Councillors unanimously backed a proposal to look to create a permanent memorial to the Battle of Corporation Field, where Oswald Mosley and the British Union of Fascists were chased out of Hull
Where Corporation Field, off Park Street, Hull, once stood(Image: Google Streetview)
Seed funding is to be made available by Hull City Council to support the creation of a future permanent memorial to a notable anti-fascist event in the city’s history. On July 12, 1936, Oswald Mosley and the British Union of Fascists were forced to retreat out of the city as they faced a hostile reception.
A 10,000-strong crowd of anti-fascists, trade unionists, workers, socialists, and members of Hull’s Jewish and Irish communities made clear Mosley and his Blackshirt supporters were not welcome. His intended speech was interrupted, firstly by microphone wires being cut and then by missiles being thrown and fights.
The incident is known as the Battle of Corporation Field. Today, the site is effectively where the Tesco Extra Car Park and St Stephen’s Shopping Centre are, off Park Street.
Labour councillors proposed use of council leader contingency funding to provide initial seed funding for a permanent memorial and to create a task group to make plans for it. This will include interested stakeholders such as trade unions, the landowner and family members of participants of the Battle of Corporation Field. The proposal received unanimous cross-party backing at July’s full council meeting.
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Labour group leader Cllr Daren Hale (St Andrews and Docklands Ward) spoke on behalf of Cllr Shane McMurray (Labour – Central) who had proposed the motion, but was unable to attend. “We know in this Chamber that the British people helped to defeat fascism during the Second World War,” said Cllr Hale.
“But in the years before, fascism was growing at home as well, fuelled by the simplicity of bigotry.” He said the people of Hull made clear Mosley and his Blackshirt followers were not welcome on its streets.
“The Battle of Corporation Fields should be a clarion call, should be a symbol that if we stand together, we can beat bigotry, racism and fascism.” Cllr Hale pointed out other similar events have been commemorated, with memorials at Stockton, Holbeck Moor and Cable Street in East London.
“The obvious place for it would be the walkway up to St Stephen’s Shopping Centre,” he said of a future memorial. He stated he knew Central Ward councillors were willing to look at contributing to its funding via community initiatives, and referenced a previous successful campaign to erect a permanent memorial in Hanover Square to Hull’s International Brigade’s volunteers during the Spanish Civil War.
“I have to say as someone who was born and brought up and was schooled in Hull, I’d never heard that this happened until I’d left Hull,” said Cllr Rosie Nicola (Labour – Orchard Park), who said she was proud of Hull’s history and the reception Mosley got in 1936. “What happened at Corporation Field is a significant part of Hull’s history and I agree with Cllr Nicola, I didn’t actually know much about it either,” said Cllr Salman Anwar (Reform UK – St Andrews and Docklands).
He said it was a “really proud part of Hull’s history” and compared it to the more recent hostile reception Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, and the English Defence League (EDL) got over a decade ago when marching in Spring Bank area. “I was on the other side, marching against him and his thugs, and I’m glad Hull stood up against Tommy Robinson, back then as well.”
Cllr Christine Randall (Liberal Democrat – West Carr) said of the Battle of Corporation Field: “While I do not condone violence for violence sake, there is an occasion when people do need to stand up and take that stand.” She said her father-in-law was a trade unionist and one of the people who chased Oswald Mosley out of the city.
“This carries on the tradition that we have in this city of standing up and saying no to bullies,” she said. “Corporation Field is about a diverse, working city refusing to be intimidated by fascism,” said Cllr Jonathan Cahill (Lib Dem – Sutton), who is Irish, and said he felt a direct line back to his own community’s history in the country through the event.
“We need to ensure that this history gets passed down from generation to generation and that there is a fitting memorial and fitting information boards,” said Cllr Hale, closing the debate. He emphasised the importance of learning from history to not repeat it.
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