Woven Protest Banners







At least half of Carlisle's mill workers lived in poverty and Stephen White told us around 1823 some petitioned the King pleading to be sent to America and in 1826 the mill workers rioted in protest over their living and working conditions.

Sadly conditions failed to improve and although the Reform Act of 1832 gave more people the right to vote, ordinary workers had no way of making their voices heard.  Wages were being cut throughout the country and the workers gathered together (The Chartists) to demand a People's Charter - to provide for fair treatment of the workers.

We discussed how if we had lived 200 years ago we could let people know how unhappy we were with the way we were being treated.  

There was no television, no radio, no internet and no social media.  We would need to put our feelings and demands onto a poster which would get our message to those who needed to know.

In preparation for learning to weave in a few weeks time, we took strips of recycled card,  which we wove together and decorated.



 We looked at examples of Weaving Society Posters from the time and using our drawings and bold writing, we made large striking posters to let people know how we felt about our poor conditions.






This taught us how to weave - that vertical pieces are called the warp and horizontal pieces are the weft.   We learned how the weft goes over and under the warp to form the weave.














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