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Yorkshire. Machine-breakers - Luddites march
by night
Their targets: the new machines being introduced in the woollen industry
machines that are putting skilled men out of work
destroying a way of life
13 years ago
in 1799
The Combination Laws made Unions illegal
these men cannot openly defend their trade
"if we cannot openly present our case..."
"...then we are forced into this form of subversive and covert action..."
"...we would prefer to speak to the owners..."
"...the world and the authorities with a..."
"...an open face..."
"...but it is the law, and the repeal of those statutes that formerly used to..."
"...protect the working man..."
"...that have forced us behind the mask and into the night."
To preserve their anonymity, the men are directed by number
"3, 15 - left..."
"...8 and 18 - right..."
"...and fan out."
Only factories where the machines have been installed are attacked
Only the new machines are broken
Those responsible for law & order
are apprehensive and alarmed
"Oh, I've been inundated with reports of machine-breaking..."
"The country's swarming with..."
"...Illicit gangs, some of them have been seen drilling under men we must presume..."
"...are their leaders, with..."
"...sticks, pikes, hammers - and muskets!"
"...there have been reports - rumours - of arms caches. We are facing..."
"...nothing less..."
"...than revolution."
Machine-breaking is organised by secret committees - illegal combinations
Behind these masks are Croppers,
the craftsmen under threat
"We are banded together to assert..."
"...the rights of labour..."
"...and to resist the exploitation by capital..."
"...our methods will be..."
"...persuasive argument..."
"...the united representations of our claims, and, if need be..."
"...the removal of these machines that now threaten our labour..."
"...and our way of life."
To administer an illegal oath is punishable by death
"Affirm then!"
"I do declare and solemnly swear..."
"...that I never will reveal..."
"...the names of persons who comprise this secret committee" - to swear an oath
risks transportation to the colonies "...and I do further swear..."
"to use my best endeavours..."
"...to punish by death..."
"...any traitor or traitors..."
"...should any rise up against us..."
"...so help me God and bless me to keep this, my oath, inviolate." - The ideas behind these
committees come from a long, radical and secret tradition - "Kiss the book!"
"...you are now twisted in!"
"...show more light!"
"...unmask brothers and let our colleague see his friends!"
The well-known republican, John Baines:
"Ordinary working people are trying to preserve the skills handed down to them..."
"...through generations..."
"...and by keeping their skills, keep their freedom..."
"...they have worked..."
"...handlooms and..."
"...spinning wheels for centuries to suit their own needs..."
"...their work..."
"...is their way of life..."
"...and their wealth lies in their labour."
Wool is one of England's traditional and staple industries
For centuries, in cottages up and down the land
life and work has revolved around wool
Children 'card'
prepare the wool
women spin, men weave
skills passed from generation to generation
But it is a world that's changing
The Flying Shuttle has transformed weaving
Looms now produce in a day what once took a week
In the final stage of woollen manufacture, the cloth is 'cropped', or shaved
the fleecy surface made smooth
The huge cropping shears weigh over 60 pounds
This skill, stretching back to Roman times, was superseded only a few years ago by this machine
The cropping frame
it does mechanically what a skilled cropper does by hand
cloth is continually run past two cropping shears driven by a water wheel
this is the machine at the heart of the dispute
A traditional Cropper, George Mellor:
"They're going to make us out of work..."
"...it's as simple as that and as straightforward as that..."
"...they're going to make us out of work..."
"...we think that it's a natural right for a man to earn his living at his chosen trade..."
"Horsfall's just using it...
"...as an excuse for getting rid of the older men! Cartwright said he's going to introduce these machines..."
"...just on an experimental basis..."
"...in went the machines and out came the men!"
"Remember this as well, it's not just..."
"...individuals who're out of work..."
"...small cropping shops like this, many of them,"
"...are going to the wall because small men can't complete with a factory."
"It's the cropping shops, incidentally, which are doing the best work which are going to the wall..."
"...very often, they're the the people that take most pride in their work."
"...and have made Britain..."
"...famous for the export of wool throughout Europe."
These men used to be the aristocrats of England's most important trade
in Parliament, after all, the Lord Chancellor presides from the woolsack
Until 18 years ago
when the war with Napoleon began
wool was the nation's single largest export
The skill of these men can increase the value of the cloth by as much as a third
After an apprenticeship lasting 7 years, they become amongst the best paid
workers in the country
"How're you doin' young 'un?" - "Alright, dad"
"Good! Well you keep hard at it, eh?"
