Can tha keep a secret?

First of all, a huge thank you for the many kind words, stars and hearts, for my 500th blip yesterday. I am very appreciative indeed. Blipland is a great community!

This morning my eyes were drawn to an article on the on-line BBC News magazine, entitled Are you a Luddite?

These days the term Luddite is usually directed to someone who prefers to write letters rather than send e-mails or who refuses to buy the latest Android gizmo. Such usage serves badly the memory of the original Luddites.

At the turn of the 19th century textile workers in the north of England faced an uncertain future as newly invented machinery such as automated looms and cropping machines began to replace their skilled hand work. The workers responded by smashing the machinery, burning mills and generally rioting. One of the first to take such drastic action was a hand-weaver called Ned Ludd, hence the term Luddite. The response of the State was brutal. Machine breaking was made a capital offence and after trials in York, 17 Luddites were hanged and another 25 transported to Australia, while in Lancaster eight were hanged and 38 sentenced to transportation.

Thus a real modern Luddite would not be some-one averse to using an iPhone, but rather some-one smashing a modern invention to protect his craft and livelihood, for example a printer taking a hammer to any Kindle he came across.

Some of the most serious Luddite attacks took place in April 1812 in the Holme Valley in West Yorkshire, including in Honley, the village of my birth. Mrs Mary Jagger in her History of Honley published in 1914, vividly describes the riots, and the brutal treatment of the weavers and clothiers. The disturbances involved the murder of William Horsfall, a local cloth manufacturer who had introduced cropping-machines into his mill. Three men ambushed him on his way home from Huddersfield Market, shot him dead, and then retired to the Coach and Horses Inn in Honley. The map shows the location of the Inn.

A reward of £2000 (£70,000 at today's prices) was offered for the discovery of the murderers but such was the loyalty among the Luddites that the sum remained unclaimed for over a year. One of the rioters when dying had great pressure put on him to disclose the name of the man who had shot Mr Horsfall.

"Can tha keep a secret?" he asked of the clergyman, doctor and magistrate gathered around his bead.
"Yes!" was the eager response of all.
"So can I," were his last gasping words, and he died with the secret un-confessed.

In the end, however, the strong arm of the law prevailed, and the local men who had shot Mr Horsfall were condemned to death at the York Assizes, and executed in public, alongside 15 fellow Luddites.

So, being a Luddite was a bit more serious than being averse to using a smartphone!