Local history on shop window
This charity shop window has been very cleverly decorated to commemorate 200 years since the most famous event in our village history. Following the victory over Napoleon in 1816, England was left in a bad state and many people were poor and at the point of starvation. On 22nd May 1816 a group of Littleport villagers, after meeting in the Globe public house, and fuelled by heavy drinking, vented their anger at the prices of bread and wheat and their perceived mistreatment by a local landowner and farmer by rioting through the village. The vicar threatened to shoot anyone who entered the vicarage but did not do so, instead he left the mob to their own devices and fled with his family to walk to Ely to raise the alarm. The mob later armed themselves with punt guns, shovels and pitchforks and mounted a cart to continue their rioting and drinking in Ely before returning to Littleport. The militia had been alerted by the vicar and were brought in to quell the riot which they did a couple of days later.
About 80 rioters were brought to trial - 23 men and one woman were condemned ; 5 men were hanged on 28th June in Ely, sentences on the others varied from 12 months in prison to transportation for life.
There have been re-enactments and events in the village over the past 2 weeks but I had not noticed this window until today. It is made of pieces of paper, much of it newspaper. There was clearly a lot of thought put into it - much of the newspaper print contains words appropriate to the riots - conspiracy, attack, fight, rate increases etc.
What occurs to me is the speed at which justice (or injustice) was meted out - 5 weeks from crime to gallows!
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