November 8th – Last night it commenced freezing, and this day it was extreemly severe. November 12th – Yesterday, a very severe, rude, cold day, attended with a fall of snow and a high wind. November 15th – Last night uncomon roof; a high wind and a deal of snow. November 19th – John Buckley arived at his house in Northmoor, after an absence of 3 years and 8 months.. November 20th – A fine day; the farmers buisy cuting their corn in some parts of this neighbourhood. It is seldom we read of such a state of things as this – farms cutting their corn while a “deal of snow” had fallen a few days previously. November 22nd – Mr. Jacob Radcliff and sons, of Bank, Oldham, gave two fat cows and ten loads of potatoes to the distressed poor, wich was seasonable relief at this time, and is one of his numerous acts of generosity. The name of this firm is almost stereotyped in these annals for its generosity to the poor. I know not if the family is still represented in Oldham. If it be, it may be pleasant to remember that a good name is better than riches. November 29th – Meal and flour took a rapid rise at Manchester this day, and at Oldham meal sold 3s. 4d. to 3s. 6d., flour 4s. 4d. to 5s. a peck. Pottatoes. The crops of this most useful article in most parts of the country are very light, in consequence of the frost which happened on the night of the 1st of September, the wisels being destroyed, the pottatoes did not increase much is size after. Being such small crops, the farmers have but parted with very few, and those at a high price, from 7s. to 9s. a load. November 22nd - Thomas Robinson, farmer, of Hough, finished the cuting of his corn this day, and there is a field of oats now growing near Foxdenton. On the 8th of October, 1814, the Earl of Darlington wrote to Lord Sidmouth, the home Secretary:- “The distress in Yorkshire is unprecedented. Wheat is already more than a guinea a bushel, and no old corn in store. The potato crop has failed. The harvest is only beginning (Oct. 8, mind), the corn being in many parts still green, and I fear a total defalcation of all grain this season from the deluge of rain which has fallen for several weeks, and which is still falling.” |
The conclusion of this month as been in general very fine weather. December 3rd – Died suddenly wife of Thomas Burdikin, formerly of Scoolcroft, Oldham. They kept leeches. December 11th – Wednesday, betwixt 11 and 12 o’clock forenoon, a shower of hail and snow, with a brisk wind south, which caused nearly a total darkness. December 14th – Died, at Glodwick, John Lees, formerly of Northmoor, a brick-maker, aged about 66 years. December 13th – Samuel Ogden, of Maygate-lane, hatter, was commited to the New Bailey for stealing a hen of David Ogden, of Burnley-lane. Died, Elizabeth, wife of John Ogden, dealer in spirits, Oldham. He formerly kept the Angel Inn, Oldham. Her age, 55 years. December 1st – At Oldham, flour sold of old wheat, 5s. 1d., of new wheat, 3s. 3d. to 4s. 6d.; meal, 3s. 1d. to 3s. 4d. a peck; pottatoes, 14d. a score. December 23rd – Flour same as last week: meal, 1d. lower; and pottatoes, 1d. lower. December 27th – A girl of the name of Sephton, accidentally fell into a pond of water at Buckley Factory, Oldham. Her age, 9 years. December 26th – Died at the Green, near Chadderton Workhouse, Nanny, wife of John Whittaker. Her age 64 years. This miserable year has nearly closed its career. For such distress and missery certainly never prevailed in England before, and the lower class of people are in general bordering on starvation to death. Their very apearances confirms their wretched situation. What a finish for a year that began with “peace and plenty!” |
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ANNALS OF OLDHAM No. LXXXV 1817 Rowbottom’s annals for 1817 are missing; their place must therefore be supplied from other sources. John Higson and E. Butterworth have both preserved scattered notices of the events of this year. E. Butterworth says:- On the 3rd January, 1817, an unusually numerous Radical Reform meeting was again held on Bent Green (known now as Bent Grange), when a banner bearing Radical mottoes and a band of music imparted peculiar animation to the events of the day. This was the second Reform meeting held at Oldham. Oldham Radicals were evidently fully alive to the interests of their cause, and they seem to have been persistent in their demand for reform, nor were they alone. Reform meetings were held