Plaque 2 is on a traffic island at the end of Thornton Rd and is sponsored by Safe Style
“Energy once harnessed
To power this wool city“
Nearby on 13th April 1891, mill workers who had been on strike through a harsh winter, gathered here to demonstrate. The Mayor, who had sided with the mill owners, read the Riot Act (1715) and troops with fixed bayonets dispersed the crowd. Strikers and police horses were injured and a few weeks later, the strikers returned to the mills on reduced wages.
However, out of this strike was born the Independent Labour Party, a fore-runner of the modern Labour Party.
