Overall Aims and Plans of the Bicentenary Initiative in the context of the English Project

The 1820s represented a decade of ‘agricultural distress’ especially in southern England. In the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars, prices for produce plummeted while  taxes and tithes remained high. Many farmers were forced to sell up while rich City-folk moved in to buy their farms thereby breaking up the traditional supportive relationships between local farmers and workers. Above all, the introduction of threshing machines – the AI of the early 19th century – displaced thousands of agricultural labourers especially during the key Autumn months.

 

Alongside this the more educated working class were reading the radical writings of activists such as William Cobbett who were demanding political change. The combination of these factors reached a crisis in the second half of 1830. Starting in Kent there was a growing pattern of rick-burning, machine breaking and threats to local gentry in the name of ‘Captain Swing’, a mythical figure who embodied the idea of intimidatory or violent change.

 

The scale of unrest increased as it rolled westwards towards Wessex.  By the time Captain Swing reached Hampshire in November the Lord Lieutenant of the County, the Duke of Wellington was determined to get a grip on the unrest. He cracked down hard on the labourers who by this time had ‘riotously assembled’ across more than sixty village communities often leaving a path of destruction in their wake.

 

With the aid of the army there were large scale arrests and 300 men were brought to Winchester gaol to face charges at a ‘Grand Assize’ held over the Christmas period in the Great Hall. A panel of top judges plus many lawyers and the media came down from London.

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For almost a fortnight the city was heaving with families of the accused, witnesses and jury members. The intensity of the trial meant that those involved were working almost non-stop – including on Christmas Day.

 

Most - but by no means all -of the accused  were found guilty and more than one hundred death sentences were issued. Most of these were to be commuted but half a-dozen executions took place in the Yard of the gaol – now the Wetherspoons pub in Jewry Street. Many of the remainder were sentenced to transportation – in some cases for ever. They departed their homeland in prison ships from Portsmouth.

 

The impact on Hampshire village life was devastating as many families lost their sole bread-earners. There was general agreement that the Hampshire sentences were particularly severe – probably under the influence of the ‘Iron Duke’ who sat alongside the judges through the trial. By the end of the decade most of the convicted had been given pardons. But by then the fatal damage had been done.

 

Unlike the Luddites and PeterLoo, this landmark event in Hampshire history has been almost forgotten. Now is the time to review its force and impact.

STRATEGIC AIM To raise awareness and understanding of the Captain Swing Riots in Hampshire as an important historical event in the county’s history (socially, economically, technologically, politically and legally) and to explore parallels today.