The Ascott Martyrs

In May 1873, a group of women from the small Oxfordshire village of Ascott-under-Wychwood sparked a national conversation which defied Victorian expectations of the role of women. Rather than being a discussion about, say, domestic issues or family life, they started a dialogue about draconian anti-picketing laws and the role women could play in industrial disputes. They were the Ascott Martyrs, among them Amelia Moss, Ann Moss, Ann Susan Moss, Caroline Moss, Charlotte Moss, Elizabeth Pratley, Ellen Pratley, Fanny Honeybone, Jane Moss, Lavinia Dring, Martha Moss, Martha Smith, Mary Moss, another Mary Moss, Mary Pratley, and Rebecca Smith.

Just one year earlier, Warwickshire hedger and ditcher Joseph Arch had formed the National Agricultural Labourers’ Union to represent the interests of rural workers. By May 1872 the Oxford District of the Union had over 500 members. The following year one of the Union’s early acts in the area was to request that workers’ wages be increased by two shillings a week. In Ascott-under-Wychwood the first farmer to be asked was Robert Hambidge, who had the tenancy of the village’s largest farm, Crown Farm. Hambidge was not entirely dismissive of the request but offered the extra two shillings only to the most productive workers rather than everyone. This was counter to the Union’s aims and, as a result, Hambidge’s workers gave notice of their intention to strike. Soon the strike at Crown Farm had spread to the other farms in the village.

Some weeks later on 12 May, keen for farm work to continue but still unwilling to change his stance, Hambidge employed two young men, John Hodgkins and John Millin, from a neighbouring village to hoe a pea field. On hearing about this, a group of women from Ascott-under-Wychwood decided that they would head to the field themselves to try to prevent the men from breaking the strike and undermining the Union. In effect, they were picketing.

Hodgkins and Millin returned to the farm stating that they were unable to work and so, in the absence of Hambidge, his wife sent for the local constable who came to disperse the women, noting down the names of seventeen of them. On his return from Stow Fair the furious Hambidge decided to bring a private prosecution against the identified women, under the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1871 which had made picketing illegal. On 21 May the seventeen women appeared before the magistrates in Chipping Norton and sixteen of them were convicted of intimidating Hodgkins and Millin and attempting to prevent them from going about their employment. Hambidge insisted that the women must face the most severe punishment possible. And so it was that seven of the women from Ascott-under-Wychwood were sentenced to ten days in prison with hard labour, while the other nine faced seven days, again with hard labour. Two of the women had young babies who they would have to take into prison with them.

The details of the case soon found their way into local and national newspapers and, before long, the matter was being discussed in Parliament. Particular concerns were raised about the fact the sentence included hard labour. There is a popular story that Queen Victoria herself heard of the women’s plight and granted a full pardon, along with a petticoat to each woman, but there seems to be no truth in this. Instead on 29 May, the Home Secretary made a surprising intervention and sent a telegram to the Governor of Oxford Prison telling him to remit the hard labour. By this point, however, nine of the women had already been released and the remaining seven only had two days left to serve of their sentence.

When all the women were finally released there were celebrations along their route home. Back in the village, Joseph Arch presented each woman with £5 raised by public subscription. The suffering of the Ascott Martyrs, as they became known, had turned into a triumph. But there was more to come.

Two years later the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1871 was repealed through the introduction of the Conspiracy and Protection of Property Act 1875. Early calls for reform cited this story as evidence of the injustice of the 1871 Act and union representatives at the time stated that the Ascott Martyrs had played a significant role in the legalisation of picketing. That picketing continues to be such an integral part of industrial action is thanks in no small part to the sixteen women from Ascott-under-Wychwood.

More than a century later, the right of some workers to strike is under threat and it seems perfectly conceivable that new anti-picketing legislation could soon follow. Whilst the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill specifically targets those employed in health, education, fire and rescue, border force, nuclear decommissioning, and transport, there is no doubt that it threatens us all. The right to strike is a right to desire a better future for yourself and for others, and to put the common good above actions which benefit only a select few. Let’s not forget the people, like the Ascott Martyrs, who achieved this for us, and do all we can to defend their legacy.

References and further reading

Carol Anderson. "The Ascott Martyrs". YouTube video posted by "TolpuddleMartyrs1834". September 8, 2022. Accessed March 29, 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CSo317lOmE

Mary Davis. "Timeline 1850 - 1880". TUC History Online. Accessed March 27, 2023. http://www.unionhistory.info/timeline/1850_1880.php

Laura Lys. "The Ascott Martyrs: Early Pioneers of the Trade Union Movement". Museum of Oxford. Accessed March 27, 2023. https://museumofoxford.org/the-ascott-martyrs-early-pioneers-of-the-trade-union-movement

Wendy Pearse. "Defiant Women". Ascott Martyrs Educational Trust. Accessed March 15, 2023. https://www.ascottmartyrs.co.uk/defiant-women

The Museum of English Rural Life. "The Evolution of Rural Protest". University of Reading. Accessed March 29, 2023. https://merl.reading.ac.uk/explore/online-exhibitions/evolution-rural-protest/

Tim Sharp. "Fighting the anti-strike law". Trades Union Congress. Accessed March 27, 2023. https://www.tuc.org.uk/blogs/fighting-anti-strike-law