Crowley’s Crew
The blacksmiths of Crowley’s ironworks in Winlaton and Swalwell took it upon themselves to regulate prices in the markets of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
1790s
The blacksmiths of Crowley’s ironworks in Winlaton and Swalwell took it upon themselves to regulate prices in the markets of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
1790s
When at the end of Pride and Prejudice (1811) Jane Austen banished George Wickham to serve in a militia regiment in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, she was not sending him out of harm’s way. Lydia might enjoy the town’s musical salons and Theatre Royal, but all around was a hive of heavy industry and radical politics. Both had long been dominated by Crowley’s Crew, articulate freethinkers among the blacksmiths of Crowley’s ironworks at Winlaton.
abridged
WHEN provisions became very dear, they were wont to take possession of the market carts as they passed through the village on the way to Newcastle, and there and then dispose of the goods at what they considered reasonable prices. An incident of a kindred character, but showing more emphatically the reckless boldness of Crowley’s Crew, occurred about the close of last century.*
Butcher meat, and, indeed, meat of every kind, had risen to a very high price.* There was not, apparently, a corresponding increase in wages, and the Winlaton people began to feel the pinch of want. Accordingly, a meeting was convened, and, acting upon resolutions there passed, a formidable body of men marched in martial array to Newcastle. Proceeding straight to the market on the Sandhill, they took summary possession of the stalls and market carts, and with a haughty disregard of the cost of production, import duties, and retailors’ profits, assumed the functions of salesmen. The rightful owners of the goods were astounded and terrified by the audacity of the act. The whole town was in a turmoil.
* In 1795, so Eneas Mackenzie tells us in his history of the town, “Great numbers of the working classes assembled on November 10, in the several markets in Newcastle, and, in presence of the town’s officers, retailed the butter at the reduced price of 8d. per lb. the wheat at 12s. per boll, and potatoes out of the warehouses at 5s. a load. No violence was committed, except what was necessary in enforcing this illegal and temporary regulation of the market.”
* Newcastle suffered badly from the French Revolutionary Wars (1793-1802), with repeated runs on the town’s banks, food shortages, high prices, and consequent civil unrest. So long as war lasted, seamen ‘impressed’ (i.e. conscripted by press gangs) into the Navy had to get their pay to wives and children back home; many dependents were forced to rely on the Poor Rates, and trade was affected by the fighting. Then when war ended, the conscripts were turned out of the Navy and had to find work in a depressed economy choked by government regulation. Subscriptions had to to be raised to persuade men to enlist voluntarily in the Navy with a tempting signing-on fee. The renewal of hostilities following Napoleon Bonaparte’s elevation to Emperor of the French in 1804 began the cycle afresh.
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
Where did the events in this story take place?
In the market at Sandhill in Newcastle.
Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
The price of meat rose. It was too high for people in Winlaton. The Crowley Crew decided to help them.
See if you can include one or more of these words in your answer.
IAfford. IIIncrease. IIIStep in.