Chartism Day 2024: in praise of Dorothy Thompson

Chartism Day has now been in existence for two or three times as long as Chartism itself was around (depending on how you define being around). But every year brings new research and fresh ideas. This year’s event, which took place at the University of Reading at the weekend was no exception.

I have now written a full report (with photos) for the Society for the Study of Labour History website. You can read it here.

Register for Chartism Day 2024

Registration is now open for Chartism Day 2024. This year’s conference takes place at the University of Reading on Saturday 7 September - and, as ever, all are welcome.

Professor Mike Sanders will be giving the keynote address on Disraeli, Young England and the Chartists, and there are loads of other great speakers.

In addition to the speakers programme, there will be a ‘silent auction’ for artwork and other goodies kindly donated by graphic artist Polyp - you may have seen his fantastic Peterloo and Tom Paine graphic novels, and he has a new one called COURAGE! coming out on the fight for the franchise.

Find out more at this link…

The full programme and a registration button can be found Here on Eventbrite.

Chartism Day 2024 - Call for Papers

Plans for Chartism Day 2024 are coming together, with a date set for 7 September, and a venue agreed at the University of Reading. Make sure it’s in your diary.

All the details can be found over on the Society for the Study of Labour History website. At present it’s too early to reserve a place, but if you are interested in presenting a paper, or just want to see what sort of themes people might be talking about this year, the Call for Papers is already online.

See more about Chartism Day 2024 at the SSLH website.

Chartism Day 2022: a truly enjoyable day

Chartism Day returned in 2022, following an enforced break, to honour and celebrate the life of Professor Malcolm Chase, great scholar of Chartism, who died in February 2020. 

The event took place on Saturday 19 March at the University of Leeds, where Malcolm spent much of his career, and attracted some 70 attendees - ranging from academic historians, to family historians and those who are simply interested in the history of Chartism.

A full report of this truly enjoyable and interesting day can be found on the website of the Society for the Study of Labour History, which has run the event for nearly a quarter of a century and which co-sponsored this year's event with the Social History Society.

Read the report.

Register now for Chartism Day 2022

Chartism Day returns on Saturday 19 March after a forced two-year break. This year’s event is to be held at the University of Leeds, and will honour Professor Malcolm Chase, a truly exceptional Chartist scholar, a good friend to the Chartist Ancestors website, and a genuinely lovely man.

Registration is now open. Click the link to see the programme and book your place: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/chartism-day-2022-tickets-271367777327

Chartism Day 2019: from electoral strategy to votes for women, via loaded juries and Yorkshire miners

During the first wave of Chartism, Newcastle was home to the radical Northern Liberator newspaper, and would see some of the largest monster meetings of the age.

Some 180 years later, the city played host once again last weekend to Chartism Day – the annual gathering of academic, unaffiliated and local historians whose shared interests ensure Chartism remains a lively and active field of history.

Chartism Day 2019 programe and registration

Chartism Day takes place in the Armstrong Building of Newcastle University on Saturday 1 June 2019. All are welcome, but please register by Friday 24 May.

Here are the programme and booking details.

Chartism Day 2018: programme and registration

This year’s Chartism Day conference takes place at University College London on Saturday 9 June 2018, with speakers covering a wide range of topics, from the place of song in Chartism to the role played by the Polish émigré Bartłomiej Beniowski in the early days of the movement.

The day is open to all, with a fee of £10 to include tea/coffee breaks and lunch. But you will need to REGISTER HERE.

Chartism Day 2017: from biscuits and salt pork for the troops to surrealist Chartist images and a lost letter

Some 20 years on from the first ever Chartism Day, each year’s event still brings word of archive discoveries, exciting new images and innovative ways of “doing history” that shed light on the people who made up the Chartist movement and how they thought and acted.

Chartism Day 2017 was no exception. Organised by Dr Katrina Navickas and colleagues from the University of Hertfordshire history department, this year’s conference visited Heronsgate – better known to those with an interest in Chartism as O’Connorville.

Chartism Day 2017: bookings now open

Plans are well under way for Chartism Day 2017. This year's event takes place on Saturday 17 June in Rickmansworth, and is being hosted by the University of Hertfordshire Heritage Hub Local & Regional History Research.

Put the date in your diary. Find out more. And reserve your place now!

Chartism Day 2016: from 'constitutional humbug' to cheap beer, a political rehabiliation and 3D models

Chartism Day 2016 took place at the University of Chester at the weekend, with around 50 delegates turning up for a busy programme of presentations on topics as diverse as Chartism’s relationship with the Irish Repeal movement, the impact of the Beer Act on radical meetings and an exciting new initiative using 3D animated modelling techniques to re-create Chartist processions.

What follows does not attempt to summarise the arguments of the speakers, which are in any event almost all drawn from work in progress towards full academic publication, but simply to give a flavour of the day’s talks.

Chartism Day 2016: time to register

This event has now taken place. Here's a report on the day,

The programme and registration details for Chartism Day 2016 are now confirmed. Details of the speakers and topics are set out below - and the date is set for Saturday 11 June 2016. Sign up now to reserve your place.

Download the registration form.

Chartism Day 2016: time to regiser

This event has now taken place. Here's a report on the day,

The annual Chartism Day conference returns to Chester this year. The event takes place on Saturday 11 June and all are welcome – but please register beforehand via this email link.

Chartism Day 2014 - Ireland and British Democracy

Chartism Day 2014 takes place in Galway, beginning on Friday 4 July and running through Saturday 5 July.  This year’s theme is Ireland and British Democracy.

Registration is now open for anyone who would like to go along.

Chartism Day 2013 Sheffield: register now

Registration is now open for those wanting to attend Chartism Day 2013 in Sheffield. The event takes place on Saturday, 29 June 2013 at the Department of Humanities, Sheffield Hallam University, St Mary's Church, Bramall Lane, Sheffield S2 4QZ.

To register, please send a cheque for £13, payable to Sheffield Hallam University, to: Matthew Roberts, Owen Building Department of Humanities, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, S1 1WB.

Chartism Day 2013: provisional programme kicks off by "telling the people's story

More details of Chartism Day 2013 are now available. Many thanks to Professor Malcolm Chase for these.

The event takes place in Sheffield on 28 and 29 June 2013.

Friday 28 June
Public lecture  at the Peak Lecture Theatre, Sheffield Hallam University.
Paul Pickering (Australia National University): “Telling the people’s story: writing, representing and selling the past in the age of affective history”

Saturday 29 June

St Mary’s Church on Bramall Lane

Provisional programme:

• Martin Hewitt (Huddersfield University), “Chartism and the Taxes on Knowledge Campaign”
• Robert G Hall (Ball State University), “Bookstores for the Millions: The Politics of Reading and Chartism, 1838-1848”
• David Goodway, “Julian Harney’s Late Journalism: The Newcastle Weekly Chronicle column, 1890-97”
• Jenny Cadwallender (Manchester University), “’Amidst Tears, Cheers and Execrations’: Domesticity and the Politics of Chartist Women”
• Timothy Keane, “Ireland and Irish Nationalism in Chartism”
• Philip Lockley, “Chartism and Millenarianism”
• Steve Poole, “Rural Chartism in the West”
• Katrina Navickas, “What next for Chartist Studies”

More details to follow nearer the time.