‘We said we would take only Jarrow men and we must stick to that’

Words from home were reaching the Jarrow marchers - and they showed just how worried their families were back on South Tyneside.

False rumours were spreading that the crusaders who not being fed properly. But the truth was completely different and the marchers were in fact putting on weight because they were being fed so well.

Protest marchers on the Jarrow Crusade who often walked through treacherous conditions on their way to London. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images) | Getty Images

placeholder image — Protest marchers on the Jarrow Crusade who often walked through treacherous conditions on their way to London. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images) | Getty Images

“The men are indignant that such a rumour should have earned currency,” said the Shields Gazette reporter who was on the march. “They attribute the fact that a wrong impression has got abroad to a former comrade who has returned to Jarrow.”

The march had become so popular that people from other parts of the country wanted to join in but they were turned away.

The police woke the Crusade marshall Cllr Davey Riley at 4am one day to tell him ‘two young men from Hull wished to join the march because they were in sympathy with Jarrow's cause.”

The men on the march ate and slept well, and the rumours which reached their families were nowhere near the truth. | sg

Cllr Riley answered. "We said we would take only Jarrow men.” he declared, "and we must stick to that.”

The same message was given to a man from Scotland.

As it was, the men from Jarrow were having a tough time of it on the roads. Half the men came down with common colds after they were battered by storms all the way from Chesterfield to Mansfield.

“The rain came down in torrents all day,” said the Shields Gazette reporter, “while strong gale persisted throughout the afternoon. In spite of the discomfort however and their colds which are only of a minor character, the men got up at 5.30 this morning, had breakfast 6 and were out on the road through the town by 7.30.”

The Jarrow marchers, marching with a 'Jarrow Crusade' banner. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images) | Getty Images

Mansfield had given the marchers a ‘queer reception’, said our reporter.

“It seemed as if the town were half afraid of the men of Jarrow and some of the authorities looked upon the men as if they were strange specimens of a barbaric race.

“The men were billeted in the most distant school in town, Moor Lane, and the first question asked by the Chief of Police was whether the men would be brought down into the centre of town and taken back in formation at night.”

Cllr Riley refused to submit to such terms and said: “There is no need to be afraid of these lads. They can look after themselves and will get back to their billet alright.”

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