Small cropping shops may be unable to invest in the new machines
But progressive manufacturers believe that change is inevitable
Among them is William Cartwright:
"To stay in the trade I must produce cloth as cheaply and efficiently as possible..."
"...I can't take care of those whose skills are no longer required, that way I'd go out of business..."
"...there'd be no work for any of my people..."
"...I know that to stay in business, I must move with the times..."
"...now the croppers should know that for the same work they must do the same..."
"...they seem determined to obstruct progress..."
The introduction of the new machines comes at the time of great distress in the economy
a series of bad harvests,
and the long war,
have brought a virtual collapse of trade
work, even in the new mills, is scarce
times hard
So the poor, already dependent on Parish Relief, are joined by out of work Croppers
whose wives and families are used to high wages
"I mean, before, we was makin'..."
"...a good life for us selves..."
"...I'm really working towards..."
"...you know, have..."
"...a good home..."
"...and, er, suddenly it stops..."
"We've had to sell things..."
"...I've had to sell me wedding ring, what was ma grandma's and passed down to my mother's..."
"...and what I really wanted Anne to have..."
"...we've had to sell it..."
Mary Bamforth is married to John, who lost his job at Cartwright's
Anne is their elder daughter
"Well, the more they brought in..."
"...the new machines and things've..."
"...the less men they needed..."
"It were Cartwright weren't it?" - "Aye!"
"Thought we could trust 'im"
"I suppose he thought I was, er,"
"...maybe a bit old for the job..."
"They let the older men go off first, didn't they?"
"But he's stronger than younger men"
"Aye, well it doesn't matter very much, I mean they prefer the younger men..."
"...because they can use the younger men on the machines..."
"...they don't need the skill, do they?"
"But then there was - you know.."
"...that were the great shock..."..."
"that Cartwright was, you know, e's worked for him for..."
"...quite a long time..."
"...and there was, kind of, no loyalty - was there? - there..."
"...you just let them go, you know, people have been working there for a long time..."
"...and, er..."
"...he's never right friendly to us..."
"I just became unprofitable."
Mary used to be proud of the table she kept
once, she served meat every day
now the family rarely gets anything more than oatmeal gruel
"At least we've go each other, eh?"
"I mean..."
"...it's gotten worse & worse, I mean now we just live off..."
"...oats really - don't we? - and blue milk..."
"...that's milk what's had the cream taken off..."
"...for those what can afford butter & cheese..."
"the likes of what we haven't seen for quite a while, I can tell you..."
"I mean we, at first,"
"...we just didn't want to go & get the Poor Relief..."
"...in a way it's harder for us 'cause we've been used to having stuff..."
"...I think it's easier for them that's not had much..."
"...cos they know who to cope with it all."
"cos your pride, just your dignity..." - "There's so many on it nowadays anyway, I mean..."
"You've no choice." - "You just wait all day in that bloody line!"
Widows and war-wounded
the old and the infirm stand in line with Croppers
in the queue for the Poor Relief
John Bamforth waits with his two younger children
The Poor Relief system used to be the envy of Europe
for the fair & humane way by which Parish officials dole out relief to the needy
But the recent bad harvests
have forced up the price of bread to record levels
and the system is hard pressed to cope with the increasing demands made upon it
"Morning Thomas" - "John"
"I was wondering if you'd got a bit extra this week?" "Extra John? - I'm afraid not."
"Daniel's in fairly bad need of a new pair of shoes."
"I mean, if he has shoes..."
"...another kiddie gets no food. You know how it is John - I'm not being nasty or anything." "I, I know."
"Everyone gets treated the same..."
"...it's my job to see that they do..."
"...I'm sorry, but - maybe next week?" - "It's alright Thomas, I understand. Thank you."
"For the little ones as well, it's dreadful, I mean suddenly - they don't know why, suddenly, daddy's at home and there's no food to eat..."
"...and it's very hard to explain that to them..."
"...without wanting them to worry, but making them realise that it's..."
"...all changed..."
"...I mean, well, you can see John..."
"...he's just gone down in himself, haven't you?"
"Aye, and you feel..."
"...I don't know, you feel so angry..."
