The Battle of Mickleton Tunnel

If you search the internet, you’ll quickly come across the following paragraph about this event.

The Battle of Mickleton Tunnel took place in the Vale of Evesham in 1851 when Brunel's private army of 3,000 navvies fought the army of a disgruntled contractor who was backed by the forces of the local magistrates and armed police. The contractor, Mudge-Marchant ^{(see footnote)}, had stopped work on the tunnel as he was owed £34,000 by the Oxford, Worcester & Wolverhampton Railway   (commonly known as  “The Old Worse and Worse”).

Brunel, as company engineer, had been instructed to evict Mudge-Marchant and his men who had commandeered the site.

This is thought to have been the last battle fought by private armies on British soil.

(If anyone knows better,
please let me know -
  e-mail address at bottom)

But  ….. is it true ?   Here’s what others say about this event.

 

 

From the Illustrated London News – Circa 26^th July 1851

Note “Mickleton” is misspelt “Muckleton”

Riot

At Cambden, Worcestershire. (Head office for the contractors of the formation of a line of road through the Muckleton Tunnel.)

Some of those involved: Mr Marchant, who was having trouble with completion of his contract between Oxford and Worcester.

Peto and Betts, contractors for the whole of the rest of the work on the line.

Marchant having been told to remove his workmen to allow Peto and Betts completing the work. Peto and Betts agent was told to gather 500 men and march them to Muckleton Tunnel to occupy the site and prevent Marchant's men from pursue their work.

At the Worcester end of the tunnel, Mr Cowdery with 200 men from Evesham and Wyre carrying pickaxes and shovels, met Marchant who dared them to proceed on pain of being shot. He was carrying several pistols. Mr Brunel, unable to persuade Marchant to move told Peto and Betts men to proceed and take the line. A rush was made, and several heads were broken and three men had dislocated shoulders. A Marchant man who drew his pistols was set upon and his head nearly severed from his body.

Marchant and his men left for an hour and returned with three dozen policemen from the Gloucester constabulary and some privates from the Gloucester Artillery and two magistrates who read the Riot Act. Fights had again broken out and several received broken arms and legs.

At 4 Mr Charles Watson, of Warwick, arrived with 200 men and the Great Western Company sent a similar number to expel Marchant. The magistrates told Marchant’s men to start work and Peto and Betts men to stop work.

Extract from

“The Railway Navvies”

by Terry Coleman

 (Hutchinson – 1965,   page 98-101):

 

The best example of the navvies’ lawless loyalty is that of the Battle of Mickleton. This village was on the Oxford, Worcester, and Wolverhampton Railway, and a tunnel there had caused constant trouble since it was begun in 1846. After only a few months, Brunel, who was engineer to the company, appointed a new contractor, but the work still went on slowly and in 1849 was suspended. Brunel’s contractor, Marchant, started work again in 1851, but in June of that year a series of disputes between him and the company – over the exact terms of the contract, and the payment, and the ownership of the plant being used to build the tunnel – came to a head, and the company decided to take possession of the works and hand them over for completion to Peto & Betts, the contractors for the rest of the line. Marchant would have nothing of it. He declined to hand over the works or the plant, and kept his navvies on guard against the company’s men. Whenever the new contractors tried to take possession they were driven off by Marchant’s men, and after several such skirmishes Brunel resolved to finish the matter off himself. On Friday, July 20th, he and his assistant, Varden, went to the tunnel with a considerable body of men to take over. But the contractor had heard rumours of this and complained to the local magistrates, saying that if they did not attend and read the Riot Act there might be a fight. So when Brunel and his party arrived they were confronted by magistrates, who warned them not to commit a breach of the peace. Brunel retired until the next day, when he returned to the tunnel early in the morning, hoping that the magistrates would have considered their duty done and left. He was wrong. The magistrates were still there, and they had been joined by a large force of policemen armed with cutlasses. On one side stood Brunel and his navvies, on the other Marchant and his men guarding the works, and between them the law. A fight seemed inevitable, but a magistrate mumbled through the Riot Act twice, and under this threat and that of the police cutlasses the navvies again withdrew.

