3-017-077 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Election Riot in the Great Market-Place at Nottingham, 1865. View of the '...disgraceful riot and conflict which took place...when an open-air meeting of the electors and non-electors had assembled...to hear addresses from Messrs. Morley and Paget. The operative framework-knitters of Sutton-in-Ashfield, Kirkby, and other villages, were to come by special train to take part in the proceedings. When the train arrived, the operatives were set upon by a violent rabble and driven back into the station. Numbers of roughs waited...for Messrs. Paget and Morley; but they did not make their appearance. Ultimately, the hustings was got possession of, the flags were tom down, the scaffolding set fire to and totally consumed, the rabble pelted the friends of Mr. Morley with stones, and several persons were seriously injured. The windows of the Express office and other houses were broken. Thousands of persons congregated in the Great Marketplace, and the "lambs" armed themselves with bludgeons broken from the hustings...The mob threw a few stones at [the police]...They were finally chased out of the Market-place, and nearly twenty captures were made; after which the town remained tolerably quiet'. From "Illustrated London News", 1865.