AS REGULAR readers of the Bugle will know, when describing a Dudley Dowell we are usually referring to something that was manufactured in the Dark Region but discovered elsewhere beyond its boundaries, sometimes as far afield as Australia.
Over the years Bugle readers have kept their noses to the ground and their eyes peeled, and kept us busy publishing the findings.
But here is a recent item sent to us, which could conceivably be the oldest Dudley Dowell to date, and in a reversal of the usual rules, it was actually found in our own neck of the woods. Accepting the anonymous sender’s details in good faith, the item in question, a very rusty nail, was found outside the Greyhound and Punchbowl in Bilston, and the only additional information provided was that it had dropped out of the building’s woodwork.
The Greyhound and Punchbowl is a Grade II listed building and amongst one of the oldest that remain in the Wolverhampton Metropolitan Borough, and it is therefore reasonable to conclude that the nail could be very old indeed. Although its actual age is uncertain, further research has revealed that its style was of the cut nail variety and was therefore made at some time between 1800 and 1900. The romantic notion that it was crafted by a Tudor nail maker can probably be dismissed, but it could still have been made at an important stage in the life of the building, when the Greyhound changed from being a manor house to become a public house around 1810.
The receipt of the rusty nail has however induced an historical coincidence that may have possibly escaped our attention altogether during a year of several important anniversaries; the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the centenary of the sinking of the Titanic to name but two. This spring will mark the 170th anniversary of the Black Country Nailer’s Riots that began on 25th April 1842, when desperate nail makers and their families, starving and living in deplorable conditions, had nothing to lose and, in a bid to improve their lot, went on strike.
The following is an extract from a poem penned at the time of the strike.
“Oh, the slaves abroad in the sugar cane, find plenty to help and pity their pain, But the slaves at home in the mine or fire, have plenty to pity but none to admire.” The fifth decade of the 19th century became known as the Hungry Forties, and indeed many nailers died of starvation.
From 1811 cut nails began to be manufactured in large numbers in Birmingham and cheap imports from Belgium added to the distress of the traditional nail maker. The nail makers waited for a reverse in their fortunes, but their suffering was increased when the nailmasters inexplicably reduced their already low wages by a further 20%.
Several thousand from every nailing district marched on Dudley where there was to be a meeting with the nailmasters. On the way the nailers visited a number of warehouses, forcing the masters to go with them as prisoners, and also slashed the bellows of any nailers found working, before reaching Dudley to confront their masters.
Delegates had been chosen to speak on behalf of the workers, but as the debate continued a troop of cavalry arrived with sabres drawn. The nailers had been tricked.
The strikers scattered and many were arrested, and for several days afterwards clashes took place between the troops and the nailers. Gradually the riots were brought under control and the authorities distributed bread and other food to the poor nailers.
Prisoners taken to Worcester gaol were given reasonably light sentences after the court heard their plea of starvation.
It may have been just a rusty old nail through the post, but it symbolises the struggle and strife that many of our ancestors had to suffer, as the Black Country’s traditional cottage industries were put under threat by a revolution in manufacturing methods over a century and a half ago.