in most of the neighbouring towns, and Manchester seems to have been the centre of the reform movement. On the 13th of this month a meeting of the inhabitants of Manchester and Salford was held to consider the necessity of adopting additional measures for the maintenance of the public peace. The more peaceable inhabitants were evidently greatly alarmed at the aspect of public events. We are told the organised system of committees, delegates, and missionaries, contributions levied, pamphlets disseminated, language of intimidation used, and the appointment of popular assemblies in various parts of the kingdom on one and the same day afforded strong manifestation of mediated disorder and tumult, and bore no analogy to the fair and legitimate exercise of that constitutional liberty which is the birthright and security of Englishmen. See Wheeler, p.108. There can be no doubt that both sides suffered from being over-zealous, and it was this which hindered the progress of real reform. Some of the leaders of Reform in Oldham and elsewhere were men of sense, who afterwards were greatly esteemed, but some of the followers were no doubt of dangerous character, and their fervency in the cause was such as to cause distrust and dismay even to their own party. On the part of the Government much mischief was caused by not properly gauging the real evils from which the country suffered, evils which it cannot be denied had their rise in misgovernment. At this distance of time it is easy to sit in judgment of the action of the Whig and Tory of that day, who both regarded the Radicals with more or less dissatisfaction, but the Tories were more in number. |
The late revolution in France was by no means a savoury experience and the public mind formed its opinion from what had then happened. Mob law is not even now the wisest form of government, with all our education and enlightenment, and all we can do is trust in the proletariat being bought under good influences and then rely on the noble instincts of an ancient people, as Disraeli put it.
During the year 1816 a Hampden club was formed in Middleton, which seems to have been a kind of Radical centre, as we find that delegates from other localities – among whom were some leading reformers – sometimes met there. The meeting place was an old disused chapel, once held by the Kilhamites. Sam Bamford tells us the following Radicals occasionally attended the meetings of the club:- John Knight, of Manchester, Cotton manufacturer in a small way, formerly of Mossley, who was a very earnest champion of the cause; William Ogden of Manchester, whom Canning once referred to as the “revered and ruptured Ogden;” William Benow, of Manchester, shoemaker, Charles Walker, of Ashton, weaver, Joseph Watson, of Mossley, clogger, Joseph Ramsden, of Mossley, woollen weaver, William Nicholson, of Lees, letter-press printer, John Haigh, of Lord’s Gate, Oldham, silk weaver, Joseph Taylor, of Oldham, hatter, John Kay, of Royton, cotton-manufacturer, William Fitton, of Royton, student-in-surgery, Robert Pilkington, of Bury, cotton weaver, Amos Ogden, of Middleton, silk weaver, Caleb Johnson, of Middleton, cotton weaver, and S. Bamford, of Middleton, silk weaver, whose book, entitled “Passages in the Life of a Radical,” ought to be re-printed in a cheap form , and read as a class-book by politicians of all shades of opinion. As showing the opinions held by these early reformers, Bamford says,:- “On the 1st of January, 1817, a meeting of delegates from twenty-one petitioning bodies was held in our chapel, when resolutions were passed declaratory of the right of every male to vote who paid taxes. That males of eighteen years of age should be eligible to vote. That Parliament should be elected annually. That no placeman or pensioner should sit in Parliament. That every 20,000 inhabitants should send members to the House of Commons. And that talent and virtue were the only qualifications necessary.” Bamford makes it very clear, quoting Major Cartwright, that reformers ought to be law-abiding citizens, and he says, “After physical force was mentioned among us our moral power waned, and what we gained by the accession of demagogues we lost by their criminal violence and the estrangement of real friends.” As the meeting in Oldham was held only two days after the delegates’ meeting in Middleton, we may form some opinions of the nature of the speeches. |
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