n By Duncan Milligan
FIND OUT MORE
Learn more about the Ascott Martyrs:
ascottmartyrs.co.uk Threeacresandacow.co.uk
Facebook: Ascott Martyrs’ Educational Trust
Read: The Ascott Martyrs, edited by Keith Laybourn.
happened and it was all a bit of fun. A local constable took names, the women left and the lads stayed at work.
Farmer Hambidge, furious that the police wouldn’t prosecute an attempt to get the strikebreakers to stop work, took a private prosecution.
Hambidge, also a local church warden, reputedly nobbled the two local Church of England vicars (Carter and Harris) who also acted as magistrates. The fact that half the women were Baptists or Methodists was grist to the vicars’ mill.
The vicars-cum-magistrates convicted the women – who had no legal representation – and sentenced 16 of them to between seven and 10 days prison with hard labour. The women were held in the cells at the new Chipping Norton police station.
The vicar/magistrates were later described in the press as ‘utterly incapable…dull…devoid of sympathy and singularly stupid.’
When news spread, all hell broke loose. Up to 1,000 protestors surrounded the police station, smashed some of its
windows, dislodged roof tiles and broke street lamps. Under the cloak of darkness, and with a large escort, the women were taken to Oxford jail, including two women with babies, where they were poorly treated.
The court report in the Times shocked the nation. The newly legal Agricultural Labourers’ Union launched a campaign and staged protests.
National President Joseph Arch, who had only launched the union the year before, recruited thousands to the union on the back campaign. “It was the best thing that happened for our cause’” he later said.
The Home Secretary was roundly grilled in the Commons. We’ll never know if and how Queen Victoria, who was in Balmoral, intervened.
But we do know the women were granted a pardon from the hard labour, but not from the rest of the sentence. By the time the pardon arrived the women had completed their sentences.
The union campaign sparked by the treatment of the women resulted in the right to picket, male agricultural
29 uniteLANDWORKER Autumn 2023
The Ascott Martyrs by Beverley McCombs
labourers getting the vote and vicars lost their side hustle of becoming Magistrates. It was also a huge boost to union membership.
The village quietly embraces its historical past. The 150th anniversary included a performance of Three Acres and a Cow, a mix of music and storytelling. All 120 seats were sold out well in advance.
A village cricket match was played between The Martyrs and The Establishment for The Martyrs Cup. The Martyrs team included descendants of some of the original
Martyrs: Martha Smith, Rebecca Smith, Mary Moss (alias Smith) Charlotte Moss, Ann Susan Moss, Ann Moss, Fanny Honeybone, Elizabeth Pratley, Mary Pratley, Ellen Pratley, Lavinia Dring, Amelia Moss, Martha Moss, Caroline Moss, Jane Moss and Mary Moss.
These women are among the most important people you have never heard of.
Mark Thomas
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40
