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valerawlings.bsky.social
Vale Rawlings
@valerawlings.bsky.social
160 followers 210 following 160 posts
Book about forgotten trade union pioneer Vale Rawlings called 'Friendship, Love and Truth' due out Dec 2025. #LabourHistory #SocialHistory #TradeUnions #Staffordshire #ConscientiousObjector #WW1
Posts by Elaine Pritchard of Burton upon Trent.
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valerawlings.bsky.social
I'm 87% funded on Crowdfunder. Thank you to everyone who's donated. 'Friendship, Love & Truth' will be out in early Dec. By supporting the Crowdfunder & choosing a book as a reward you'll be among the first to get a copy. All profits to YMCA & SARAC.
www.crowdfunder.co.uk/vale-rawlings
A screenshot from Crowdfunder, showing the total raised of £218 which is 87% funded with 15 days to go. There is an image of the book cover on the screenshot showing a 1914 black and white image of Vale Rawlings in a convict suit standing next to a Daily Citizen newspaper billboard saying 'Rawlings to be set free'.
November 17, 2025 at 3:36 PM
valerawlings.bsky.social
Thanks to everyone who has already supported the Crowdfunder for my new book about forgotten British trade unionist Vale Rawlings.
It's 49% funded in just three days. Could you help?
Have a look at www.crowdfunder.co.uk/vale-rawlings
#LabourHistory #TradeUnions #BurtonUponTrent #YMCABurton #SARAC
November 1, 2025 at 10:14 PM
valerawlings.bsky.social
East Staffs TUC hosts a free meeting Friday Oct 24 7.30pm to discuss the Vale Rawlings story & its relevance in 2025. Lots of union speakers. At Burton Caribbean Association DE14 3JS. #TradeUnions #LabourHistory
October 21, 2025 at 4:04 PM
valerawlings.bsky.social
FINAL screening for 2025 of Strikers! - the filmed live version of my play about Vale Rawlings - is at Brewhouse Arts Centre, Union Street, #BurtonUponTrent 7.30pm Mon Oct 20th. Tickets £8. Pay on the door by cash or card. #CommunityPlay #LocalHistory #WW1 #WomensHistory #Staffordshire #TradeUnion
A square image has illustrations of film stock running down either side. In the centre are three colour images of some of the actors who appeared in the play Strikers! taken during the live performance. Black text on a red background says, 'Monday October 20th 7.30pm Brewhouse Arts Centre Main auditorium'.
October 9, 2025 at 5:47 PM
valerawlings.bsky.social
Thrilled to be speaking on Orton & Spooner at Burton Library as part of #StaffsHistFest on Oct 25, 1.30-2.30pm. Entry is free but booking is essential. Donations welcome. Call the library on 01283 881208, book in person at the library desk or email burton.library@staffordshire.gov.uk #skystorians
On a beige background, with curly decorative edges in each corner, sit a row of three images: the first shows the Orton and Spooner families in a Victorian photograph; the second shows part of a grand Orton and Spooner fairground ride and the third is the cover of Labour of Love the book about Orton & Spooner by Elaine Pritchard. The words 'Labour of Love' are in red type at the top of the image. Above the three pictures it says 'The story of Burton's fantastic fairground and cinema entrepreneurs George Orton and Charles Spooner'. Below the images it says 'A talk by local author Elaine Pritchard'.
September 22, 2025 at 12:39 PM
valerawlings.bsky.social
Here it is! The cover for my book on Vale Rawlings. Huge thanks to Tilley Bancroft for her design work. So excited! Next big book news will be the pre-Christmas publication date.
#FriendshipLoveTruth #BurtonUponTrent #UponItAll #BurtonHistory All book profits will go to YMCA Burton and SARAC.
The book cover image is a black and white picture of a man, vale Rawlings, pictured in 1914. He is wearing a convict suit with broad arrows and a small cap. He stands next to a Daily Citizen newspaper billboard that bears the headline ' Rawlings to be set free'. Along the bottom of the book is a horizontal turquoise blue band with the name Elaine Pritchard in white type. Across the top of the book cover are the words 'Friendship, Love & Truth' and the subheading 'The Vale Rawlings Story' in turquoise blue typeface.
September 15, 2025 at 3:03 PM
valerawlings.bsky.social
I'm ready for Saturday's talk at Derby Museum. Tickets just £5 each or free to Derby Museum Friends. The link to book is in the reply below. Lots of interest to Derby social history & Labour History enthusiasts. @derbyshiredro.bsky.social @morwennarae.bsky.social @sslh.bsky.social #Derbyshire
Image is a screenshot of part of Derby Museums website. It shows a black and white image of a 1914 man looking straight ahead at the camera. He wears a hat, bow tie, shirt, waistcoat and jacket. Some of the website navigation can be seen along the top edge of the picture. In the bottom right hand corner text is overlaid saying, Vale Rawlings and 'the Fly-Catcher Girls' with Elaine Pritchard.
