Yorkshire Luddism:  Fiction and commentary 3: Luddite Preparations

The concept of ‘enemy within’ was taken seriously by the Luddites in so far as they saw themselves as an army led by General Ludd, as surviving slogans demonstrate:

‘Blood for blood’ says General Ludd

No General but Ludd means the poor any good.

http://ludditebicentenary.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/21st-january-1913-blood-for-blood-says.html

In effect they saw themselves as a state-within-a-state, imitating the forces ranged against them, from creating an army to swearing in (‘twissing in’) new members on a Bible.  The letters from Yorkshire are often signed with what sound like official ranks: ‘General Ludd Commander of the Army of Redressers,’ (Y4, Binfield, p 208) or ‘Solicitor to General Ludd,’ (Y7, Binfield, p 213) as if they are an alternative government-in-waiting.   Though Ned Carter in Danger talks of a ‘King Ludd’, Ludd is referred to as ‘General’ in the Yorkshire letters where the movement was frequently associated with Republican radicals inspired by the American and French revolutions.   

A modern Luddite Re-enactor with musket.

No evidence exists that there actually was a man called Ned Lud or Ludd who smashed his employer’s shears in Nottingham but the legend and the name spread swiftly.

http://ludditebicentenary.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/21st-january-1913-blood-for-blood-says.html

Toller’s the Machine Wreckers includes a character called ‘Ned Ludd’.

Before they commenced operations, Yorkshire Luddites were trained with a version of army drill.  One of the most important elements was the use of an anonymous roll-call to ensure that all raiders were accounted for but no actual names were used.    All the novels record this fact. 

Most of the novels are attracted by the pictorial possibilities of military drill being carried out on deserted moors by the light of the moon, without considering whether the broken ground of a moor lends itself to drilling by day let alone night. 

Sad Times begins with George Mellor taking up his pistol and dodging patrolling soldiers to meet with his fellow Luddites.  The tone is uneasily pitched between comedy and alarm: ‘a few carried weapons of a more dangerous nature in the shape of old rusty firelocks which seemed as though they had not been used since the days of Cromwell’ (Chp I, p 12).  Inadvertently the text reminds readers of a successful anti-royalist general; Cromwell.  The text is caught between ridicule and fear at the prospect of another ‘leader, whom they termed the General’ (Chp I, p 12) overthrowing the rule of monarchy.

Through the Fray opens with characteristic speed when Ned accidentally stumbles upon a Luddite exercise: ‘he saw some thirty or forty men walking in groups across the moor at a distance of about half a mile.  They had evidently finished their drill,’ (Chp II, p 10).

By contrast Bond Slaves shows Luddite meetings as affairs of talking and temptation rather than drill and determination: ‘Good natured, well-meaning John Booth was no match for the astute, grey-haired Socialist,’ (Bk I, Chp 14, p 124).

In Ben O’ Bills the hero is swiftly inducted into the Luddite movement and goes out on a field at the back of the Buck Inn at Buckstones to drill by ‘a watery moon that gave a ghostly sort of light,’ (Chp IV, p 95).  The hint of Satanism, more fully developed by Banks and Lodge, is dispelled as the chapter develops.    As in Sad Times the tone is ambiguous, in this case caught between mockery and admiration: ‘It was rare to see Jack at his drilling,’ (Chp IV, p 95).  

Below Buckstones is a natural amphitheater, dominated by March Hill on the left.

It is not a good place for drill however; the tussocks of grass and reed make walking, let alone drilling, difficult.  

Inheritance is as much concerned with the sexual underswell beneath the Luddite movement as with the politics.  The Luddite meeting where Joe is inducted is remarkable for its ‘thick torrent of bawdy talk’ (Bk 1, Chp II.2, p 45).

Although drill was conducted outside, most Luddite meetings were held in pubs.  Two of the most significant were the St Crispin Inn, in Halifax and The Shears, in Hightown, Liversedge.    The St Crispin Inn was demolished in 1844 (http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~calderdalecompanion/p200_s.html) but The Shears  still operates as a pub and houses a collection of historical items connected with the Luddites and the cloth trade. (http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/544219)

The Shears, Hightown

Bond Slaves shows an elaborately fictionalised Luddite ‘twisting in ‘ (taking an oath) ceremony in the Crispin Inn (Bk II, Chp 14).  The Inn was sited on the junction between Causeway, King Street and Winding Road close to the parish church.

http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~calderdalecompanion/p200_s.html

The site is presently occupied by 'Tire City', though the parish church is visible over its roof. 

Ben O’ Bills shows the Luddites congregating in many pubs, many of which are no longer extant.    The Shears Inn is mentioned in Chapter VI (p 126) and the Star Inn (Roberttown) in Chapter IX, p 206.  Most of the Luddite meeting and drilling mentioned in the book takes place at The Buck Inn, Buckstones.  The most prominent ‘Buckstones’ on the modern map of Huddersfield is an area of Pennine moor off the  A 640 which now consists of one building, Buckstone Houses backing onto Buckstone Moss, some two miles north west of Marsden.  

                               Buckstones House                                                            Buckstones House backs onto Buckstone Moss.

                                                                                                                 Contra Ben O' Bills  there are no signs of any fields up                                                                                                                                 here and this ground is too rough to drill on.  

 If this is the place, it would certainly have been private and well out of reach of the soldiers quartered in the Red Lion inn at the centre of Marsden.    However the information board makes no mention of a pub up here so far from any settlement.

This building, now owned by a law firm, occupies the site of The Red Lion, Marsden.

the main billet for the many soldiers deployed to protect the mills of Marsden.  

Inheritance has its Luddites meeting on the moors on the other side of Marsden in the Moorcock Inn.  The Moor Cock Inn was about a mile out of Marsden on Mount Road.  There is nothing left but a site. 

                             A few stones and levelled ground are the only hints that The Moor Cock Inn was once here.