News

This year is the 199th anniversary of the Peterloo massacre and there is a film by Mike Leigh telling the story due for release in cinemas 2nd November.

On Thursday 16th August a larger than usual group formed outside Central Library to hear a revised list of names read out by John Henshaw, with two plaques with the names and flowers placed on the steps of the St Peter's Church Memorial in St Peter's Square, Manchester. The group then marched the short distance to the forecourt of the old Central Station with flags from the film kndly loaned by Mike Leigh, the films director.

On Sunday the 19th, Maxine Peake was joined by others to read the names of the dead and injured and tell us some of what happened to some of the injured in the days and weeks after the Peterloo attack. Despite the rain earlier in the day, a good many people had gathered in front of G-Mex many having walked all the way into Manchester from the surrounding areas as the people did on the 16th August 1819.