Weavers of Coventry

Further to the images of Beck's off New Buildings. I've found an article with two sketches of the factory in 1886 when it was Smith, Powers and Co a varnish manufacturers. They're on Ebay so grab them while you can if you're interested.

This is the same Joseph who made microscopes and even a violin, which are somewhere in the museum. I have some pipes made by his son. There is also a table made by him in marquetry, it was made for one the socialist clubs and is actually a chessboard. I am trying to find out as much as possible about this table top, maybe even find the legs, or make a proper base. Hopefully, I can ensure that it finds a proper home to have it presented to after any necessary renovations. I will try and organise photos. Thanks DD

I may have mentioned this before but the friend John Yardley he mentions was my great great grandfather. He mentions a telescope he made and I wonder what happened to that.

Thank you so much, Helen! It's taken a while but I'm back on the trail of the Beck Mill riot. These images made my spine tingle!

You're welcome. As people ask about certain areas it triggers me to sort out what I know, and having looked at images of the mill, the ebay pages sprang out at me. I'd brushed over them before. I've discovered that finding out what's not old on the maps is almost as useful as finding what is. This is the view of the entrance to Beck's Yard off New Buildings, looking roughly west. You can just see where the pavement breaks on the right, just after the 3 storey building.

. . . I thought you might be interested in these extracts from Nield's Report on the State of Prisons in England, Scotland and Wales 1812 from pp 147-8 reporting on the City of Coventry county gaol. This scathing report was part of the reason for expanding the prison in the early 1830s: Allowances: sixpenny loaf every other day from the baker's One courtyard only (60 x 40') common to debtors, felons etc One day room (called "The Den"...the place of general and promiscuous association). 11/2cwt coal in summer, 2cwt winter ('but a scanty allowance') Whole prison dirty Poor Debtors: common ward, a bedstead, loose straw (change every 3 weeks), a blanket, a rug (sixpence a week) Dungeons: 'horrid dungeons' 'opprobrious caverns': a 'disgrace to the City', "there is a descent by twelve steps, to a narrow passage, 4 feet wide. The dungeons, four in number, are about 9 feet by 6, and at the top have a little grated aperture, 11 inches by 7 inches, which admits a glimmering light from the court-yard above, just sufficient to make "darkness visible". All of them are damp and offensive. A Boultin of straw (long wheaten straw, about 24lbs. weight, so called) is said to be allowed to each Felon, every three weeks. The bedding consists of two rags and two blankets; which, as well as the straw, I have always found nearly worn out, and very dirty. I was told that torches of pitch, or tar, were occasionally burnt in these dungeons, to dry and purify them; and that, now and then, they were fumigated with vinegar. When I went down to them, we always had lighted candles, to behold, what?

SJT Yes, that's a good description of the gaol and of the building, but who were allowed to attend? - not the workers who worked at Becks, other than those arrested. There were no police at the time, only watchmen without any sort of uniform or discipline. We can't begin to understand today the people and the order of class in those times. There was no real evidence, only someone's hearsay, by someone trying to save his own neck, and by a corrupt bunch of officials. We can't really understand the life of the 1930's, how many washed, cleaned their teeth, saw a doctor, peed in the garden, believed in old wives tales etc. On a Sunday you could buy a loaf of bread if wrapped but not unwrapped - or the other way about. 1830, church bells rang often all over the city, watchmen called out the time every half hour through the night. Men wrapped on bedroom panes with long poles, no alarm clocks. People kept pigs and poultry in Broadgate and Cross Cheaping and women spat on apples, rubbed them on a dirty skirt before selling. Not living in that environment we really do not understand what it actually was like The Tolpuddle Martyrs, after spending three years of a seven year convict spell in Australia, were brought home. Post copied from topic County Hall & Coventry Gaol on 17th Aug 2020 12:03 pm

Yes, I agree, Kaga, so different to today & difficult for us to envision... particularly difficult for an author trying to imagine it and write it! Hence why I spend hours of time researching. Thanks for the info on the church bells. I have them ringing in the novel and the sunset gleaming off St Michael's. Also, the pigs and poultry info is very helpful. The newspaper and also judge's notes of the trial report that Beck is thrown into some 'mud' at Cross Cheaping. I believe this is the polite word to describe something far more pungent. As many as could fit in were present at the courthouse as is evident from the many newspaper articles of the day describing the trial and there were no restrictions as to who could attend. An early feature of British justice was public trials (the hated Star Chamber proceedings, conducted in private, were abolished in 1641). Beck's workers gave evidence at the trial along with a range of other working class. The jury, however, was restricted, unlike today. Under the Juries Act of 1825 you had to be a man (not a woman) of wealth to qualify (eg. must own land worth at least £10 pa if rented). Despite the absence of a standing police force in those times there were constables appointed by the Magistrates on the day to deal with the rioters and carry out arrests (again, see newspaper reports published in The Coventry Herald at the time). Posses of 14th Light Dragoons and 7th Hussars was also dispatched from the barracks too to disperse the rioters and keep watch overnight. I researched the Tolpuddle Martyrs. Whilst their case is somewhat different to the Coventry rioters (particularly since they were arrested for swearing an oath rather than actually destroying any property) it's around the same time and very helpful in understanding the context. There was widespread fear amongst ruling classes at the time of civil uprising for political ends (from trade unions or reformists). In many of the numerous petitions for mercy for the two condemned Coventry men the plea is made that the riot was 'not political' but rather a 'spontaneous' outburst born of the distress arising from poverty. Thanks again, Kaga!