August 28, 2025 at 4:56 PM
valerawlings.bsky.social
Anyone up for a curry night in #BurtonOnTrent #Staffordshire? We’ve got one at the Gurkha Curry Lounge, Station Street, on Weds Sept 3. Come & share these great dishes. £25 a ticket. Message for more & how to pay.
Menu says popadoms and dips on arrival. Starters: chicken tikka, seekh kebab, veg samosa, onion Bhakti. Main courses: Himalayan Garlic Lamb, Gurkhali chicken, Karahi Paneer, Saag aloo,mixed breads, Pilau rice. Dessert: Vanilla ice cream.
August 14, 2025 at 10:51 AM
valerawlings.bsky.social
#OnThisDay Constance Shreeve died in Burton Workhouse after drinking disinfectant. Vale Rawlings, a recent appointee to the workhouse Board of Guardians, tried to raise concerns at her inquest but was shouted down. We will remember her heartbreaking story. #WomensHistory #OTD #WomenInHistory
On top of a background of clouds on a blue sky is a red rose. Above it are the words 'Constance Shreeve 1905-1929
August 13, 2025 at 2:59 PM
valerawlings.bsky.social
It's deadline day and my Vale Rawlings book manuscript will be emailed off to my proofreader today. It might be five to midnight but it WILL be today. The book is going to be called Friendship, Love and Truth - The Vale Rawlings Story. #writingcommunity #BookSky #amwriting #writesky #writers
August 11, 2025 at 10:10 AM
valerawlings.bsky.social
Thanks to Burton No. 1 Branch of @rmtunion.bsky.social who have joined us a sponsor for 2025/2026. Sponsorship helps us meet essential costs of getting out the Vale Rawlings book and raise more for two charities: YMCA Burton and SARAC. #labourhistory #staffordshire #tradeunions #skystorians #WW1
A beige template representing a newspaper front page is headed 'Breaking News'. Below that is today's date and the website address forgottenburtonstories.co.uk. The headline reads 'Thank you to the RMT for their 2025/2026 sponsorship. Below that is the RMT union logo, white text on a green background.
July 17, 2025 at 8:47 AM
valerawlings.bsky.social
Any #WW1 #ConscientiousObjection experts know if this W G Rinder would have been Gladys Rinder? It was a reply to Vale Rawlings' friend Austin Smith following some physical abuse Vale (ill & frail) had suffered in custody waiting for his court martial. menwhosaidno.org/context/wome...
#WorldWar1
This letter is on headed paper from the C. O. Information Bureau, 6 John Street, Adelphi, London, WC2. It is typed. Date is May 1st, 1917. It is to J. Austin Smith, 4, Frederick street, Burton-on-Trent. It says:- Dear Comrade, I think you will find that Mr Snowden will himself put a question in the House about the case of Vale Rawlings if he thinks it is advisable, but it could do no harm for you to make the suggestion. I will pass on particulars of this occurence to Mr Ammon. I do not think you need fear that he will be killed, but certainly the facts about his treatment should be brought to the notice of the authorities. Yours sincerely W G Rinder.
July 7, 2025 at 2:24 PM
valerawlings.bsky.social
Can anyone decipher the signature on this memo from the War Office in September 1917 to MP Charles Duncan?
#WorldWarOne #WW1 #ConscientiousObjector #ValeRawlings #LabourHistory #DartmoorPrison
A memo with the address heading War Office, Whitehall, SW1 dated 20th September 1917. It reads: Dear Mr Duncan, On the 16th August you sent me a letter addressed to you from Princetown by a Conscientious Objector named Vale Rawlings who complained of his heart. After a special medical examination this man was discharged altogether from the Army, and his fare home from Princetown was paid as he was unable to pay it himself. Sincerely yours [signature illegible] Charles Duncan, Esq., M.P.
July 1, 2025 at 10:49 AM
valerawlings.bsky.social
#OnThisDay in 1914, Austin Smith, Vale’s friend & Workers’ Union colleague, travelled to Westminster to speak to MPs about Vale’s court case. Vale’s sister had already told Keir Hardie who called it a gross miscarriage of justice. #LabourHistory #TradeUnion
A vintage black and white image of the Houses of Parliament with Westminster Bridge in the foreground.
June 22, 2025 at 6:21 PM
valerawlings.bsky.social
#OnThisDay 111 years ago Vale Rawlings went on trial for 2 charges of assault arising from a strike by young women factory workers in Burton upon Trent. Vale denied the charges as did 7 eye witnesses. Vale was convicted & took 21 days' jail rather than pay fines & costs #LabourHistory #TradeUnions
On the left is a black and white photo of Vale Rawlings from 1914. He has signed it 'Yours in the workers cause Vale W. Rawlings'. On the right is a colour photo of actor Dan Tunks. He is speaking the words of Vale Rawlings at a rehearsed reading performance of the play 'Strikers!' the story of Vale Rawlings and the flycatcher girls' strike. The logo of the Vale Rawlings Project is at the top of the image.
