Yorkshire Almanac 2025

Unedited excerpt

The excerpt in the book is shorter, edited and, where applicable, translated.

THE SHEFFIELD DISTURBANCES.
(From the Sheffield Mercury, Dec. 7.)
On Tuesday last the inhabitants of this town and neighbourhood were thrown into considerable alarm, in consequence of a number of people having assembled together in a field near the Wicker. There has been a meeting of this kind in agitation for some time among the mechanics, and it is conjectured that they used no other means of collecting the people together than what arose from a by-meeting the day before, which probably consisted of not less than 100 persons, who effectually circulated among the workshops and public-houses their intention of meeting in the open air as above-mentioned.
Two or three persons addressed those assembled in the field, with a recommendation that they should depart in peace, and meet again on the following Thursday forenoon, when would be known the result of the London proceedings in Spafields.
Disregarding the wholesome advice of going to their respective homes, a few hundreds of men and boys paraded the principal streets. At the head of the crowd a man carried a pole, on which was placed a loaf that had previously been steeped in blood, and attached to which was the following inscription:-“Bread or Blood!” They directed their course to the new buying-ground, whence, after having resolved to meet there again on Thursday, they returned in larger numbers towards the market-place.
The Magistrates, having had early information of the meeting, were assembled at the Tontine inn, and had called in the assistance of the civil and military powers. With these wise precautions the populace, on their second appearance, were received by the Magistrates in the Haymarket. Here a dialogue ensued between one of the Magistrates and a man from the crowd, which ended in the Magistrate ordering the latter, one John Blackwell, alias Blacker, a well-known character, to be seized; and he was immediately examined, and dispatched to York-castle. After the most friendly advice from the Magistrates, the populace departed, having committed no act of outrage but the breaking of a few panes of glass.
SECOND MEETING.
On Thursday another meeting took place, about 10 in the forenoon, on the new burying-ground, but was broken up by the appearance of the dragoons from the barracks, who, passing up Broad-lane about half past 10, were followed up Crook’s-moor-way by nearly the whole of the populous assembly. The leaders remained behind, waiting the return of their comrades, till about 11 o’clock, when the expectants increasing in number, formed a pretty large concourse of men, women, and children. About this time a ring was formed, and one of the leaders said something, which we believe was an invitation for someone to address them; but no one coming forward, he put it to the vote that they should go and invite Mr. Rawson to preside over them, which was carried by a show of hands. They instantly proceeded towards the town, with an intention of executing this proposition; but it seems, by the time they arrived in High-street, they had learned that Mr. Rawson was in London. Their course was afterwards directed to the field, between the Wicker and Attercliffe, where they first met on the former occasion. Here, when a few hundreds arrived, they came to a determination of meeting in that place at five o’clock on the same evening.
Notwithstanding a heavy fall of rain, a populous meeting took place, about five o’clock, in the field near the Wicker. They returned to the town about six o’clock, and though considerable noise and alarm were created, we bure heard of no serious acts of violence. The magistrates had used every precaution to preserve the peace of the inhabitants. The Sheffield aud Rotherham troops of cavalry were on duty, and the town speedily assumed a tranquil appearance. To the time (early this morning) of our paper going to press, the town has remained perfectly, peaceable.
We hope to hear no more of these meetings, by which the lives of thoughtless persons are placed in danger, and the peace of the inhabitants is destroyed.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Comment

Comment

My title paraphrases Earl Fitzwilliam, who investigated:

“As far as I can collect, the proceedings at Sheffield are intended as Counterparts of those in London”.5 Political events in London during that week were of prime importance to both reformers and revolutionaries. On 2 December a great rally was held at Spa-Fields, where an enormous crowd was addressed by the radical orator Henry Hunt. A small group of Spencean revolutionaries attempted to transform the meeting into an insurrection which included an effort to enter the Tower of London. Rumours had spread to the provinces that something sensational was going to happen at Spa-Fields, and this was the cause of the excitement in Sheffield. Fitzwilliam, who was not an alarmist, reported to the Home Office that the Sheffield disturbance “was not the consequence of distress – not the want of employment – not the scarcity or dearness of provisions, but that it has been the offspring of a Revolutionary spirit” (Donnelly 1975/12).

John Thomas of Sheffield claims Blackwell was the man with the pole:

[April] 14 [1839]. Died, in the Sheffield Poorhouse, where he had been nearly eight years, aged 53, John Blackwell, tailor, alias Jackey Blacker, well-known in the early part of his life as “King of the Gallery” of the Sheffield Theatre. On Tuesday, the 3rd of December, 1816, Jackey distinguished himself in a cheap bread riot, by carrying on a pole a loaf smeared with blood. Being observed by Mr. Wortley, (now Lord Wharncliffe,) that gentleman dashed into the crowd, and himself apprehended him. He was committed to York Castle, and tried on the 19th March, 1817, found guilty, and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment. Blackwell was also charged, at the York Summer Assizes of 1820, for behaving in a riotous manner at Sheffield, and encouraging other disorderly persons to riot, and having in his possession a loaded pistol, a pike, and other unlawful weapons. For this offence, he was imprisoned two years and a half (Thomas 1830).

