Page 12 • The HERALD • 25th August 2022 v EMAIL YOUR NEWS: editor@herald-publishing.co.uk v We offer a Full Range of Carpentry and Building Services: • Full Design Service • Garage and Loft Conversions • Extensions • Fitted Kitchens and Bathrooms • Brickwork • Flat Roofs • Conservatories • PVCu Windows • Decking • Fencing, Pergolas and Gates D&G CARPENTRY & BUILDING Over 25 years experience, so for a fast and friendly service with free estimates call on 07767 833227 or 023 8089 9371 • FOGGY/MISTED & BROKEN DOUBLE GLAZED UNITS REPLACED • HINGES & HANDLES • WINDOW & DOOR LOCKS • PATIO DOOR ROLLER MECHANISMS & TRACK • WINDOWS ENERGY EFFCIENCY & SECURITY UPGRADES • WINDOWS, DOORS & CONSERVATORIES SUPPLIED & INSTALLED Telephone 023 8073 1884 • Mobile 07909 654025 Email doubleglazingrepairuk@gmail.com Web www.doubleglazingrepairuk.com DOUBLE GLAZING REPAIR UK ARE PROUD MEMBERS OF FLAT ROOFING SPECIALISTS All Roof Repairs Tel: 023 8184 5632 Mobile: 07880 508415 Email: steve@braithwaiteroo ng.co.uk THE FLAT ROOF SPECIALIST PC PAINTING & DECORATING SERVICES Interior/Exterior Painting Decorating & Small Home Improvements Paul 07783 405977 Free Estimates ~ Fully Insured 30 years experience pcdecor8@gmail.com All aspects of Plastering & General Decorating Covered Free Quotations Fully Insured Mobile 07941 255335 Phone: 023 8089 8324 parkesij@yahoo.co.uk www.ijs4plastering.co.uk Send your local news to The Editor, The Herald, 2 High Street, Hythe SO45 6AH The Swing Riots of 1830 by Robin Somes, Fawley & Blackfield Memories It’s not always appreciated that the rural population in the 1830s was far higher than it is now. With low wages and poor harvests, the English countryside was turbulent. Mechanisation of farming, especially horsepowered threshing machines, threatened tenuous livelihoods and was met by strong, sometimes violent, opposition. e rst of many protests occurred in August 1830 in Kent, where a threshing machine was destroyed. Unrest soon spread across England; machines were destroyed, hayricks and other farm property burned. e protests had three targets; the tithe system supporting the Church, the Poor Law guardians, whose power and injustice were despised, and rich tenant farmers, whose low wages kept labourers in poverty. A common feature of the protests, dubbed the Swing Riots, was letters sent to landowners, signed by a ctitious ‘Captain Swing’. e letters would call for increased wages, reduced tithes, and abandonment of the hated threshing machines, threatening damage and violence if their wishes were ignored. ough there was generally little rioting in the Waterside area, there was considerable unrest around Fawley and Exbury in November 1830. In Exbury, John Butcher and James Dickson assaulted John Spedding, forcing him to join a mob; both were quickly sentenced to 6 months’ hard labour. Meanwhile at Fawley, Charles and John Bratcher, Henry and Samuel Bundy, Henry Cavell, Josiah and Robert Cull, Richard and William Lane, Samuel Saunders and John Webb and others rioted, disperse the riot. Speaking for the men, Mr Poulter reminded the court that they, or their ancestors, had recently fought to defend their nation: “… days of war have now ceased, the market for these men is now gone, but do not let us therefore turn them away as worthless persons … Do not let us forget the debt of gratitude we owe them. Do not let us depress that noble spirit that has existed in our peasantry”. A Mr Sewell continued: “A man with five or six children, necessitated to support his family on wages of 9 shillings a week! Could the Jury … suppose that sum sufficient to supply the common wants of nature? If a man saw his family in distress – his children starving – the law of nature then became paramount to the laws of man. Laws were made for the benefit of society, but society never required that one class should starve and others revel in luxury and wealth”. Nonetheless, the accused were given between 3 months and a year’s hard labour. Eventually wages improved somewhat, and the protests faded away, though just a few years later the Tolpuddle Martyrs were forced to act by depressingly similar conditions. assaulting the landowner Lord Cavan and two magistrates trying to A horse-powered threshing machine; unknown author, 1881 Following our article about milk bottle tops in the last edition of e Herald we were contacted by the team at Jubilee Hall in Fawley to say that they have a collection point there. e bottle tops get weighed in and money donated to Naomi House and Jacks Place. We’ve also been made aware that Specsavers Hearing Centre in Totton also collects them. Following their successful ‘Green Energy Discovery Day’ in May, Transition Town Romsey are in talks to set up a local ‘Community Energy Group’. Backed by Test Valley Borough Council, Romsey Future and Community Energy South (who are already working with Hampshire County Council), an open meeting to discuss this is planned for the beginning of September. Please email: transitiontownromseyweebly@ gmail.com for further details and/or to register your interest. WHY COMMUNITY ENERGY? Milk Bottle Tops – Collection Points at Fawley Jubilee Hall and Totton Specsavers
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