"...you, you, you've been kicked, you've been hurt & you want to hurt somebody back..."
"...it's not as if I've just lost my job for a time..."
"...and I can get another one..."
"...it's just that..."
"...me & people like me have become..."
"...obsolete."
Great change is occurring in society
The Bamforths may appear to be the victims of one machine in one trade
but their plight is part of a revolution taking place in industry
brought about by mechanical invention
The great steam engines of pit & mill
are only the most dramatic evidence of this process of mechanisation
new inventions
new scientific understanding, new sources of power
promise a world of ever-increasing wealth
"The British economy is being transformed by a revolution in industry..."
"...work that was once done in the home & the workshop..."
"...is now being done..."
"...far more efficiently in the factory..."
"...this, together the introduction of machines,"
"...that can do in a day what a man used to be able to perform in a week..."
"...means that output can increase dramatically..."
"...we could very easily be caught up in a spiral of increasing wealth."
Steam may be dramatic, but water drives the woollen industry
here, the revolution in manufacturing
has such momentum
that it's occurring despite the calamitous state of trade and the European war
This is Enoch Taylor's workshop at Marsden
once, it produced tools for the agricultural trade
and it still makes the famous sledgehammers
known locally as 'Enochs'
but his iron is now forged by mechanical hammers
driven by a water-wheel
today, his men make machines as well as tools
and it is here that the cropping-frames are engineered
Enoch Taylor:
"Our machines do a first-class job very cheaply..."
"...they're £15 apiece, they more than pay for themselves in a year..."
"...they're quite simple devices..."
"...but many of the new machines are..."
"...nowhere near as complicated as might appear to the layman..."
"...most of the techniques we're using now have been available for years..."
"...but in the past there was simply no reason..."
"...to put them to use..."
"...we've now got iron bridges, like the one at Coalbrookdale..."
"...we're building iron ships..."
"...we understand now a lot more about the smelting of ore..."
"...and precision metal engineering..."
"...no, we're learning all the time."
The machines are delivered by cart & canal
mill-owners are not only enthusiastic about the new machines,
but believe they anticipate even greater changes in the trade
"These machines they produce..."
"...a very fine finish..."
"...at a fraction of the cost of cropping by traditional methods..."
"...the Jenny made the spinning wheel obsolete..."
"...these machines will do the same for cropping, and, it won't end there..."
"...it won't be long before, I feel that the powered machine..."
"...will take over the work of the handloom weaver..."
"See the woollen manufacture which has been for generations now a cottage craft..."
"...is being turned into a great industry."
"We've seen the results of these machines, and they certainly don't do the same job as we do."
"The trouble with them is, they're too flat..."
"...now, to do a proper job..."
"...you've got to have a good eye..."
"...and a strong wrist..."
"...because the whole skill..."
"...is to cut the nap evenly..."
"...and the more you can do that, the higher the quality you'll achieve..."
"...now the way it looks when them machines have done it..."
"...it's like a chap who's been shaving 'wi a blunt knife..."
"...and another thing..."
"...in a small cropping shop..."
"...you know who you're working for..."
"...he trusts you..."
"...and he respects you..."
"...now that's how it should be. Factories are doing' away 'wi all that. Too big."
Three more machines are installed in Cartwright's mill
Cartwright no longer employs Croppers
He claims the new machines,
operated by an unskilled labourer and a boy
reduce the cost of cropping by 80% or more
Cartwright believes that other employers would install them but for Luddite intimidation
Both his mill, and the mill owned by William Horsfall at Ottiwells
are now defended, night and day
without the threat of Luddite violence
the progress of these machines would be unstoppable
"the plain fact is, of course,"
"...that the process of mechanisation will be determined by play on market forces..."
"...and not by desperate acts of violence and clandestine nocturnal meetings on the Yorkshire moors."
"They are the last bastion..."
"...of restrictive work practices in the woollen industry - they stand between us & progress."
"These Croppers are resisting change which is inevitable..."
"...baulking at progress which, in the end, will benefit everybody..."
"...they should abandon their arcane craft..."
"...find themselves work more appropriate to the second decade of the nineteenth century."
Despite a reputation for heavy drinking and hard living
the Croppers are well informed
some can even read
"Seen this about the war?"
"No, but I expect you'll tell me!"
"Take a seat! Have a listen of a read of this!"