The Doncaster Gazette says that Wortley arrested Blackwell in person.

I’m not sure I believe either.

Navickas’ Edgelands is good.

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Tags

Tags are assigned inclusively on the basis of an entry’s original text and any comment. You may find this confusing if you only read an entry excerpt.

• Attercliffe (4) W/G ·
• Bank of England (1) W/G ·
• Bread (8) W/G ·
• City of London (11) W/G ·
• Classical radicalism (9) W/G ·
• Corn Laws (1815-46) (7), mercantilist tariffs and other restrictions on imported wheat, oats and barley, which, by keeping prices artificially high, favoured (Tory) landowners but made the poor hungry, the middle classes poor, and (Whig) manufacturers less able to develop their businesses W/G ·
• Hunt, Henry (1773-1835) (4), radical speaker, pioneer of working-class radicalism, important influence on the later Chartist movement; advocated parliamentary reform and the repeal of the Corn Laws, first MP to call for female suffrage W/G ·
• Islington (2) W/G ·
• James Stuart-Wortley, 1st Baron Wharncliffe (1) W/G ·
• London (84) W/G ·
• Napoleonic Wars (1803-15) (22), a series of conflicts fought between the First French Empire under Napoleon (1804-15) and a fluctuating array of European coalitions, which originated in political forces arising from the French Revolution (1789-99) and from the French Revolutionary Wars (1792-1802), and produced a period of French domination over Continental Europe W/G ·
• Radical politics (5) W/G ·
• Revolution (1) W/G ·
• Riot (22) W/G ·
• 📌Sheffield (80) W/G ·
• Spa Fields riots (1) W/G ·
• Spa Fields (1) W/G ·
• The Wicker (1) W/G ·
• Thomas Spence (1) W/G ·
• Tontine Inn, Sheffield (3) W/G ·
• Tower of London (2) W/G ·
• Unemployment (4) W/G ·
• Wheat (14) W/G ·
• William Fitzwilliam, 4th Earl Fitzwilliam (3) W/G ·
• Year Without a Summer (3) W/G ·
• 📌York Castle (36) W/G ·
• 📌York (164) W/G ·

All tags.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Comment

Comment

My title paraphrases Earl Fitzwilliam, who investigated:

“As far as I can collect, the proceedings at Sheffield are intended as Counterparts of those in London”.5 Political events in London during that week were of prime importance to both reformers and revolutionaries. On 2 December a great rally was held at Spa-Fields, where an enormous crowd was addressed by the radical orator Henry Hunt. A small group of Spencean revolutionaries attempted to transform the meeting into an insurrection which included an effort to enter the Tower of London. Rumours had spread to the provinces that something sensational was going to happen at Spa-Fields, and this was the cause of the excitement in Sheffield. Fitzwilliam, who was not an alarmist, reported to the Home Office that the Sheffield disturbance “was not the consequence of distress – not the want of employment – not the scarcity or dearness of provisions, but that it has been the offspring of a Revolutionary spirit” (Donnelly 1975/12).

John Thomas of Sheffield claims Blackwell was the man with the pole:

[April] 14 [1839]. Died, in the Sheffield Poorhouse, where he had been nearly eight years, aged 53, John Blackwell, tailor, alias Jackey Blacker, well-known in the early part of his life as “King of the Gallery” of the Sheffield Theatre. On Tuesday, the 3rd of December, 1816, Jackey distinguished himself in a cheap bread riot, by carrying on a pole a loaf smeared with blood. Being observed by Mr. Wortley, (now Lord Wharncliffe,) that gentleman dashed into the crowd, and himself apprehended him. He was committed to York Castle, and tried on the 19th March, 1817, found guilty, and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment. Blackwell was also charged, at the York Summer Assizes of 1820, for behaving in a riotous manner at Sheffield, and encouraging other disorderly persons to riot, and having in his possession a loaded pistol, a pike, and other unlawful weapons. For this offence, he was imprisoned two years and a half (Thomas 1830).

The Doncaster Gazette says that Wortley arrested Blackwell in person.

I’m not sure I believe either.

Navickas’ Edgelands is good.

Something to say? Get in touch

Similar

Order the book:

Subscribe to the free daily email:

To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Comment

Comment

John Keane:

Whether the bridge was ever erected over the Don is unknown. During April 1789, Paine and Yates supervised the erection of a three-ton rib arch, which was framed with wood and, Paine later told John Hall, test-loaded for twelve months with six tons of scrap iron. He wrote long preliminary accounts, which have been newly discovered, of the erection and test and forwarded them on May 25, 1789, to Sir Joseph Banks for submission to the Royal Society and to Sir George Staunton for submission to the Society of Arts. In June, Banks informed him that his report had been read and accepted by the Royal Society, but for some reason Staunton, an Irish baronet with diplomatic experience in Indian and Chinese affairs, delayed sending his copy to the Society of Arts until April 1790. The completed section of the bridge remained on display at Masborough. The last recorded viewing of it was by John Byng, whose journal entry for June 11, 1789, reads simply, “In Mr. Walker’s work-yard we survey’d an arch of an iron bridge just cast.” (Keane 1995)

