Britain is close to bankruptcy and the government is looking to make cuts. A riot threatens when the ‘Reverend Agitator’ FH Maberly calls a mass meeting in 1836 to protest against Royston’s new Poor Law Workhouse. City centres around Britain have gone up in flames. Will Royston be next?
Tag: therfield
Revolting Royston (1): The Swing Riots
Revolution… On 28 August 1830 angry men smashed up a threshing machine in East Kent. It was not unknown for a disgruntled farm worker – worse for drink and in the gloom of night – to set fire to a farmer’s stacks of hay or straw to get his own back for some slight, but… Continue reading Revolting Royston (1): The Swing Riots
Riddles
Bilbo Baggins bets his life on a riddle in The Hobbit. Fortunately, for the story he doesn’t lose (or else the dwarves would never have kept their appointment with Smaug!). That riddling competition takes place in a dank deserted cave under the Misty Mountains – all very lonely and sinister – but riddles are mostly… Continue reading Riddles