Peterloo Massacre Guided Walking Tour

Fri 16 Aug 2019, 10.30am – 12.15pm

Booking required.

On the 200th anniversary of the Peterloo Massacre, revisit the historic locations with tour guide Sibby.

16 August 1819: a summer’s day and one of the blackest days in Manchester’s history, when at least 15 died and over 600 were injured.

A huge crowd, maybe as many as 60,000, walked in processional parties from mill towns such as Bury and Stockport to St Peter’s Field to campaign for the right to vote. Bands played and banners were held high, one proclaiming ‘Equal representation or DEATH. Unite and be free.’

They expected to hear speakers discuss parliamentary reform, believing it would relieve the poverty they endured, but the rally never really began. As the main speaker Henry ‘Orator’ Hunt began to address the crowd soldiers, some on horseback, savagely dispersed the crowd with sabres and bayonets.

In a few minutes 15 had died and around 600 were injured. An eyewitness described how, “Several mounds of human beings still remained where they had fallen, crushed down and smothered. Some of these still groaning – others with staring eyes, were gasping for breath and others would never breathe more.”