The Headscarf Revolutionaries: Lillian Bilocca and the Hull Triple-Trawler Disaster

Product Information

She quipped in her broad Hessle Road accent: “The married ones come home and take out their wives, then go to the pubs. In 2017, he has contributed to End Notes, a collection published by the University of Hull as part of its Crossing Over project; and Hull: Culture, History, Place (Liverpool University Press, 2017) – with a chapter about trawler safety campaigner Lillian Bilocca. At other times, the connections are harder to explain: why was 1848 the year that modernity clashed with feudalism across much of Europe and Latin America?

Bilocca and other fishermen's wives were incensed by the continuing loss of men in what was the world's most dangerous industry. The Kingston Peridot and the Ross Cleveland would soon follow in the disastrous footsteps of the previous tragedy. It’s at this point that the national media began to pay attention, and there’s a great clip of Blenkinsop forcefully hectoring the TV journalist with their demands. Yet throughout the vodka-fuelled history lesson all I could think was , ‘that Lily woman looks like my mother’.You can find articles by Helen in, among others, The Guardian, The Mail on Sunday, The Times, the i newspaper, The Observer, Big Issue North, The Yorkshire Post, and The Spectator. Unbeknown to 'Big Lil' as she came to be known, while she was protesting, her young son Ernie was also caught up in the storm and fighting for his life. Even the phone conversation that reunited Rita Eddom with the one survivor – the husband she’d assumed was dead – was broadcast in full on the evening news.

Many sections of the book feel more like fiction than non-fiction; it is much more descriptive that many of the other history books I read. The content of the hate mail was predictable, filled with class hatred and misogyny: she was fat, common, and – worst of all – a woman. Here they voted to found the Hessle Road Women’s committee, headed up by Bilocca, Blenkinsop, Mary Denness and Christine Jensen, and tasked with pressing their demands with the owners and the government. Fifty-eight men died in the Triple Trawler Disaster, triggering a transformative safety campaign led by Lillian Bilocca. She may not have ruled the world … but she certainly helped shake it up with Lil, Mary and Christine.The skipper would get the biggest percentage and then it was shared out amongst the rest of the crew according to seniority. The four headscarf revolutionaries pressed the government to intervene and improve safety standards.

A Northern lass, born and bred in Manchester, Helen has been back in her home town for 13 years after working in London for The Times and a number of other national newspapers. With overwhelming support from residents within the flats, the three housing blocks will honour the courageous women who never gave up their battle to make the fishing industry safer for fishermen in Hull and all over the country. Bilocca received death threats from some of the trawler owners and telegrams telling her not to interfere in men's work. The family got out of the car to pay tribute and thank the mourners who had come to pay their respects. All the demands of the Fishermen’s Charter were met, most before the inquiry, and the remainder soon after.

Lil Bilocca's story has also been told in Amnesty International's 2014 book Not Just Wilberforce: Champions of Human Rights in Hull and East Yorkshire and a 2015 book The Headscarf Revolutionaries: Lillian Bilocca and the Hull Triple-Trawler Disaster by Brian W.

Once inside the snapper got his head and shoulders photo of the bereaved mother and left me to get on with the interview. Whenever I move to a new place, I like to find out about its history, particularly its radical history. St Andrew’s Dock was closed in 1975 and filled in the late 1980s, though the remarkable Lord Line building, its Modernist centrepiece, still stands. The hearse and accompanying limousine made for a powerful image as they were led down the road by the funeral director, stopping for moments of reflection at Yvonne Blenkinsop's bench at the Boulevard junction, and again at Rayners public house. It was one of Britain's deadliest maritime disasters, which tore through the heart of Hull's Hessle Road fishing community.He then had a long and distinguished maritime career, finishing in the 1990s as captain of a Gulf supply vessel.