"With respect to the main battle, which was on the 7th, the Russian accounts are so very brief..."
"...that we can collect no circumstances on time and place sufficiently discriminating..."
"...to compare with those of the French bulletin..."
Along with other workers who feel themselves threatened by new machines
the Croppers object to the way work is organised in the new factories
and how that will affect the way they live:
"What we're trying to preserve the dignity of labour..."
"...you work in a factory..."
"... & you're no more than a servant!"
"...here, we're our own men!"
"...we're nobodies servant!"
"It's not just a question machines - Ben!"
"It's not just a question of machines, it's a question of the dignity of the labour..."
"...and how it's produced..."
"...now we've seen the conditions of the people working in those factories..."
"...we've seen what it's like..."
"...it's no way for anybody to work, no human being to work..."
"...at least here we have..."
"...our own say over what hours we do..."
"...we like the respect that we get, of course we do..."
"...from the good job that we do, now you certainly won't get that in a factory."
"It's a different way of life than we know..."
"...they work..."
"...every day..."
"...t'clock..."
"...they're told what time they start..."
"...told what time they'll finish, if they can have a break to eat or not..."
"...clock, clock..."
"..all day!"
"...they're trying to put us into a mechanised routine..."
"...and that's gonna be set..."
"...by the pace of the machines, and I'm telling you this much..."
"...I, for one,"
"...am not gonna be a slave to a bloody machine for't rest of me life..."
"It is not just a question of that, it's the manner that it's being introduced..."
"...by people who don't give a damn..."
"...now these folk who are introducing, they're rich people - they've done well out of the woollen industry..."
"...these same people who've done well & built up riches..."
"...they're now using that riches to put other people out of work - now that isn't right!"
"They're lining their pockets at other people's expenses & misery!" - "Exactly!"
Workers arrive early at one of the new mills
Anne Bamforth, now 16,
once worked in a factory
"Hard work, long hours..."
"...6 in't mornin' 'til 6 at night..."
"...it's dusty..."
"...really dusty - makes you cough all't time..."
"...there were loads of accidents..."
"...always kids getting there hands caught in't machines, you can't stop it, it just carries on whirring..."
"...it's nearly a sign that you work at mill if you've got a finger missing..."
"...and some of 'em have to walk nearly 4 miles to get to work..."
"...some of t'kids used to hide in the wool so they didn't have to go home, they used to sleep there all night..."
"...I used to walk home..."
"...tired when I got in..."
"...sometimes I couldn't even be bothered tekkin me clothes off - could I? - I'd just get to sleep on the floor..."
"...as soon as I got in."
"It seemed to me it was a bit of a loose place morally as well..."
"...I mean, the masters seemed to think they were the ***-o-the-walk and just used to, from what I could gather," contest instead masak uncovered just
"...expect the young girls to..."
"...just to do what they wanted, which is dreadful, I mean we were..."
"...a bit nervous about letting her go sometimes..."
"I should have an alternative though, it's too easy for people to say 'oh, you'll be alright'..."
"...you'll make some money, you can go and work in the factory..."
"...you might as well starve to death as work in the factory..."
"...at least if you stave to death you die bloody quicker. There's no life."
Such angry sentiments are echoed at regular meetings in ale houses like the Crispin Inn in Halifax
where politics are discussed
The Croppers are joined by weavers, like Henry Smith
"I mean, there's Power Looms over in Lancashire in the cotton mills now
"...if they bring them over here, there's not going to be 5,000 Croppers out of work..."
"...there's going to be quarter of a million weavers..." - "That's an army! Did you hear that? Quarter of a million!"
"...it's an army - now if we were to combine together with them lads..."
"...organise ourselves, we could go out & raze them mills to the ground!"
"Wait a minute - I talk about revolution but I'm not talking about revolution in the next half hour!"
"You've got to organise more than you are now, you're a small group in a small area..."
"...there's masses of men over the country who'd be prepared to join us..."
They want to protest within the law, but they remember the attacks
made on stocking frames in Nottingham last year
"We must do something positive!"
"I don't mean what those..."
"...all right..."
"...I know there were frame-breaking and stuff in Nottingham, but if that what's you have to do, they you've gotta do it!"
"...at least it's action, and we need to bloody well act!"
"Action! Act! I'm talking about time to act, and now is not the time."
"I'm talking about time too - it takes too long!"
