Last modified: 2007-12-29 by rob raeside
Keywords: chartist | skelmanthorpe flag |
Links: FOTW homepage |
search |
disclaimer and copyright |
write us |
mirrors
See also:
"The Huddersfield Daily Examiner", 10 April 2006, reports the history of the
flag known as the Skelmanthorpe Flag.
"The first half of the 19th century was a period of political agitation. Events
ranged from the Peterloo Massacre in 1819 to the last Chartist Petition of 1848,
which took place at a time when revolutions were occurring all over Europe. From
1819 the villagers of Skelmanthorpe were at the forefront of political struggles
and a special flag, known as the Skelmanthorpe Flag, was woven in this year at a
house on Radcliffe Street. The flag, which was later taken to many rallies and
demonstrations all over Huddersfield, proclaimed: "Skelmanthorp will not rest
Satisfied with the Suffrage being anything but Universal."
This was later taken up by the Chartist movement. Chartism was an umbrella
movement which drew together many different groups with various aims and
grievances. Chartists were called that because they devised a six-point charter
which detailed their demands. These were: universal male suffrage, annual
parliaments, vote by secret ballot, abolition of property qualifications for
MPs, payment for MPs and equal electoral districts. None of these were realised
in the lifetime of the movement, but all except annual parliaments are now law.
The Chartists disbanded after the failure of their third petition in 1848, just
two years after the hated Corn Laws had been repealed. Some believe that after
the repeal of the Corn Laws Chartism's popularity declined. Thus, many
historians argue that for many followers Chartism was purely a knife and fork
question."
Source:
http://ichuddersfield.icnetwork.co.uk
Ivan Sache, 19 April 2006
In my opinion, the Skelmanthorpe Flag is more properly described as a banner, rather than a flag. This banner, which is privately owned, commemorates the Peterloo Massacre, which was a massacre of a number of people at a gathering held in Peterloo, Manchester, to protest the lack of representation of the populous industrial areas in the north of England in Parliament. An image of it may be found in the National Banner Survey, a collection of the People's History Museum in Manchester.
It is divided into four quadrants and contains the words: "SKELMANTHORP Will
not rest Satisfied with the Suffrage being anything but Universal" in the top
left quadrant. In the bottom left, "May never a cock in England Crow, Nor never
a Pipe in Scotland blow, Nor never a Harp in Ireland Play, Till Liberty regains
her Sway. In the top right quadrant is the slogan "Truth and Justice Pouring
Balm into the Wounds of the Manchester Sufferers." In the bottom right quadrant,
is a drawing of a man looking up at an eye in the sky and a further slogan on a
scroll, which is too indistinct to read on the above referenced web site.
The term flag seems to have originated from an article "Skelmanthorpe's Flag of
Freedom" in Hirst Buckley's Annual 1926 and also in Politics and the People - A
Study in English Political Culture c.1815-1867 by Vernon, but is more correctly
described as a Chartist banner in the research paper cited as my source number
(1) below, by probably the most authoritative current source in the United
Kingdom in this area.
Sources:
(1) University of Manchester, Arts Faculty, History Research Working Paper
Number 45, Note, this document was located on the University of Manchester's web
site at
http://www.arts.manchester.ac.uk/subjectareas/history/ on 19 April 2006, but
does not have any title pages, as it is a "working paper" and it is thus not
possible to cite it correctly.
(2) Collections of the People's History Museum, Manchester, no catalogue number,
title "banner, Peterloo. Skelmanthorpe Flag." as consulted on the People's
History Museum web site, 19 April 2006.
Colin Dobson, 19 May 2006
Here are full details of this and also other things I've done on this subject. 'Why are there no Chartist banners' is probably the best for this subject. The People's History Museum ran the National Banner Survey in 1998-9 (pre-web), which was an inventory of 2,500 banners in UK museums and you can access some of the information on our web site www.phm.org.uk (follow links to Collections).
Dr Nick Mansfield
Director, People's History Museum Head Office
103 Princess Street
Manchester M1 6DD
Registered as National Museum of Labour History in England no. 2041438.
Registered charity no. 295260
There exists a different flag for Wales which was used by the chartists in their uprising (and
subsequently by Welsh republicans). It consists of a tricolor arranged vertically of blue white and green. Blue represents the sky (and heaven) white peace and green the earth (or the common people). It was supposed to represent a new order when the common people of Wales would be united under the sky.
Muiris Mag Ualghairg, 19 June 2000
I think you will find that the Chartist flag was a light purple, white and green horizontal
tricolour, with the words "Universal Liberty" in English on the white strip. This flag was used by Chartists in England and Wales, but
in Wales there was a armed rising by Chartists, I suppose carrying this flag. Here
is a photo of such a flag (but without
words).
