The Village in Revolt

The Burston Rebellion was a revolt born in the fields, and fought by those that toiled in them.

On 1 April 1914 teachers Tom and Annie Higdon were dismissed from their posts in the rural village of Burston, Norfolk, and with it began the 'longest strike in history'. On that day the children marched around the village carrying large cards aloft, with the slogans "We Want Our Teachers Back" and "Justice We Want". At the head of the procession was a large banner, inscribed with the one word "Justice".

Out of seventy-two children, sixty-six had 'come out on strike' and with it began a boycott of the local authority school that was to last the next twenty-five years. With the strike reaching its second birthday, a national fundraising campaign was launched that went on to raise enough funds for the building of a brand new school. Today the Burston Strike School still stands as a monument to working class education and the struggle against rural tyranny.

Testimonials:

"This book celebrates the role of Tom and Annie, as well as the brave school students who went on strike, and their families who stood by and encouraged them in the face of the courts and the farmers. Their sacrifices should not be forgotten as they illuminate rural life in the early 20th century, and I highly recommend this excellent history which will both educate and inspire the reader." Martin Empson, author of 'Kill all the Gentlemen' and Land and Labour: Marxism, Ecology and Human History.

"To some the story of the Burston Strike School will be familiar.To others it will be a discovery. To both groups I say read this book. It will tell you more about Burston, the strike, and above all those who led it, nurtured it and kept the vison alive both in Norfolk and elsewhere." Professor Alun Howkins, Emeritus in Social History, University of Sussex

"Shaun Jeffery has written a definitive account of Annie and Tom Higdon, the teachers who inspired the 1914 to 1939 Burston School Strike the longest in history." Mark Metcalf, author of Flying Over An Olive Grove: The Remarkable Story of Fred Spiksley

"Its synthesis of in-depth secondary research and lived experience make it a compelling account and point of reference The Strike School operated until 1939 and the last years of the Higdons are movingly recorded in what is a model of socialist history in content, style, research and reference. There are shades of EP Thompson here." Paul Simon, Morning Star

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