June 19, 2025 at 9:12 AM
valerawlings.bsky.social
Setting up on Cathedral Green, Derby, outside the Museum of Making, for the Derby Silk Mill Festival. Come and say ‘hello’ and find out more about our project #ValeRawlings #TradeUnions #LabourHistory
#SilkMillLockout
June 7, 2025 at 8:36 AM
valerawlings.bsky.social
Thank you to everyone who supported last night’s screening of ‘Strikers!’ the Vale Rawlings story at Burton Albion FC’s Pirelli Stadium. Charity event sponsored by Ben Robinson MBE DL. Raising funds for YMCA Burton and SARAC.
#Staffordshire #LabourHistory #TradeUnions
A woman with glasses, bobbed grey hair and a dark blue top points at a large screen, on which are the words ‘Vale Rawlings Project’. She is talking to a crowd behind the photographer. A large room is in semi-darkness and people are sitting at tables looking forward towards a film screen that is out of view.
June 5, 2025 at 3:08 PM
valerawlings.bsky.social
111 years ago today in #BurtonOnTrent #Staffordshire, suffragettes from #Derby spoke out at a church service and in the market place. Thousands gathered. Rowdy onlookers caused public disorder. The story makes it into my play Strikers! the film of which is shown this Weds June 4.
Poster says: Strikers! The Vale Rawlings Story. Charity film show at the Pirelli Stadium, June 4, 2025, 7.30pm in aid of Burton YMCA and SARAC. Another chance to see the forgotten Burton story of Vale Rawlings, jailed in 1914 after supporting factory girls. Filmed live at Burton Town Hall. Ample free parking at the stadium. Bar open to buy drinks from 7pm. Raffle. Commemorative postcards on sale. Tickets £5 each. To book email valerawlingsprojectcic@gmail.com. Weds 4 June 2025 at the Pirelli Stadium, Princess Way, DE13 OAR. This event is kindly sponsored by Ben Robinson MBE DL. www.forgottenburtonstories.co.uk
May 31, 2025 at 5:44 PM
valerawlings.bsky.social
My first visit to the scene of the 1944 Fauld explosion today. New RAF report reveals it could have been even worse if the walls of the underground munitions store had not held. Only a quarter of the total munitions store exploded. Hanbury village was devastated and 70 people died. #Staffordshire
Squadron Leader Dean Gibson lays a wreath at the memorial to the civilians and military personnel who died in the Fauld explosion. #Staffordshire Squadron Leader Dean Gibson lays a wreath at the memorial to those who died in the November 1944 Fauld explosion in Staffordshire.
May 11, 2025 at 3:47 PM
valerawlings.bsky.social
“Let not any one pacify his conscience by the delusion that he can do no harm if he takes no part, and forms no opinion. Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing. He is not a good man who, without a protest, allows wrong to be committed in his name, and with the means which he helps to supply, because he will not trouble himself to use his mind on the subject.” - John Stuart Mill, 1867.
May 3, 2025 at 8:29 AM
valerawlings.bsky.social
An honour to talk at today's #IWMD service at the National Memorial Arboretum about Vale Rawlings. In the year he helped found Burton's 1st branch of the Workers' Union, 3,474 people nationally died at work and 379,902 were injured. And not ALL workplace accidents were reported. #Staffordshire
A woman with grey hair and spectacles, dressed in a navy trouser suit, holds a wreath in front of her and speaks beside a tree. A group of people stand beside a tree which has a collection of multi-coloured floral wreaths placed on the ground around it. In the foreground are the backs of people taking photographs of the group of people in front of them standing next to a tree in the National Arboretum grounds, which has multi-coloured floral wreaths on the ground around it.
April 28, 2025 at 1:45 PM
valerawlings.bsky.social
I often come across huge outdoor public meetings in Burton-on-Trent, organised quickly - such as after the arrest of Vale Rawlings in June 1914. I'd wondered how organisers advertised them. I learned yesterday that they chalked details on the pavements.
#LocalHistory #Communication #Simple
The image has a black and grey mottled background. On it lies a graphic image of a stick of white chalk at an angle. Above that are the words "Burton Market Place tonight at 7pm" intended to look like a partly-completed message.
April 7, 2025 at 4:10 PM
valerawlings.bsky.social
I think it’s fairly clear how excited I was to meet Michael Mackenzie (Tarot from Ace of Wands) today at Quad Derby. Thanks to all the organisers.
Great to chat about our Tutbury connections.
@fred-owl.bsky.social
@andydrewz.bsky.social
March 29, 2025 at 10:21 PM
valerawlings.bsky.social
Great to see ‘Standing In This Place’ up close today and in its home in Nottingham City Centre #textile #Cotton #industrialheritage #EastMidlands #sculpture #art #womenshistory
March 22, 2025 at 7:03 PM
valerawlings.bsky.social
107 years ago this week, the Workers’ Union, incl. Gen Sec Charles Duncan, visited Charlie Chaplin’s film studios. Image from 1918 annual report of Workers’ Union held at Modern Records Centre University of Warwick on behalf of Unite the Union.
A black and white image shows 12 men smiling at the camera. The line-up includes Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks and Charles Duncan. Image from the Workers’ Union annual report of 1918 now held by the Modern Records Centre at Warwick University on behalf of Unite the Union.
March 18, 2025 at 7:58 PM