Ever since workers moved from the countryside to the cities en mass, riots have been part of the way a peaceful protest can develop into something worse. Workers have often felt that they have been unfairly and unjustly treated since the start of the industrial revolution.
We are learning more and more about the recent ‘race riots’ in Southport, Sunderland, Hartlepool and Rotherham, but even race riots are not new: Notting Hill 1958, Chapeltown 1975, Moss Side 1981 and Oldham 2001 to name but a few places, have all experienced them over the years.
The legal definition of a riot in the UK is as follows:
“A riot is defined as twelve or more people present together who used or threatened unlawful violence for a common purpose; and that the conduct of them was such as to cause a present person of reasonable firmness to fear for his/her personal safety.”
But perhaps more poignantly, Martin Luther King Jr wrote that, “A riot is the language of the unheard”.
Many, if not all, start off as peaceful protests against various forms of injustice and worsening economic conditions. I have to say that there are also those of our society who like to stir up trouble. In my view, these people like nothing better than to consume a gallon of foaming ale and a fish supper, before having a good scrap down at the local Scrappers Arms on a Friday night. Only then do they feel that their week is complete. If then they see a good protest where they can throw a brick at the police, they are in heaven.
But back to injustice and worsening economic conditions with a couple of examples …
The Peterloo Massacre
There was a very famous protest at St Peter’s Field, Manchester in 1819 which became known as the Peterloo Massacre. This came during a perfect storm of economic slump and chronic unemployment following the Napoleonic wars and a harvest fail worsened by the Corn Laws. And this was at a time when only 11% of adult males had the vote, very few of them in the industrial north.
At first the Manchester and Salford Yeomanry tried to arrest the popular orator and ringleader of the protest Henry Hunt. During his arrest a child was killed, which of course agitated an even bigger crowd. To make things worse William Hulton, the chair of the Cheshire magistrates, summoned the 15th Hussars to break up the following riot, resulting in 18 people being killed and over 400 injured.
The Silsden police station riot
Riots can start from very humble beginnings, and not always due to economic conditions. A good example of this is the relatively unknown Silsden police station riot of 1911. The start of this was the arrival of a rough and tough new police constable by the name of PC Henthorn. He’d announced his intention to “tame the town” of its unruly element and boasted that he would “soon have them so docile that he would be able to leave his gold watch hanging unmolested on the church gates”.
PC Henthorn had previously been demoted from sergeant and transferred to Silsden for his overenthusiastic and robust manner towards the general public and his fellow officers. To say the least, PC Henthorn was not very popular.
I could just imagine that PC Henthorn would not have any qualms about cracking a few heads in his quest. Unfortunately, he was set upon on one of his patrols and had his own head cracked. From his hospital bed he identified Ben Hodgson as one of the two assailants. And even though Hodgson pleaded not guilty and had an alibi, he was found guilty.
Protest turns to rioting
The day after the trial a small group of about 200 townspeople gathered near the police station in protest. PCs Barton and Cook were on patrol on Westgate when they were confronted and threatened by the crowd. Around that time someone set off the nearby fire station fire siren and many people came out to see what all the commotion was about.
The local Silsden Herald wrote “But the alarm served a purpose for those on mischief bent. For almost immediately, roughs in the crowd turned their attention on constables on duty and gradually forced them down to the police station.”
PCs Barton and Cook thought it prudent to return to the police station, quickly followed by the baying crowd. All the officers on duty that night barricaded themselves in the station and the family of one officer who lived on site sheltered in the cellars until reinforcement arrived from Keighley
The crowd damaged every window and many roof tiles during this demonstration/riot, but no-one was seriously hurt. Unusually, the rioters were appeased to a certain degree. The Home Secretary at the time, Winston Churchill, ordered an enquiry, Ben Hodgson was released, and PC Henthorn was again transferred far away.
A sad turn of fate dictated that Hodgson was among the first local men to be killed in WW1.
Reflections on the nature of riots
The only experience I have had with Silsden was while I was playing rugby in the West Yorkshire League. We were told that the Silsden Amateur Rugby League Club had recently been thrown out of the local amateur football league for persistent and rough behaviour. So, they must have thought their persistent and rough behaviour would work very well on the rugby field.
We were innocent, naive and unsuspecting on our first visit to their ground sometime in the mid-70s. We came away after the game licking our wounds and realised that the few that had fully functioning limbs, eyesight and wedding tackle were of the minority. Perhaps the Silsden Amateur Rugby League Club of that time honed their rioting skills on the rugby pitch. Unless they got it out of their system by knocking seven bells out of unsuspecting rugby opponents. That is of course until the return match when revenge can be sweet.
Not that I advocate violence in any way of course, but rugby is a violent sport, and any revenge was carried out well within the rules. Silsden rules anyway.
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