"Give us time to amalgamate better, to combine with other groups..."
"...while we're doing it, we can use the time to do something quite useful, and that is..."
"...and this what you're not going to like..."
"...go and see the mill-owners."
"John - that suggestion you've got to make..."
"...you might as well keep it to yourself..."
"Billy?" "Billy, John's right."
"From a political point of view..."
"...it'll put us in a good light with local people - think it's a good idea."
"How long will it take?"
"We got to see them..."
"...we put certain proposals to them..."
"...we got to let them know what the local people think about this..."
"...they got control and power over our lives..."
"...we've got to make them aware of what's happening here though..."
"...at least then we have the moral upper-hand - if they choose not to listen to us after that..."
"...then that be on their account, and that's what we're going to do here..."
"And you think you can go the likes of Cartwright & Horsfall..."
"...and ask them to give money out of their own pocket, they're going to listen to you?"
"...are you really telling me that?"
"...because you might as well *** your head against that fireplace if that's what you think!"
"At least if we've confronted them with our grievances..."
"...and if they choose to..."
"...deny us..."
"...then we got for them..."
"...and at least they've been warned..."
"Well, have it your own way..."
"...when they laugh in your face and throw y'out on't street..."
"...don't say I didn't tell yer."
"These Croppers don't need my influence..."
"...they're well-informed..."
"...independent..."
"...they're truly free spirits."
"They take liberty and equality in with the air they breathe..."
"...these men are not idle dreamers..."
"...they are the vanguard that will transform society, making this world a fair & more just place..."
"...in which to live."
George Mellor, William Thorpe & Ben Walker were deputised to meet 2 of the owners,
William Horsfall & William Cartwright
By presenting the Croppers' case, they risk the accusation of illegal combination
"Right! What have we got to say?"
"I think you know why we're here, Mr Cartwright, Mr Horsfall..."
"...it's about the introduction of these new machines, you know what effect they're having on the people in the valleys..."
"...if the rate of introduction of these machines continues at the current rate..."
"...five years time, there'll be no cropping industry, so we're all going to be out of work..."
"...in the light of that, we'd like you to put..."
"...certain things on the table..."
Mellor argued that the new cropping frames should be introduced gradually
and new jobs found for the men the machines replaced
"...and thirdly..."
"...that you will put a tax..."
"...on machine produced cloth..."
"...for a nominal rate of something like sixpence a yard..."
"...which can be put in a communal pot..."
"...for the good of the workers and the people in the area..."
"I hardly think that you can expect the owners..."
"...to lobby for a tax..."
"yes, well we thought you might take that..." - "We! We! - you're using the word 'we'..."
"...an awful lot..."
"...do you know what I think?"
"...I don't think you're here, you three, to discuss this problem..."
"...honestly..."
"...genuinely..."
"...man-to-man..."
"...I think you're here to deliver a load of claptrap..."
"...from a mob..."
"...from a - from an illegal combination!"
"...from a conspiracy, and you know what the pen..."
"...don't laugh!"
"Listen here Horsfall! You've got no excuse to make them accusations because you've got no proof!"
"Look to your own house!"
"You know what the penalty is for being 'twisted in', don't you?"
"...worst way you get your necked stretched, best way you get deported..."
"...and if there were a magistrate or the militia within hailing distance of this place, I'd nail all three of you!"
"Who sez? Who sez we're twisted in?" - "I do!" - "How d'ya know? - ya know nowt!"
"I can see it in your eyes!"
"I think we've heard enough - gentlemen..."
"...we came in here..."
"...in the best possible intentions..."
"Aye, well you see what you've got - come on!"
"...we might as well *** our head against that wall!"
"Tosspots!"
"People 'round here say that you folk are blinkered. Well I don't think so, I think you're stupid! I think you're pig-ignorant, and this is just another exhibition!"
"...of your brutish, thuggish behavior!"
It was William Hinchliffe's mill at Leymoor
that was the next to be attacked
"Get in there! Get the owner! Come on, get down here now!"
"Number 18, get round and guard those doors - number 3 - don't! Wait!"
"I want him to see this! - Hang on."
"Bring the owner up!"
"Good evening Mr Hinchliffe."
"I think you know why we're here!"
"General Ludd sent you a lot of messages in the past, you've taken no note of them..."
"...your machines have still been installed - but tonight!"
