Dorset Radical Bookfair

Dorset’s first Radical Bookfair will take place on Saturday 3rd June 2017 at Portfield Community Hall, Portfield Rd, Christchurch BH23 2AQ (approximately 5 minutes walk from Christchurch railway station). Ground floor is accessible for the disabled.

Free entry to the public from 10:30 to 17:30 with after party from 19:30 to 23:00 £5 suggested donation.

BRHG will be giving the following talk at the event:

‘Ye have not done as ye ought’: The Captain Swing Uprising

The ‘Swing riots’ were a massive wave of protests, machine breaking, arson and extortion carried out by impoverished farm labourers and village artisans between the summers of 1830-31. Beginning in Kent the movement spread rapidly to engulf numerous counties in southern England. The uprising became known as the ‘Swing riots’ as the collective destruction was usually preceded by threatening letters to landowners signed by the mysterious ‘Captain Swing’. This talk considers the context and content of this largely forgotten rural rebellion, how it spread and its impact in a period of significant political unrest.