Later that Saturday Brunel and Varden, playing at generals, discussed how they could mount a surprise attack. They did not scruple to take the works by force from Marchant, but they thought it unwise to get into a fight with armed policemen. What they had to do now was what they had failed to do before – mislead the magistrates into thinking they had given up hope of taking the works and then, after the magistrates had gone happily home, swoop on Marchant and catch him on the hop. So that evening, and all day Sunday, Brunel’s men made no move, and the magistrates left the tunnel. They were deceived, because although Brunel appeared to be doing nothing he used that Sunday to organise reinforcements. Navvies were marched up from other parts of the line, from the works of the Birmingham and Oxford Railway at Warwick, and from the Great Western. In the darkness of Sunday night and early Monday morning gangs of navvies awoke village after village as they tramped through, alarming the whole countryside but not stopping long enough to do any damage. Reports vary, but it seems likely that about 2,000 navvies assembled under Brunel’s command. His idea was to overawe Marchant by an overwhelming show of strength, and to persuade him to hand over the works. At three o’clock on Monday morning the navvies began to close in on the tunnel and the Battle of Mickleton began.

At the Worcester end of the tunnel, Mr. Cowderey and his band of 200 men from Evesham was met by Marchant, who brandished pistols and said he would shoot the first man who went any farther. In the face of the pistols Cowderey was discreet and told his men – who were ready to devour the handful of labouring boys escorting Marchant – on no account to strike a blow. The navvies waited with their pick-axes and shovels. Then Brunel gave his orders for a general attack on the works. The navvies dodged round Marchant, who did not shoot, and launched into the boys with fists, using spades only on one man who drew a pistol. They hit him on the head, but gently, so that he survived. In fact no one was killed, though several heads were broken and three men had shoulders dislocated.

Marchant retreated for the moment, leaving his opponents in full possession of the tunnel, but after an hour he came back with three dozen policemen, some privates of the Gloucestershire Artillery, and two magistrates, who immediately began reading the Riot Act again. While they were doing this a fight broke out on an embankment overlooking the tunnel. Several men suffered broken limbs, and one John M. Grant was nearly trampled to death but was rescued just in time. Brunel’s reinforcements continued to increase. Another 200 from Warwick arrived, and a similar force from the Great Western. The main bodies just stood and faced each other, but odd fighting went on around the edges and in the half-darkness. The magistrates, who had all along favoured Marchant as the man who was being attacked, suggested that he might occupy his men by setting them to work. He did this, but the Peto men were immediately ordered to stop them, by force if necessary. Two small batches of navvies again met, and in the affray one little finger was bitten off and one head badly wounded. All day long little fights started and petered out, until Marchant saw at last that he was outnumbered, and gave in. He went to Brunel and they agreed to refer the whole dispute to the arbitration of the firm of Stephenson & Cubitt, celebrated railway contractors. The peace was concluded at about four in the afternoon, just before the troops, called in to help the police, arrived from Coventry. The battle was over.

In their August report the directors of the company were mainly concerned about other things. The shareholders were critical of the way the company’s financial affairs were being handled, and The Times’ report of the meeting was punctuated by explanatory words in brackets like (Oh, oh! and confusion) and (Hear, hear, and shame). But the Battle of Mickleton Tunnel was mentioned, the directors reporting that the company had taken possession of the works, ’without absolute violence... although the menacing conduct of the contractor had at one time rendered such an issue probable’.

Once again great bands of navvies had rioted, but this time it was all in the cause of loyalty to their employers and was therefore all right. The most telling point was made by poor Marchant in a letter printed in the Railway Times.  He said that he and his partner had paid £10,000 for the plant at the works and that attempts had been made to take this plant from him violently; he denied that he had ever drawn a pistol in the fight, and then went on to say this: ’I may leave Messrs Peto and Betts to defend themselves against the charge of having consented to the march of two thousand men on a Sunday for the purpose of taking possession of my property by force.’

