Huddersfield has a rich Chartist history emerging from previous campaigns against the introduction of the New Poor Law and from the Ten Hours factory movement in the 1830s. Joshua Hobson, who printed and published the Northern Star, was born here (and is buried in the town’s cemetery) and an Owenite Hall of Science, which hosted numerous Chartism meetings in the 1840s, still stands on Bath Street.
Chartism Day is now a regular calendar fixture. The first Chartism Day was held at the University of Birmingham in 1993, and it has taken place every year since then except in 2020 and 2021 when it took a break due to Covid restrictions.
Chartism, the mass movement for democratic rights, dominated British domestic politics in the late 1830s and 1840s. It mobilised over three million supporters at its height. Few modern European social movements, certainly in Britain, have captured the attention of posterity to quite the extent it has done. Chartism Day celebrates the history of the Chartist movement with a range of speakers examining aspects of Chartism and the opportunity to meet other people and researchers interested in the Chartist movement
The full conference programme can be accessed here
You can download the the delegates pack here
