Location: Manchester
Architect: Jeremy Deller
Manufacturer & Installer: Mather & Ellis Ltd
Materials: Cove Red & Peakmoor Sandstone
The Peterloo Massacre took place at St Peter’s Field, Manchester on Monday 16 August 1819.
The Manchester Patriotic Union organised a mass rally in August 1819 addressed by well-known radical orator Henry Hunt. Local magistrates called on the Manchester and Salford Yeomanry to arrest Hunt and several others on the platform with him. The Yeomanry charged into the crowd, some 60,000 strong, knocking down a woman and killing a child, and finally apprehended Hunt.
Cheshire Magistrates then summoned the 15th Hussars to disperse the crowd. Cavalry charged into the crowd who had gathered to demand the reform of parliamentary representation. 18 people were killed and 400–700 were injured in the ensuing confusion.
Commissioned by Manchester City Council and designed by Jeremy Deller the memorial has eleven concentric circles of local stone rising up out of the pavement engraved with the names of the dead and the places from which the victims came as well as a circular design within the pavement.
Leading Manchester stone company Mather & Ellis both manufactured and installed the memorial to great effect.
Made entirely of British stones including the Peakmoor with the engraving and cove Red. Timing was critical for Mather & Ellis to have the memorial open in time for the 200th Anniversary. Blocks of Cove and Peakmoor were shipped to Manchester and along with 10 other UK stones the memorial was finished ahead of deadline. A true testament to the British stone industry.