Last Wednesday, 19th August a few of our members got together in a local pub to discuss what was happening 100 years ago, in 1926.
Interestingly we all recognised that the big news was the General Strike brought about by miners being asked to do longer shifts for less money. Obviously they refused with the slogan ‘“Not a penny off the pay, not a minute on the day.” Everything came to a head and a historic 9 day national work stoppage from May 3 to May 12 1926 was called by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in solidarity with 1.2 million locked-out coal miners. Roughly 1.7 million transport, dock, and industrial workers walked out, bringing much of Britain’s economy to a standstill.
Another fact that was discovered was that in 1926 London’s first 3 colour traffic lights were installed in Piccadilly to control the now increasing motor vehicles on the road. They were originally invented by John Peake White who was a railway engineer and the original ones were only red and green.
Staying local to our area we celebrated the centenary of a local park, Graves park which was given to the people of Sheffield by Alderman JG Graves as a green space to enjoy and get away from the increasing sprawl of a developing industrial Sheffield. We looked at the history of the park right back to when it was first mentioned in 1002 and appeared in the Domesday Book. Over the years there have been many changes and buildings have come and gone but, at 248 acres, the park remains the largest in Sheffield and is enjoyed by all for all activities and interests. This has also prompted some ladies to want to do a walk around the park to look further at the history and biodiversity.
Another lady looked at Liverpool (her home town) and how things had changed there. Interestingly several members had lived for spells in Liverpool so this prompted lots of discussion around all memories of bygone Liverpool.
In summary we decided that many things draw a parallel today from 1926 with the rise of fascism throughout Europe and the unrest we are all feeling which was indeed a sobering thought.
All in all an excellent meeting with us all going away vowing to find out more.