by Our News Desk

ACTORS Prunella Scales and Timothy West provided the star power at Braunston, Northamptonshire, this weekend as two memorial plaques were unveiled in memory of socialist struggles on the village’s famed canal wharf. 

Ms Scales and Mr West, both canal enthusiasts and lifelong Labour supporters, were joined by Unite national officer Julia Long and Unite Northamptonshire regional organiser Mick Orpin. 

Speaking at the unveiling, Ms Long linked the struggle of canal boat families who struck to defend their wages cut and rights to organise a union in 1923 to today’s continuing struggle against Tory austerity, for the living wage and for a stronger trade union movement. 

The 1923 Braunston strike was one of the very first in the history of the Transport and General Workers Union, now part of Unite. The union had only been formed in 1922. 

The second plaque was dedicated to Sonia Rolt, a lifelong socialist and one of the women who came forward to work canal narrowboats during the second world war. 

Over 5,000 people attended the event, which bought together over 80 historic working canal craft — including one that had taken part in the 1923 strike and another which was one of Sonia Rolts’s original boats. 

The event, and the unveiling, will feature in Prunella Scales and Timothy West’s Great Canal Journeys TV series, which is being filmed this summer.