March 2021
Newsletter This is now the fifth edition of the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Labour History Society Newsletter. The primary purpose of the Newsletter is to keep contact between the NDLHS and its audience in these difficult days when face to face meetings are not possible. When the pandemic ebbs and meetings are possible will be the time to debate how, or even if, the Newsletter might continue and the role it could play. We are planning for the future. On the evening of the April 21st we are lucky enough to have Professor Robert Poole, author of the acclaimed book “Peterloo: the English Uprising” to speak at a Zoom meeting on Peterloo: Authority on Trial. The months after Peterloo saw a dramatic series of protest meetings, followed by several attempted risings in northern England, Scotland, and London's Cato Street conspiracy. All this took place against the backdrop of the repressive Six Acts and the trial of Henry Hunt and other Peterloo organisers in York. Robert will look at how close Britain came to rebellion, and the place of Nottingham as a reputed hub of conspiracy. The long-delayed talk on Chartism could be revisited. This was originally scheduled for April 25th 2020, but then, as McMillan might have said “Events, dear boy. Events!” When restrictions ease, we are envisaging a series of outdoor events. Roger Tanner describes those in Nottingham below. We are also exploring an historical walk on the theme of Edward Carpenter as well as one based on the Eyam and Stoney Middleton women’s strike in the boot and shoe trade. If people have material suitable for the Newsletter please send it to me for consideration. It could be a small piece or perhaps more substantial up to around 2,000 words. Julian Atkinson
Edward Carpenter and Millthorpe “It was a bright March day, clusters of daffodils and snowdrops bordered the brook and hedgerow; all around were hills, woods and fields, and close by a stone-roofed hamlet and farmstead. Sitting at table, to a vegetarian meal, one looked through the open door down the sunlit garden to the hills.” Thus wrote Charlie Sixsmith of his first visit to Edward Carpenter’s house at Millthorpe in 1895.1
1
Quoted in “Edward Carpenter, A Life of Liberty and Love” by Sheila Rowbotham.