Jarrow Crusade
80th anniversary exhibition
To mark the Jarrow Crusade's 80th anniversary, a new exhibition is planned for October 2016, staged at South Shields Museum and Art Gallery.
Curated by Adam Bell and Matt Perry, the exhibition brings new light to a legendary event that captured the imagination of a nation.
The march illustrated the plight of the people of Jarrow, whose shipyard had closed and where government, the banks and employers blocked plans for a new steelworks. Outraged at the neglect of the town, the council organised a 300 mile trek to London.
The exhibition will reveal details about the two hundred marchers from Jarrow; their hardships, their lives, their town and their protest against injustice.
The exhibition will incorporate photographs, artefacts and dramatic reconstructions of the march as well as material donated by the family of Ellen Wilkinson. As the local Member of Parliament Ellen Wilkinson remarked Jarrow 'provided an object lesson' of what the austerity of the 1930s could do to a town.