Vale Rawlings Room agreed for Burton Town Hall
- pritchardelaine
- Dec 10, 2024
- 7 min read
Every councillor on East Staffordshire Borough Council has backed a proposal to name a room after Vale Rawlings, just three days after we staged a play, Strikers!, about his life and times in the main hall of the historic building.
Political affiliations were set aside as a meeting of the full council unanimously voted in favour of a motion by Councillor Paul Walker to rename The Weaver Room as The Vale Rawlings Room.
Several councillors said they didn't know anything about Vale Rawlings until they attended the performance but they had been moved by this forgotten Burton story.
Councillor Dennis Fletcher said he had found Strikers! 'magnificent, entertaining, very moving and superbly performed' and he congratulated the cast, crew and the writer.
Councillor Louise Walker said Vale was ahead of his time in supporting women when they did not have a voice.
Councillor Colin Wileman said Strikers! showed that Vale was a humanitarian and a man of principles who stood up for workers and women in the town.
Two of Vale's descendants were in the public gallery to watch and listen to the debate along with the founders and directors of the Vale Rawlings Project Community Interest Company - Elaine Pritchard and Will Walker - and Jack Burrows, one of the 29 actors who brought Vale's story to life on December 6.
Councillor Hadley's speech in full
Councillor Thomas Hadley formally supported the motion and said:
"It’s a great honour to be supporting this motion and to play a small part in bringing this forgotten piece of Burton’s history back to life.
"We promised voters we would protect our heritage and in doing so we need to ensure every part of history is told, including that of ordinary working people, and Vale Rawlings, a Burton man, was a champion for the workers of Burton struggling to survive at a time when wealth, power and jingoism were sending the continent spiralling towards war.
"Vale was a founder member of the Burton branch of the Workers’ Union in 1911 and went on to play a key role in securing a 23-shilling minimum weekly wage and a 54-hour working week – terms and conditions that were amongst the best around at the time. This move put an extra £30,000 into the pockets of Burton’s workers.
"The story of Vale Rawlings resonates with the very values and principles that we on this side still hold dear - the words that appear on trade union banners, ‘Unity is strength’ and ‘Solidarity’ - and to have a local story where those principles helped to deliver change is something we need to be telling. Vale knew that solidarity was not just something for the picket line or the factory floor but for every corner of working-class life in Burton. That’s why the Workers Union had its own successful football team, for example.
Keir Hardie spoke outside Town Hall
"As you would expect, Vale Rawlings’ efforts to organise the working class of Burton were not popular with the establishment of the time. Whilst supporting young women on strike in Mosley Street, Vale, who was only four ft 11 inches, was arrested, and later jailed, for allegedly punching a six ft inspector. Yet multiple eyewitnesses said Vale was holding a pencil in one hand and a sheaf of papers in the other when the Inspector arrested him and no punch was thrown.
"Vale’s court case triggered a national outcry and Keir Hardie, that great Labour figure, spoke outside this building to call for his release and a retrial. When Vale was released, up to 15,000 are said to have lined the streets from Horninglow to Burton town centre with 7,000 people in the market square and the surrounding streets alone.
"After the First World War, Vale represented Branston on Tutbury Rural District Council where he campaigned for new council houses, improved sewage systems, better roads and to ensure the hungry were fed.
"Vale’s story may have been forgotten because he was a conscientious objector – which saw him jailed again, first in Wormwood Scrubs and then Dartmoor Prison for sticking to his pacifist beliefs.
"Last Friday, people gathered in this building where Vale’s fellow union members voted for that significant wage increase in November 1913 to see Vale’s story brought back to life in the play Strikers! and tonight we can play our part.
"We rightly honour military figures for their bravery on the battlefield but it’s not often we have a chance to honour a person who contributed so much to improve the lives of ordinary working people in this town and tonight we have the chance to do that which is why I will proudly be supporting this motion."
Councillor Walker's speech in full
Councillor Paul Walker told the meeting:
"When it comes to history we often end up talking about kings, queens empire and elites. It’s important to remember, though, that workers have their own history too often battling against the afore mentioned to secure a better life for them and their families. If you were not aware already, then from the moment you join a union you instantly begin to understand the importance of those sayings that appear on banners and bind an international movement together: ‘Unity is strength’, ‘Fellowship of life’ and ‘Solidarity’. As my good friend Bob Crow put it “They’re not just bits of words or rhetoric, they are things we have learnt over 150 years.”
