Friday, 8th December 1893 saw 2 Blantyre men up in court, charged with trying to start a full scale riot.
William Smith and William Hamill, both miners of Dixon’s Rows, Stonefield were charged with riotous conduct the previous Monday night, by brandishing an iron poker or bar and their rhetoric causing a large crowd to assemble. They led the crowd to a grocers at the bottom of Stonefield Road wrenching off a padlock which fastening a shutter to a window. The glass of a nearby bakers window was also smashed.
For many people in the crowd, there was mischief in the air and some in the crowd remembered the Blantyre riots of 1887 a few years earlier, where people helped themselves to items from shops.
Police were quickly on the scene, pulling out the 2 ringleaders and in court, they pleaded not guilty. The Sheriff had no doubt from the witness statements that Smith was the ringleader and although not many items were stolen and only little damage incurred, the judge felt that it should NOT be dealt with lenientiyly given the disturbances a few years ago. Smith got 30 days imprisonment and Hamill who was deemed as simply following, the charge unproven, let off with a warning.
So what caused these men to try and incite a riot? The 1890’s was a period of significant economic hardship for many industrial workers in Lanarkshire, including miners. Low wages, coupled with poor working conditions, often led to dissatisfaction and unrest. Miners frequently struggled to make ends meet, and their pay did not reflect the dangerous and strenuous nature of their work. Reduction in miner’s wages occurred in 1893 and 1894 and failures to meet the rising cost of living sparked unrest and in 1894, eventual large-scale, industrial strike action. It is observed in this article that the two shops broken into were food outlets.
