Jarrow Crusade

The Jarrow Crusade is a legendary event that took place in 1936 and captured the imagination of a nation. During 2016 there were a range of events and activities to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Crusade, drawing out its relevance for today and exploring the personal stories of a number of the marchers.

To mark the Jarrow Crusade's 80th anniversary, a new exhibition is planned for October 2016, staged at South Shields Museum and Art Gallery.

Curated by Adam Bell and Matt Perry, the exhibition brings new light to a legendary event that captured the imagination of a nation.

The march illustrated the plight of the people of Jarrow, whose shipyard had closed and where government, the banks and employers blocked plans for a new steelworks. Outraged at the neglect of the town, the council organised a 300 mile trek to London.

The exhibition will reveal details about the two hundred marchers from Jarrow; their hardships, their lives, their town and their protest against injustice.

The exhibition will incorporate photographs, artefacts and dramatic reconstructions of the march as well as material donated by the family of Ellen Wilkinson. As the local Member of Parliament Ellen Wilkinson remarked Jarrow 'provided an object lesson' of what the austerity of the 1930s could do to a town.

Tom Kelly

Tom Kelly was born in Jarrow and now lives happily further up the Tyne at Blaydon.

He has had a varied career from his first job in a shipyard Time-Office including a publishing contract as a lyricist and a late degree. He worked for twenty-five years as a drama lecturer at South Tyneside College. He now writes full-time and works on creative writing projects.

He has had a great deal of work produced by the Customs House, a venue he regards as home, including musicals, plays and monologues. His most recently staged play I Left My Heart in Roker Park (produced by Cranked Anvil) toured the area in 2014, won the WOW award and was a finalist in the Journal Culture Awards. He writes songs and stories and performs in 'Men of the Tyne,' a multi-media show, incorporating film, stories and song which has had two recent tours of the north-east.

He has had seven poetry collections and 'Spelk,' his latest, will be launched and published by Red Squirrel Press in April 2016.

He has also worked on a number of films with South Shields filmmaker Gary Wilkinson, including Jarrow Voices, Little Ireland and South Tyneside at War.

Dr Matt Perry

Dr Matt Perry is a Reader in Labour History at Newcastle University where he has worked for the last ten years, before then he worked for ten years at Sunderland University.

He has taught widely on Modern European History. His research centres on British and French Twentieth Century History. His books include Jarrow Crusade: Protest and Legend (2005) and Red Ellen Wilkinson: Her Ideas, Movements and World (2014).

He has spoken at many events on these topics to a great diversity of audiences from schools to the University of the Third Age, from the Society of Antiquaries to local history societies.

He has appeared on BBC Look North, Radio Newcastle, Radio 4, BBC World Service and Inside Out. He featured in a GCSE film by Evans Woolfe Media for BBC on the Jarrow Crusade and social conditions in the town and provided text and materials for a set of teaching materials on the same topic for the Professional Development Service for Teachers (PDST) in the Republic of Ireland.

Catrin Galt

Catrin Galt is the Community Librarian, Family History and Heritage at South Tyneside Libraries where she also worked as the Children's Librarian for 12 years prior to taking up her current post.

She is passionate about the history of the region and has worked with schools throughout the Borough to help children to explore their connection to their local heritage by using photographs, maps, artefacts and online resources.

Adam Bell

Adam Bell is Assistant Keeper of Social History for Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums, based at South Shields Museum & Art Gallery. Adam's job involves curating and caring for the many fascinating artefacts at South Shields Museum, including the development of permanent galleries and special exhibitions, undertaking research, providing access to items in store and working in collaboration with many different stakeholders to bring history to life.

Adam has been responsible for dozens of exhibitions and displays at South Shields Museum, including 'Gotta Have It! You and Your Collections', 'Seaside Shields' and the award-winning 'Home of Heroes: South Tyneside in the First World War'.

From a young age, Adam has been captivated by the past and its so-near-but-yet-so-far allure. Originally from Ireland, Adam has been made to feel very much at home in the North East, and he enjoys continuing to learn about the region's wonderful history and traditions.

Jarrow born poet and playwright, Tom Kelly, tells us about the work with schools on the Jarrow Crusade 80^th Anniversary Project which took place in February and March 2016:

"In February and March I really enjoyed working with Jarrow school children on the Jarrow Crusade Project with Matt Perry, Newcastle University history lecturer and author of the definitive book on the march, 'The Jarrow Crusade: Protest and Legend' and South Tyneside Librarian, Catrin Galt.

"At Jarrow's Library we worked with year 5 children from Jarrow Cross and years 4 and 5 of Jarrow St Bede's (my old school, many moons ago).

"Catrin had the children look at census records and discover where specific marchers lived in Jarrow while Matt gave information on the reasons for the march, the route and what they encountered on the way and on arrival in the capital. He then answered their every question, from what tunes the harmonica band played to who were the eldest and youngest marchers? They were fortunate to have a man that knows a great deal about the march.

