Trades union militancy, machine breaking and unlawful assembly, as well as the fascinating story of how Trowbridge was the only Urban District Council in Britain to have a husband and wife team of Communist councillors. This book brings together the voices of academics and local trades unionists to tell the stories of ordinary working people engaged in extraordinary events.
Professor Adrian Russell, Birmingham University on Thomas Helliker the Trowbridge Martyr; Nigel Costley, Regional Secretary South West TUC on The Swing Rebellion in Wiltshire; Steve Poole, Reader in English Social and Cultural History at the University of the West of England and Director of its Regional History Centre on Chartism in Rural Wiltshire; Cllr Derique Montaut, former leader of Swindon Labour councillors on Strikes and Socialism in Swindon in the 1960s and 1970s; Dave Chapple and Rosie McGregor on Phyllis and Idris Rose, Trowbridge’s Communist Councillors. Featuring original illustrations by Peter Field.
ISBN 978-0-9570726-0-2
