Page 50 - All About History - Issue 180-19

Contemporary artwork
t he Peterloo Veterans
© Getty Images
miChael Wood
historian
© Michael Wood
On 27 September 1884 an extraordinary
photograph was taken of 11 elderly survivors of the
Peterloo Massacre. Aged between 79 and 83 these
protestors were still campaigning for better voting
rights. A copy was discovered by historian and
television presenter Michael Wood in a collection
of old history books that belonged to his father.
He recently gave a lecture about the image called
‘The Peterloo Photograph’ as part of Manchester
Histories’ bicentenary commemorations. We spoke
to Wood about the massacre’s powerful legacy in
the city and beyond.
What did the march to St Peter’s Field
say about the condition of Manchester
at the time?
There were massive divisions emerging with
poverty and unemployment. The Industrial
Revolution was underway and there were a lot
of stresses and strains on society. Manchester
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was also a really difficult place to operate in.
There was no civic order and it was still under a
manorial ownership.
How important was the massacre as
a political event?
One historian said that Peterloo was “up there
with Magna Carta” so it was a massive moment
and everybody recognised it. The leadership had
instructed the protestors that there was to be
absolutely no violence used or any semblance
of rioting. There were a large number of women
present and Samuel Bamford described many
of them as wearing white dresses and frocks
with hats and garlands of flowers. The whole
atmosphere was like Wakes Week with the
festive summer entertainments that they put
on in rural districts.
Everybody was therefore totally stunned by
what happened. The government moved against
depicting the tragic events
The Peterloo Veterans, 27 September 1884:
David Hilton, Thomas Chadderton, John
Davies, Thomas Ogden, Jonathan Dawson,
Susannah Whittaker, Mary Collins,
Catherine McMurdo, Richard Waters,
Thomas Schofield, Alice Schofield
reforming newspapers as often as it could but
everybody was writing about it. Alison Morgan
has just published a collection of Peterloo songs
and ballads and she’s retrieved about 80 to 90
of them! These were written in the immediate
aftermath and sung in pubs, clubs and taverns. The
Manchester Guardian (now The Guardian) was also
founded in the aftermath of Peterloo.
How was Peterloo remembered when you
were growing up in Manchester?
Everybody knew about Peterloo in our neck of the
woods. Certainly when I went up to Manchester
Grammar School when I was 11 the history teacher
made a speech on the first day. He gave us his
pen-portrait of Manchester, which was a city of free
trade, the Industrial Revolution and the heroes and
heroines of Peterloo.
It was definitely something that we all knew
about and in my particular case my father came