The Kennet & Avon Canal brought the industrial revolution to the rural Wiltshire towns of Bradford on Avon and Trowbridge and the local Trades Union Council has organised a day when speakers will give an insight into the impact that mechanisation had on the lives of working people — and the discontent and troubles that resulted.
Talks will be given on: “Thomas Helliker and the Wiltshire machine-breakers” by Prof. Adrian Randall, Birmingham University, “Captain Swing rioters” by Nigel Costley Secretary, South West Region Trades Union Congress, “Chartism in rural Wiltshire, 1838-1842” by Steve Poole, Principal History Lecturer, University of the West of England, “Strikes and Socialism in Swindon in the 1960s and 1970s” by Derique Montaut, Labour Party Leader, Swindon Borough Council and “Phyllis and Idris Rose: Trowbridge communist councillors” by Dave Chapple, CWU and Rosie McGregor, UNISON.
 |
Thomas Hellicker, an apprentice mill-worker, was hanged in Salisbury for a crime he did not commit. At the age of 19 he went to the gallows refusing to give evidence against his fellow workers. Evidence that would have saved his own life. |
Wiltshire History Day
Saturday November 6th 2010
St Margaret's Hall, Bradford on Avon, 10.30am to 2.30pm
Admission is free
The event is organised by Wiltshire (White Horse) TUC
