Letchworth Corset Riot

The Letchworth Corset Riot was a short period of civil unrest in the North Hertfordshire town of Letchworth Garden City which took place in July, 1914. The riot was prompted by the opening of a corset factory, which had been built by Spirella in the centre of the town over the course of the previous four years.
Background
Letchworth Garden City had been founded in 1903 by town planner Ebenezer Howard and was intended as a "marriage" of town and country, complete with idyllic green spaces and arts & crafts architecture - the forerunner of modern suburbs. The experimental nature of the town attracted a wide variety of Edwardian free-thinkers and Bohemians, who engaged in what might now be considered new age activities such as dew-bathing and Theosophy. theory that only natural fibres from animals, namely wool, could promote health was also a popular belief amongst Letchworth's health-conscious residents. Many Letchworthians were also members of the British Rational Dress Society, which promoted clothing for women on the basis of its comfort and practicality rather than fashion. The Society were of the belief that corsets were highly detrimental to women's health, and were therefore staunchly opposed to them. Letchworth was one of the few places in England where women were relatively free in their choice of clothing - indeed, visitors frequently came up from London to marvel and poke fun at the people of the town.
Naturally, when William Wallace Kincaid's Spirella corset company commenced its initial manufacturing operation in Nevells Road, there were considerable objections from Letchworth's residents. Following the example of previous prominent figures in the Victorian dress reform movement such as Alice Bunker Stockham, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Amelia Bloomer, a number of community-minded Letchworth women set about organising a committee to make a petition and lobby the First Garden City Ltd. (owners of the Letchworth estate) to evict Spirella from the town indefinitely. Although this campaign rallied support for the cause from locals, it ended ultimately in failure in 1911, and the Spirella Building remained in the town. Resentment towards the company continued nevertheless.
The Riot
On Tuesday 30th June, 1914, Spirella's completed factory opened in Letchworth, to a mixed reception. Penelope Waldegrave-Houghton, daughter of local dignitary Sir Hugo Waldegrave-Houghton, succeeded in reassembling the rational dress committee and pooled resources with a number of other middle-class women to organise a protest, which was to take place on July 1st. A group of Pamphleteers were also organised to publicise the event. Word soon spread to London and the press, carried by travellers on the Great North Road in neighbouring Baldock.
On the day of the arranged protest, the turnout proved to be far larger than originally anticipated, with substantial contingents from both Cambridge and North London arriving by train throughout the day. Initially the protest was peaceful despite overcrowding and Letchworth's negligible police force, which consisted of only two constables. However, a more militant group of campaigners soon began causing problems, smashing the windows of local shops and attempting to break into the factory to dismantle the machines inside. By around 3 PM, the crowd's anger spilled over into a full-blown riot: women seen wearing corsets, along with their husbands, were set upon by the rioters, several Baleen processing machines were badly damaged, looting began in earnest and the house of the factory's manager on Wilbury Road was set alight. The then Home Secretary Reginald McKenna received notification of the riots and by the evening had despatched a division of the Metropolitan Police to deal with the situation which had escalated to a point where it could no longer be controlled by the local authorities.
Aftermath
By the following morning the rioters had largely dispersed with some suffering minor injuries, although a hard core of protestors, made up of the Bohemian residents of an in nearby Norton, barricaded themselves inside the Mrs Howard Memorial Hall. The ringleaders of the protest were rounded up and arrested, but after being released in 1916, Waldegrave-Houghton went on to become a moderately successful suffragette.. Spirella's reputation remained intact despite the disturbances as a concerted effort was made on the part of the company to hush up the entire incident, with some success.

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