The mural - painted by the Derby Community Arts Project in the mid 1980s - is situated at a prominent Derby site. It tells the tale, (as recorded in contemporary local and national trades union press accounts), pictorially of the Derby dispute of November 1833 to April 34.

The top of the mural shows the ‘Old Derby Silk Mill’, with its distinctive bell tower, which still exists and lends its name to the pub upon which the mural is painted. This mill was certainly in existence at the time of the dispute and the master of it was one of the original signatories to the ‘document’ which started the dispute. It was however merely one of many silk mills in the town and not even the one where the dispute commenced.

Below this is depicted the garrison of soldiers brought into the town to ‘keep the peace’.

To the right of the central kite is the Shrovetide football game. Much depleted that year as the Locked-outs cancelled it as a sign of their collective organisation.

In the bottom right hand corner is an image of the church with an anti-union banner above it. This represents the intervention of the clergy on the side of the masters, when a bishop declared that the trades unionists should all obey their masters commands or face the wrath of God.

The marchers in the bottom centre of the mural represent the Shrovetide marches organised by the Trades Union to replace the football match.

In the bottom left hand corner (hidden by bushes in the photo) is pictured the stabbing of a Derby travelling salesman who was mistaken for a trades unionist by two ‘black sheep’ (scabs brought in by the masters to break the union). This event - instigated by scabs - was the only serious violence recorded during the whole dispute period.