"When you look at the history of the Labour movement there are great stories about when the collective voice has come together to secure notable successes. The Derby Silk Mill Lock-Out and the Women Chainmakers of Cradley Heath are two notable examples. Both of those are important events in history and both bring tourists to their towns. You can add Vale Rawling’s story to that list.
"Not only do we have a trade unionist, one of the leading figures in establishing a branch of the Workers’ Union in this town, but someone who cared about his community. This was evident in his later work on Tutbury Rural District Council where he campaigned for better housing, roads and ensuring the poor did not go hungry.
"Vale was also vocal in his support for universal suffrage, speaking at meetings across Burton about securing the vote for women and for working class men.
"Cllr Hadley has already spoken about the significant wage increase for Burton’s brewery workers secured with essential help from Vale. Uplifting the earnings of Burton’s workforce by around £30,000 would have been a huge boost to their families but also the wider economy in Burton.
"Two months before that historic November 1913 success, Vale was among 1,500 Workers’ Union who marched through Burton to the town hall for a rally addressed by a leading figure from the American brewery workers’ union. Pay and conditions were significantly better in the unionised American brewing industry than in Britain at that time.
"From the town hall stage, Vale moved a motion, which according to the Burton Chronicle stated: "That this mass meeting of trade unionists is of opinion that the wages of the lowest paid labourer in Burton-on-Trent should not be less than 25s. per week, and hereby resolves to take steps to secure this wage as a minimum standard, and to do its utmost to secure improved conditions to all grades of workers in the brewing and other industries of the town, and that the meeting considers the brutality of the police in Cornwall and Dublin deserving of the severest condemnation, and calls upon the Home Secretary to carry out a searching inquiry into the reported victims of the police."
Striking female workers as young as 13
"The resolution was carried with, as the paper reports, “the utmost enthusiasm”.
"It was an insight into what was to come for Vale. but it also showed his internationalist credentials. By speaking in support of the events in Dublin, Vale and the meeting indicated support for the workers on strike in what became known as the Dublin Lockout.
"Vale’s name hit newspaper headlines across the country when, in the summer of 1914, he supported women and girls on strike at a flypaper factory in Mosley Street. They were calling for equal pay with their colleagues working for the same firm in Derby. Some of the staff were as young as 13. Vale spoke to the pickets and was advising them on what to say in an upcoming meeting with their manager, when a police inspector intervened and arrested Vale. Initially, court papers indicate he was arrested for obstruction, but later this was changed to assault and the six ft inspector claimed 4ft 11 inch Vale has punched him in the chest on Mosley Street.
"Multiple eye-witness accounts and Vale’s own testimony disputed the inspector’s account of what happened that afternoon. A second charge of assault was brought after a young woman claimed Vale had pushed her in Mosley Street, causing her to stumble into a wall. Under cross-examination she said that her manager at the factory had told her she must bring a summons, although she did not want to, and he had paid all the costs and got the Inspector who claimed Vale had struck him in the chest to help her practice giving her evidence.
"Vale was offered a large fine and costs or prison after being found guilty of both assault charges. He elected to go to prison saying he would not pay for crimes he had not committed. A national outcry followed. Colleagues may, or may not, have heard the phrase “It’s a Rawlings job” No? Well, this is where it came from.
"Derby Trades Council and the Derby Labour Party organised a protest outside the prison calling for his release and Keir Hardie came to Burton in St Paul’s Square, outside this very room, to speak to a crowd of several thousand people.
"Several questions were put to the Home Secretary in Parliament calling for a retrial, but to no avail. Eventually, after receiving a petition of 10,000 signatures from Burton, the Home Secretary agreed to make Vale’s two prison sentences run concurrently rather than consecutively, meaning he was released seven days early. The Home Secretary refused all calls for a retrial or a pardon.
"Crowds lined the streets for a victory parade when Vale was released, from Horninglow railway station all the way to the market square where 7,000 attended a rally. In total 15,000 people are said to have watched either the procession or the rally.
"This, Madam Mayor, is our history and it’s been forgotten for so long. It’s exciting to be able to re-tell this story again and on Friday people saw it brought back into the public eye for the first time in the form of play in the very room where Vale moved that motion and that historic pay rise was secured.
"It’s very rare you get the opportunity to honour a person who made such a significant contribution to the lives of working people in this borough. By passing this motion tonight we can do that. We can show that we care about our heritage and we can play our part in commemorating a forgotten Burton man who did so much for so many."
