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0607a Aslef journal.qxd 29/6/06 13:56 Page 22LET NO WHEELS TURN:THE WRECKING OF THEFLYING SCOTSMANEighty years ago, onwhat would prove tobe one of the last daysof the General Strike, agroup of angry, desperate andhungry miners set out fromthe village of Cramlington inNorthumberland to answerthe call of miner’s leader A.J.Cook to ‘Let no wheels turn’.Fired up by a stirringspeech from Northumberlandstrike leader William Golightly,they had reacted immediatelyto his call to halt trains andthereby stop coal reachingthe furnaces of industry.‘If you can’t stop them atthe station, stop thembetween the stations,’Golightly had insisted: andthat is exactly what manyfrom the meeting set out todo.The results – both nationaland local - were somethingno one could ever haveanticipated. By the end of theday the Flying Scotsmanhauled by the Merry Hamptonwas lying on its side, derailedbecause strikers had torn outa section of track. Althoughno one died, the reactionfrom the government and theestablishment was hysterical;the local community becamedivided and suspicious andeight miners wereimprisoned. It is a terrible taleof a small village drawn into a22scale of troubles it couldnever have imagined.The author, MargaretHutcherson, wrote this bookbecause of a promise shemade to her grandfather,Richard Brierley, fifty yearsago. A former Cramlingtonminer, he was working as ashopkeeper during theGeneral Strike. ‘With tears inhis eyes he unrolled a wad ofyellowing newspaper cuttingsof that time, saying that oneday I should write this story totell of the desperate actionshungry men will take to fightfor their rights.’Strangely perhaps, thewords of the judge at thesubsequent trial reinforce thebook’s major motivation. Hesaid, ‘How young men likeyou, apparently well behavedand respectable, could haveconceived and put intoexecution so nefarious ascheme has been entirelybeyond my comprehension.’From his position of privilege,his background and his classit would have been beyondhis understanding. MargaretHutcherson looks at whathappened with a differentperspective: unlike the trialjudge, she is desperate toknow what drove ordinarymen to such a drastic action.She is fascinated by howthese men thought and whatcircumstances drove them toso desperate a deed.The conflict of the wholestrike appears within thesepages: the derailed train wasdriven by a regular driver, buthis crew were ‘volunteers’ –including three students andone professional engineer. Atthe side of the track stood thepoor and the needy. And ofcourse there was the tragedyof the arrival of the FlyingScotsman – and not the coalbearingfreight trains theminers had expected.Three miners – Sanderson,Muckle and Baker – weresentenced to four years penalservitude. Two others –Stephenson and Ellison –received sentences of sixyears, while a further three –Harbottle, Wilson and Roberts– were condemned to eightyears penal servitude. Yetyears later they would play infootball matches with menwho had acted as witnessesagainst them: and once againchat with the local policemen,Sergeant Graham, who wasclearly distressed at finding‘his boys’ in the dock.Margaret Hutcherson hasdone much more than honoura fifty-year-old pledge to hergrandfather. She has alsowritten a very detailed, humanand touching book about onevillage’s innocently savagepart in the tragic days of the1926 General Strike.The normal price for ‘Let No Wheels Turn’ is £8.75 includingpost and packing. The book is available to order (usingPayPal) on line at www.letnowheelsturn.comHowever, ASLEF members can have the book deliveredto them for an inclusive total of only £7 by sending a chequeor postal order to Hutch/LNWT, PO Box 450, TorquayTQ1 9AZ