GEORGE JACOB HOLYOAKE (1817-1906) - Holyoake Walk

George Jacob Holyoake founded the Secularist Society, championing the cooperative movement, after whom Holyoake Walk takes its name. As a young man, he looked up to the teachings of Robert Owen, particularly his idea of a ‘rational religion’ entirely separated from any notion of god. He joined the Birmingham Reform League in 1831 and the Chartist Movement in 1832. Disaster struck for Holyoake however when, upon giving a socialist lecture in Cheltenham in May 1842, he was faced with charges of condemning Christianity and was arrested for blasphemy. However, he emerged from prison as a radical hero; his progressive newspaper The Reasoner gained traction quickly, due to its promotion of Chartist principles and political reform, demonstrating Holyoake’s prominence in the emerging secularist movement.