Just so. Did Peto, the good Baptist, know that his men were being marched about on a Sunday?  Did Peto, the Member of Parliament, know that what was virtually a private army was being used to take the tunnel by an illegal show of force?  And what of Brunel?  Peto may not have known what was being done by his assistants, but Brunel was there.  At the least he was promoting, organising, and then leading a series of riots – playing soldiers to the great danger of some hundreds of men and incurring casualties of several broken bones and one little finger. The violence of navvies looks mighty innocent compared with this lawlessness of the men who used them. But then, as the company directors said, the tunnel was taken ’without absolute violence’, whatever that may mean.

Extract from

“History of the
Great Western Railway

Volume I 1833-1863”

by E.T. MacDermot

revised by C.R. Clinker

 (Ian Allan – 1964,   page 259-260):

 

… The opening of the line (Oxford, Worcester & Wolverhampton) southward from Evesham had been delayed, not by the fighting but by the extraordinary floods of the 1882-3 winter, which had caused serious damage to the timber bridge over the Avon at Aldington and large slips at several places, the worst near the Mickleton Tunnel.

This tunnel had been a constant trouble from its commencement in the summer of 1846. A few months later Brunel had to install a new contractor, and when the works were suspended in 1849 only a heading had been carried through and the brickwork begun at each end.

In June 1851, not long after their resumption, the same contractor, who was again employed, had a dispute with the Company and stopped work. The Company decided to take possession of the works and plant and hand them over to Messrs Peto & Betts to complete with the rest of the line, whereupon the Contractor defied them and kept his men on guard.  Sundry skirmishes took place, and eventually, on a Friday afternoon towards the end of July, Brunel himself with his resident assistant, R. Varden, came with a considerable body of men to take possession.

Having had notice of his intention, the Contractor got two magistrates to attend, as he expected a fight.  After a conference with them Brunel postponed action till the next day, ‘when the magistrates were early on the ground, attended by a large body of police armed with cutlasses. Mr Brunel was there with his men, and Mr Marchant, the Contractor, also appeared at the head of a formidable body of navigators. A conflict was expected, but happily through the prompt action of the magistrates, who twice read the Riot Act to the men, they were dispersed.’

During Sunday, Peto & Betts’ men were collected from other parts of the line, and some even from the works of the Birmingham & Oxford Railway at Warwick and elsewhere which they were constructing for the Great Western, and marched during Sunday night to the scene of action, the idea being to overawe the refractory Marchant by an overwhelming display of strength and take possession before the arrival of the Gloucestershire magistrates to spoil the fun.

The first contingent from Evesham, some 200 strong, arrived at the north end of the tunnel at 3 a.m. on Monday, and the Battle of Mickleton began. It is difficult to gather from contemporary narratives just what did occur in the course of the argument, during which reinforcements to Brunel’s Army kept pouring in from all quarters till at last it was 2,000 strong. According to one account several heads and limbs were broken, some shoulders dislocated, and one hero, who produced a pistol, ’was seized upon and his skull nearly severed in two’ with a shovel. However, no one seems to have been killed, and eventually ’Marchant finding that all attempts at resistance were useless, from the vast majority in numbers of his opponents, gave in, and he and Mr Brunel adjourned in order to come to some amicable settlement’; and arbitration by Messrs Stephenson and Cubitt was agreed upon.

So the battle was over before the arrival of the troops from Coventry, who had been sent for to aid the police. In their August Report the Directors asserted that they had taken possession of Contract ’without absolute violence or injury to any individual, though the menacing conduct of the Contractor at one time rendered such an issue probable’.

 

Renewal of Railway Disturbances on the Oxford, Worcester, and Wolverhampton Railway

 

(Account of the Mickleton Tunnel Riot)

 

Berrow’s Worcester Journal

24^th July 1851

 

On Sunday afternoon the resident contractor, Mr Marchant, discovered that a large body of men, at Warwick, under the control of the Company, were busily engaged in preparing, secretly, to march upon the works at Mickleton, under the shade of night, hoping to catch the contractors by surprise.  A messenger was instantly despatched by Mr Marchant to Cheltenham, to obtain the aid of Mr Lefroy and his constabulary force; and scouts were sent out to watch the proceedings of the invading party. 