"We're going to show you how General Ludd operates..."
"Number 3 - Enoch made 'em..."
"Aye!..."
"...and Enoch will break 'em!"
"Now!..."
"Tonight General Ludd has left his visiting card..."
"...if you know what's good for you..."
"...you'll leave those blessed machines where they are - wrecked..."
"Do I make myself clear?" - "Yes, enough!"
"Right, think yourself lucky..."
William Hinchliffe later described to his manufacturers what had happened that night
"They looked like a bunch of clowns when they come in, all dressed up..."
"...I couldn't help myself from not laughing when they in.."
"...if me gun hadn't been so far away from the bed..."
"...I tell you - they'd have been running off and no damage have been done, but they're organised..."
"...this is what I'm saying - they know what they're doing - so you've got to be prepared..."
"I tell you something Mr Radcliffe, if they'd have done at Ottiwells mill what they've done at Hinchcliffe's..."
"...I wouldn't be sat here right now..."
"...I'd be up to my bootstraps in Luddite blood!"
The meeting, chaired by magistrate Joseph Radcliffe,
agreed to offer large rewards for information about the Luddites,
and discussed how best to defend their mills
"And I've got half me damned workforce..."
"...on guard!"
"...now I'm down to 20% production..."
"...because me men - me workforce..."
"...are guarding me damned mill!"
"How've you managed with your mill then, Cartwright?"
"...do you think you can sustain a siege?"
"Yes, I have men armed inside the mill. I also have carboys of vitriol ready to pour down the stairs..."
"...I have barrels..."
"...with nails & spikes protruding from them..."
"...the workers know about them and, of course, I suppose they'll go and tell everybody else what's there..."
"...then I hope this will deter them from trying to attack my property..."
"With all due respect Mr Radcliffe, all you're talking about is fighting force with force!"
The owners too are divided about strategy
"What we should be advocating is the repeal of the combination laws."
"...the repeal of the combination laws, so that we can get around the table..."
"...and we can discuss, like human beings..."
"...because as long as men cannot get together and organise and defend their trade..."
"...they are going to resort..." "Nonsense! Absolute rubbish! This is no time now to be doing this sort of thing!"
"They have broken the law - they have smashed my machinery, they have smashed other people's machinery!" - "Why?"
"There is no way we're going to have any kind of reform until the whole rebellion is put down and crushed!"
"...and I can assure you gentlemen that any Luddite who comes before me on the bench..."
"...is going to be dealt with very, very severely indeed!"
"Going to hang 'em all I think, ain't they?"
Like the more strident mill owners,
Radcliffe's life was under threat
and his home guarded
as the magisrate responsible for law & order,
he believed that the government should provide professional soldiers to assist
the locally raised militia
"I'm not at all convinced that London is fully aware that the gravity of the..."
"...situation up here in the North..."
"...but once they are aware..."
"...I'm convinced..."
"...that the garrisons will be strengthened..."
"...with professional soldiers..."
"...despite the war in Spain against Bonaparte, to help us maintain proper law & order..."
The Home Office in London
is ultimately responsible for law & order
it's staff of six clerks
deal with correspondence from magistrates all over the country
This is a new office of State
created only 30 years ago
in 1782
Although governments normally take the view that law & order is a local matter
The Home Secretary, Viscount Sidmouth, is fully committed to the suppression of Luddism
"We have acted expeditiously..."
"...we're vigorously pursuing prosecution of those swearing illegal oaths,"
"...an act punishable by transportation..."
"...and those administering them..."
"...a crime that now attracts the death penalty..."
"...we have revived..."
"...the Watch & Ward Act..."
"...under which local magistrates can impose curfews at will..."
"...and drafted in militia from Cumberland to York."
"Soon, General Maitland will have some 12,000 troops under his command..."
"...which is more men..."
"...than the Duke of Wellington has fighting the war in the Spanish peninsula..."
"This rebellion must ringed around..."
"...isolated..."
"...and rooted out..."
"Ordinary people have no power..."
"...there's nobody who represents them..."
"...they have no voice, or vote..."
"...the workman's association is called 'illegal combination'..."
"...and man's only way of fighting repression..."
"...is to join a secret society..."
"...ends up in transportation to Australia..."
"What can common people do..."
"...when everything is so weighed against them?"
"Well, frame-breaking..."
"...and factory burning his savage work."
"But what other course of action is there for desperate men, others than desperate deeds?"
Cartwright's mill, under attack
"Quick! Up! Up! Everybody up!"
"Everybody up, there's Luddites in the yard! Come on, wake up, wake up!"
The bell was rung to summon the militia
"Keep your heads down, I think they're armed!"
"Take aim at the windows - fire!"
"Return fire!"
"Number 8, number 15 - down to the door to the right with the axes!"
"The rope on the bell's broke!" - "Go on the roof, ring it by hand!"
"Get the vitriol to the stairs!"
"...and the spikes..."
"...if they get through the door, let them get to the bottom of the stairs..."
"...and use the vitriol first!"
"Right - get round the back!" - "What is it? Go to the back..."
"...take a musket!"
Cartwright's resolute defence surprised the Luddites
Several were wounded
two fatally
"The damn door was nearly down!"
Well organized and armed attacks like this lead to speculation that Luddism
is part of a wider conspiracy
Well-informed about radical politics is the editor of the Leeds Mercury
Edward Baines
"It's, uh, difficult to say..."
"...it is, after all, an illegal and secret organisation and you have to remember..."
"...that the the tradition of illegal workers organisations is very strong in this..."
"...part of the country."
"I'd be very surprised if there were no formal links between the Lancashire..."
"...Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire Luddites..."
"...as well as other radical and jacobin groups - but I don't think it's nationally organised."
Many owners were now moving around the country under guard
William Horsfall, however,
continued to go about his regular business alone
Luddites ambushed him
A surgeon was called to the Warrener Inn, where Horsfall lay, mortally wounded
"A man is dying! Please leave, this is no place for you!"
The landlady of the Warrener Inn, Mrs Armitage:
"It's Mr Horsfall, mill owner!"
"Well, he came ridin' up about half past five..."
"...and he always stops by on his way back from Cloth Market in Huddersfield..."
"...well, he wasn't here long, he just had his rum and water, and then he rode off..."
"...it'd be about a couple of minutes later, we all heard these shots..."
"...and, er, next thing we knew, this other gentleman who'd been up there with him..."
"...riding past t'same way brought him back here..."
"...I mean, he's in a terrible way..."
"...there's blood everywhere!"
"...he's been shot in his stomach & his legs..."
"...I mean we've been waiting two hours for't surgeon!"
"I didn't think it'd go this far, I mean, breaking up machines is one thing..."
"...but to kill a man..."
"...that's *** in't it?"
Horsfall's death
was thought by the authorities to have turned local people against the Luddite cause
"I'd say that most people 'round here were right behind the lads..."
"...and anyway..."
"...they're saying said it were the Luddites that assassinated him, but they've got no proof..."
"...who knows? It could've been an Highwayman - anybody!"
"...and remember, that fella had a lot of enemies..."
"...weren't it him who said..."
"...he'd 'ride thigh-deep in Luddite blood'?"
"...I mean that's asking for trouble in't it?"
"There's nobody 'round here that's not behind the Luddites now..."
"...if you reckon there is, they've offered £2000..."
"...£2000 for anybody to inform on 'em!"
"Nobody's done that yet - were solid, everybody 'round here is solid!"
It was now widely reported that there had been a change in Luddite strategy
From attacks on property -
- to violence against the person
"We don't know anything about that..."
"...we don't know anything about strategy..."
"...we're not privy to the councils of these chaps called the Luddites..."
"...we feel it's very regrettable it's come to this..."
"...but it just reflects the depth of sentiments that there are on these particular issues..."
"...I mean we all feel for them."
"...now the authorities have been using extensive repression on the communities around here..."
"...that's violence under any other kind of name!"
"They call it keeping the peace."
"I mean, I heard the other day..."
"...3 men in Manchester were hung!"
"...for stealing bread and potatoes!"
"And there were a woman the other week who was hung for selling butter cheap!"
"...twenty pounds of butter, sold it cheap, she got hung - that's violence!" "Hannah Smith"
"Five men, in Oldham, protestin' - shot dead..."
"...outside Burton's mill, Oldham!"
"It's a straight fight..."
"...between one set of people, the owners - they want to get rich..."
"...they want good lives, they want to get better life, so what do they do?"
"...they take action which is, as far as we can see..."
"...is violent on those lads, the Luddites..."
