News | Thursday, 15th August 2019

Historian tracks down living descendants from rare Peterloo veterans photograph

Michala Hulme has recreated the 135-year-old image with the protesters' families

Living descendants of Peterloo survivors who sat for a rare photograph 65 years after the massacre have recreated the remarkable picture of their ancestors.

To mark the bicentenary of Peterloo, Manchester Metropolitan University historian and genealogist Michala Hulme traced the living relatives of a ‘Peterloo Veterans’ photo, taken in September 1884.

The original image, taken in Failsworth near Oldham, shows 11 men and women – by then in their 70s and 80s – surrounded by historic Peterloo banners and ones calling for further reform to extend voting rights.

Using historic census data, family trees and electoral records, Hulme was able to locate living relatives of nine of the 11, and brought eight of them together to make a modern version of the image – some 135 years later.

The story was featured on ITV's Granada Reports in an in-depth feature about Hulme's research. 

Many were still based in the north west, but others travelled from North Yorkshire and Warwickshire for the photograph.

On August 16 1819, 18 people were killed and hundreds more injured at a protest for parliamentary reform at St Peter’s Field in Manchester. The event is now considered a landmark moment in British political history.

Hulme has been tracing Peterloo descendants as part of the official city-wide commemorations that mark the bicentenary of the massacre.

Hulme, Lecturer in History at Manchester Metropolitan, said: “Everyone was really proud of their family connection to Peterloo. Not only were their ancestors at Peterloo, fighting for people’s rights, but they were still fighting 65 years later.

“I’m proud that someone in my family had taken such a step towards democracy and for people's right to vote.

“For the Peterloo descendants, being made aware of this connection to such an important moment in Manchester and British political history gives them a personal link to the past that they didn’t know that they had before.”

The original captioned photograph was published in a 1905 book Short Stories about Failsworth Folk, which is kept in the Oldham council archives.

According to an Oldham Chronicle article from the time, it was taken on a ‘Reform Demonstration’ in Failsworth, likely to support the passing of the 1884 Reform Act which uniformed the franchise between those who lived in counties and boroughs. 

A placard in the background of the image says: “population of Failsworth nearly 9000, resident voters 137”.

In another historic passage about the photograph, the group were described as “the last living of that gallant band of Failsworth Reformers who were present at that memorable but disgraceful massacre which took place at Peterloo in 1819.”

“For the Peterloo descendants, being made aware of this connection to such an important moment in Manchester and British political history gives them a personal link to the past that they didn’t know that they had before.”

The text describes how the veterans were too old to walk in the Reform Demonstration procession, and were instead driven through the streets, carrying a banner borne by Samuel Bamford’s Peterloo contingent, before being hosted at a reception, which included singing political songs from their youth.

Hulme said: “It is very rare to have a photo of this period of working-class people with names and dates, enabling me to trace their living relatives. Photography was not commonplace, and it would have been a big deal for them to have their picture taken.”

Kirsty Wolstencroft, who still lives near Oldham, attended the photograph shoot with her father and two children, is the four-times great-granddaughter of Thomas Chadderton (third from left). 

She said: “I’m proud that someone in my family had taken such a step towards democracy and for people's right to vote.

“It was interesting to meet all the other descendants. We were saying how strange it was that we were all sat together, well over 100 years since members of our families did the same thing.

“I'm very vocal if I believe in something. I do tend to stand by my own beliefs and I'm not frightened to stand alone. If that's come from that side of the family I can only be thankful and grateful for it.”

Geoff Woolley, is great-grandson of John Davies (seated, middle). He is the only one of the descendants who was already aware of the photograph and his family connection to Peterloo.

He said: “I’m proud of the fact that the family were part of something helping to get the vote.”