"My role was to have the children carry out creative writing by describing and visualizing and for the children to imagine what it was like in Jarrow in the 1930s and what it would feel like to be a marcher, or be a child at that time, whose father or grandfather was on the march. The children wrote diary entries, short stories and poems. They were completely lost in the past, learning of the lives and times of those in the town in the 1930s.

"In March, Catrin and I visited St Joseph's RC School, on Jarrow's Fellgate Estate and discovered that these year 2 children had already carried-out a great deal of work on the march prior to our visit. They had created a video where they marched around the school yard singing a song and had a display on the classroom walls on the Crusade.

"Catrin had a map with the route of the march which we discussed and asked how many miles were specific towns from Jarrow? And I used the photographs Catrin had unearthed of Jarrow homes in the '30s as a starting point for discussing children's lives and producing creative writing, once again they produced short stories, poems and diaries.

"An additional 'bonus' was that a number of children had relations that had been on the march.

"Some of this work produced by the Jarrow school children will feature in a commemorative pamphlet on the Jarrow Crusade which will be published in October.

"Some may say, "Why another Jarrow Crusade project?" Seeing the keenness of the pupils loving learning about the past was so rewarding and underlined that older people may know a great deal of their past in Jarrow but their children and grandchildren still need to understand and appreciate of the importance of Jarrow's history and feel pride in their town and those who marched for a better life."

Further work with schools will take place in October 2016. For more information on work in schools contact Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums Service at virginia.wilkinson@twmuseumes.org.uk

Creative writing publication

A new publication has been produced using creative writing and poetry produced by the school children of Jarrow alongside original material written by Tom Kelly.  It was published on 5^th October, 80 years to the day that the marchers left Jarrow, at an event in Jarrow Town Hall, hosted by the Mayor of South Tyneside to commemorate the anniversary.

Jarrow Crusade- Creative Writing

Monument

Monument' is a poem written by Tom about the Jarrow Crusade and features in his latest poetry collection, 'Spelk', published in April 2016, by Red Squirrel Press.

(Jarrow's shipyard, Palmers, was closed by the cartel, National Shipbuilding Securities in 1933 which led to mass unemployment and the Jarrow Crusade of 1936.)

Jarrow's MP, Ellen Wilkinson speaking in the House of Commons, 1936

Today is mixed with yesterday,

Pathe News becomes flesh and blood,

men with Charlie Chaplin trousers

return to where they once stood.

In the Jarrow area there is 72 per cent unemployment,

in Jarrow Town the percentage nearly 80.

Jarrow must be made a special case. Jarrow is the victim of ruthless rationalisation which is being backed by the Government.

Uncle Johnny gave me his badge,

I see him on the Edgware Road,

marching in rain-soaked Mackintosh

and now tears stick in me throat.

They presented their petition,

Jarrow's Mayor dropped his heavy chain,

Wasn't defiance, he told me,

It was a slip I'd do again.

Is the President of the Board of Trade aware that the government's complacency is regarded throughout the country as an affront to the national conscience?

Some shed bitter tears, railed,

Ya knaa we've been sold down th' Thames.

Has ti be more, can't be just this.

Is this how our battle ends?

On Guy Fawkes they came home by train,

knowing their place, third class single,

handed them cheap suits and cheers

still their pockets didn't jingle.

In St Paul's Cathedral there is a memorial to Sir Christopher Wren, which reads: "If you seek a monument look around."

If the Attorney General wants to see a monument to the capitalist system that he is so proud of, I will take him to Jarrow and show it to him.

Tom Kelly

Adam Bell of Tyne and Wear Archives and Museum Service has completely renewed the display and created new interpretation of the unique Jarrow Crusade artefacts at Jarrow Town Hall.  The exhibition is permanently based at the Town Hall and has many items of significance to the Crusade including one of the original march banners and the original petition box.

What to expect

From June 2016 members of the community are invited to get involved in a research programme with Newcastle University, based at Jarrow Library, that will explore the lives of the marchers.

Using on-line resources at Jarrow Library the community research volunteers will use historical documents to find out about the past. We will:

• Identify individual men who took part in the Crusade from the list of marchers
• Use the 1911 Census and South Tyneside Register Office Records to find facts about the men
• Use photographs and a map to identify the streets in Jarrow where the marchers lived
• Use the materials to build up a picture of what life was like in Jarrow at the time of the march

We will create materials, recordings and images which will be used in an exhibition at South Shields Museum and Art Gallery in October 2016 and which will form a part of the narrative and legacy of the Jarrow Crusade in the 21^st Century.

If you know a marcher

If you have details about any of the marchers that you would like to share, please let us know by filling in the below form and returning it to catrin.galt@southtyneside.gov.uk or Jarrow Library:

Do you know one of the marchers?

Become a Community Research Volunteer

If you are interested in becoming a Community Research Volunteer please contact catrin.galt@southtyneside.gov.uk