In 1905, George Roberts of Ringstead, worked for Messrs Lawrence and Co. (Raunds), and steadfastly refused to join the Union. Each day during the Raunds dispute, he walked to Raunds, crossed the picket line, collected his outwork, crossed the picket line once more, and to “tin kittling” (dustbin banging) from children and strikers’ wives, walked back home.
Lifelong relationships became strained, and P.C. Sullivan, the local Ringstead policeman, even had to arrest George’s friend Fred Phillips who was violently threatening him. From this time George became an outcast in his own village and despised as the “Ringstead Blackleg.”
[He was Margaret Thatcher’s uncle]
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