More than 50 people gathered in Rossendale last weekend to commemorate the 197th anniversary of one of the “most important events in the social history of 19th Century Britain”.
The 1826 Weavers Uprising in East Lancashire was commemorated on Sunday, April 23, in Chatterton Peace Park to remember those from Bury and Lancashire who faced hardship and poverty.
Dr David Scott, the chair of the Weavers Uprising Bicentennial Committee (WUBC), said that the event is one of the “most important” to have happened in the social history of the 19th Century Britain.
He said: “The 1826 Weavers Uprising in East Lancashire and elsewhere across the North of England is one the most important events in the social history of nineteenth century Britain yet today, the reasons why it arose, are largely forgotten.”
The uprising arose after the mass starvation of tens of thousands of people due to low wages, unemployment, inflation and economic depression.
The protest took place over four days from April 23 to April 27 and began at Whinney Hill, Accrington, where thousands of weavers and residents gathered to protest against severe poverty, calling for the destruction of all powerlooms in local mills.
Thousands protested in Oswaldtwistle, Blackburn, Helmshore, Edenfield, Bury and the outskirts of Chorley and nearly 1,100 mechanised power looms were destroyed.
Among those marking the anniversary of the uprising on Sunday this year was the local choir "The Ramshackle Wailers" who sung traditional songs.
Dr David Scott spoke at the event held in Chatterton Peace Park, the site of the 1826 Chatterton Massacre, where soldiers from the 60th Duke of York Own Rifles short dead at least six local people.
He said: “There is a lack of widespread knowledge about the uprising which is also true with regards to the Chatterton Massacre.
“At least six people were indiscriminately killed and many others were seriously wounded when soldiers fired more than 600 bullets towards a crowd of up to 3,000 protestors outside Aitkens Mill.
“The names of those who died should be remembered, as well as the terrible circumstances that followed that blighted the lives of thousands in east Lancashire.
“The uprising was an attempt to protect the handloom weavers way of life and to make sure that their families had enough food to survive.“
Among the documented deaths were James Lord, John Ashworth, James Rothwell, Richard Lund, Mary Simpson and James Whatacre.
Newspaper reports at the time also claimed that the following day, a further three dead bodies were found in the woods next to the River Irwell.
On the Sunday, the WUBC recreated an authentic 19th Century weavers protest, possibly for the first time since the mid-19th Century by the carrying a coffin filled with bread.
In the days following the Chatterton Massacre in April 1826, weavers in carried a coffin filled with bread in a procession at St Georges Field, Manchester.
The carrying of the coffin was symbolic and seen as an anti-starvation protest going back to the time of “food riots” in the 18th Century.
In April 1826, the protest coffin represented those who had died in the famine plaguing the North of England during the great depression of 1825-1827.
The idea was that the coffin should have been empty, whereas the weavers and their families should have been filled with bread, rather than dying of starvation.
Dr Scott said: “There was a long term decline in handloom weaving in East Lancashire and elsewhere after 1826.
"In the year following the uprising, April 1826 to March 1827, there were thousands of premature and avoidable deaths in East Lancashire, including the deaths of many hundreds of children under the age of five.”
The WUBC is now working towards the remembrance and commemorations of 200th Anniversary in 2026.
The group is also looking to generate funds for a lasting memorial for those who died as well as developing new educational resources and artwork.
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