What happened on THIS day in Coventry's history?

On 13th Apr 2018 9:28am, Roger Turner said: Rob, I like your comment "Democracy Coventry Style" 1784. My grandmother (I can`t actually remember when she was born, but it was probably 1890-1900) used to tell me that at election time "the gutters of Coventry ran with blood". I`m not sure if she was referring to a period before her youth or not, but I did get the idea that she thought modern elections pretty tame affairs. Just as a matter of interest, there must have been a reason for the gangs' actions, is there a story somewhere?

On 13th Apr 2018 4:51pm, Rob Orland said: Thank you Roger, I'm glad it caused some amusement! I'm not sure about a specific story about this event, but the late 1700s and early 1800s were notoriously violent at voting time. I can't account for the country in general, but Coventry certainly suffered badly from this, and the local political corruption was one of the reasons for us losing our county status in the country's regional reorganisation of 1832-34. I recorded another of these "little skirmishes" in the 'On this day' of 29th November, but there were apparently countless similar events. It seems that our local representatives would employ any means they could to secure votes, though. They would often recruit a gang of "heavies" with all sorts of weapons to fight off potential voters for the opposing party, for which the army would occasionally be called in to try and restore order. They'd also resort to more subtly shenanigans, like swearing in "freemen" who were not actually time-served in order to illegally boost their numbers. David McGrory explains in his 2003 book "Coventry: A History" that the "Coventry Election Act" of 1781 was introduced for the purpose of preventing this - but it didn't always work! Altogether it makes today's politicians attempts at corruption seem quite amateur!

On 15th Apr 2018 10:45am, Roger Turner said: Thank you for the information Rob. I remember doing something about democracy and who had the vote in dry as dust history at school, "pot wallopers" and "rotten boroughs" and perhaps I knew elections could be pretty rough and ready affairs, but I don`t think I ever knew the "specifics" of what went on or could have gone on locally without the conversations with my grandmother and now the "glimpses" your publication of past events affords.

On 15th Apr 2018 11:45am, Kaga simpson said: It was all about the class system, workers against the money men the bosses, it was even worse a few years before with the needle-men and the mill owners etc all part of our history. You have just had a very good programme on called 'Peaky Blinders' (Birmingham) that showed all the bloodshed that went on in the twenties. Books and programmes are now allowed to show our history as it really was.

On 17th Apr 2018 1:25pm, Dreamtime said: