The Jarrow March

"Come on follow the Geordie boys they'll fill your heart with joy
marching for their freedom now
Come on follow the Jarrow lads they'll make your heart feel glad
singing now yes now is the hour"

Alan Price

This is a statue commemorating the Jarrow crusade of october 1936.
207 men marched from Jarrow - London to petition the government
to do something to alleviate the terrible poverty and unemployment
in the northeast of England at the time. Wherever they stopped for
the night on the long journey, the local people would come out and
give them food & water etc. When they eventually reached
Westminster and the petition was handed in. The government would
not meet with any of the marchers but gave them £1 each so that
they could travel back to Newcastle by train and did very little else!
It would be another three years and the outbreak of the second world
war before the unemployment situation was resolved.