Sheffield radicals felt the cold in 1817

I'm currently writing up an article on radical prisoners and penal reform, 1794-1820.

Here's an extract from the secret correspondence of the Home Office to the keeper of Winchester Gaol, 23 July 1817. It concerns the conditions afflicting William Wolstenholme and his sons, imprisoned on suspicion of high treason, under the suspension of habeas corpus act.

TNA, HO 41/3, p.289, Hobhouse to gaoler of Winchester, 23 July 1817

It having been represented to Lord Sidmouth that the workmen of that part of the Country from whence the Wolstenholmes come [Sheffield, West Riding of Yorkshire] are accustomed to have fires all the year round and to work by, and that they feel the privation when removed to the South where fires are not so constant...

i.e. the Yorkshiremen were used to being warm, and felt the cold down south! [or rather that they were Sheffield metalworkers used to working by a forge, but this still meant they felt the cold...]


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