Where's Peterloo, famous for the Peterloo massacre

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Cavalry charged the protestors

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Q.� So what was Peterloo

A.� An open-air meeting in St Peter's Fields in support of parliamentary reform. Yeomanry and hussars charged the campaigners, killing 11�and injuring 500.

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Q.� Background

A.� This was an age of radicalism and revolution. A series of demonstrations in favour of reform was being planned. The rising industrial city of Manchester had a population of 200,000, yet no MP. A meeting was planned for 9 August to elect Henry Hunt as the working-man's popular representative for Lancashire. Justices of the peace, however, declared it was an illegal gathering, so it was cancelled.

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The meeting at St Peter's Field, to be addressed by Hunt, was reorganised for 16 August. The aim was to demand parliamentary reforms to recognise emergency industrial classes. Ordinary people wanted government by the people, for the people.

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Q. �Revolutionaries

A.� Far from it. The organisers of the meeting were moderates who wanted a peaceful event that would show that they were respectable working men, worthy of responsibility. It was a glorious summer's day that promised to be a lovely day out for those who attended. People from all over Manchester and its adjoining towns poured into St Peter's Fields. Many were dressed in their Sunday best and had taken their families with them. Up to 60,000 people turned up.

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Q.� And where did it all go wrong

A.� Manchester's 10 JPs, led by chairman William Hulton, thought the meeting was the start of a revolution. They became increasingly nervous as the noisy crowd grew. They obtained statements from a few people who claimed the meeting threatened law and order. Hulton then ordered Deputy Constable of Mancehster Joseph Nadin to arrest Hunt and his associates. Nadin said it would be impossible to force through the dense crowd. The JPs then called in the military, who were waiting in streets nearby.

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Q.� Professional soldiers

A.� No. First came the Manchester Yeomanry, an ill-trained militia comprised mainly of middle-class shopkeepers and tradesmen, who may have been the worse for drink.

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Q.� That bodes ill.

A.� Indeed. At the cry 'Have at their flags!' they charged into the crowd, aiming not only at the flags on the wagon that held Hunt and other speakers, but at the banners carried by many people in the crowd. Sabres swinging, they charged on through the screaming crowd, paying no attention to the women and children caught beneath the horses' hooves. Eventually the 15th Regiment of Hussars arrived and their commander asked the JPs for instructions. The reply he allegedly received was: 'Good God, sir! Do you not see how they are attacking the yeomanry Disperse the crowd.' Two women were among the 11 dead.

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Q.� And what happened to the campaigners

A.� Hunt and three others were convicted of 'being persons of a wicked and turbulent disposition' who had 'conspired together to create a disturbance of the peace ... in a formidable and menacing manner, with sticks, clubs and other offensive weapons'. Hunt was jailed for two and a half years; the others got a year.

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Q.� Contemporary criticism

A.� Thomas Chadwick, a Rochdale mill-owner, described the massacre as: 'An inhuman outrage committed on an unarmed, peaceful assembly.' The government completely endorsed the magistrates' actions and said it was an illegal meeting. The Yeomanry was cleared of blame. In December, 1819, the government - instead of trying to analyse why people wanted reform - decided to repress them. The Six Acts were passed in 1819. Click here for a feature about them.

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Steve Cunningham

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