Rebel Britannia
2nd October 1766:
The Great Cheese Riot of Nottingham – you must remember this one? It’s where the mayor comes out to restore order and gets knocked over by a giant cheese. No? Well, OK then – here we go.
The annual Goose Fair in Nottingham was already an ancient institution in 1766, and it’s still going today. Now, it’s a funfair, but for most of its history it chiefly traded in livestock and foodstuffs and was particularly famous in the 18th century for the large wheels of cheese sold on to merchants.
That year, though, was one of rising food prices, and fears of shortages. As usual, there were many tons of cheese on sale – but the prices were hugely inflated, in many cases double the cost of the same cheese only a few weeks earlier. What particularly triggered the bother, though, was the sight of merchants from other counties buying up hundreds of pounds of Nottinghamshire cheese.
Outraged locals, seeing all this precious food disappearing up the road, warned the traders that they must “not stir a cheese till the town was first served.” When threats alone didn’t work, they fell upon the cheeses and confiscated them. Within a short time, disorder was widespread and wheels of cheese were being carried away to be hidden, while others were rolled down the roads “in abundance.” It was at this point, according to contemporary reports, that the mayor – ordering the crowd to stop what they were doing, whatever it was, and behave themselves – was skittled off his feet by one of the travelling cheeses.
A small number of arrests were made, but the arrestees were liberated by the mob. The town authorities sent for reinforcements, and on the morning of the 3rd, soldiers, both infantry and cavalry, arrived in Nottingham. As far as is known, only one person was killed in the violent clashes which followed – shot by soldiers, presumably by mistake, as he guarded a cheese against the rioters.
What soon became known as The Great Cheese Riot ended after five days, following significant bloodshed and damage to property, but food riots of various sorts were also happening in many other parts of the country, along with smaller protests – such as the elderly woman in Ashby-de-la-Zouch who “rubb’d a pound of the butter all over” a farmer’s face to express her disapproval of his price rises. Warehouses were searched by committees of citizens, and roads were picketed to intercept wagons.
Quite often the protestors achieved a degree of success in regulating prices, either by force or because local authorities imposed price cuts to avoid riots or to pacify rioters. Some of those protesting against food prices actually called themselves “Regulators.” In some towns, locals seized control of stocks of cheese and other essential commodities, forcing their owners to sell them at lower prices.
(England ate a lot of cheese in those days.)
Naturally, all of this upset the tender feelings of the ruling classes, who pointed out, via the newspapers and other means, that their generosity towards the hungry was and always had been bottomless and legendary, and that no honest person could sincerely doubt their great benevolence. A paper in Leicester declared that, when it came to protesting against food shortages, “none would be concerned in it but the Saucy and idle Poor, who wou’d live without labour.”
Then, as now, our self-appointed betters needed an occasional, vigorous reminder that ignorance of the poor is no excuse.
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Sources:
The making of the English working class by EP Thompson (Penguin, 1991)
Nottingham rising by Valentine Yarnspinner (Loaf On A Stick Press, 2014)
https://nlha.org.uk/news/nottingham-rising-great-cheese-riot-1766-1831-reform-riots/