First General Strike In Britain – Stalybridge, UK - Blue Plaques on Waymarking.com

Stalybridge had grown rapidly during the industrial revolution with its main industry being cotton spinning. However this growth had only been enabled by the mechanisation of the mills, starting with water power and then steam power. This was greatly opposed as many independent cotton spinners were put out of work.

As early as 1811 gangs of armed men had destroyed power looms in the town and a regiment of soldiers had been sent to the town to restore order.

In later years the mill owners had imposed wage cuts at a time when workers were already campaigning for better working conditions. This came to a head in 1842. The Chartist movement presented a petition to Parliament and Stalybridge had contributed 10,000 signatures. Parliament rejected the petition and in response some miners went on strike in Staffordshire.

Although the miners went on strike first the town of Stalybridge organised what was to become known as the Plug Riots. This refers to the striker’s method of removing plugs from the steam boilers, a simple and easy method of stopping the mills from working.

The strike spread rapidly to other textile manufacturing towns including the large City of Manchester. From there the strike spread and turned into a nation General Strike.

The plaque is on the portico of the town hall and is one of a pair celebrating the history of the town. This had been opened in 1831 three years after Stalybridge received royal assent to become an independent town. However in 1974 after a national reorganisation of local councils, Stalybridge became part of the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside and the town hall became redundant. It was demolished in the 1980s with only the entrance portico and a few columns left in place.

The text on the plaque is as follows.

TAMESIDE METROPOLITAN BOROUGH

THE FIRST GENERAL STRIKE, 1842

Originated in this area, beginning as a movement
of resistance to the imposition of wage cuts
in the mills, also known as the ‘Plug Riots’
it spread to involve nearly half a million
workers throughout Britain and represented
the biggest single exercise
of working class strength
in nineteenth century
Britain.

Blue Plaque managing agency: TAMESIDE METROPOLITAN BOROUGH Individual Recognized: General Strikers especially those from Stalybridge Physical Address: Former Town Hall Portico Trinity Street Stalybridge, Greater Manchester United Kingdom Web Address: [Web Link]

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Date Logged Log User Rating   11/24/2013 Meirion visited it