Countryside La Vie Magazine

Enoch has made ‘em, and Enoch shall break ‘em”, was the rallying cry that rang out amongst textile workers through Yorkshire and Lancashire as the Luddite movement commenced their campaign against the introduction of power looms which threatened their livelihood. The phrase was apparently a reference to a Heartshead Moor blacksmith who made famously enormous sledgehammers as well as the frames of the power looms. There was thus a certain degree of irony in the call to action to destroy machinery which witnessed many killings, executions, damage, woundings and loss of business in the riots that occurred between 1810 and 1816

But how did the Luddites get their name and what was the history surrounding their mythical leader? To answer this question it is necessary to move a little further back in time and travel some 100 miles south to Nottingham and Leicestershire where the Luddite story really starts.

It was in 1811 that stocking manufacturers in Nottingham began to receive threatening letters concerning their use of new equipment which turned out inferior quality, but inexpensive stockings. The letters were sign by “General Ned Ludd and his Army of Redressers”; a sinecure for the workers so annoyed by looms driven by machinery and operated with unskilled labour. Ned Ludd probably didn’t exist, but there is evidence of a farm labourer of that name who destroyed some very early stocking making machinery back in 1782. By the 1800’s, the legend had already grown up that he was a Nottingham youth who lived in Sherwood Forest and his fame was elevated amongst many to that of a latter-day Robin Hood. Be it noted, however, that Anstey claims him as their own.

Whatever the truth, the actions of the Luddites across a broad swath of the north of England, driven not just by the introduction of machinery but by starvation, and dramatic changes in working practices, had a profound effect and necessitated Government action which today would be described as draconian.

So how did the Nottingham / Loughborough Luddites fare in these troubled times, and what circumstances within their industry of lace-making drove them to commit crimes that could and did result in hangings and transportation as well as acts of heroism in the face of adversity?

To better understand this it is constructive to gain a little appreciation of the state of the country at the time which was decidedly not good. The 1775-83 war with the then embryonic United States did nothing to improve matters and the lot of the British worker fell to low levels. The Napoleonic wars from 1793, which rumbled on for half a generation, then had a devastating effect on the lives of ordinary people and the 1812 -1815 war with the USA added nothing but misery. Business and trade were in chaos, food and other basic necessities were in short supply and employment was, at best, hit-and-miss. Money for the average working class family was short, and starvation loomed menacingly just over the horizon in many areas of the north and east midlands. Employment opportunities were so bad that thousands had to apply for parochial relief and then to add to the misery, several almost consecutive poor harvests between 1799 and 1811 witnessed the cost of basic food tripling in price. Some idea of the levels of deprivation can be gained from a study of some of the sparse statistics available. In just three south Nottinghamshire parishes in 1812, over 13,300 people applied for relief from the “Overseers of the Poor”. Starvation was now a very real adversary.

Lord Byron’s speech in the House of Lords early in 1812 paints a clear picture of the appalling conditions experienced by working families in the lace making areas. He commented, “These people are not ashamed to beg, but there are none to relieve them. Whilst these, (Luddite) outrages must be admitted to exist to an alarming extent, it cannot be denied that they have arisen from circumstances of the most unparalleled distress. Their own means of subsistence have been cut off and all other employment is taken. The perseverance of these miserable men in their proceedings tends to prove that nothing but absolute want could have driven a large, and once honest and industrious body of people into the commission of excesses so hazardous to themselves, their families and the community.”

By today’s standards this is indeed a flowery speech, but the message is clear, Byron understood that desperate people will resort to desperate measures because no others are available to them.

Against this appalling background, and after 800 years as a successful market town serving the Charnwood Forest and villages along the River Soar valley, Loughborough was, by the 18-hundreds on the way to becoming an industrial town. Worsted hosiery had already become a major industry and mohair spinning, using the then new power machinery, was established. As the century turned, machine lace-making came to the town, just in time to attract the attentions of the Luddites.

In such a short feature as this it is impossible to cover all the twists and turns of a situation which witnessed riots, assault, machinery breaking and cavalry charges to disperse unlawful assemblies. The circumstances of John Heathcoat and his lace-making business, however, serve to provide us with an insight into these troubled times and the experiences of the Loughborough Luddites themselves.

Continue reading ‘The Loughborough Luddites’