Did herrings have a political significance in Cinderford? (General)

by JaneyH , Tunbridge Wells, Kent, Friday, February 16, 2018, 21:40 (2481 days ago) @ tuffers64

Thanks for that, tuffers64! It's so interesting to read that there IS some symbolism in the throwing of herrings. I also note the book you referred to, by Timothy Mountjoy. The miners' agent mentioned in the newspaper articles from 1874 was a Mr Mountjoy; I think this might be the same person.

I've gone back and re-read the newspaper articles. Here's what was reported at the main trial in Gloucester in April 1874. (The redactions were included in the article and are not mine.)

Henry Harwood, living at Cinderford, said that on the 7th February last, the polling day for the Western Division of the County, about three o'clock in the afternoon, two or three hundred people came round to his house and threw oranges, herrings, sticks and stones, and called out "Herring ho! Blue, you ____!" Mrs Sarah Harwood, wife of the last witness, said that when she went out to get a kettle of water, a man struck her on the head with a fish tied to a stick and said "Blue, you ____" and another struck her with an orange.

I've now read the newspaper report of the earlier Special Petty Sessions hearing that was convened at Newnham (not Littledean, as would have been the norm) towards the end of February 1874.

A little later he [Moses Harwood] was coming down to poll when he saw the mob was very excited, and throwing rotten orange and herrings at persons who hadn't yellow cards in their hats, so he stood in Mr Hurcombe's doorway. While standing there he saw Barnard [one of the accused] come up and ask Mr Hurcombe if he had any oranges left; he replied that he hadn't, and Barnard said "Let us have some 'taters then". Hurcombe refused.

So it would appear that the oranges were rotten ones and therefore not the extravagant waste that I initially thought. There also appears to have been some sort of organisation on the part of Liberal campaigners to hand out yellow cards to known supporters, then only throw fish/rotten fruit at those without yellow cards (i.e. the Conservatives).

I've also found this website article here that notes there had been miners' strikes in 1871 and later in 1874. This gives the impression of a workforce mobilising politically, and might also help to explain why some of my coalminer ancestors from the FoD emigrated to the USA in the latter part of the 1870s.

All very interesting!