Sunday 23 October 2016

'SAVE OUR STEEL' MAN

My camera is mended. My laptop is working. There's lot to catch up with. I'm still busy so posts may be intermittent but here goes.
And because I'm catching up, pictures will not necessarily have been taken recently or even in order. So watch out for the date of taking rather than the date of posting. There'll be a mixture.


Taken July 17th 2016

A RARE BIT OF EXPLANATION

There's another difference too - at least for a while. Pictures of people will be included.

I don't know this man's name but I took his photo (with permission) at the Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival in July.

The Tolpuddle Martyrs' Festival is a big event in a little Dorset village. Six men are respectfully remembered there every year because in 1834 they were sentenced to transportation and seven years exile in Australia for secretly swearing allegiance to their society - a forerunner of a modern Trades Union. Protests against their sentences were an important impetus towards the founding of the Trades Union Movement in this country.

And in relation to this blog . . . which is largely 'nature' oriented . . . the tree under which they met is the only individual tree I learnt about in school!

The Festival is held over several days. Thousands attend. There are bands and talks and workshops and tea in the village hall. Some set up camp so they can join in with as much as they can. And it's always rounded off with a Trades Union procession of banners (and balloons!). This year Jeremy Corbyn was among those at the front. But because he's a low-profile politician I didn't realise at the time, though I did listen to his speech after everyone had walked to the end of the village and back.)

(Yes. Everyone walks as far as the Methodist Chapel. Then they turn round and walk back the same way to the field where the big stage is. It's delightfully bizarre. But do not underestimate its importance.)

I took lots of pictures of banners. They are bright and cheerful and inspiring. I couldn't ask everyone holding them or walking behind them if they minded being in frame. But as the whole point of a procession of this kind is publicly to stand up for what you believe in - I reckon joining in is a tactic permission to be part of the publicity. I hope that sounds reasonable.

I'll not post pictures of these banners all in a row but will toss them in like a salad - along with the usual array of twigs and trees and leaves and stones.

6 comments:

Taken For Granted said...

Love hearing about your trade union history. Surprised these traditions continue. I'll look forward to seeing your photos from this event.

Lucy Corrander : Photos said...

Hello Taken for Granted. Glad you are interested. It's an extraordinary event - thousands of people, big speeches, bands . . . and the small and quiet wreath laying at the graveside of James Hammett who eventually came back to the village and died there.

http://www.tolpuddlemartyrs.org.uk/festival/programme/wreath-laying

Anonymous said...

He's a good example! I was starting to think your camera broke, as I hadn't gotten a notification in weeks.

Lucy Corrander : Photos said...

Hello Desertquilts. My camera was broken for a while - and while it was broken and being mended I sort of got out of the habit of posting; especially as my camera and laptop were taking it in turns to go wrong! Sometimes I go through periods of thinking I spend too much time on my blogs and stop . . . but always seem to get drawn back.

Anonymous said...

I have in fact heard about the fate of these men, and it it right that they are remembered for what they did. Keep it up!

And continue to include people in your posts, and sequence doesn't matter (at least to me) :-)

Lucy Corrander : Photos said...

Hello Rune. I'm pleased you are interested in the Tolpuddle theme. The plan is to publish them on Sundays. The latest has just gone up - of the GMB banner -

http://messageinamilkbottle.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/gmb-banner-at-tolpuddle-festival.html

People. Yes. I keep thinking I'd like to learn more about portraiture / street scenes . . . but . . . well, I felt very brave when asking this man if I could take his picture! It's not always easy to approach a stranger.