Filtering by Election
Click and drag on the bottom bar to select individual elections or series of elections. The default setting is events covering all 20 General Elections.
Selecting the ‘Timelapse’ function displays violent events in sequence, election-by-election (this can be customised by type/intensity).
The map can also be customised to show specific types of violence, ranging in intensity from riots to individual acts of violence.
Filtering by Intensity
Combined points containing multiple events are coloured purple.
Each individual violent event is colour coded, to give an indicator of scale/intensity. One or more types of violence can be selected, to view a map with (e.g.) only riots, or riots and disturbances.
Searching By Location
The locations (constituencies, towns/boroughs, and villages) where violence occurred are searchable, using the search box in the top left-hand corner. All constituencies are additionally searchable even if violence related to them did not occur.
Event Boxes
Clicking on coloured map points will display boxes, containing a written summary of what violence occurred. Also displayed is the constituency related to the event, the county in which the constituency is located, and town/village within that constituency (if known).
Sources
The ‘sources’ link in each box lists the primary source(s) behind these summaries. These are usually nineteenth-century newspapers (other sources include Election Petitions and evidence collected by Royal Commissions).
The written summary is condensed directly from the content of the top newspaper on the list. Any newspapers listed below (up to five) also likely contain reporting related to that same event.
For many events, we have amassed longer lists of newspaper articles running into the dozens or even hundreds (e.g. for the 1857 Kidderminster Riot). If you are undertaking in-depth research into any of these events, get in touch with us at victorian.electionviolence@durham.ac.uk. We will do our best to respond in a timely manner and can provide researchers will article links to the source material in the British Newspaper Archive.
Read More
Occasionally, event boxes will display a ‘Read More’ link in the bottom right-hand corner. Clicking on this will take you to a detailed blog elsewhere on our website, containing more information relating to this event.