Hundreds of people are expected to walk from Salford and Eccles into Manchester this weekend to commemorate the 197th anniversary of the Peterloo Massacre.
On 16 August 1819 in St Peter’s Fields, Manchester, armed cavalry charged a peaceful crowd of around 60,000 people who had gathered to listen to anti-poverty and pro-democracy speakers.
15 were killed and over 700 seriously injured.
It came at a time when Britain faced severe famine and chronic unemployment, together with the lack of political representation in the north of England.
George Cruikshank’s caricature depicts the charge upon the rally. The text reads: “Down with ’em! Chop em down my brave boys: give them no quarter they want to take our Beef & Pudding from us! —- & remember the more you kill the less poor rates you’ll have to pay so go at it Lads show your courage & your Loyalty!”
On Sunday 14 August, history lovers and social justice campaigners will meet at the Eccles Cross on Regent Street at 10.30am on Sunday to make the five-mile march into Manchester city centre.
A second Salford contingent will walk from the corner of Cobden Street and Great Cheetham Street at 11.15am.
They’ll come together at Manchester Central (formerly GMEX) for speeches and to remember the men, women and children injured and killed on that fateful day.
Among those killed were several people from Salford and Eccles. They included mum-of-seven Sarah Jones who lived on Silk Street in Blackfriars. She was fatally injured by a blow to the head from a police truncheon.
James Crompton, of Barton-upon-Irwell in Eccles, was trampled to death by the cavalry.
Martha Partington, also from Eccles, is recorded as having been “thrown into a cellar and killed on the spot”.
The final Salford victim was Robert Campbell of Miller Street. He was a special constable and was killed later in the day by an angry mob at New Cross in Manchester.
Sunday’s event will begin a three-day commemoration that concludes on Tuesday 16 August at the Friends’ Meeting House on Wellington Road in Eccles where a tapestry of the Massacre will be unveiled.
In 2015 local actors and vocal supporters of working-class history Maxine Peake and Christopher Eccleston lead the commemorations, while speakers included Mancunian Cold Feet actor John Thompson, Hacienda DJ Dave Haslam and Salford broadcaster CP Lee.
Many of the crowd dressed in period costume to mark the annual commemoration.
Maxine Peake with campaigners in period dress, 2015
This year, Manchester actor John Henshaw will continue the tradition of reading out the names of the victims.
Organisers stress the march and gathering are by no means ‘political demonstrations’ and welcome all people regardless of ideology, class or beliefs.
Organiser Martin Gittens is keen for the importance of the Massacre – and the constitutional changes it brought about – to be remembered.
A crowd who had come from across the whole of Lancashire to listen to ‘the thoughts of public speakers’ dispersed in terror after mounted soldiers started to cut down members of the public with sabres, which lead to rioting across Manchester, Salford and as far south as Macclesfield that evening.
So how relevant is the Peterloo Massacre today?
Martin told SalfordOnline.com: “While the current political parties tear themselves apart, there are people who are clamoring to get into the political process whose voices simply aren’t heard.
“Society today is not that different to the one workers experienced back then.
“It’s still a world where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
“How can we be a nation that prides itself on being the cradle of the industrial revolution and workers’ rights when we still have homeless on the streets of Manchester and have thousands of people have to use food banks each week?”
The Peterloo Massacre Campaign said it would expand the protest and event in the years leading up the the 200th anniversary of Peterloo in 2019.
Gittens hopes that a memorial will be built in time for the bicentennial in three years’ time and that the memorial will once again spark important political debate.
If you wish to take part or want any further informantion on events taking place in the run up to Tuesday’s aniversary please contact Martin Gittins at martingzzz@hotmail.co.uk.
Main image: Christopher Eccleston leads the parade in 2015
