to be plotting an attack on 'the newly invented machinery to press nails' installed at the Britannia Brewery on the outskirts of Birmingham, and Bromford Mill, about a mile outside the town and on 23 August 'some evil spirits' were said to be endeavouring to produce mischief by chalking the cryptic message 'One and All' on the walls.
A crowd of 500 broke the windows first of Richard Jabet, publisher of the antiradical Commercial Herald, then of a baker's shop next door, and finally of one of the constables. On both 28 and 29 October the Riot Act was read and the crowd dispersed.
Riots over the falling price of pig-iron also occurred and immediately afterwards a camp of 2,000 troops was created at Sutton Coldfield. In Birmingham a permanent force of about 200 special constables 'composed of the principal inhabitants' was recruited to aid in maintaining order.
The radical working-class Hampden Club was founded by George Edmonds, a local publisher.
1817 – Newhall Hill meeting led by George Edmonds. It was the first of a famous series of radical gatherings on the Hill. Ten to twenty thousand people were present, though some workmen had been threatened with dismissal by their employers for attending, and the meeting decided in favour of universal suffrage and annual parliaments.
1819 – A new radical club, the Union Society, began to meet in Slaney Street, Snow Hill. The club acquired its own 'Union Rooms', where it was proposed to open a library, a reading room, and a Sunday school. Membership is said to have reached 2,800.
Repressive activity dates from shortly afterwards. On 27 July Isaac Spooner, a Birmingham magistrate, was directed by the Home Office to buy radical books as a preparation for future prosecutions. In August Joseph Russell was convicted for selling Hone's Political Litany.
In the next few months the Treasury spent more than £1,000 on four trials for libel, and other prosecutions were initiated locally. Among those who were harassed in 1819 or 1820 were Edmonds, the booksellers Osborne, Joseph Brandis, and R. Mansfield, and George Ragg, who was prosecuted in December 1819 and sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment. The chairman of the Union Society, Charles Whitworth, was also arrested in December, for an 'inflammatory handbill' printed by Ragg.
1825 - Radical ‘Birmingham Journal’ founded.
1828 – Test and Corporations act repealed.
1832 - Henry Hetherington arrived to spread iideas and information for the National Union of the Working Classes
1832 – Reform Act – This created some political representation where there was none before, but it mainly benefited middle classes. The liberals had become entrenched as councillers, eldermen and magistrates. The economic and social masters of the working class now entered the political realm and dominated there too.
A Poster from 1832 made feelings clear:
“The Whigs are at their dirty work again…No Middle Class Government…No Cotton-Lord Mayors!”
1837 - The Birmingham Political Union was revived – its aims were Universal Suffrage. The revival was celebrated with a mass meeting on Newhall Hill which advanced a programme of parliamentary reform:
1. household suffrage (changed to universal manhood suffrage in November)
2. vote by ballot
3. triennial parliaments
4. payment of MPs
5. abolition of the property qualification for MPs
These set of demands came to be known as the Peoples Charter and the Chartists were born. They came about in response to the Reform Act which didn’t go far enough and which gave the vote to the majority of the male middle classes, but not to the working class. Many people made speeches on the 'betrayal' of the working class and the 'sacrificing' of their 'interests' by the 'misconduct' of the government.
1838 - A rally was held on Newhall Hill, attended by about 200,000 people. Delegates were chosen for the first Chartist Convention.There were diverse voices within the movement, some pacifist and some prepared to use other methods. This is reflected in their slogan 'peaceably if we may, forcibly if we must'
1839 - Regular public meetings held in the Bull Ring, where dense crowds listened to agitational speeches.
13th May - National Chartist Convention Julian Harney addressed huge crowds at Holloway Head with the words, 'It might be if the government began the reign of terror, the people would end it... It might be that the people should oppose them with the musket and the pike'.
17th May - John Fussell, and John Powell , local Chartists organisers arrested. Meetings banned in the Bull Ring.
June 1st - The Charter was presented to Parliment.
4 July - Riots at the Bull ring. Chartists held a meeting and demonstration at the Bull Ring. As gatherings had been banned there since may Central government sent a unit of Metropolitan police on the newly opened railway line . Eye witness account by James Jaffray :
"The police fought their way to the standard bearers and demolished the flags, whilst others knocked down all who opposed them. For a moment they partially cleared the area, but people rallied; some tore down the shutters of the shops; others smashed them in pieces and supplied the crowd with bludgeons; other again picked up heavy stones. The police, who were by this time scattered, were surrounded and most of them overpowered...had it not been for the arrival of the military the entire of them would have fallen a sacrifice to the fury of the people."
5 July - 2 more organisers arrested.
12 July - petition and Charter were rejected by parliament
15 July - More riots in the Bull Ring
A handbill was circulated saying:
Dear brothers!
Now are the times to try men's souls! Are your arms ready? Have you plenty of powder and shot? Have you screwed up your courage to its sticking place? Do you intend to be freemen or slaves? Are you inclined to hope for a fair day's wages for a fair day's work? Ask yourselves these questions, and remember that your safety depends on the strength of your own right arms. How long are you going to allow your mothers, your wives, your children and your sweethearts, to be ever toiling for other peoples' benefit? Nothing can convince tyrants of their folly but gunpowder and steel: so put your trust in God my boys and keep your powder dry. Be patient a day or two, but be ready at a minute's warning; no man knows today what tomorrow may bring forth: be ready then to nourish the tree of liberty
WITH THE BLOOD OF TYRANTS.
First published in the Brave New Brum fanzine - check the www.bravenewbrum.org for details
stuffit
