This book details the narrative of the farm workers union, (NALU) in the Basildon district of south Essex 1872 to 1894. It is an in depth study of a small area told in the contexts of the overall successes and failures of the union nationally and the economic and political circumstances of the time. Initially very successful, a national defeat centred in the eastern counties in 1874 forced local branches into a defensive, rearguard  resistance for much of the following decade. Even so it still recorded progress despite the onset of the agricultural depression and played a key part in winning the parliamentary franchise for rural labourers in 1884.

Influenced by Liberal politics it attempted to utilise the methodology of The New Model Unions and skilled artisans so that by the advent of unskilled unionism driven by socialism in the East End its final decline became inevitable.

This is a “patch study” which examines how these developments were coped with at the grass roots branches. It is pitched to a general audience but  it should be of use to academics and also to family history followers. It contains 65 pages, 9 photographs, a map and tables of statistics.