Occold - Heritage

It may seem that the relatively recent outburst of militant political action by Animal Rights & Animal Liberation groups in sleepy little Occold was a one off aberration but a dig into the history of the village shows that the village has been plunged into episodes of revolutionary turmoil on several past occasions.

For most of the country, the early 1800’s was the boom time of the industrial revolution. Suffolk, however, had a harder time; high unemployment and competition from overseas farmers, poor wages and little in the way of wage supplements.

The last months of 182I were a period of particularly great hardship for the labourers, with the harvest interrupted by heavy rains, added to the loss of traditional rights following the enclosure of commons and wasteland meant record levels of poaching and increased civil unrest.

Throughout the 17th- 18th centuries labourers sought out means to regain some leverage over wages and work. In a series of wage disputes and ‘bargaining by riots’, threatening letters often signed ‘Captain Swing’ were sent to farmers making wage demands with consequences if they weren’t met. Arson was the main threat used and was a problem all over the country, the ‘direct action’ of its day.

The 1822 Suffolk riots were different from those previously as they were localised with 'the peculiar object of their vengeance’ being Threshing Machines. Other ‘labour saving devices’ attacked were Seed Drills, Spinning Jennies and Mole Ploughs.

The initially peaceful protests in March 1822 gradually became more destructive when the farmers refused to stop using the new machinery. When 20 threshing machines had been destroyed around Diss, 250 mounted Special constables were recruited to help end the unrest.

The scale of the response was due to reports from newspapers that a mob of 600 was on the march. Only a 'motley crew' of 60 existed, which fled when faced with firearms and being out numbered 4 to 1 (Protesters being outnumbered 4 to 1 by police? Some things never change).

The situation was considered serious enough to need an extra 30 fast moving lightly armed Dragoons. Whilst in villages towards Stradbroke where there were no reports of machine breaking going on there were large numbers of arson attacks.

On the 13th of March the machine breakers split into two groups, one heading back to Norfolk the other heading down to Occold. There were 2 pieces of machinery destroyed in the village; unusually no record of what they were was kept.

The sentences handed out for machine breaking varied from one month to two years jail depending on the nature of the crime, but more by the temperament of the judge, people could get a fortnight in jail or be sent to Australia for fourteen years for the same crime.

Specific incidences of arson were relatively poorly recorded; but as a crime it almost always held a death penalty. In total one hundred and twenty-three men appeared before the courts in connection with the agrarian disturbances of 1822, which as a proportion of today’s population would be equivalent to over seven hundred people!

Although the vandalism on the 13th of March 1822 may be too much of a ‘cold case’ for PC Eaves and I may sound like a cross between Time Team and Crimewatch, but further information on what was destroyed or which Occold farms were targeted would be gratefully received.

Luke Andrews