Past Talks
The Otmoor Riots in a Wider Context
Date: 15th April 2024
Speaker: Ciarán Walsh
The Otmoor Riots were protests arising from the enclosure of the ancient common land of Otmoor, used by the inhabitants of the seven towns of Otmoor to raise their standard of living. As far back as the 16th century, landowners sought to enclose land to raise sheep. Apart from Oddington and parts of Noke, the villages around Otmoor used the mediaeval strip farming system and the movement to sweep this arrangement away accelerated through the 18th century. The first scheme to enclose Otmoor was suggested in 1728 and met with opposition from the local residents. Ultimately, the bill to enclose Otmoor, devised by Sir Alexander Croke in 1786, led to the redefining of property rights and land use from 1815.
New technologies de-skilled the workforce and threatened the lifestyle of artisans. The Speenhamland System, intended to top up the wages of agricultural workers from the public purse, was a well-intentioned but flawed attempt to relieve poverty. The revolutionary movement in 1811 started when Nottinghamshire workers destroyed lace-making machines which produced poor-quality lace and, when this spread to Yorkshire, martial law was imposed in the north of the county, and in the north midlands. The most prominent example of this was the Luddites, who were groups of textile workers who opposed the use of certain types of cost-saving machinery, and often destroyed the machines in clandestine raids. It was realised that the introduction of threshing machines, which had been available from the 1780s, could lead to social turmoil as many workers would be thrown out of their jobs. In 1816, their introduction around Ely led to riots and machine-breaking.
Unions, fighting to change the political system, emerged at this time. The Peterloo Massacre took place in Manchester in 1819. It was the largest ever political gathering of working-class people. Eighteen people died and 400–700 were injured when cavalry charged into a crowd of around 60,000 people who had gathered to demand the reform of parliamentary representation.
1828/9 saw very poor harvests and industrial unrest led by the now-legal unions. The diversion of the River Ray led to flooding of the common fields and the destruction of crops. Prices collapsed and wages were reduced during a period of inflation. Into 1830 the social unrest in France was mirrored in the UK and this came to a head on Otmoor.
Otmoor is an extensive area of marshy land watered by the River Ray, dangerous to anyone lost there. Church bells were rung at night to guide stranded people to safety. It was unsuitable for the raising of cattle, but good for geese, peat, rabbits and osiers for basket-making. There were no resident gentry or clergy. Non-conformity was prevalent in the villages and the residents had a reputation for rebellion.
Sir Alexander Croke was a resident of Horton-cum-Studley and had rights of common on the moor, as did several Oxford colleges, including Oriel and Magdalen. The Earl of Abingdon was the overlord of the entire common, but unlike Croke and the colleges, he opposed enclosure. Generally, resistance to enclosure was cross-class, as the more well-off tenants saw that it was not in their interest.
The 1815 Enclosure Act sanctioned the removal of villagers from the moor without compensation for their lost rights, instigated drainage and the construction of dykes and bridges. Men, many of them with blackened faces, frequently disguised as women, ventured out on to the moor during the night to smash these constructions. When this happened in June 1829, villagers from Charlton-on-Otmoor were pursued by troops, but let off at the Summer Assizes.
The enclosures galvanised feelings in the area and the acquittal of villagers in June 1829 encouraged people to feel that the enclosures were illegal. A meeting to beat the bounds of the old common and take possession of the land was planned. 1500-2000 people attended, the military were called in and the Riot Act was read. Sixty people, identified as the ringleaders, were arrested and forty-four of those were chosen to be taken to Oxford to be made an example of. St Giles’s Fair was in progress and villagers preceded the military and their prisoners into Oxford, distributing leaflets and gathering support. An unruly mob greeted the military party and they were soon under attack, and the prisoners made their escape.
The protests, which spread across the UK, became known as the Swing Riots, named after the fictional 'Captain Swing', whose name was used to sign threatening letters to landowners and magistrates.
The biggest single incidence of penal transportation in British history saw two thousand swing rioters sent to Australia.
Captain Swing’s name was evoked in many fights across the world as recently as Extinction Rebellion, Black Lives Matter and the Save Otmoor, Save Oxfordshire campaign.