Attack on the Workhouse at Stockportt. 1842. Illustrated London News. Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham. [You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
At the urging of Doyle, Ellis, and other agitators, a mob of as many 20,000 unemployed attacked on the workhouse at Stockport in search of food. In speeches to the mob, the protestors blamed the present state of the poor and unemployed on the Tories (then in power), the Church of England, and its Bishops. From Hyde, the rioters moved on Stockport, turning out the workers from the hat-making mills and print-works, and, their numbers thus augmented, extorted money from both mill-owners and shop-keepers before attacking the New Union Workhouse, Shaw-heath, from which they stole 672 seven-pound loaves and a considerable quantity of copper coins. A government force, composed of constables, yeomanry, and regular infantry, put down the mob and captured the mob's forty leaders, who were bound over for trial six months later at the next Chester assizes.
Related Material
- Attack on a Print-Works. — The Mob Fired On. — Two Men and Three Boys Wounded
- Preston — Attack on the Military — Two Rioters Shot
References
"Attack on the Workhouse at Stockport." Illustrated London News. (20 August 1853): 236.
Last modified 5 October 2006