Tolpuddle Martyrs

What does 'martyr' mean?

Sent to the other side of the world for joining a union?

Click to enlarge this photo of a statue of George Loveless commissioned by the TUC

Lord Melbourne,

Prime Minister

Procession at the Tolpuddle Festival, July 2003

The banner above leads an annual parade of trades unionists from across the world through the small town of Tolpuddle in Dorset. Thousands gather each July to commemorate the sacrifice made by the men below in their fight for civil rights.

The men were farm labourers, amongst the poorest section of the population in England. In 1833 their already low wages was cut even further. When the bosses tried to cut their wages again, six men met in secret.

The Swing Riots and their brutal punishments of the previous two years were still fresh in people's memories, and the men were determined to fight for their cause peacefully. Their leader, George Loveless, was a Methodist preacher, and knew about the law.

Loveless knew that joining trades unions was legal, so he formed the Friendly Society of Agricultural Labourers for his community. However to avoid repression from the local authorities, the men took a secret oath or promise to stay anonymous.

Lord Melbourne, the Prime Minister, helped out the Dorset magistrates by digging out an old law which banned the making of secret oaths - after all joining unions was allowed, reluctantly, so the Tolpuddle labourers had to be charged with something else.

Loveless, his brother James, and four others were tried and transported to Australia. The authorities and the press were ecstatic. However huge protests by the organised unions across England forced the government to pardon the Tolpuddle Martyrs.

Timeline Industrial

External Links

Tolpuddle Martyrs Museum

The best site - from the

Trades Union Congress

Raising the Banners

Working Class Festivals

Trades Union Banners

Some photographs from the Tolpuddle Festival, 2000

How have these changed? Crime, Protest, Punishment and Policing.

What happened in?

Early-Modern

c.1500-1750

Kett's Rebellion, Pilgrimage of Grace, Gunpowder Plot, Vagabonds, Poaching, Smuggling, Highwaymen, Witchcraft, Corporal Punishment, Bloody Code........more

Industrial Britain

c.1750-1900

Theft and robbery, Poverty, Police, Transportation, Prisons, Luddites, Swing Riots, Chartism, Prison Reformers, Dock Strike........more

Twentieth Century

c.1900-2000

Suffrage Movement, Conscientious Objectors, General Strike, Hanging, Youth Detention, Fingerprinting, DNA, Surveillance, Drug Crime, Hooliganism, Community Service, Race Crime.........more

Who were?

Robert Aske, Matthew Hopkins, Jonathan Wild, Dick Turpin, John Howard, Elizabeth Fry, Derek Bentley........more

Click the photograph above to visit the online museum of the

Tolpuddle Martyrs