Get up, stand up, marching for our rights!

Strikes were not unusual at this time, but organising the women chainmakers was not an easy task. Their workshops were scattered, making communication difficult. More than half the women were not in a union. They could not afford the weekly 3d (1.5p) subscription. No-one, not even Mary Macarthur, knew if they could raise enough money to keep the women out on strike. Even so, after listening to Mary's rousing speeches, they said that they would rather drop dead than give in.

STRIKE TIMETABLE

21st AUGUST 1910: The strike began. The first meeting was held at Grainger’s Lane Primitive Methodist School, and was attended by 400 women.

27th AUGUST 1910: Over 300 of the women chainmakers, who were union members, met at Grainger’s Lane School for their first week’s strike pay of 5s (25p) each. Later, as the strike fund grew, the amount increased to 6s (30p) per week. Non-union members received 4s (20p).

31st AUGUST 1910: The number of women on strike reached 648.

2nd SEPTEMBER 1910: One of the many processions took place through Cradley Heath. “Day by day, night by night, there were processions with hammers and torches, bands and collectors of pennies". (Hamilton, 1925, p87) As the women marched they sang hymns and strike songs.

People standing by, nearly all men, watched as the procession passed. “They wished well, very dumbly, in the presence of this new thing, as if they found it queer that women should be doing something for themselves; queer and rather dangerous.� (John Galsworthy, 1910)

Strikers also marched to Old Hill, to demonstrate outside the Public Offices, where a meeting was being held of the Chain Manufacturers’ Association. Many of the marchers carried placards,

3rd SEPTEMBER 1910: The Cradley Heath Town Band led a march to Old Hill, where the demonstrators persuaded the coil chainmakers there, to “throw down their hammers�. They joined the strike, and brought the total up to 800.

6th SEPTEMBER 1910: Trinder and Co. agreed to pay the new rates. 120 women returned to work. The number on strike began to dwindle.

12th – 16th SEPTEMBER 1910: Women chainmakers visited the Trade Union Congress held in Sheffield. They appeared on stage holding up their chains. The photograph above shows them outside the building. Julia Varley is on the far right, and Mary Macarthur, who introduced the deputation, is shown without a hat.

3rd OCTOBER 1910: Another procession marched through Cradley Heath, from the Station to The Empire Theatre. Free bread was distributed at the meeting. In the photograph above you can see women carrying the loaves as they leave the Theatre.

19th OCTOBER 1910 The last meeting of the strike was held at Grainger’s Lane School. The strike was at an end. Most employers had signed the ‘white list’, a register of manufacturers prepared to pay the new rates. The Employers’ Association agreed to deal only with those middlemen, who had also signed the list. J.J. Mallon, the Secretary of the Anti-Sweating League, described this last meeting as unusually quiet, "like a prayer meeting."

22nd OCTOBER 1910 The strike ended in victory for the women chainmakers of Cradley Heath. Mary Macarthur returned to the town a few months later. The women presented her with a gold bracelet watch. Over 2,000 women were there to greet and thank her, and for once, their heroine was lost for words.

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Updated:	Thu 12 Jul 2007 - 0
Interpretation written by	Barbara Harris
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