The Pythouse Rioters, from Tisbury to Tasmania, by Christina Richard

In November 1830 the protest movement known as the Swing Riots, which had affected many communities across southern England, reached the remote Wiltshire village of Tisbury. There, poverty stricken agricultural workers, facing the loss of their winter income following the introduction of threshing machines, assembled for a demonstration, demanding higher wages and the abolition of the dreaded machinery. This book looks at what happened to these young men, some of whom were arrested, tried and sentenced to transportation to Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania). It follows the pitched battle between the workers and the Hindon Troop of the Wiltshire Yeomanry at Pythouse, the arrests, trials and sentencing. Christina Richard looks at the way the punishment of transportation was managed by the Government, the lives of the young men in the new colony, the return of a very few of them and how their families managed after being left alone and penniless. October 2023, xi, 283pp, paperback, colour ills, £19.95, ISBN 978-1-914407-51-2