Anne Brown: The Tolpuddle Martyrs and Shire Hall: we will, we will, we will be free!

Shire Hall, Dorchester, was the centre of justice and local government from 1797 to 1955. The Georgian courtroom was the scene of many famous and infamous trials throughout this period, the most famous being that of the six agricultural labourers known as the Tolpuddle Martyrs. This talk looks at the background to their story, the punishment they endured and the changes these ordinary Dorset working men made to their local area and to society as a whole.