Month-long Peterloo 200 exhibition open at Portland Basin

The latest event to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Peterloo massacre launched this week.

Local history groups have been extremely busy this year to ensure Tameside remembers its connections with one of the most significant events in British political history.

A visual exhibition has proved very popular as it tours churches, libraries and community centres throughout the borough and a sell-out musical presentation by folk group ‘The Free Radicals’, telling the story of Peterloo, was held at the Wharf Tavern in Stalybridge.

Now, a month-long exhibition has opened at Ashton’s Portland Basin Museum, which tells the story of Peterloo through spectacular banners and pennants, carefully crafted by local sewing and craft groups.

At the launch event on Wednesday, Anne Brewster of the Tameside History on Your Doorstep group said: “The first ever political banners in the country were displayed at Peterloo, so we decided to tell the story of Peterloo in banners. We invited local sewing groups, schools and individuals to make banners and pennants. You’ve got to admit, the results have been stunning and we couldn’t be more impressed.”

The launch was a bittersweet occasion as the late Alan Rose was honoured. Alan was a local teacher, editor and author who passed away in 2016, but was hugely encouraging and inspiring for the local history groups.

Alan’s son, Michael, attended the launch and told the gathered crowd: “My dad retired from teaching about 30 years ago but he still had teaching in his blood. He was always passionate about history and eventually got involved with the History on your Doorstep group.

“He must have been really pleased that so many people were as interested as he was in local history. I’d like to think that he’s looking down on us now, enjoying what you have done and what you continue to do.”

The local history groups who researched Tameside’s links to Peterloo have found so much material that they have produced a book, called ‘Tameside Remembers Peterloo’, which is dedicated to Alan. It’s available to buy from libraries across the borough and the Local Studies & Archive Centre in Ashton.

The latest exhibition, which runs at Portland Basin until August 16, was given the mayoral seal of approval from Cllr Leigh Drennan. “I think it’s fantastic,” he said. 

“It’s really important to learn from the lessons of the past. The people at the Local History Forum have put in a lot of time and effort into putting this on and it’s really, really good.

“People forget that it wasn’t just people from Manchester that went to Peterloo. There was a very radical tradition in Ashton-under-Lyne and Stalybridge of people fighting for democracy and the right to vote. We should never forget the past otherwise we could repeat it."

The next Peterloo event in Tameside is a concert by Stalybridge Old Band at the town’s civic hall on August 17. The band was present at Peterloo after being invited to play by one of the organisers, Henry Hunt.

Christine Clough, of the Tameside Local History Forum, said it’s been a “hectic but fabulous” year. She added: “We’ve got the concerts, the book, the exhibition, the banners; it’s been absolutely wonderful. From a simple idea of an exhibition, it’s grown into this. It’s overwhelming and the response from people in supporting us has been brilliant.”