Lydgate earns its place in history

LYDGATE is to be one of the starting points for the Peterloo Commemorative Walk this Sunday, marking the 190th anniversary of the infamous massacre in Manchester when sabre wielding cavalry cleared a gathering of 70,000 men, women and children who had gathered from all over the area (an estimated 10,000 from Oldham), to demand the reform of Parliamentary representation.

But why has Lydgate been chosen?

THERE have been a number of puzzled looks from people when Oldham Community Radio 99.7fm announced that Lydgate was to be a starting point for the Peterloo Massacre Commemorative Walk. All the more so when it was explained that Lydgate was to be given pride of place among those completing the walk to Manchester.

The question, “Why Lydgate?”, was asked more than once!

There wasn’t a huge exodus of the residents of Lydgate, well no more than any other hamlet in this area.

The leaders and organisers of the people meeting on St Peter’s Fields didn’t come from Lydgate. Lydgate didn’t feature all that highly on the day of the Peterloo Massacre and, as far as we know, no one from Lydgate was killed at Peterloo.

So the question remains. Why Lydgate?

The answer lies not on the day itself, Monday, August 16, 1819, but in the months prior to that historic date.

For if we can believe the Middleton-based radical activist Samuel Bamford (1788-1872), it was the residents of Lydgate who first raised the call for, and implemented, a reform that would probably have seemed too far-fetched for the majority of protesters at the Peterloo meeting.

As it was, the call for the ordinary man to have a vote that they could cast by secret ballot was revolutionary and almost heretical for the ruling establishment of the day.

What fits of apoplexy would have been induced by a call for “Votes for Women!”

But in the months prior to Peterloo, that is exactly what the good citizens of Lydgate not only called for, but implemented!

On the basis that it was about 100 years ahead of its time, Lydgate must take pride of place on this Sunday’s walk.

The evidence comes from the aforementioned Samuel Bamford, who in his book, “Passages in the Life of a Radical”, when reporting the various meetings that took place in the localities prior to the “big” meeting at St Peter’s Field in Manchester, states: “At one of these meetings, which took place at Lydgate, in Saddleworth, I, in the course of an address, insisted on the right, and the propriety also, of females who were present at such assemblages voting by a show of hand for or against the resolutions.

“This was a new idea; and the women, who attended numerously on that bleak ridge, were mightily pleased with it. The men being nothing dissentient, when the resolution was put the women held up their hands amid much laughter; and ever from that time females voted with the men at the Radical meetings.”

Thus, almost by accident, women were given the vote and used it. This empowerment of 50 per cent of our population has changed the world and its ramifications are still at work around the globe today.

The fight for a voice for women, the acceptance that men and women are equal, took a massive step forward on that hillside at Lydgate in the weeks prior to Peterloo.

I doubt that all those present appreciated the significance of their decision.

But in the history of the modern world Lydgate should have a significant footnote.




Official reports state that 11 people died and more than 400 were wounded at Peterloo.



But the exact number has never been established with certainty and estimates vary from 11 to 18 killed and 400 to 700 injured.

Many of the wounded hid their injuries for fear of retribution by the authorities and losing their jobs, making true numbers unknown.

Eleven of the fatalities occurred on St Peter’s Field but others, like John Lees from Oldham, died later from their wounds or were killed in further rioting.

It has also been suggested that William and Edmund Dawson of Saddleworth may have been the same person.


JOHN LEES



From Oldham, died September 9, aged 22, some weeks after Peterloo from sabre wounds.

Ironically, he was an ex-soldier who had fought in the Battle of Waterloo — from which the name Peterloo was created as an ironic comparison.

A cloth worker, his case became famous because of his inquest, which was opened at the Duke of York Inn, Oldham, on September 8, 1819. Local radicals, who made up most of the jury, wanted to bring a charge of murder or manslaughter against Yeoman Cavalry but the authorities fought this.

The inquest was resumed at the Angel, where a reporter was removed despite his protests, and then again in Manchester but was never concluded.

Reports state that Mr Lees so neglected his wounds, and went out drinking, that mortification set in.

Shortly before his death he is said to have told a friend he had never been in such danger as at Peterloo, adding: “At Waterloo there was man to man but here it was murder.”


JOHN ASHTON



From Cowhill, Oldham, Mr Ashton died on August 16 after being sabred and trampled on by the crowd.

He is said to have been carrying the black flag of the Saddleworth, Lees and Mossley Union, inscribed “Taxation without representation is unjust and tyrannical. NO CORN LAWS.”

The inquest jury returned a verdict of accidental death and his son Samuel received 20 shillings in relief.


THOMAS BUCKLEY



From Baretrees, Chadderton, was sabred and stabbed by bayonet.


EDMUND DAWSON



From Saddleworth, died of sabre wounds at the Manchester Royal Infirmary.


WILLIAM DAWSON



From Saddleworth, was sabred, crushed and killed on the spot.