Sat16thMay - BURFORD - Levellers' Day

[Gerrard Winstanley]

LEVELLERS' DAY 2009

10.30am to 6pm. Saturday 16th May 2009. Burford, Oxfordshire.

http://www.levellers.org.uk/
[url=http://www.levellers.org.uk/][img]http://c1.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/11/l_a520d734c80f4409b7d8578e7690bb50.jpg[/img][/url]

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Sat16thMay - BURFORD - Levellers' Day

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ABOUT THE LEVELLERS & LEVELLERS' DAY

On 17 May 1649, three soldiers were executed on Oliver Cromwell’s orders in Burford churchyard, Oxfordshire. They belonged to a movement popularly known as the Levellers, with beliefs in civil rights and religious tolerance.

During the Civil War, the Levellers fought on Parliament’s side, they had at first seen Cromwell as a liberator, but now saw him as a dictator. They were prepared to fight against him for their ideals and he was determined to crush them. Over 300 of them were captured by Cromwell’s troops and locked up in Burford church. Three were led out into the churchyard to be shot as ringleaders.

In 1975, members of the WEA Oxford Industrial Branch went to Burford to reclaim a piece of history that seemed to be missing from the school books. They held a meeting in remembrance of the Leveller soldiers. The following year, Tony Benn came and read in the church and in each succeeding year, people have come to Burford on the Saturday nearest to 17 May, debated, held a procession, listened to music and remembered the Levellers and the importance of holding on to ideals of justice and democracy.

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[b]Hear and question the following speakers[/b]
DR. BRENDA BOARDMAN
Environmental Change Institute
Oxford University Centre for the Environment
http://www.eci.ox.ac.uk/people/boardmanbrenda.php
 
DR. ANTHONY WEBSTER
Department of Theory & Modelling
UKAEA/Euratom Fusion Association, Culham Science Centre
http://www.fusion.org.uk/
 
and
 
JOHN MALONE
Development Director
Energy4All
www.energy4all.co.uk
 
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Chaired by
DENIS GREGORY
International Labour and Trade Union Studies, Ruskin College, Oxford
www.ruskin.ac.uk
 
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Leading the churchyard ceremony
PROFESSOR CHRIS ROWLAND
Queen's College, Oxford.
http://resources.theology.ox.ac.uk/staff.phtml?lecturer_code=Crowland
 
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In the afternoon
TONY BENN and ROY BAILEY present
THE WRITING ON THE WALL
an anthology of dissent in words and music from the fourteenth to the
twenty-first century
 
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followed by entertainment from
TRACEY CURTIS
www.traceycurtis.com
 
LEATHERAT
www.leatherat.com
 
and
 
VALE ISLANDERS
dancers and musicians who perform English country dances of the ordinary people of the seventeenth century in period costume, will appear in venues throughout Burford during the afternoon.
http://www.vale-islanders.org.uk/