The Cheshire Luddites

The spring of 1812 was a time of huge industrial unrest in north west England. Families were starving; food prices had risen to unprecedented levels, and wages had fallen. Wheat had reached the famine price of 152s 3d per quarter, and potatoes (the staple food of the working classes) were three times their usual price. Starving handloom weavers blamed the introduction of steam-powered looms for depressing the cost of their labour.
The workers decided on direct action. In February 1812, arsonists attacked Peter Marsland’s steam loom factory at Stockport, and unsuccessfully torched William Radcliffe’s steam loom factory in March. Manufacturers weren’t even safe in their own homes. In early April, Peter Marsland’s house windows were broken, and the homes of mill owners William Radcliffe and Mr Hindley were also attacked. Macclesfield, too, saw riots by angry cotton workers in the same month. The Cheshire Yeomanry had a full-time job keeping public order. You can find out more about the riots and the rioters’ fate in Regency Cheshire.

Image: Harrison’s Improved Powerloom, exhibited by Harrison’s of Blackburn at the Great Exhibition. Illustrated London News, 23 August 1851.

A Grand Day Out

I had a smashing day out in Bath on Saturday. First I met up with fellow author Jane Odiwe for lunch, which was lovely, thank you, Jane. Then on to the Guildhall for a fascinating talk by Claire Tomalin on the art of biography, sponsored by Jane Austen's Regency World. Claire gave the audience some intriguing insights into the way she approached writing her biographies of Jane Austen, Thomas Hardy and Charles Dickens. She advised would-be biographers to ‘travel the ground’ where their subjects lived whenever possible. The Guildhall is a beautiful building; the room where we had the talk was decorated in pastel green and gilt, illuminated with huge sparkling chandeliers. After the talk I met up with Tim Bullamore and other luminaries from Jane Austen’s Regency World, and we had a lovely afternoon tea at the Jane Austen Centre. So a big thank you to Tim for inviting me, and for the warm welcome I received. It was wonderful to meet everyone.

Image: The author and Jane Odiwe, author of Willoughby's Return, outside the Guildhall in Bath. © Sue Wilkes.

Library Angst

I have only just discovered, to my abject horror, that Manchester Central Library is closing until 2103! And the archives service there has already closed down! I was planning several trips to research my books. The library's collection will be stored down our Cheshire salt mines.  And to add to the misery, Liverpool Central Library will close this year for a major overhaul. Didn't anybody realise that two of the biggest libraries in the north-west would be closed at the same time?

Mistakes Writers Make

Writers Bureau tutor Alex Gazzola has just started a new blog called Mistakes Writers Make. The new website will include market information for novice writers, and will be packed with good advice and tips, so do take a look if you are a novice writer.

Abduction!

The Regency period was an age of scandal. Cheshire newspaper readers thrilled to the news of the Prince Regent’s very public feud with his wife, Caroline of Brunswick, and the divorce of Lord and Lady Byron – there were dark rumours circulating of Byron’s incest with his half-sister Augusta. Harriette Wilson’s memoirs took the polite world by storm, too. But Cheshire had its own home-grown scandals. There were murders most foul, such as the notorious case of George Morrey (a farmer) and the mysterious death of a Northwich flatman in 1817.

In the early spring of 1826, one scandal made the national news for months on end: the outrageous abduction of Ellen Turner, a Macclesfield heiress. Ellen was taken to Gretna Green by adventurer Edward Gibbon Wakefield, who wanted to marry her and control her fortune. You can find out more about Ellen’s amazing story in Regency Cheshire.
Image: Eloped! Engraving by Hugh Thomson for Coaching Days and Coaching Ways, (Macmillan, 1910).

Chester’s Ancient Rows

Chester’s famous Rows have attracted visitors to the city for centuries. The Rows are situated on Watergate St, Eastgate St and Northgate St, Bridge St and (in earlier times) Lower Bridge St. Antiquarian Thomas Pennant was greatly intrigued by the Rows’ peculiar construction, which probably dates back to the mid-thirteenth century; carved stone under-crofts are still visible inside some shops. As time went by, the Row architecture fell in and out of fashion; writers such as Celia Fiennes and Daniel Defoe thought the Rows looked ugly. In Regency Cheshire , the Rows were extremely prosperous; all the best shops were found there.

Chester lost one Row without warning in 1821. Part of Lamb Row fell into the street ‘with a loud crash’ and ‘an immense volume of dust’ (Gentleman’s Magazine, December 1824.) Luckily, no-one was injured.

Chester historian Joseph Hemingway, writing in 1831, described how old dilapidated shop fronts were replaced by shining glass windows and elegant new shops: ‘drapers, clothiers, jewellers, perfumers, booksellers as respectable as the kingdom can produce.’ William and Henry Brown, silk mercers and milliners, opened a splendid new shop in Eastgate Row which was compared with ‘the magnificence of Regent St.’  There are tips for researching your Chester and Cheshire family history in my Chester feature in this month’s Discover My Past England.

Images from author’s collection: The Rows on Eastgate St, Chester. Saturday Magazine, 1836.
Lamb Row, Chester, built c.1655 by Randle Holme on the west side of Bridge St. It collapsed in 1821. Gentleman’s Magazine (Supplement), December 1824.

Scotland’s Pride

Heavy snow is forecast later today; I hope it will somehow miss us. Spring seems like a long way away… the last few winters, spring bulbs have been peeking above ground before Christmas, but I haven’t spotted any yet this year.
My latest feature on Sir Walter Scott is in Discover My Past Scotland now. Scott would have been thrilled Scotland has its own Parliament nowadays (currently debating its budget), but I wonder if the Parliament Building would be to his taste? I suspect he would prefer a more traditional design, perhaps something along the style of his house at Abbotsford.

Images: Abbotsford, Sir Walter Scott’s home. History of England, Charles Knight, (London, c.1868.)

The Scottish Regalia. Scott was instrumental in recovering the long-lost Scottish regalia. He got permission from the Prince Regent (later George IV) to search in Edinburgh Castle for the lost treasure in 1818. Black’s Picturesque Tourist of Scotland (24th edition), (A& C Black, 1882.)