Between ten and eleven o’clock at night, news was brought that the men from Warwick, in large force, were on their march, and might be expected on the works between two and three o’clock in the morning.  Mr Kettle immediately went for the assistance of the Magistrates, but Mr Talbot was from home and Mr Bourne was unwell.  Mr Kettle proceeded to Bretforton, which place he reached soon after midnight, and aroused Mr James Ashwin from his slumbers.  That gentleman immediately accompanied Mr Kettle to Campden.  On their way thither they overtook an unexpected large body of railway men (from Cheltenham) in omnibuses and other carriages. 

At the police station, at Campden, there were only three men, but the constabulary force was every moment expected from Cheltenham.  Intelligence now reached Mr Ashwin that from three to four hundred men were coming into the town from Moreton, and that the men from Warwick were near the works.  Mr Ashwin immediately sent off an express to Coventry for the aid of the military there, and then proceeded, with Mr Kettle, to the railway works, where they almost immediately met Mr Brunel and his solicitor, Mr Hobler, of the Mansion House. 

Mr Ashwin warned those gentlemen of the risks they were incurring by bringing large bodies of men on the works at that unseasonably early hour of the morning (between two and three o’clock).  The contractor’s men were already on the ground to defend the contractor’s works.  Mr Hobler endeavoured to defend the course of proceeding adopted by Mr Brunel, and a warm legal discussion took place between him and Mr Kettle. 

Shortly afterwards about 30 police-constables, assisted by a few soldiers, and headed by Mr Lefroy and his deputy, Mr Keyley, reached the ground; Mr Lefroy having started from Cheltenham as soon as he heard of the intended outbreak.  By this time the men under the control of Mr Brunel, from 1,800 to 2,000 in number, came from various points on the works.  One man had two pistols in his pockets.  These were taken away from, and as he shewed a disposition to be troublesome, he was taken into custody.  Mr Ashwin then read the Riot Act, and some trifling skirmishes took place between the Company’s men and the contractor’s men (the latter of whom did not exceed 150 in number.).  

The contractor’s men were proceeding with their usual work, but were prevented by the Company’s men from going on.  Mr Ashwin called the police to his assistance, and having previously warned Mr Brunel and Mr Hobler to aid him in keeping the peace, urged the illegality of the proceedings taken on the part of the Company, and expressed his determination not to allow forcible possession to be taken; when, after a lengthened discussion between the contending parties and their solicitors, terms of arrangement were proposed, which, in short time, were reduced to writing, and signed by Mr Brunel on the part of the Company. 

By these terms the Company engaged to employ all the contractor’s men; to hold the works on sufferance until an award as to all matters in dispute could be made by Mr Cubitt or Mr Rennell; and if the Company should decline to ratify these terms, Mr Brunel personally undertook to withdraw all the Company’s men from the works within a fortnight.  Thus matters were arranged before half-past eight o’clock, a.m..  The approach of the military was countermanded, and peace is at last restored.

 

Robert Mudge Marchant (1820-1902) was IK Brunel's assistant from 1838 to 1846 (Great Western, Bristol, Exeter and South Devon Railways); from 1846-49 he was on the Oxford-Worcester and Wolverhampton Railways. He was elected A.M.Inst.C.E. in 1849. From 1849-1855 he was a contractor for railway and hydraulic works; from 1855 to 1860 he was superintending and later Engineer-in-Chief for railways in Brazil. From 1860-63 he was Railways Supervisor in Victoria (Australia). He was Railway Engineer for Southland Railways (NZ) early in 1863 and on 1 March 1863 was also Town Board Engineer, Invercargill.

Robert Mudge Marchant was in NZ until at least 1867 but was back in the UK by 1871 (census info). One of his projects was the construction of eight miles of wooden railway in Southland, which was a disaster - 'worn out in fourteen months and derelict until iron rails were laid about four years later'.

From “Early New Zealand Engineers” by FW Furkert