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This is a banner from the National Agricultural Labourers Union. It is made of red linen, with a black top edge and cream binding on the other edges. It shows a picture of a whole barrel and a broken barrel, with the inscription 'UNITED WE STAND // DIVIDED WE FALL // WE DEMAND SOCIAL LIBERTY, POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS EQUALITY AND THE COMPLETE RIGHTS OF MAN.' It previously belonged to the donor's father, Professor G. D. H. Cole, who helped organised the Oxford branch of the NALU. The banner was bequeathed to him, along with a collection of union artefacts, by the Secretary of the Oxford branch. It dates from c.1883.

1 banner: textile

MERL 'Handwritten accession' form (Museum of English Rural Life) – 'BANNER // Description // NATIONAL AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS UNION BANNER // Red linen banner with black top edge and cream binding on other edges. // Date: ?c.1883 // Inscription: // UNITED WE STAND // DIVIDED WE FALL // WE DEMAND SOCIAL LIBERTY, POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS EQUALITY AND THE COMPLETE RIGHTS OF MAN. // Picture of a whole barrel [united] and a broken barrel [divided] // Dimensions // Approx: 365cm x 230cm // [11ft x 7ft6in] // Associated information // The banner came from the Donor's father Prof. G. D. H. Cole. who had helped organise the Oxford branch of the NALU. The minute book for this branch is held at Nuffield College, Oxford. // See letter from Michael Madden to the Editor of The Land Worker for further information.', Letter, Michael Madden to The Editor, The Land Worker, 30 May 1961 - 'Thank you for your recent letter enquiring about the banner owned by Professor Cole. // I saw it for the first time in 1949 in Cole's rooms at All Souls College, Oxford. It was fitted with curtain rings and hung in front of an alcove behind which was the Professor's wardrobe. It is a red banner bearing a simple and effective message. On the left is an ordinary barrel and on the right is the same barrel with the hasps broken and the staves fallen apart. // The wording underneath is "United We Stand. Divided We Fall". // In his undergraduate days Cole helped to organise farm workers in the area around Oxford and while so engaged he came across the last secretary of the Oxford branch of the National Agricultural Labourers Union. // On returning to Oxford to take up his academic post he found that the old man had been moved to the county hopsital at London Road, Headington. This was one of the many transmogrified workhouses. Cole made provision to soften the rigours of this austere end and before he died the old secretary wrote and signed a formal statement bequeathing his union effects to Cole. // Although the banner is probably the only one in existence belonging to the period of Joseph Arch's great union it was not, in my opinion, the most unique feature of the collection. Pride of place must go to the minute book of the Oxford branch which Cole left to Nuffield College. This showed conclusively that a branch was in existence in the Wychwood area of Oxfordshire before the date of Arch's meeting under the Wellesbourne chestnut tree. // More important for my own researches was the evidence it provided to support my theory that one of the chief causes of the failure of the National Agricultural Labourers Union was local autonomy. Any of the individual branches based on hamlet or village were at liberty to give strike notice so long as the committee based on Oxford agreed. Sporadic strikes all over the place was more than the headquarters of the Union could cope with. In the terms of the banner the staves of the barrel were falling apart all over the place and the hasp of the national union broke under the strain. // To revert to the collection. There are several letters signed by Arch to the local officials, badges almost as big as horseshoes for delegates, a very official looking rubber stamp and a blue ribbon with the union name in gold. Farmworkers in the old days wore a tall hard hat such as is worn today only with full morning or evening dress and the union ribbon was fastened around the hat ribbon on the days when the members took their banner out for an airing. // Campaigning must have been a good deal more colourful in those days.'

1883 - 1883