riots

Industrial disputes aren't what they used to be.

Industrial disputes aren't what they used to be. In 1842, when when Black Country nailmaking bosses decided to cut wages by 20 per cent, the workers responded by kidnapping their bosses.

It was a tough life in the 19th Century nail trade, and it was not unusual for workers to starve to death. By 1883 conditions were so bad that the Evening Star described those working in the industry as "the white slaves of the Black Country."

The area's nailmaking industry fell into decline following the US War of Independence, when it lost a captive market supplying nails for wooden houses.

It was mainly a cottage industry, with farmers making nails at the back of their homes as a sideline during the winter months.

Different parts of the region specialised in different types of nail: horse nails were made in Dudley, rivets and small nails were made in Old Hill and Rowley Regis, large nails and spikes were made in Halesowen, while tiny tacks and brush nails were made in Bromsgrove.

Most of the nailmakers worked on a self-employed basis, under the strict control of their master who sold them the metal, and then bought the nails back to sell in their warehouses.

The masters controlled the price of the metal and the wages of the workers, and often also owned their homes. In the mid-19th century there were around 50,000 men, women and children employed in the nail trade, working for around 50 masters.

As well as the loss of US trade, machinery was also being introduced, with mass production taking place in nearby Birmingham by the early 19th century. Cheap imports from Belgium also made it difficult for the small nailmakers of the Black Country and Worcestershire to compete, with life particularly harsh during the "Hungry Forties."

In 1842 magistrates called for Bromsgrove and Stourbridge to be employed on the roads to stop them starving to death, but the nailmakers' masters responded by cutting their wages by 20 per cent. That was the final straw for the workers. Thousands of nailmakers from across the Midlands marched to Dudley where nailmasters held their annual meeting to set wages.

On their way to the conference, they called in at the nail warehouses and forced the masters to come with them as prisoners, slashing the bellows of any nailmakers found to be working.

When they arrived they forced the bosses to meet with representatives of the workers. Their success was short-lived, as somehow the masters had managed to summon help and while the meeting was taking place the cavalry arrived with sabres drawn.

Most of the nailmakers fled, but many were arrested. Security was stepped up, with heavy artillery patrolling the streets of Dudley, and trouble continued to simmer between nailmakers and the soldiers.

Order was gradually restored, and troops distributed food to the workers, while the prisoners arrested during the riot were treated relatively leniently by the courts after they heard about their starvation.

Some masters refused to pay the nailmakers in cash, preferring to offer food and clothing. Anyone who refused this offer was dismissed, and blacklisted to ensure no-one else would employ them. The Government outlawed this practice, but it continued in the Black Country until the early 20th century.

It was quite common for whole families to work in the nail trade, with the wife and children earning the housekeeping budget, while the men spent their wages on their personal pleasures.

But the men, concerned that their wages may be driven down by the competition from cut-price female labour, unsuccessfully called for a ban on women working in the nail trade.

The decline of the trade led to the rise of the "fogger", a middleman who usually owned a pub or shop who would buy the nails at dramatically reduced prices with credit notes that could only be used at his business.

If the nailmaker wanted cash, he would have to try and sell the goods bought from the fogger, invariably at a loss.

If a regular nailmaster stopped supplying iron because he had excess stocks or was unhappy with the nails, the worker had the choice of starvation or going to the fogger who would supply the metal on credit.

A newspaper at the time told how nailmaker Benjamin Bache spent nine hours a day in a fogger's pub, drinking the beer which formed his wages.

This did not go down particularly well with Bache's wife, who complained that her husband spent every day at the pub while she and her children starved at home.

The fogger, a man called Smith, was convicted by magistrates and fined �5. Bache was later sentenced to four months' hard labour for his part in the 1842 nailmakers' riot in Dudley.

The unappealing pay and conditions meant fewer and fewer youngsters went into the industry, and existing nailmakers converted their workshops to make chain.

By the mid 20th century, traditional nailmaking had all but disappeared, with the small, labour-intensive workshops having long made way for automated mass production.