It was 200 years ago next week that sword-wielding soldiers on horseback cut through a crowd of protestors in Manchester who were demanding social and political reform. It is estimated that 60,000 people were gathered at St Peter’s Fields and the mood of the event was uplifting. One onlooker John Benjamin Smith later wrote “There were crowds of people in all directions, full of good humour, laughing and shouting and making fun … It seemed to be a gala day with the country people who were mostly dressed in their best and brought with them their wives, and when I saw boys and girls taking their father’s hand in the procession, I observed to my aunt: ‘These are the guarantees of their peaceable intentions – we need have no fears.'”
When the Yeomanry did charge to disperse the crowd, several hundred people were injured and 18 people killed including 4 women and a child. The event which became known as The Peterloo Massacre inspired Shelly to write the radical poem ‘The Mask of Anarchy’ which called on people to rise up in rebellion:
‘Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number,
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you –
Ye are many – they are few.’
North West England singers and musicians Peter Coe, Brian Peters and Laura Smyth are among those marking the Bicentenary. They tell the story of the event in their latest project ‘The Road to Peterloo’ through ballads gathered by Dr Alison Morgan University of Warwick as well as from their own research, with many set to original tunes.
Like reportage set to music, some of these ballads offer valuable historical detail such as this one by a weaver called John Stafford which you can hear below:
Some of the other songs from The Road to Petrloo help to paint a picture of what it was like in the build-up to the massacre, outlining what conditions were like following the Napoleonic Wars. Conditions were adversely affected the likes of the Corn Laws introduced in 1815 which banned the import of cheap grain which made British landowners wealthier by increasing the cost of food and left many on the brink of starvation. The ballads then go beyond Peterloo into the Chartist movement of the 1830s, a period during which Chartists set out to gain political rights and influence for the working classes.
They have just performed at Sidmouth Folk Festival and are touring through to November. So if you want to witness and learn about an important period in history through three fine voices, not to mention their instrumental skills on concertina, melodeon, bouzouki, guitar, cello and banjo then make sure you catch them on one of their remaining dates below.
The superb accompanying album The Road to Peterloo, is available to purchase online here, via Bandcamp and at their gigs.
The Road to Peterloo Dates
Aug 12 – BROADSTAIRS, Folk Week
Aug 18 – NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE, Irish Centre
Aug 20 – WHITBY, Folk Week
Sep 15 – BOLTON, Bromley Cross Folk Club
Oct 9 – LONDON, Cecil Sharp House
Oct 13 – ABBOT’S LANGLEY, Acoustic Concerts, Community Centre
Oct 20 – HARTLEPOOL, Folk Festival
Oct 31 – HUDDERSFIELD, University (afternoon performance)
Nov 3 – HALIFAX, Square Chapel
Find out more here: https://theroadtopeterloo.com/