SJT Thanks for your reply, but wasn't Beck Mill works force made up of two-thirds women and children, and weren't women barred from anything to do with legal unless a suspect in something, and watchmen were known to be corrupt and known for bribery by the Coventry Standard. The gulf between the affluence of the mill owners and the abject poverty of their employees was enormous, and the Reform Act of 1932 left 5 out of 6 working men without a vote and women with no rights at all except in the kitchen, by an aristocracy paralysed by the prospect of losing its wealth. The Britain of 1831 bore only a superficial resemblance to that of 1880, most of the tight hold that the Established Church had over many state institutions was severely weakened. The reports of girls under sixrteen in chain and nail factories - a report by a Black Country newspaper showed a row of these small chain-making factories close to offensive cess pools. The fires of these workshops were all going, but only women at work. But if honest employment was denied to these women, then vice, misery and ruin took its place. It wasn't until after WWI that women and thousands of men also got the vote.

Kaga, Yes, using women and children as labour was a hated new practise and the most notorious amongst the manufacturers for doing so in Coventry were Messrs Day and Dodd, both of Gosford Street. There may have been others but there was no accusation of the practise against Beck. It seems his only sin was to be the first to deploy a steam engine to power looms. Fearing further reprisals, the military guard was not only set at the smouldering rubble in Beck's yard but also Day and Dodd's (all documented in detail in The Coventry Herald reports of Nov 1831). There were no restrictions on women watching a trial (or a hanging) as a spectator at this time. In London they did charge a fee to be a spectator in a courtroom but I've found no evidence of this in Coventry. One of the witnesses for Burbury's defence (the only prisoner to mount a defence) was Mrs Hill, wife of an Ironmonger Row sweetmeats vendor who himself gave evidence as well. Yes, the Reform Bill turmoil in the first half of 1832 (during which time it was repeatedly rejected by the House of Lords) is fascinating and forms part of the backdrop for the story. People wanted the rotten boroughs gone, large cities to have fair representation (some still only had one MP for hundreds of thousands of people whilst rotten boroughs had one for a handful of voters all required to vote for the lord of the manor's nominated candidate) and a widening of the electoral franchise. Although most working class would still not be permitted to vote, it was still seen at the time as a breakthrough to allow more of the burgeoning middle classes The vote. I think Lord Melbourne, secretary of state at the time & responsible for deciding petitions for mercy on behalf of the king, was in a very difficult position when it comes to the Coventry rioters. They had been duly convicted and the mandatory penalty under the Act was death. Someone had to hang for such wanton destruction but it was widely believed (by both rich and poor in Coventry) that Burbury was innocent. The city was in an uproar with tens of thousands signing petitions and the newspaper reports spreading across the country. Sounds like it would make a good novel I think.

SJT. All amusing to me now. I was reading and trying to do all this stuff alone before we even had television, let alone this forum. In those days you could buy the Coventry Evening Telegraph for three back days numbers, and that was it. And Coventry had Aussie officials in the town, trying to get us to emigrate for ten pounds, but just for the boat ride - once aboard they forgot you, from what I was told later. But my cousin did go and eventually settled in Brisbane, and he's buried there. There was an account of the trial for sale in the fifties, have no idea of the title, but no one was interested in those days, and my interest was D H Lawrence because I had read of his death in the thirties. I even followed his writing trail as far as Italy. Back to Becks, I have found to read a number of books and reporters of those days - they have different accounts to today, still goes on (I have my name and story in the paper but it's not me in the photo). The Church of England's relationship with science was not recognised in mid-19th century, and feared a breakdown of their values. Men were driven by starvation, and the carelessness of the moneyed classes towards the suffering of their workers. And believe it or not this was still around, not quite as bad, in the 1926/7 strikes. but it did destroy a lot of families. SJT - I hope I'm not rude - in 1831, I doubt there were even a thousand that could read or write in Coventry, there weren't many more in 1921 or that was about their limits. It was WWII that educated people, never had so many people become aware of the world, and never had so many people needed to write and express themselves, and their surroundings. My parents learnt more then than in their previous years, and so did we all.

SJT I am 93 years old, and have difficulty with this electronic stuff, all I can manage is to type on here, so please have patience with me. Yes, you may use anything I post. In the past I explained my nickname that was given to me before I could talk, and as this is about my younger days let it stay - Kaga. And if I'm around tomorrow, I'll be lucky. Rob has been very kind to let me write about some of my life in and out of Coventry, for which I thank him deeply. I once left Brisbane Airport in a hurry, first plane out to uk with a fistful of dollars (back-pack) but that's another story. Yes, you have all read Sarah Thornton's story, but not Thomas Ashton's. The way I read it - Thomas Ashton (24) was the son of a mill owner, up north a few months earlier that same year, he got shot, they never found the culprit and like Becks and most mill owners had reduced working prices down to starvation. The mill owners, the aristocrats and government were in uproar at this savagery, they needed to put a stop to this and the riots before it got out of hand (revolution). So they needed a scapegoat, and in Burbury they got one. Still seething from not finding one in Ashton's case, behind closed doors they used their weight, and kept it under wraps, but you can read between the lines, and they all put there prices back to what they were, until the people calmed down which suited the government. Actually in Coventry,1830 had been a good year, but these new factory weavers had no rights in those days, and did they bear the marks of childhood deprivation - they all dreaded being put out of work and back on the Poor Law. I saw a little of it from the 1926/7 strikes and Coventry pit closures, with no redundancy pay, and about ten shillings a week for a family to live on.

Kaga, I'd never heard about Thomas Ashton. Will look him up. Thanks so much as this is important background. The poverty back then

Dreamtime.