The History of Charlbury through...the National Agricultural Labourers Union
Life was hard for the rural poor in the late 1800s: they worked very long hours in all weathers for low wages. The 1871 Trade Unions Act permitted the formation of unions but forbade anyone stopping workers from entering a workplace. Following local meetings, the National Agricultural Labourer’s Union was established on 29 May 1872. The subscription was 2d a week and by the end of 1873 it had over 100,000 members. Women were not eligible to join though many worked in the fields. Its Chairman was Joseph Arch, a Methodist preacher who had been an agricultural labourer himself. He started work aged 9 as a crow scarer working a 12 hour day for 4 old pence.
Many Charlbury men worked as labourers on the land, some highly skilled. The census of 1871 recorded, among many others, that Thomas Kearsey farmed 115 acres employing 2 men and 1 boy at Dustfield Farm, John Walker farmed 165 acres employing 6 men and 1 boy at Lees Rest Farm, and Thomas Padbury farmed 240 acres with 4 labourers and 2 boys at Church Lane Farm. (1)
On 22 March 1873 a meeting was held in a barn at the back of The Bell, chaired by Mr H. Benfield, watchmaker, urging all labourers who had not joined the NALU to do so at once. The Oxford Times reported: Mr Benfield delivered himself of a “Good Time coming” (2)… and the speakers were loudly cheered. A follow-up meeting held on the Playing Close in late July attracted over 500 people.
In May 1875 Joseph Arch himself visited Charlbury. The Oxford Times reported:
On Saturday evening Mr J. Arch of the N.A.L.U. gave an interesting lecture in the open air on the Playing Close, to a large assembly composed mostly of labourers, upon the most engrossing and pleasing topic to them, viz., the welfare and advantage of their union. The advice he gave them was sound and good, in regard to work and wages, insisting on the principle of a fair day’s work, for a fair day’s wage…..On Sunday afternoon and evening Mr. Arch preached in a field for the Primitive Methodists to nearly 3,000 hearers….”
We have no records of major disputes arising in Charlbury between farmers and their workers, unlike the dramatic events in nearby Ascott-under-Wychwood (see below).
Thursday 1 April: Charlbury Society Zoom talk 7.45 for 8pm
Over the Hills to Glory: A talk by Carol Anderson
The story of sixteen Ascott women who went to gaol in 1873 when their menfolk were on strike for better wages
A Zoom link will be sent to members. For more information, contact the Secretary sec.charlsoc@gmail.com
1 Thanks to Diana Bennett for compiling lists of farmers from the censuses
2 This was a popular Victorian poem written by Charles Mackay and set to music by William Russell who wrote ‘Life on the Ocean Wave’.
