Remembering the starving mill workers killed for their protests

A commemorative stone is being unveiled later to remember those killed 200 years ago when when troops fired on Lancashire mill workers who were protesting because they were starving.

During the Weavers Uprising of 1826, thousands of loom workers rebelled against high food prices, poor wages, growing poverty and the introduction of cheaper forms of weaving through machinery.

Workers in Chatterton targeted mills and destroyed more than 1,100 new power looms before being confronted by soldiers who fired into the crowd.

Dr David Scott, who has researched the revolt, said: "People had been through decades of having to struggle to make ends meet, they'd sold all their assets, they had nothing left."

"There'd been an economic crisis, people were starving to death, and nobody was doing anything to help them," he said.

Thousands of people took to the roads, to the streets and to the factories, where Dr Scott said they smashed the looms to send a symbolic message to those in power that they desperately needed intervention.

"People who had very low wages suddenly found themselves with no wages," he said. "This whole area was facing the spectre of starvation."

Dr Scott said the reaction of the soldiers was "brutal" with people being shot "indiscriminately".

"They fired somewhere between 400 to 600 bullets into a crowd of 3,000," he said, which also hit bystanders.

The commemoration stone, made by local stonemason Dave Greenhalgh, will be unveiled at the site where the massacre happened in Chatterton village.

The names of those who died - including those who died in custody later on - will be read out and a wreath laid in their honour.

There will also be bicentennial talks, a touring exhibition of libraries in Pennine Lancashire, and a series of walks following the route the marchers took on their way to smash up the looms.

Thousands of men and women across Pennine Lancashire took to the roads, streets and the factories and destroyed more than 1,100 power looms to send a symbolic message to those in power that they desperately needed intervention.

There had been an economic crisis, people were starving to death and nobody was doing anything to help them.

Three thousand people made their way down from Royton's Mill in Edenfield to what would have been Aitken and Lord's Mill.

When they got there, they were met by the 60th Duke of York's Own Rifles soldiers and cavalry.

There is some conjecture as to whether the Riot Act was read or not - which authorised local authorities to declare any group of 12 or more people to be unlawfully assembled - but then the soldiers opened fire.

At least six people were shot dead by soldiers, many others were injured and died of their wounds.

Some were sentenced for their taking part in the riots at Lancaster Castle.

One of them, Mary Hindle, was sentenced to death, along with thirty-five men and five women.

Her sentence was later commuted to transportation for life to Australia.

Leaving behind her husband and six-year-old daughter, Mary set sail in April 1827 on the convict ship Harmony.

She arrived five months later but took her own life in 1841.

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