This website created by Valerie Martin, contains scenes from her home village of Findon, West Sussex, U.K.

RISK OF RIOTS IN FINDON

Text first published in Along The Furlong in November 1998.

Text copyright Valerie Martin 1998

In 1830, I think there must have been anxiety growing amongst the villagers of Findon due to the agricultural labourers’ uprising. Findon farmers, landowners and the clergy were in jeopardy. The villagers, living in their straggling cottages, had received intimidating circulars from the rioters. The inhabitants feared that local trouble and arson would follow the imminent disorderly assemblies.

Animosity grew towards the threshing machines that were considered to be robbing the labourers of their full working day. These machines had been introduced during the Napoleonic wars when the men were away. Previously, threshing had been essential employment for the rural poor, and earned them extra money to see them through the winter when work became scarce. The agricultural labourers, who scraped a living by working from sunrise to sunset, were driven to hopelessness by the threshing machines that had taken away their vital income.

The desperate men wanted employment, a good living wage and provision for their families. The farmers could not pay more unless the landowners, in turn, brought down their rents, and the vicar lowered his proportion of tithes.

Villagers received threatening Swing letters that uttered the most ruthless warnings and were signed by a mythical gentleman named Captain Swing. Before marching into any neighbourhood, the rioters sent scouting parties ahead to discover the character of the vicar of the parish. If his flock held him in high esteem, he would be left alone.

At the beginning of November in 1830, two such groups of strangers walked through Findon and stopped to ask alms of the cottagers. While chatting, they enquired which farmers in the area owned threshing machines. They entered the yard at Holmcroft in the main street, owned by a family named French, and spotted one of the machines. The farmer’s fear of having it destroyed made him part with the equipment before they could return.

Some days later, two unknown gentlemen drove through Findon, stopped at various labourers' cottages, and confirmed details of the clergy, farmers and landowners.

On 15th November, a tithe meeting was conducted at nearby Broadwater. It was there that the rioting mob gathered and elected to go to Findon the following day before proceeding to Tarring.

A horse-drawn cart full of strangers halted in The Square on the morning of Tuesday, 16th November 1830. They alighted and looked about them. Finally they entered the village shop and questioned the shopkeeper on the date of the next tithe meeting and what kind of minister resided in Findon. Upon receiving favourable comments they appeared to be satisfied and departed.  The Reverend John Hind’s tithe meeting was scheduled for 1 p.m. that afternoon at the Gun Inn.

The main street was quiet.  The Reverend Hind left the rectory just before 1 p.m. and walked the short distance to the Gun Inn to receive his tithes. An hour later Alfred Lyall (1795-1865), his curate who lived at Grey Point joined him and his party for dinner at the inn. All went well that tithe day and there were no disruptions.

The next story concerns the Arckoll family who were suffering from a run of bad luck at this time.   In November 1829, Isaac Arckoll was with a young horse in its stable, when the animal struck him on the leg with one of its fore feet and broke his leg in two places.   The horse immediately reared and fell backwards and was so badly injured that it died shortly afterwards.    

A year later, on the night of Sunday, 21st November 1830, a sudden blaze was started in a stack of oats on the land of Isaac Arckoll,.   He was a wealthy farmer who resided about a mile from the centre of Findon. The rick was totally burnt and the flames in the dark sky were said to be seen from as far away as Arundel. Men hurried from the village centre in an attempt to prevent an adjoining rick burning. A horse-drawn fire engine was despatched from Arundel and eventually arrived at the farm. Fortunately, the destroyed rick was insured and Mr. Arckoll did not suffer financially.

Following this scare, two men were immediately employed to walk the Findon streets, starting at nightfall. The guards were armed with pistols and patrolled backwards and forwards through the village main highway from 5 p.m. until 5 a.m. The temperature plunged each evening. The night watchmen were wrapped up well against the elements, and because of the miserable weather they commenced duties with a noggin of gin at the Gun Inn.

As an additional precaution, the husbandmen mounted a two-man guard each night on their own valuable ricks. The temperature plummeted still, and by the middle of December it was decided to disband the patrol as it was thought no longer necessary in Findon.

As far as the villagers were concerned, the skirmishes were now nearly over, although in other parts of England they did not subside until the end of 1831. The movement eventually produced improvements for the Findon farm labourers; agricultural wages rose very slightly and there was less unemployment. Restrictions on the amount of tithes allotted to the church were imposed. John Hind continued as vicar for a further two years until his death.

Some of the rebels involved paid a mighty price for their uprising. The penalty being imprisonment or exile to Australia.

In September 1837, the well-to-do farming family named Arckoll, left the Findon area for good, by which time the village had settled back to its normal routine.  Mrs. Arckoll it appears was a great loss to the poor people of the village as she had helped many of them.

Continue if you would like to read how the Reverend Hind nearly came to blows with Hugh Wyatt in A Tenth Owing to the Vicar.