Peterloo Movie: A Review

I have been fascinated by the tragedy of Peterloo - and its consequences - for as long as I can remember. Next year is the bicentenary of this landmark event for our democracy, which has seemingly never been covered by the movie industry before, so Mike Leigh's new film is very timely. I was not disappointed. 

The action begins four years earlier on the bloody field of Waterloo. Joseph, a young soldier, survives the battle, and begins the long journey home to his family in Manchester. His mum is Nellie (Maxine Peake), who is fighting to keep her loved ones fed during a time of great hardship for the town's workers.

Some of the notable events in the years preceding Peterloo are telescoped with the action in order to provide the necessary historical context. Discontent was growing in the town, which expressed itself in political meetings, and the ill-fated march of the Blanketeers in 1817. Even women had their own societies dedicated to campaigning for parliamentary reform. The speeches of Leigh's characters capture the authentic ring of Manchester's political meetings - and some of the real firebrands of the day - as reported by the authorities' many spies.

Oliver the Spy (Stephen Wight) makes an enjoyable cameo appearance, although actually his identity was compromised in the aftermath of the ill-fated Pentrich Rising two years earlier. 

The meeting at St Peter's Field on 16 August 1819 was organized to hear a speech by Henry 'Orator' Hunt. Rory Kinnear nicely captures Hunt's mixture of bombast and self-importance (and his dedication to reform). Samuel Bamford (played by Neil Bell), who was initially impressed by Hunt, gradually became extremely disenchanted by his attitude. (Surely Bamford is far too well-dressed in the movie? He looks very prosperous).

The main events leading up to the massacre, and the horrifying violence of the day itself, are meticulously covered - right down to the incidents when Hunt helps a fainting woman into his coach, and Hunt is hit on the head by one of Joseph Nadin's thugs after being arrested. A pity that the Cheshire Yeomanry's part in the day was omitted, but perhaps this would have over-complicated the action. 

One seeming inaccuracy which struck me afterwards was the section in the film where Nelly shares out some chunks of bread with another family. Now Nellie's family is depicted as being extremely poor, so they were most unlikely to have been able to afford bread. The Corn Laws (one of the issues which the Peterloo crowd were protesting about) had artificially inflated the price of bread to benefit farmers and landowners. Contemporary accounts of working-class families in this decade in Manchester usually mention that they lived primarily on oatmeal and potatoes. But as gruel and potatoes are not very easy to carry, perhaps the bread was a special treat for the family's 'grand day out'. 

Where this film really hits the nail on the head is Leigh's uncompromising depiction of the enormity of the class divide. The revolting gluttony of the Prince Regent (Tim McInnenry - who was clearly enjoying himself) and the Manchester magistrates' comfortable lifestyle is starkly contrasted with the bare, comfortless homes of the working classes.  

In our age of austerity, and a hopelessly divided Britain, the story of Peterloo has never been more topical. Do go and see the movie. 

Thomas Harrison, Architect

Chester Castle and Shire Hall complex, 1820s. 

Please saunter over to All Things Georgian, the wonderful blog belonging to my fellow Pen & Sword authors Sarah Murden and Joanne Major. Today they've kindly hosted my guest post on Thomas Harrison, a stunning architect who gave Chester's buildings an air of classical elegance during Regency times

Sold out - but don't panic!

A High Wind in the Park! 1819. 

I had some very good news this morning - A Visitor's Guide to Jane Austen's England has sold out! However, Pen and Sword have scheduled a re-release for the end of November, and you can pre-order here (especially as it would make a lovely Christmas present for a Jane Austen fan!) Alternatively, there are still a few print copies left on Amazon UK and Amazon US, and of course you can still buy my book on Kindle while it's unavailable in print form.

'Liberty Or Death!' Peterloo Is Coming!

A new 'teaser' trailer for Mike Leigh's new film telling the story of the Peterloo Massacre has just been released.
It looks pretty awesome so far! To say I am excited about this movie is an understatement. The release date for the UK is 2 November - I hope it will be available in ordinary cinemas.

Don't forget, the Manchester and Lancashire Family History Society are looking for Peterloo descendants, and my book Tracing Your Manchester and Salford Ancestors has a round-up of Peterloo sources. My book Regency Cheshire, now released on Amazon Kindle, also includes a look at the massacre from the point of view of the Cheshire Yeomanry, who were present at the massacre.

Regency Cheshire on Amazon Kindle!

I'm thrilled to announce that my book Regency Cheshire is now available as an e-book on Amazon Kindle!

The late Georgian period was an age of unique style and elegance - the era of Trafalgar and Waterloo. Regency Cheshire explores the scandals, sports and pastimes of the great county families such as the Grosvenors of Eaton Hall. Their glittering lifestyle is contrasted with conditions for humble farmers and factory workers. The gentry and mill owners created elegant new villas and beautiful gardens while workers huddled together in slums with inadequate sanitation.

