Old Crown Court, Dorchester

It's not a great picture, but I thought it might make an interesting blip.

I had to go to the building society at lunchtime and remembered that the district council office just up the road is open weekdays. The council let people go in to see the Old Crown Court (no charge), which is within the council buildings.

This is where the 'Tolpuddle Martyrs' were tried in 1834 and found guilty of setting up a trade union - the Friendly Society of Agricultural Labourers. Their wages had been reduced by the wealthy landowner from nine to six shillings a week. They were transported to Australia for seven years. The public outcry that followed helped form an organised trade union movement. This was a few years before Marx and Engels published the Communist Manifesto in 1848. Most people in the UK, perhaps elsewhere, know about the Tolpuddle Martyrs and they are still commemorated at the annual Trade Union Congress festival in Tolpuddle.

Actually they weren't really martyrs in the usual way, and most were released after two years thanks to popular support.

It was difficult to get a decent picture because the entire court room was full of nasty large and brightly coloured (yet informative) boards. The wooden cut-outs to represent who was were are also rather absurd. The view here is from the public benches at the back of the court room looking towards the judge's seat. Three of the six accused men are in the dock in front. Another view from above the jury benches, looking towards the back of the court, shows the layout of the court with the dock in the centre.

The court was built in 1796-7 on the site where an earlier court had stood for 400 years - about which more for another blip some day.