 |
||||
 |
|
|
|
|
|
• Home
• The People Must Pay
• Poetry
• Links
• Contact •
• Synopsis • History • Songs • Cast and Crew • Gallery • Then and Now • |
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
1887 - Jubilee Year |
Gordon Smith |
|||
|
1887 - starting off on the first of January, it’s reported in the local press that we’re having the worst typhoid epidemic in ten years. Around about the same time, there’s trouble in the mines and the owners are trying to cut the miners’ pay. At this point, the miners come out on strike and they’re out for nearly seventeen weeks. Carrying on from that, by the time they go back to work for less money than they had before they went on strike, there’s a measles epidemic.
At this point, Queen Victoria is about to celebrate her Golden Jubilee and she’s asking all the people to put their hands in their pockets and come up with anything from a penny to a guinea to buy her a present. And that was mainly the idea for the play and gave the play its title, because the prime minister at the time, Gladstone, had said to Queen Victoria, “Would it not be possible for the royal hand to dip in the royal pocket?”. And she said, “Oh no, the people must pay”. And that became the title of the play. |
||||
|
• Listen to Gordon on this topic
• Back to previous page
•
|
||||
|
||||
|
The Victorian Blyth website is maintained by Blyth Resource & Initiative Centre Website design: McKenzie Media |
||||