From Cinderloo 1821 to Shrewsbury Pickets 1972: employers & the law in North Wales & Shropshire
This week has since both the 200th anniversary of the event known as Cinderloo , where miners protesting about wage cuts, were attacked by the Shropshire Yeomanry, several were killed and others put on trial at Shrewsbury.
200th anniversary of the ‘Cinderloo Massacre’ 1st & 2nd February 1821
This week has also seen the long overdue appeal by building workers convicted as part of the 1972 national building strike, where the events at issue also took place in the Shrewsbury area.
One interesting connection is the links between the leading employers in the area, law enforcement and the Courts.
In 1821 several of the key figures in the Shropshire Yeomanry were ironmasters whose earlier wage cutting efforts had provoked the miners protest
An article by Neil Clarke on page 2 of the link below draws out the links:
In 1972 it was McAlpines who exercised great influence in the area as the Shrewsbury 24 campaign website underlines:
The Construction Industry’s Powerful Friends
Robert Alistair McAlpine became the Treasurer of the Conservative Party in 1975. The McAlpine family had great political influence in the North Wales area. The High Sheriff of Denbighshire, which is a large part of the county of Gwynedd, is the senior person responsible for law and order. Up to the 1970’s the past nine High Sheriffs had been members of the McAlpine family. The person appointed in April 1974 was Mr Peter Bell, a director of McAlpine and the son-in-law of the late Sir Alfred McAlpine, who was also Mr Bell’s predecessor as High Sheriff. McAlpines were the main contractors of the Brookside building site in Shrewsbury, which featured prominently in the charges against the pickets.
Class justice over 200 hundred years
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