At dawn on 24 February 1834, six farm labourers from the small Dorsetshire village of Tolpuddle were arrested on the charge of having participated in the administration of an illegal oath - although their real crime in the eyes of the establishment was having formed a trade union, which by this date they were legally entitled to do so. The story of their subsequent sentence to seven years' transportation to the penal colonies of New South Wales and Van Dieman's Land; the furore the sentences provoked; the eventual granting of free pardons and their return to England enshrined as martyrs of the trade union movement is, in outline, known to many. In detail, however, surprisingly little has been written about an incident which had such far-reaching effects.