The Prince Regent and his cronies danced and feasted while cotton and silk workers starved. In my book, I explore the county’s transport system and main industries: silk, cotton, salt and cheese. Stage coaches rattled through the streets, and packet boats and barges sailed down the canals.

Lyme Hall, Cheshire.

But reform and revolution threatened the old social order. Blood was spilt on city streets during election fever and in the struggle for democracy. Balls and bear-baiting; highwaymen and hangings; riots and reform: Regency Cheshire tells the story of everyday life during the age of Beau Brummell, Walter Scott and Jane Austen.

You can read a free sample of Regency Cheshire here!

Manchester Cathedral

The earliest written record of Manchester’s churches may be the two mentioned in William the Conqueror’s Domesday Book of 1086. St Mary’s and St Michael’s held a ‘carucate’ of land (about 120 acres). St Mary’s may have been located on or near the site of the modern Cathedral. St Michael’s may have been at Ashton-under-Lyne.
In 1421 Thomas La Warre, the lord of the manor, founded a ‘college’ of a warden and eight fellows to care for Manchester parish. The ‘collegiate church’ was endowed with lands, and a brand new building was built. Local worthies and merchants like the Stanley family beautified the new church.

Collegiate Church interior.

If your ancestor lived in Manchester parish before the 1850s, they were most likely baptized or married at the Collegiate Church (later the Cathedral). This is because for historical reasons, when a person was baptised or married at any church within the parish, the family paid two fees, one to the incumbent of their church of choice – and one fee to the Collegiate Church. But if people held the ceremony at the Collegiate Church, they only paid one fee. Mass baptisms and weddings were a regular sight at the Collegiate Church, so you should check those registers first if you are looking for a Manchester ancestor.

In 1847 the diocese of Manchester was created, and the Collegiate Church became a cathedral, dedicated to St Mary, St Denys and St George. The best way to access the Cathedral registers is via Ancestry.co.uk (free on Manchester library PCs) or on microfilm at Manchester Central Library. The Lancashire Online Parish Clerks website has some free transcripts of the Cathedral and Collegiate Church parish registers. My book also has more information on the history of the Cathedral and its records.

The Cathedral suffered greatly from bomb damage during WWII, but was painstakingly rebuilt. The modern day Cathedral has a visitor centre, which is open daily.

Manchester Suffragettes and Suffragists

Lydia Ernestine Becker, suffragist.

Today a statue of Millicent Garrett Fawcett was unveiled near Parliament. My latest feature for Discover Your Ancestors online magazine explores the fight for women's rights by Manchester suffragettes and suffragists during the late nineteen and early twentieth centuries.

In the mid-to-late 1860s, Manchester committees to campaign for women’s property and voting rights were founded by Elizabeth Wolstenholme (later Elmy), Lydia Ernestine Becker, Emily Davies, Alice Scatcherd and others.

‘Suffragists’ like Lydia Becker and Margaret Ashton argued that voting reform should be fought for using only peaceful, constitutional means. The suffragists scored a major victory in 1869 when property-owning women were given the right to vote in local government elections and act as Poor Law Guardians.

But women (and working-class men) still could not vote in national elections. Sheer frustration at successive governments' refusal to give women the vote led 'suffragettes' like Manchester-born Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters to take direct action. However, it was not until 1928 that all women over the age 21 of were given the vote, and put on an equal footing with men.

The Pankhurst Centre, Manchester

My book Tracing Your Manchester and Salford Ancestors has several tips for researching suffragette and suffragist sources in Manchester libraries and specialist archives. I also thoroughly recommend visiting Emmeline Pankhurst’s home at 62 Nelson St, Manchester, which is now a museum and heritage centre, if you wish to find out more about the suffragettes' story.

Images:
Lydia Ernestine Becker (1827–1890), an early campaigner for women’s political rights and founder member of the National Society for Women’s Suffrage in 1867. Manchester Faces and Places Vol. 1, J. G. Hammond & Co., c. 1895. Author’s collection.

62 Nelson St, Manchester, now the Pankhurst Centre. Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters lived here from 1897–1907. © Sue Wilkes.

Jane Austen and Landscapes

Dr Syntax 'drawing after Nature'.

This year it's the bicentenary of the death of landscape gardener Humphry Repton. Gallop over to my Jane Austen blog to read more about Austen and her landscapes! You can also read my special feature on Austen and gardens here at Pride and Possibilities, published last year in the e-zine for the Jane Austen Literary Foundation.

