A modern cheese wheel
Red Leicester cheese

The Nottingham cheese riot (also known as The Great Cheese Riot)[1] started on 2 October 1766 at the city's Goose Fair. The riot came at a time of food shortages and rising prices in England. Violence broke out when local citizens intervened to prevent Lincolnshire merchants taking away Nottinghamshire cheeses they had bought at the fair. A warehouse, shops, and a cargo boat were looted and hundreds of cheese wheels were rolled through the streets. The army was deployed when the mayor was unable to restore control. One man was killed and others wounded as soldiers opened fire on the crowds. Order was eventually restored after some days of unrest.

Background

View of Nottingham and its castle (1806 engraving)

The Nottingham Goose Fair has its origins in the Feast of Matthew the Apostle, which was first celebrated in the city around 1,000 years ago. The feast became a livestock market where many geese were traded, and later became associated with the sale of horses, but by the 18th century it was most closely associated with foodstuffs including cheese, many tons of which were sold at the fair each year.[2] The cheese manufactured in Nottingham at this time was sold in wheels and is believed to have been similar to Red Leicester.[3]

The poor harvest in 1766 led to fears of impending food shortages.[3] That year's fair, beginning on 2 October, saw a larger than usual quantity of cheese for sale, but at inflated prices.[4] There were recorded prices of 28 to 36 shillings (roughly £140–£180 in modern currency)[5] per hundredweight (112 pounds or 51 kilograms), around twice that recorded at Coventry market just a week earlier.[4][6] As a result of the shortages, people across the country were anxious to keep foodstuffs in their local area; there were instances of merchants being overpowered and forced to sell their goods at pre-shortage rates.[3]

Riot

An officer of the 15th Light Dragoons circa 1768

The riot broke out on 2 October 1766 after some Lincolnshire merchants purchased a large quantity of cheese with the intention of selling it in their county.[nb 1][1][3] They were then surrounded by a group of "rude lads" who demanded they not take away the cheese and instead share it out in Nottingham.[3][4] Violence broke out and there was widespread looting of cheese; shop windows were broken and hundreds of cheese wheels were thrown and rolled down the streets including Wheeler Gate and Peck Lane.[1][6][10] The mayor of Nottingham attempted to restore order but was knocked over by a rolling cheese wheel.[6][11]

Some locals armed themselves and set up roadblocks on the city streets to prevent merchants from carrying away cheeses.[3] A boat near Trent Bridge was seized and its cargo of cheese looted, despite its owner offering to pay the crowd or to sell his wares at a low cost.[4][12] One warehouse was attacked and, though its defenders eventually drove the crowd off with firearms, some of the cheese was taken. The warehouse owner organised a mounted posse to track down the cheese, which had been taken to Castle Donington. The local magistrate refused to sign search warrants for houses in the village so the posse instead detained several citizens on suspicion of rioting and beat at the gates of the magistrates house, demanding justice. The posse was driven away by a mob of women and children throwing stones and withdrew, the cheese lost.[12]

In Nottingham, the authorities called for military support to help restore peace. Nottingham at that time was a garrison town and the 15th Dragoons along with militia infantry and cavalry were deployed.[1][6] Some shots were fired into the crowd causing injuries and the death of one man, William Eggleston of Car Colston, who was standing near a pile of cheese.[1] Eggleston was a farmer and it appears he was killed while protecting his own wares, having been mistaken for a looter.[3] Several people were detained and brought before magistrates in a private residence but were freed after the house was attacked by the mob who smashed windows to gain access.[4][6] The unrest continued overnight.[3]

Aftermath and legacy

Violence continued in Nottingham for several days until the military restored order. For a while, wagons carrying cheese were formed into convoys and provided with an armed escort.[12] A local newspaper, the Leicester and Nottingham Journal, accused the rioters of having caused a cheese shortage in the city.[4] There were other riots in England in late 1766 caused by food shortages and increasing food prices. The disorder was particularly severe in Devon and Cornwall but there were also serious outbreaks in Gloucester, Bristol, Derby, Birmingham, and Norwich; the South East was largely peaceful.[13]

The 250th anniversary of the riot was marked in 2016 by the Lord Mayor of Nottingham, Mohammed Saghir, in conjunction with a local cheese shop.[14]

Notes

  1. ↑ Turton (2009) gives 18 October as the start date but this appears to be an error. Potter (2015), McWilliams (2016) and the University of Nottingham give 2 October. There is an entry in the Records of the Borough of Nottingham: 1760–1800 for 2 October 1766 recording the payment of £1 5s by the mayor for a hearse to take Eggleston's body to Car Colston.[7][4][8][9]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Turton, Kevin (2009). A Grim Almanac of Nottinghamshire. Stroud, Gloucestershire: History Press. p. 184. ISBN 978-0-7509-5315-3.
  2. ↑ Breese, Chris (3 October 2017). "Cheese riots and dragoons: The complete history of Nottingham Goose Fair". Notts TV News. Archived from the original on 30 September 2018. Retrieved 10 September 2020.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Palmer, Ned (2019). A Cheesemonger's History of The British Isles. London: Profile Books. p. 200. ISBN 978-1-78283-475-5.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 McWilliams, Mark, ed. (2015). Food & Markets: Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 2014. London: Prospect Books. p. 393. ISBN 978-1-909248-44-1.
  5. ↑ "The National Archives – Currency converter: 1270–2017". nationalarchives.gov.uk.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Sutton, John Frost (1852). The Date Book of Remarkable and Memorable Events Connected with Nottingham and Its Neighbourhood. 1750–1850. p. 73.
  7. ↑ Potter, Harry (2015). Law, Liberty and the Constitution: A Brief History of the Common Law. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell & Brewer Ltd. p. 190. ISBN 978-1-78327-011-8.
  8. ↑ Records of the Borough of Nottingham: 1760–1800. Quaritch. 1947. p. 68.
  9. ↑ "Periodic Table of Nottingham". University of Nottingham. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
  10. ↑ Gray, Duncan (1969). Nottingham: Settlement to City. S. R. Publishers. p. 51. ISBN 978-0-85409-549-0.
  11. ↑ Chronica Botanica, Volume 12. Ronald Press Company. 1935. p. 43.
  12. 1 2 3 Palmer, Ned (2019). A Cheesemonger's History of The British Isles. London: Profile Books. p. 201. ISBN 978-1-78283-475-5.
  13. ↑ Shelton, Walter James (1973). English Hunger and Industrial Disorders: A Study of Social Conflict During the First Decade of George III's Reign. University of Toronto Press. p. 37. ISBN 978-0-8020-2087-1.
  14. ↑ "Food: Nottingham Cheese Shop Marks 250th Anniversary of the Nottingham Great Cheese Riot". NottinghamLIVE.co.uk. 21 October 2016. Archived from the original on 3 March 2017. Retrieved 10 September 2020.
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