The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #93245   Message #1793362
Posted By: GUEST,Rowan
26-Jul-06 - 01:37 AM
Thread Name: Folklore: Radical Britain
Subject: RE: Folklore: Radical Britain
A trivial example, perhaps, but not intended to trivialise.

The English historians will remember better than I the details concerning Watkin Tench's uprising but I think it was some centuries before the Emglish Civil War. But the ripples from it were still there, in Australia, in the 1950s. Watkin Tench led a peasants' revolt of some sort against the Emglish Crown and the peasants were armed only with pitchforks and other agricultural tools of the era.

When, in 1958 or so, I bought a long-handled shovel in a hardware store in central Melbourne the shop assistant carefully wrapped the metal part of the shovel in brown paper. I commented that I didn't think the shovel needed that much care from the elements, given its intended function.

The shop assistant replied that "It's the law! A shovel can't be carried in public without its head wrapped or covered in some way. Without the wrapping it is classified as a weapon."   So he wrapped it in brown paper and I carried it home, safely protected from the accusation that I was armed by a couple of thicknesses of brown paper. Some legacy of Watkin Tench!

It did occur to me that, with the paper, I might be accused of concealing a weapon, but I thought the five foot long handle might allow me a suitable defence.

Cheers, Rowan