Poaching and Politics of Corn Law reform

Aldeburgh & District Local History Society welcome Dr Osborne, Course leader for History at University of Suffolk, a social historian with a particular interest in the history of the countryside and rural society.  His talk is entitled "John Bright's Poacher (1804-1891): Poaching and the Politics of Corn Law reform".

Tonight, Dr Harvey Osborne considers how organised opposition to the Corn Laws fused in the early decades of the C19th century with long-standing hostility to the the game laws.  The Anti-Corn Law League aimed at abolishing the Corn Laws, which raised food prices and protected landowners' interests by levying taxes on imported wheat.  He highlights the politics of Corn Law Reform through an examination of an alliance that developed — during the League's attack on landed privilege in the 1840's — between its leader and joint-founder, the Quaker John Bright, and a former smuggler and poacher active in Snape, Aldeburgh and Thorpeness.

This talk promises to provide an interesting comparison with our talk in June from Pip Wright on Joe Whistlecraft — some 100 years later in the early C20th.