The industrial revolution saw Britain turn into the ‘workshop of the world’. Productivity and wealth for those in the upper echelons soared. But this came at a very human cost, with many of the working class people that powered the revolution facing awful conditions, poor pay and a grim future. And without the ability to vote, there was little hope that things could get better.
But in the 1830s a huge working class political movement took over Britain - the Chartist movement.
From that movement, a new and intriguing idea for how the working class could live and engage in politics was born. These were rural settlements, places like Snig’s End, Charterville and O’Connorville.
I spoke to the brilliant Katrina Navickas, professor of history at the University of Hertfordshire, about this overlooked area of history.
Katrina’s new book, Contested Commons: A History of Protest and Public Space in England is out in September.
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