History Files: "Peterloo" Manchester August 1819.

As the days of summer proceed towards August, I generally ask myself.

"What would it have been like to have been in Market Street, Manchester on the afternoon of August 16, 1819?

That date and time are perhaps synonamous with one of the most infamous and despicable events of English political history. The crowd of 60,000 mill workers from Cheshire and Lancashire mill towns had made their way to Market Street and St. Peter's Field by the Manchester Quaker Meeting House to here Henry "Orator" Hunt speak against taxes on food including the "Corn Laws" and call for universal male suffrage.

The charge of the Manchester & Salford Yeomanry, sabres drawn hacking, slashing and dripping blood into the crowd is told on this page.

Read the story of "Peterloo"

History Files: "Peterloo" Manchester August 1819.