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Bath Abbey

My latest feature for the 2018 Discover Your Ancestors bookazine (order here) is on Mary Shelley and Frankenstein. This landmark novel was published 200 years ago (Arizona University has a celebratory project here). Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus electrified the reading public when it first appeared. The story of hapless experimenter Frankenstein, his Creature’s torment, and the fearful revenge It wreaked on his creator, is now embedded in our cultural mindscape. 

The Shelley Frankenstein Festival is planning more events to commemorate Frankenstein, including a theatre production of a re-imagined version of Frankenstein, at the Shelley Theatre, Boscombe in May.














Images:
West front of Bath Abbey, Penny Magazine, 13 July 1833.  During the autumn of 1816, Mary worked on ‘Frankenstein’ while she, Shelley and Claire Claremont stayed in lodgings near the Abbey. Author’s collection.
The Galvanic apparatus.Coloured engraving, 1804, by J. Pass, after H. Lascelles. Courtesy the Wellcome Library, no. 47529i.

Radio Chat

Crown Hotel, Nantwich. 

I was thrilled to be asked to appear on Redshift Community Radio last week (it's based in the Nantwich area). I really enjoyed chatting to Liz Southall about life in Cheshire in Jane Austen's day, plus tips for tracing your family tree. If you missed it, you can listen the Scarlet Ladies show here on Soundcloud.

Full Steam Ahead! Made in Manchester

Ancoats mills at dinnertime.

The earliest factories were water-powered, so they were built by fast-flowing streams. The advent of steam power meant that factories could now be built wherever coal was plentiful, so Manchester and Salford were prime spots for industry.

One of the first manufacturers to use steam to power his mill machinery was Peter Drinkwater, who built a cotton-spinning mill in Manchester in 1789. Drinkwater’s mill had the first Boulton and Watt steam engine in the city. Around this time, James Bateman and William Sherratt set up a factory in Salford which made mill machinery components, and a pirated version of Boulton and Watt’s rotary steam engine.

Cotton factories and their contents were highly combustible, and Philips and Lee built the first ‘fireproof’ mill in the area (with cast-iron beams) in 1801.This mill, on Chapel Street in Salford, was also the first factory in Britain lit by gas.


By 1816, Manchester contained forty-three working mills; the largest employer was McConnel & Kennedy, with over 1,000 workers. These early factories ran day and night, which was very hard on their child workers.

The Manchester Statistical Society reported in 1837–8 that Manchester had 5,272 cotton spinning and weaving mills powered by steam; Salford had 761 steam-powered cotton mills. Manchester had 756 bleaching, dyeing and print-works powered by steam, and Salford had 521 steam-powered factories. Foundries, silk mills, breweries, saw-mills, collieries and chemical works in the area were also steam-powered.

Nasmyth's factory flat at Manchester. 

Scotsman James Nasmyth (1808–90), one of the most famous engineers of his day, set up his own business at Dale Street in Manchester in the 1830s.

He later founded the Bridgewater Foundry at Patricroft, Eccles, and the first steam hammer in Britain was forged there.








Sir Joseph Whitworth (1803–87)’s Chorlton Street works in Manchester made machine tools, guns and cannon. William Fairbairn had a huge works on Canal Street in Ancoats which made boilers and bridges. Platt Brothers made textile machinery at Oldham; this firm also had its own forges, rolling-mills and brick-works. Sharp, Roberts & Co.’s world-famous Atlas Works, founded in the late 1820s in Manchester, made locomotive engines.


As Victoria’s reign advanced, Manchester’s industries continued to thrive. At Gorton, Beyer-Peacock began manufacturing locomotives in the 1850s, the Ashbury Railway Carriage Company made railway carriages and waggons, and Crossley Brothers made engines and pumps.

The steam-engine galleries at Manchester's Museum of Science and Industry often have the engines in steam, and you can get a real sense of their sound and energy when they are busy working!

Images:
Nasmyth’s restored steam hammer on display near Eccles. Copyright Sue Wilkes.
Nasmyth’s Dale Street factory.
A steamer passing Trafford Swing Bridge. Illustration by H. E. Tidmarsh, Manchester Old and New Vol. III., Cassell & Co., c.1894.
James Watt’s first rotary steam engine.

Ancoats mills at dinnertime, Manchester. Illustration by H. E. Tidmarsh, Manchester Old and New Vol. II, (Cassell & Co., c. 1894). 

William Cowper's House

Hares sculpture, Cowper Museum garden.

Happy New Year to all my readers! I hope you had a good Christmas.

If  you pop over to my Jane Austen blog, you can read about my visit to the Cowper and Newton Museum, Olney.

The museum has an exhibition devoted to the local lace-making industry; little girls worked very long hours making lace in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. 

Lace on display at the Cowper and Newton museum.