On 1 April 1914, teachers Tom and Annie Higdon were dismissed from their posts in the Norfolk village of Burston, sparking what became known as the longest strike in history. That same day, village children marched with placards reading “We Want Our Teachers Back” and “Justice We Want,” following a banner bearing a single word: “Justice.”

Of the seventy‑two pupils, sixty‑six walked out, launching a boycott of the local authority school that lasted twenty‑five years. As the strike entered its second year, a national fundraising effort financed the construction of a new school. The Burston Strike School still stands today, a testament to working‑class education and the fight against rural injustice.

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