Dissent In Altrincham

In February 1904, the Tory MP Conningsby Disraeli said in a speech that passive resistance was dying out.  Lloyd was determined to prove him wrong, and it was clear there was a growing momentum.  He wrote in the church newsletter that the Passive Resisters were again to the fore:  ‘On Monday, February 22, a magnificent demonstration was held at the Literary Institute,’ he wrote.  The following Monday ‘saw a number of us in the Police Court once more, and some eighteen champions of religious freedom and the rights of conscience, had, in consequence, orders served upon them for the distraint of their goods.  What a strange spectacle for the opening years of the 20th Century to witness!  Passive Resistance is to my mind, speaking from a human stand point, our only hope and the only way left to us to win back the heritage that has already been lost in so large a measure.’

 In March Frank Spence, now back as an Altrincham Baptist Church member, had his goods distrained for the first time.  When asked if he had any legal objection to paying, he replied ‘Yes, the law of God’.  He was accompanied again by Isabel Mills, Mary Simmons, Pierrepont, Thomas Meldrum of Ashley Road, William Tattersall of Cambridge Road and Robert Lewis.

Following MacKennal’s death, everyone wanted to know where his successor at Bowdon Downs Congregational Church, the Revd John Holden, would stand.  Would he pay his rates?  To Lloyd's delight, he joined Lloyd and refused to pay.  At the same court hearing his goods too were taken and sold.

The protest meeting afterwards at the Primitive Methodist chapel on Oxford Road showed the growing strength of the movement and was attended by most of the Free Churches, including an increasing number of Methodists.  Lloyd explained, ‘I feel that the witness we are making is helping England to get further freedom, justice and truth.’

The opposition fought back.  An anonymous writer in the local newspaper commented that no Passive Resister would ever give a vote to a Unionist candidate. Their protests were therefore pointless in Altrincham.  ‘Neither their speeches nor their rates, therefore, can have the slightest effect upon Mr, Disraeli or his candidature.  Passive resisters cannot influence an election in Altrincham.’  This was particularly significant, as the Liberal candidate for the 1906 elections was to be William Crossley.

The local magistrates included Owen.  The architect of the Baptist chapel found himself ordering distraint on the goods of the members of the very same Baptist church whose chapel he had designed.  Another magistrate now came off the bench and refused to pay his rates.  This time it was George Faulkner Armitage.  He was joined by William Thomas, the minster of the Congregational church at Broadheath, and George Mitchell of the Primitive Methodists.

Finally, and much to his relief no doubt, Lloyd  had  his goods taken.  He attempted to make a speech to the magistrates in court, pleading the Toleration Act of 1650 in his defence, which was supposed to guarantee some freedoms to Nonconformists.  He said he doubted if the magistrates knew what the Act was.  Mr Harris, the magistrate, retorted that he doubted he could talk as much as a minister.

This time the protest meeting after the court hearing was at the Methodist New Connexion chapel in George Street.  Afterwards, one Charles Pidduck wrote to the local newspaper in support of Lloyd’s unsuccessful attempt to plead the Toleration Act.

The Passive Resisters needed a local martyr.  So far, no one had gone to jail. The first to receive a prison sentence was Robert Lewis, but his sentence was initially suspended for seven days to allow him to pay.  He refused.  The second was Edwyn Holt of Athol Dene, Arthog Road in Hale, a local Nonconformist solicitor.  Both had engineered it so that the bailiffs could not distrain against their goods.

Gaddum on behalf of the magistrates, said he thought Holt should spend seven days in prison, but the clerk to