Strikers! is a hit

Bethany Warren, Heather Gallagher and Dan Tunks in the emotive We'll Meet Again scene of Strikers! Image by Geoff Noble

The large gothic hall of Burton Town Hall is still clearly recognisable as the venue that in 1913 held 1,500 working men from the town. The stone arches, the balcony and the impressive roof can all be seen in images from that era.

Trade unionist Vale Rawlings, addressed that crowd from the stage 111 years ago. On December 6, 2024, a cast of 29 actors from the local community brought his story back to life, literally standing in his footsteps.

More than 200 people were there to hear the play Strikers! which told of his life from the early 20th century until his premature death in 1940.

Comments from audience members on social media included:

A fabulous evening watching Strikers! The Vale Rawlings Story. I was so impressed with the whole performance, the script brought to life the fascinating story of Vale Rawling's life; the cast, the singing, production and lighting were all amazing.

So moving , beautifully written - and excellently brought to life by the talented cast. Well done.

This was a great show, truly emotional and educational. We had a wonderful time. Looking forward to reading the book now.

I loved it and hope there will be more opportunities for people to see or experience the show in the future, it deserves to be seen by lots more people.

Among the audience were two of Vale's granddaughters and one of his great granddaughters. They saw actors Heather Gallagher and Dan Tunks play their grandparents Ellen and Vale Rawlings. We were proud to hear that they felt the play accurately captured their relative whose name was known throughout the Midlands and further afield because of a controversial court case in 1914.

From left, playwright Elaine Pritchard, Vale's granddaughters Sue and Betty and great granddaughter Cathy at Strikers!

Six teenagers - Gracie Edge, Bethany Warren, Celeste Cook, Imogen Williams, Robyn Wells and Freya Kirk - played the 'flycatcher girls', young women aged 13-18 who worked at a factory making flypapers on Mosley Street in the weeks before the outbreak of World War One. It was because of his support for them, when two thirds of the workforce went on strike, that Vale ended up in prison. He was framed, it is widely believed, for striking a police inspector in the chest on the picket line.

Loves and friendships

Throughout the play, the girls stood regularly to sing bursts of nursery rhymes, with lyrics that reflected the action in the story. Playwright and director of The Vale Rawlings Project CIC, Elaine Pritchard explained: "Strikers, campaigners and suffragettes of those years often adapted well-known and easy tunes, such as nursery rhymes, hymns and folk tunes, to highlight their protests. The use of nursery rhymes was intended to evoke that spirit as well as to emphasise that childhood was usually cut short for working class youngsters who were expected to start earning money to help put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads."

As well as covering the court case and its aftermath. we also learned about Vale's loves and friendships. we met his mother Maria and sister Edith, played by Dawn White and Caitlin Gill and his good friend Austin Smith, played by Dominic White. Two fictional friends of Vale's, Bill and Fred played by Alex Gill and Scott Spiers, were created to act as narrators who led us through Vale's story and his campaigns for votes for all before the war and better council houses, roads, jobs and facilities between the wars.

Scott Spiers also played Labour leader Keir Hardie, who came to Burton and spoke to a crowd of thousands outside the town hall to rally support for a petition calling for a retrial for Vale in view of the flawed evidence that had been presented to lay magistrates in Burton, Some 10,000 local people signed the petition in a matter of days.

Cross-questioned in Parliament

Other actors played a mixture of real and fictional characters. The real people portrayed included Burton suffragette Mrs Sadler (Hannah Kirkpatrick) and Derby suffragette Hetty Wheeldon (Vanessa Birch), Watford MP Arnold Ward (David Tunks) who came to Burton to speak against votes for women, and Murray Phelps (Mike Mear) who chaired that public meeting.

Liberal Home Secretary Reginald McKenna (Michael Wells) was the man Keir Hardie cross-questioned in Parliament over Vale's court case. Local Workers' Union activist Joseph Tivey (Phil Knowles), Derby Councillor William Raynes (Mike Mear) and President of Derby Labour Party and Derby Trades Council Henry Sharpe (Jack Burrows) were all instrumental in public protests against Vale's prison sentence.

Captain Arthur Nickerson (Dan Webber) crossed swords with Vale at a public meeting held in Burton in the run-up to Christmas 1913 to discuss formation of a National Service League which would have introduced military service for 18-30-year-olds. Vale was fiercely opposed to the idea, as he was later to conscription after World War One broke out.

When it came to Vale's court case in the summer of 1914, we met Inspector Oulton (Luke Williams) of Burton police and PC Ward (Harry Dawber) who claimed Vale had stuck the 6ft inspector in the chest. The prosecuting solicitor Mr Breton (David Tunks) and defending solicitor Randle Evans (Bethan Waite) presented evidence for and against the charge. We also met some of the eye-witnesses who spoke up in court for Vale: Amelia Brentnall (Sue McPhee), Catherine Carroll (Karen Kirby) and Harry Smith (Robyn Wells).

Extreme hardship

Alice Horton (Bethany Warren) was a non-striking factory girl who claimed Vale had grabbed her wrist and asked her not to go into work and then let go, meaning she over balanced into a wall. This led to a second conviction of assault. The fact that Alice later signed the petition demanding a retrial for Vale was given by Home Secretary Reginald McKenna as the reason he made Vale's two prison sentences run concurrently instead of consecutively, meaning he was released a week early.

During the war years, Vale helped local men prepare their cases to claim exemption for military service on ground of moral or religious objections or of extreme hardship to their families or businesses. Some of the people who put such cases to military tribunals in Burton were depicted, including William Brooks (Jack Burrows), Robert Howell (Harry Dawber), John Clarke (Dominic White), Joe Smith (Freya Kirk) and Benjamin Woolley (Dan Webber). The tribunal was chaired by Alderman Rowland (Mike Mear).

Some of the many articles that appeared in newspapers of the day were used as inspiration for words put into the mouths of journalists from various local and national titles played by Sarah Yates, Sue McPhee, Sarah Spencer, Karen Kirby, Hannah Kirkpatrick and Vanessa Birch.

The show concluded with four monologues delivered by fictional people whose lives were changed and improved by the actions of Vale Rawlings - even though they did not all know that he was responsible. They were Jack (Dominic White), a brewery worker speaking in the 1920s; Doris (Gracie Edge), a former flycatcher girl speaking in the 1930s; Rose (Sarah Spencer) a local government worker speaking in the 1960s and Charlotte (Hannah Kirkpatrick) speaking in the present day and reflecting on family tree research she did during the 2020 lockdown.

Councillor Paul Walker, of East Staffordshire Borough Council, said: "This was a great night for the town. Well done Elaine Pritchard and cast for bringing working class history to life."