Impoverished by technology and population growth, the handloom weavers were forced into dark satanic mills. Among these so forced would have been the Calton Weavers, “Britain’s first working class martyrs”, forerunners of the trade union movement, for which of course they were shot. So, the Calton Weavers. The Calton Weavers Commemoration Committee describes it as “the first ever incidence in Britain of trade unionists being mown down by the forces of the state”. More than 6000 people, pretty much the entire population of Calton, attended the burials of the “Calton Martyrs”.

Source: The Herald March 08, 2026 18:21 UTC