"Walter Virgo and the Blakeney Gang" (General)

by ian wright , Monday, April 23, 2012, 17:14 (4600 days ago) @ unknown

I am doing a piece of local history research for a pamphlet on the confrontation which occurred in the Blakeney area around the 1890s between the authorities and commoners from the area. The story has been briefly told by Chris Fisher C (1981), Custom, Work and Market Capitalism. The Forest of Dean Colliers, 1788-1888. London, Croom Helm

The manner in which the story has been told in the past has not portrayed the commoners involved in a very sympathetic light and as a gang led by Walter Virgo. I would like to correct this. I would argue that their story cannot be understood without placing their actions in the historical context of the struggle for the customary right to common. The characterization of the commoners of Blakeney who took part in these events as a gang is to simply criminalize their actions and motives without placing them in any social or historical context.

I would be very grateful if anyone out there could send me any relevant information. I was brought up in the Forest but now live in Bristol.

My home phone number is 0117 9519174

Thanks

Ian Wright