DR BILL LANCASTER

Social historian Dr Bill Lancaster was born and raised in Blaydon. After working in industry in the West Midlands, he studied history at Warwick University, subsequently working for many years at Newcastle Polytechnic/Northumbria University, where he was Reader in History. His works include The Department Store: A Social History and (with Robert Colls) Geordies: Roots of Regionalism and Newcastle upon Tyne: A Modern History, as well as volumes on the social history of Coventry and of Leicester.

A background on Joseph Cowen from Dr Lancaster:

'Joseph Cowen, 1829-1900, was the region’s most important politician during the second half of the nineteenth century. As well as representing Newcastle in Parliament between 1874 and 1886, he was a prominent industrialist, sanitation and health reformer, proprietor of the Newcastle Chronicle,a champion and campaigner for the Cooperative movement and Mechanics Institutes, and an active supporter of several European revolutionary leaders as well as the British suffrage reform campaign. His support for Irish Home Rule was to have important consequences for local politics. Cowen was also a leading figure in Tyneside society. He was a member of the Lit & Phil, the Mining Institute, both the Natural History Society and the Field Club. The Blaydon Races was organised by his brother and held on Cowen property.

Cowen kept his religious affiliations close to his chest during a period when confessional allegiance could have political ramifications. He was, however, a close friend of Charles Bradlaugh and George Holyoake, Britain’s leading secularists, sharing with these two famous atheists Bradlaugh’s republicanism and Holyoake’s commitment to cooperation. His republicanism was reputed to have drawn the anger of Queen Victoria, who according to local legend insisted the blinds were drawn in her carriage as the royal train drew into Newcastle on its frequent journeys north.

Historians do refer to ‘Cowenism’ as a title for his version of self-help. This differed markedly from the individual heroism of Samuel Smiles, instead Cowen advocated mutualism: a collective self-help that’s purpose was to uplift the working class through bodies such as Mechanics Institutes, cooperative societies, lay organised colliery village chapels, friendly societies and trade unions committed to arbitration.

In this talk, Bill Lancaster will explore the different sides of Joseph Cowen including his many paradoxes: a republican who was a strong advocate of empire and imperialism, a capitalist who spent his life advocating working class interests and a liberal politician who was a founding member of the Democratic Federation, which soon became the Social Democratic Federation, Britain’s first Marxist political party. 

Finally a comparative analysis will be made between Cowen and his near contemporary W. T. Stead; a fellow Tynesider, world famous journalist and moral commentator. Both had strong views on working class life expressed by Cowen in the Chronicle  and by Stead in the Northern Echo during the golden age of north-eastern journalism.'

This lecture series has been made possible by the Gordon Brown legacy for which we are very grateful.