Byways: Tolpuddle
Set off to walk from Culpepper's Dish to Tolpuddle, not knowing how far I would get. The river valleys are flooded, and I was not wearing wellingtons...
It didn't take long to regret not wearing wellingtons. Even the gravel byway that runs along the top of the ridge was very wet, and, while I was trying to edge my way round a puddle with ambitions to become a lake, one foot slipped in the mud and ended up ankle deep in water.
But it wasn't a cold day. Grey. Not much light. But not cold. So I carried on.
Where the woods have been cleared and the heath is being restored, rather a bleak sort of sunrise going on:
Then into the dark woods...
Swallowhole. There are swallowholes all along this ridge of sandy soil, where underground water has caused the sand to drain away as if in an egg timer.
Southover Heath. You know you are nearing the site of a country house when the rhododendron starts taking over the woods. But at least the impenetrable jungle of rhododendron beside the track had stopped off-roaders trashing this stretch of woods.
From the gloom of Southover Heath, onto the byway that twists down into the valley, through a landscape of kale fields.
The air full of the sulphurous scent of brassica.
Onto the lane to Tolpuddle: a causeway punctuated by little brick bridges over water channels. To either side, flooded fields.
This is actually normal for January. These fields flood every winter, unless we're having an unusually dry winter. It's when the road floods as well, that's when we're having a wet winter.
Into the village of Tolpuddle, passing the old mill.
Tolpuddle Green, and the Martyr's Tree.
Under this tree in 1834, six agricultural labourers, exploited by their employers - paid just 9 shillings a week and living in dreadful poverty - met and then formed the first trade union in Britain to bargain for better pay and working conditions under the leadership of George Loveless.
The landowners, led by James Frampton and supported by the government, were desperate to put a stop to the union and to control increasing outbreaks of dissent. The Tolpuddle Six were arrested, sent to Dorchester for trial, and charged under the 1797 Mutiny Act. They were convicted of swearing a secret oath as members of the Friendly Society of Agricultural Labourers, sentenced to seven years and transported to Botany Bay.
https://www.ancienttreeforum.org.uk/ancient-trees/ancient-tree-sites-to-visit/south-west/tolpuddle-martyrs-tree-2/
Time for a sit down, and some coffee. Then a wander through the village. Tolpuddle is mostly modern - estates of new cottages built to look like old cottages, but a bit too regular and neat to be convincing. There's one nice row of old thatched cottages, but it's impossible to photograph as there are cars parked outside.
Forge Cottage and attached cob barn that is being allowed to disintegrate. Early 17th century, with alterations.
The Martyr's Inn. Currently closed. The villagers are trying to raise funds to save it from being demolished and houses built on the site.
The Old Chapel, currently being restored.
Prior to the chapel’s construction in 1818 there was a growing interest in non-conformist belief which resulted in 1810 with a licence being granted for Methodist worship in the home of Thomas Loveless, a Tolpuddle agricultural worker.
Thomas’s son George became involved in the growing local Methodist circuit as a lay-preacher. The increasing number of worshipers created the need to build a purpose built chapel. It was built on land next to Thomas Standfield’s cottage and was officially opened on 13th October 1818...
As a chapel it was used for worship by at least four of the six Dorsetshire Labourers, who in 1838 became known as the Tolpuddle Martyrs. Three of them may well have preached from its pulpit.
https://tolpuddleoldchapeltrust.org/history/
And, down the road from the Dissenters, the old established order, where the Church of England rectors - younger sons of gentlemen - preached acceptance of God's (and the King's and the Squire's) will.
St John's, Tolpuddle. "In the year 1832, the Vicar of Tolpuddle, the Rev. Thomas Warren betrayed the agricultural workers of Tolpuddle (many of whom were Methodist). He did this by first acting as a witness to an agreement between farm labourers and landowners for a fair wage, and then denying any such agreement when the land owners went back on their promises." https://www.nationalchurchestrust.org/church/tolpuddle-st-john-evangelist-tolpuddle
Weathercock:
1. a weather vane in the form of a cock
2. a person who is fickle or changeable
Memorial to James Hammett, the only one of the Martyrs who returned to live in Tolpuddle. (Engraved by Eric Gill).
Then it was time to head back, uphill, through fields & woods, the day growing greyer, but the rain holding off:
Midway this way of life we're bound upon,
I woke to find myself in a dark wood,
Where the right road was wholly lost and gone...
