Derby Silk Mill Festival

Organised by the Derby Trades Council and Midlands TUC, the festival commemorates one of the formative events of the trade union movement.

In the early 1830s, workers in Derby’s silk industry started to organise for better wages and working conditions in forming one of the worlds first trade unions.  The bosses’ reaction was to sack any worker suspected of either being in the union or sympathetic to the union’s aims.  This quickly escalated and soon hundreds of workers in the silk industry and other industries in Derby started to strike back.  This led, in 1833, to a ‘lock-out’ of all but scab workers (known locally as Black Sheep) in a dispute that lasted until 1834.

The workers were eventually starved back into work, many having to sign contracts promising never to associate with the union again as a condition of their return.  However, the spark that those workers ignited eventually gave us the trade union movement we have today and which the festival now celebrates.

Meet at the Market Place, Derby, at 10:15am for an 11am march to Cathedral Green (with the PCS samba band) for a rally from 12.00pm, with speeches, live music and family entertainment.