Paine’s contemporary, John Adolphus:

Paine now employed himself with great assiduity building his bridge. For this end, he made a journey to Rotherham in Yorkshire, in order to superintend the casting of the iron by Mr Walker. While thus occupied at Rotherham, his French familiarity is said not to have much pleased the English ladies, and their displeasure induced Mr Walker to turn Paine out of his house. The bridge, however, was at length erected in a close at [Lisson Green, London]; being an arch constructed of iron, one hundred and ten feet in the span, five feet from the spring, and twenty two feet in breadth. It was erected chiefly at the charge of Mr. Walker; but the project had cost the projector a large sum, which was mostly furnished by Mr Whiteside. The bridge was shown for some time at the Yorkshire Stingo [a London pub], for a shilling. As this was not the first iron bridge which was known to the English, it is not easy to discover why the projector, who had a model, should incur so great an expense, merely to make a show (Adolphus 1799).

The Walkers probably made more money working for Paine’s enemies:

The Walker companies made a variety of iron and steel products, including household items such as kettles, irons and fireplaces. They were particularly renowned for making cannon. They secured a contract from local landowner the Marquis of Rockingham [!!!!] who was Prime Minister (1765-1766 and 1782), to supply cannon to the British during the American Wars of Independence, and the wars against France. Between 1774 and 1815 they made 13,000 tons of cannon, including 80 of the 105 cannon on board HMS Victory, Nelson’s flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar.

The fuller version of Paine’s letter cited by Foner includes the following technical detail, which may be more interesting in some ways than my excerpt, and which I suspect is plagiarised from Billy Yates, just as some of Paine’s big bridge design concepts were plagiarised from the French (as was, it seems, part of The Rights of Man):

These circumstances determined me to begin an arch of 90 feet with an elevation of 5 feet. This extent I could manage within doors by working half the arch at a time. Having found a short wall suited to my purpose, I set off a center and five feet for the height of the arch, and forty five feet each way for the extent, then suspended a cord and left it to stretch itself for a day, then took off the ordinates at every foot (for one half the arch only). Having already calculated the ordinates of an arch of a circle of the same extent I compared them together and found scarcely any certain distinguishable difference, the reason of this is that however considerable the difference may be when the segment is a semi-circle that difference is contained between the 1st and 60th is 70 degrees reckoning from the bases of the arch, and above that the catenary appears to me to unite with the arch of the circle or exceedingly nearly thereto so that I conclude that the treatises on catenarian arches apply to the semi-circle or a very large portion of it. I annex a sketch to help out my meaning. [See diagram on p. 1039.]

Having taken my measurements I transferred them to the working floor. 1st I set off half the line divided into feet; 2d the ordinates upon it; 3rd drove nails at the extremity of every ordinate; 4th bent a bar of wood over them corresponding to the swinging cord on the wall, above this first bar, and at the distance the blocks would occupy, I set off all the other bars and struck the radii through the whole number; which marked the places where the holes were to be cut and consequently the wooden bars became patterns for the iron bars.

I had calculated on drilling the holes for which I had allowed 8 sterling each in my private estimation, but I found, when at the works, that I could punch a square, or oblong square hole for 1 or 1 4 each. This was gratifying to me, not only because it was under my estimation, but because it took away less of the bar in breadth than a round hole of the same capacity would do, and made the work in every respect stronger and firmer. I was very unwilling to cut the bar longitudinally, and for the same reasons you mention therefore did not do it, yet I was apprehensive of difficulty in getting the work together owing to diverging of the bolts, but this I think I have completely got over by putting the work together with wood bolts, and then driving them out with the iron ones.

Having made all my patterns of bars, and a pattern for my blocks, and chosen my iron 3 inches by ¾ we began punching the holes. To do this it is necessary the iron bar be treated hot. When this was mentioned to me I pondered a little on the effects of heat, and instead of marking the iron bar when cold from the wood pattern, I first treated it and then marked and punched it, and that only one hole at a time; by this method the changes of atmospherical heat and cold are prevented operating on the bars while they are under the operation, as it is always the same season to the bar whether the season of the year be summer or winter, and as the wood patterns is laid to the bar for every fresh hole, there can be no accumulation of error, if any, would happen, and the square hole I I can be corrected by a file whereas the round one could not.

A great part of our time, as you will naturally suppose was taken up in preparations, but after we began to work we went on rapidly, and that without any mistake, or anything to alter or amend. The foreman of the works is a relation to the proprietors, an excellent mechanic, and who fell into all my ideas with great ease and penetration. I stayed at the works till one half the rib, 45 feet, was completed and framed horizontally together, and came up to London at the meeting of Parliament on the 4th of December. The foreman, whom, as I told him, I should appoint “President of the Board of Works in my absence,” wrote me word that he has got the other half together with much less trouble than the first. He is now preparing for erecting, and I for returning.
(Paine 1945)

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