‘The Burston Rebellion was a revolt born in the fields, and fought by those that toiled in them.
On April 1st 1914 teachers Tom and Annie Higdon were dismissed from their posts in the rural village of Burston, Norfolk and with it began the ‘longest strike in history’. On that day the children marched around the village with cards hanging from their necks demanding that “We Want Our Teachers Back”.
The banner at the head of the march was inscribed with just one word “Justice”. Sixty-six of the local children had gone out on strike in support of their teachers, and the boycott of the local authority school lasted for the next twenty five years.
The Burston Strike School stands as a living monument to working class education and the struggle against rural tyranny – a true free school of the community.’
