Annual Luddite Memorial Lecture 2016
Tue, 12 Apr 2016 02:00:00 BST
The Huddersfield Local History Society and the University of Huddersfield History department present the third in a series of annual lectures focusing on aspects of the history of radicalism in the Huddersfield district. The annual Luddite Memorial Lecture allows historians to share their work with a wider public and contribute to our understanding of our own history.
All staff and students are invited to attend the annual Luddite Memorial Lecture which will take place on Thursday 21 April from 7.30pm to 9.30pm in the Diamond Jubilee Lecture Theatre, Business School.
This year’s lecture will be given by Dr Robert Poole, Guild Research Fellow and Reader in History at the University of Central Lancashire. Dr Poole has published on a wide variety of historical subjects and one of his best known books is "Earthrise: How Man First Saw the Earth" published in 2008.
Dr Poole will be focusing on unrest here in West Yorkshire. Commenting on why the West Riding rebellions of June 1817 continue to arouse interest and debate today, he asks: "Were they the earliest attempt at working-class revolution, hopeless gestures by desperate people, or just a trap set by Oliver the (government) Spy?"
Dr Poole believes that this fascinating episode in Huddersfield’s history was part of a series of radical attempts to force parliamentary reform in 1816 and 1817. He says "It began with a constitutionalist mass petitioning campaign emanating from London, and proceeded through the Spa Fields meetings, the march of the Blanketeers and the Manchester rising to the last stand in Huddersfield and Pentrich (in Derbyshire)."
The Luddite Memorial Lecture will be introduced by historian Professor Tim Thornton, the University’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor, who welcomes the way in which this annual lecture series is continuing to develop. He says: ‘I'm very much looking forward to Dr Robert Poole's lecture on the rebellions of 1817; after the excellent inaugural Luddite lecture from Matthew Roberts back in 2014, and Malcolm Chase's highly thought-provoking contribution last year on political prisoners in York, Robert Poole's talk will I'm sure demonstrate that this important collaboration between the University and the Local History Society is going from strength to strength’.
To find out more about the rebellions of 1817 and the part Huddersfield played in these events, book your place at this free lecture via Eventbrite
