Bygones this week is taking you back to the 19th century, courtesy of a fascinating new book by Berkshire-based author, John Trigg.

If getting to grips with amazing stories from the Royal County’s turbulent past ‘float your boat’, then this weighty tone is ideal, as it sheds light on a period that saw Berkshire change from broadly agricultural society to an industrial age.

The Battle of Waterloo was won in 1815, but the ravages of poverty and hunger gripped Berkshire, with civil unrest sweeping the whole country for many decades.

Many children were employed on farms and in ‘sweat shops’, hidden away in appalling conditions, but the plight of the boys and girls working as chimney sweeps would become infamous until new laws were introduced to ban the practice.

A consequence of this exploitation of minors may have been the reason for a Wokingham shoemaker, Mr Holton, to be father of 22 children by his first wife- 16 by his second- he died (exhaustion?) in 1801.

As King William IV took his seat in the stands at Ascot Racecourse on 19th June 1832 a one-legged man, dressed in a shabby naval uniform, started throwing stones at the monarch and struck him a blow to the head, which drew blood.

The attacker, Dennis Collins, was apprehended by some nearby ‘Bow Street Runners’ (there was no national police force at the time) and taken to Reading gaol.

At his trial he was quickly (ten minutes) found guilty of the charge, “causing bodily harm intending to wound or maim His Majesty” and was sentenced to be hung, drawn and quartered, this was later commuted to transportation to Australia.

Being sent “down under” reached a peak in 1833 when 6,799 prisoners were transported, 56 Berkshire men were so punished for the Berkshire ‘Swing Riots’ in 1830.

Many agricultural workers had found their livelihood disappear when new machinery appeared in the early 1880’s and suffered starvation and hardships which culminated in widespread civil unrest.

Fearing a ‘French Revolution’ style uprising, any vandalism of threshing machinery was dealt with in the harshest terms possible, many troops were diverted from the Napoleonic wars to deal with the situation.

Great Britain seemed constantly at war in the 19th century and Rev John Sabin of The Holy Trinity Church, Bracknell, was one of many chaplains who followed the troops to the Crimean War.

After helping tend the sick and wounded he returned to become the senior chaplain at the new garrison church at Aldershot Barracks.

If you wish to read more of the 230 pages of this new book please contact johntrigghistory@hotmail.co.uk or you can buy it for £10.00 at the village shop on the A4 Bath Road in Woolhampton.