David Cox, 4 May 2002
I have found a reference to just such a flag, in a popular history book about
The Newport Rising of 1839 called " The Man From The Alamo " by John Humphries
pub Wales Books, Glyndwr Publishing ISBN 1-903529-14-X . The sources he refers
to in his notes are " The Merthyr Rising " by Gwyn A Williams pub Croom Helm,
London ISBN 0-85664-493-5 (but I have searched those pages quoted without
success) and an article about Morgan Williams in the " Merthyr Express " 5th May
1956 (which I don't have access to).
On Page 50 of " The Man From The Alamo " John Humphries, in describing the
political turmoil of the 1830's, mentions..." One of these was Morgan Williams,
eventual leader of the Merthyr Chartists, and another John Thomas, his co-editor
of the bi-lingual newspaper 'The Workman - Y Gweithiwr', launched the same year
as the Tolpuddle Martyrs and considered Wales' first working class
newspaper....Morgan Williams was born at Penrheolgerrig in 1808,...A weaver by
trade, he was credited with designing the Chartists' green, white and blue
banner and was secretary of the Merthyr Workingmen's Association, formed in
October 1838 to fight for the Charter. But after the disastrous Merthyr Riots of
1831, it was not surprising that he remained firmly planted on the 'moral force'
wing of the Chartist movement. " [i.e. he objected to the use of violence for
political ends - as did most Chartists, hence the later split into two groups
after the Newport Rising: the National Charter Association being abandoned by
many who went on to form the Complete Suffrage Union].
"Only one issue of 'The Workman - Y Gweithiwr', for May 1st 1834, has survived,
and only four pages of that [it is in the National Library of Wales]. The
curious ambiguity contained in its pages, if characteristic of other issues,
reveals its co-editors Morgan Williams and John Thomas as campaigners in the
Owenite socialist tradition sending out confused messages about trade unionism,
self-reliance, co-operation, education and the environment."
David B. Lawrence, 17 April 2007
I've just read Gethin's comment about the Gorsedd colours added to the
discussion of the blue, white, green triband that featured in the 1839 Newport
Rising, so it is quite timely that I have just come across a reference implying
just such an idea. The book is " A Welsh Heretic - Dr William Price, Llantrisant
" by Islwyn ap Nicholas. Price was a renowned free-thinker who appointed himself
Arch-Druid and outraged his neighbours by publicly worshipping nature,
practising nudism and also the wearing of strange costumes for the purpose. He
typically wore green trousers, a scarlet waistcoat and a white tunic all of a
strange design which he insisted was men's Welsh national costume - except for
the fox fur that he wore on his head as a symbol of him being a healer. Famous
for introducing cremation and defending the practice in court, it is rather less
well known that he fled to Paris in 1839 after a warrant was issued for his
arrest as the leader of the Chartists in eastern Glamorganshire who on the eve
of the insurrection decided not to march to Newport.
Since a fair number of free-thinkers embraced neo-druidic activities and
declared themselves to be resurrecting the ancient religion and bardic culture
of Wales, it is a fair bet that the blue, white, green triband is derived from
the colours ascribed to the orders of the Gorsedd of Bards as Wales' sole
national institution at that time. Dr Price described them as blue for the order
of Bards, derived from the summer sky ; white for the order of Druids, [derived
perhaps from winter] ; green for the order of Ovates, derived from spring
growth. [In the modern Gorsedd the Arch-Druid wears a purple robe as well -
maybe even a source for the violet, white, green flag?]
There is another possibility that is kind of linked to Druidic lore: druids are
associated with trees, usually oak trees, and some Welsh currency in circulation
early in the 19th century symbolises the nation with a druid's head on it
encircled by oak leaves (instead of the monarch?). But also in many European
countries the oak tree was the chosen "Liberty Tree" , a symbol of the radical
meetings that might be held beneath its boughs, and certainly in Wales the link
between neo-druidry and republican sentiment was well known. But the oak was not
the only choice for liberty tree, and in Wales there seems to have been a
Christian alternative for those who found neo-Druidism objectionable - the "Draenen"
- a thorn tree. Thorn trees yield a wealth of political symbolism quite besides
the idea of the idea of the thorns that crowned Jesus on the cross, e.g., bare
branches bursting unexpectedly into blossoms after the desolation of winter
suggest hope for political aspirations. But there are two "Draenen" in the Welsh
dictionary - " Y Ddraenen Wen " is the hawthorn, which yields a symbolic colour
scheme of red, white and green - " Y Ddraenen Ddu " - is blackthorn whose
berries can be various shades of blue through to purple, or even interpreted as
black. So maybe these Welsh blue / violet / red triband flags are actually
referring to these ?
David B. Lawrence, 31 October 2007
