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Boots on the march |
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George remained silent and went into the factory to collect his work to take home. Phillips then called after him, “Scabby bugger, you had better look out, you’ll meet someone on the road.” George was clearly terrified and feared for his well-being and for that of his wife, Mary. She worked as a hand stabber, drilling the holes in the soles and uppers by hand.
"General" James Gribble
© Courtesy of J R Betts - Raunds & District History Society |
She was intimidated, like her husband, as she collected work from the factory for home-work. In court, Mary said how frightened she was when she heard the tin kettle band approaching, but one defendant claimed that George and Mary’s own children had tin kettles. It was the kettle bands that intimidated the “blacklegs” with en-masse kettle banging.
The animosity was further increased when George’s brother, William, sided with one of the pickets, saying that he had not been making any disturbance at all.
Things quietened down and within a few weeks, some 300 men drifted back to work. The Union, however, had not let things rest. James Gribble, known as “The General”, was the Union Organiser from Northampton who oversaw the Raunds strike. He had the idea, without the blessing of the Union, of organising a march to London to lobby Parliament.
Words: David Saint
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