FOUNTAINS ABBEY SETTLERS LABOR EXCHANGE TOKEN

We've had a number of articles in The E-Sylum about labor exchange scrip, the paper money issues by various cooperatives in which the unit of exchange is an amount of labor rather than a monetary unit. David Powell submitted these notes about a token from a 1930s British labor commune. Thanks! This is the first I've heard of this group, and the first token I've seen from any such group. -Editor

Following on from last week's email about unusual social history experiments and the token issues resulting, herewith one from a communal self-help group where the denomination of the coin is not monetary but a unit of labour; indeed, the wording on the reverse specifically states that the piece has no cash value.

The Fountains Abbey Settlers experiment at Swarland, Northumberland, in the 1930s was an attempt to productively resettle a group of unemployed Tyneside craftsmen in a new, specially-created rural community some 25 miles to the north. There are a number of descriptions of it online, of which the quote below is probably one of the best. Others may be found by Googling the name of the innovator, Commander Clare Vyner.

By 1934 the central portion of the {Swarland} estate was bought by Clare Vyner, of Studley Royal, Ripon, for development by the Fountains Abbey Settlers’ Society Limited as a land settlement for unemployed tradesmen and their families from Tyneside.

Since the end of the 19th century, land settlement had been seen as a way of providing smallholdings for men anxious to carve out for themselves a life of agriculture in the countryside, and by the mid 1930s as a partial answer to unemployment. Thus there were many land settlements throughout the country and, indeed, throughout Northumberland, but all had been provided by local authorities and by public money. Swarland was different. Funded entirely by private subscription, and designed by Miss Molly Reavell, there were 54 smallholdings built, each with an acre and a half of land. Sixteen other houses were provided, together with three shops, a magnificent sports field with tennis courts and bowling green, and a large, superbly equipped village hall. The families who came were all tradesmen who had been out of work for some time. Work was provided for them at the Swarland brickworks at Thrunton, the Swarland sawmills and joinery at Amble and the Swarland tweed mills on the estate, where beautiful Cheviot tweeds and Harris tweed, under licence, were woven.

77 homes were reputedly built, and an example of unaltered one is illustrated, with a bit of background, in the sales advert referenced below. It is likely that the would-be occupants pooled their skills to assist with the building and repairing of each others' accommodation, and maybe other manual tasks such as gardening as well, with these tokens being the medium of exchange through which they did so.

I have never seen another specimen, and so have no idea whether there are other denominations or dates. I am inclined to suspect not.

THE BOOK BAZARRE

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