"...and the Luddites do something about it, they say 'oh, that's violence, that's illegal!'"
"...'hang the ***!' "
"...it's just..."
"...force against force."
Finally, government spies succeeded in infiltrating the Luddite ranks
With the huge rewards on offer,
the authorities began to receive the information they wanted
arrests began
"I arrest you in the King's name!"
"Leave him! He's done nowt!"
"Keep yourself quiet woman!"
"You ***!"
"There's no question but that the government is employing spies..."
"...it is, after all, a device they've used before."
"However, many of the spies are doing to gain immunity from prosecution..."
"...or have been recruited from the debtor's gaol..."
"Now apparently, they're being paid by results, so it is possible that they are..."
"...embellishing their reports, or even ..."
"...making them up so no doubt they are providing the kind of information that..."
"...the authorities want to hear."
Within days
Mellor, Thorpe,
Bamforth, Baines and others we all arrested
Luddite violence ebbed away
Work in the mills returned to normal
Outside York Castle
a scaffold was constructed
A Special Commission had found 24 men guilty of swearing illegal oaths
and destroying property
7 were sentenced to Transportation, 17 to death
Mellor, Thorpe and Bamforth, had been found guilty of murdering the mill-owner, William Horsfall
Inside the castle
Prisoners awaiting death were encouraged not only to confess to the prison chaplain
but to name other Luddites
and to give information about their organisation & arms caches
"This is a terrible crime you have committed, my son..."
"...you have broken a commandment..."
"...'thou shalt not kill'..."
"...but the Lord is merciful..."
"...the everlasting life but still can be yours if you confess!"
"Will you, my son..."
"...for the sake of Jesus Christ, our Lord..."
d stiffening
"Look!"
"Leave me to my own thoughts, I ain't got long - I don't need an old soak in a cassock..."
"...to intervene between me and the almighty!"
"Now leave me to my own thoughts!"
"There are still those not yet apprehended..."
"...their souls are doomed to eternal damnation!"
"But you can save them!"
"If you will confess, and are seen to confess!"
"Can you keep a secret?" - "Yes" - "So can I!"
"Forever is a very long time."
"Salvation or damnation! It is for you to decide!"
Early morning
the 8th of January 1813
a crowd assembles to witness the execution
But there was none of the carnival mood normally associated with a public hanging
The crowd was subdued
respectful - reverent even
Clearly, the condemned were not seen as common criminals
Extra militia have been drafted in to protect the scaffold
The authorities thought there might be a desperate last attempt to rescue the men
"Have you any last words?" - "Aye!"
"What they seek to end here today..."
"...has only just begun."
"Our bodies may return from the dust from whence they came..."
"...but our ideas..."
"...and our ideals..."
"...are immortal!"
"...and will live on..."
"...in the hearts of those who come after us..."
"For my part, I know some of my enemies may be here..."
"...if they be..."
"...I freely forgive them..."
"...and all the world..."
"...and, I hope the world will forgive me!"
"Let them that put me here..."
"...look to their own necks!"
As I was a-walking
back home from the gallows
as I was a-walking
all through the sad day
None could I see, but my own darling husband
wrapped up in red worsted, and cold as the clay
Beat the drum slowly
and play the pipe lowly
and sound the death march
as you bear him along
Into his grave
throw a handful of roses
though brave goes my lover
down to his last home
to his last home
"It's all just so wrong..."
"...all the livelihoods of the generations..."
"...are just..."
"...breaking up - it's just..."
"...an age of extremes - you've got the..."
"...extreme of poverty and the extreme of prosperity..."
"...walking together, hand in hand..."
"...and some - someone's got to find the middle way, the balance between..."
"...between progress and the dignity of life."
Mary Bamforth
buried John
The bodies of Mellor and Thorpe were dissected
Even in death, their influence was feared
They have no grave
"They did what was right - they did what anybody would have done."
"They were right in what they did."
"it wasn't that they didn't want change, it was..."
"...they didn't want change that'd destroy people's lives like it has done."
"Like it's destroyed our lives."
Defeated, Luddism passed into history
Within a decade
The craft of cropping had vanished
The industrial revolution transformed Britain
into the workshop of the world
where factory life
was grinding, inhuman
and impoverished
And today, the word 'Luddite'
is used to denigrate those who are obstinate before progress
unreasonable before change