In July, Commoners Choir and friends will be walking and singing to remember and celebrate people’s solidarity, resistance and persistence, from 1819 to today.
The Skelmanthorpe Flag is one of the most impressive survivors from the early days of organised labour. It was made in Skelmanthorpe near Huddersfield in 1819 to honour the victims of the Peterloo Massacre who had been attacked and slain by the yeomanry during a peaceful demonstration at St Peter’s Fields in Manchester.
The flag was paraded at mass meetings throughout the area, including a Chartist rally at Peep Green near Hartshead, which was attended by an estimated quarter of a million people. At a time when the government was increasingly worried at the prospect of a popular uprising, the flag was frequently kept hidden from the authorities (including, for a time, being buried underground) and only revealed at rallies and marches.
As part of the commemoration of Peterloo in 2019, Commoners Choir will create a walking, singing reminder of the reasons why the Skelmanthorpe Flag was first created and carried. The centrepiece of the project will be a near-exact facsimile of the flag which will be carried from the village of Skelmanthorpe, across the Pennines, to Manchester, where the Peterloo commemorations will be taking place.
The Choir have been hosting banner-making workshops with textile artist Catherine Long. Taking the Skelmanthorpe Flag and the movements at the time of Peterloo as a starting point, people have produced flags that express their own modern-day struggles and solidarity. These flags will also make the journey across the Pennines.
Together with Shepley Singers (from Skelmanthorpe) and She Choir (from Manchester) and with schoolchildren from primary schools in Skelmanthorpe, we are rehearsing a specially-written piece of choir music based upon the lines written on the flag:
‘May never a cock in England crow
Nor never a pipe in Scotland blow
Nor never a harp in Ireland play
Til Liberty regains her sway’
The music has been written by Boff Whalley, Commoners Choir leader and composer for theatres such as Leeds’ ‘Red Ladder’ and London’s ‘Cardboard Citizens’. Boff was formerly founder and songwriter for pop group Chumbawamba. The piece sings of the history of the flag, tracing its journey up to the present day as a symbol of support, collaboration and solidarity, and features the repeated refrain ‘We’ve more in common than divides us’ in echo of the words of MP Jo Cox.
The walk begins on Thursday July 4th at 4pm, where the song will be sung in the open air in the village of Skelmanthorpe before members of all three choirs set off to walk around 50 miles on footpaths across the Pennines to Manchester, carrying the flag. This will be a three-day walk with invitations for members of the public and supporters to join for as little or as much as they feel able.
The walk reaches central Manchester on Saturday 6th July, and on the following afternoon (Sunday 7th July) Commoners Choir, She Choir and Shepley Singers will be joined by Open Voice Choir and WAST Asylum Seekers Choir to perform a concert featuring the Skelmanthorpe Flag song at the People’s History Museum (3pm). The flags will be on display and there will be a projected slide show of the walk. The People’s History Museum is displaying the original Skelmanthorpe Flag as part of its Peterloo Exhibition.
Thurs July 4, 4pm
Walk set-off, St Aidan’s Church, Skelmanthorpe, with a performance of Skelmanthorpe Flag.
Saturday, July 6, 5.30pm
The walk ends with a performance of Skelmanthorpe Flag at Manchester International festival, Albert Memorial, Festival Square, MCR.
Sunday, July 7, 3 pm
Performance by all participating choirs including Skelmanthorpe Flag song. With banner exhibition and slide show of the walk.
For more information visit: http://www.commonerschoir.com/
Watch their new video of ‘George Orwell Meets The Commoners On The Road To Wigan Pier’, filmed up in the Yorkshire Dales when snow lay thick on the ground and they went yomping across the hills armed with map, compass and flag.