TolPuddle Martyrs??

[puddicat]

Amazing werent they!!!

[gonzo00]

wtf???

[CAJ1]

Yes, I used to live Tolpuddle and visited the museum place and their graves.

[tiggerblue10]

19th century heroes Gonzo.

[gonzo00]

righttttttt..jeez..i'm out of touch!

[logic]

are they a pop group?

[puddicat]

Heard of them sometime in my my yoof,but having seen a wee bit of the history, these chaps were so brave!!!

[Jugglering]

Yes, Puddi... very brave men who fought against the lowering of wages (from something like 10s a week to 6s a week), then they got sentenced to transportation to Australia.

I wonder how many people nowadays are prepared to be sent to the other side of the world in order to stop their wages/salaries being cut ?

[CAJ1]

In 1834 six Dorset agricultural labourers, united together to - "preserve ourselves, our wives, and our children, from utter degradation and starvation".

News of their formation of the Tolpuddle Lodge of the Agricultural Labourers Friendly Society enraged the draconian local magistrate and landowner James Frampton who wrote to the Home Secretary, Lord Melbourne, to inform him that labourers were being induced to "enter into combinations of a dangerous and alarming kind, to which they are bound by oaths".

Although Trade Unions had been declared legal in England the six men were charged under the 1797 Mutiny Act and at their trial they were found guilty of administering illegal oaths. The judge unjustly sentenced them to seven years transportation to the penal colonies of Australia and Van Dieman�s Land (Tasmania).

[puddicat]

We have to remember the struggle juggle lol, will study this story in depth!!