Catalogue Number
NMLH.2012.56
Object Name
Sabre
Place
Manchester
Description
In 1819 blood ran in the streets of Manchester. Sixty thousand had gathered in the city centre to demand the vote and fearing revolution the authorities ordered the arrest of Henry âthe oratorâ Hunt who the crowd had come to hear. With little to protect themselves, eighteen were killed as the Yeoman hacked at and rode over the defenceless crowd. The event became known as the Peterloo Massacre. These two sabres belonged to a Droylsden man who rode with the Manchester Yeomanry at Peterloo in 1819. They were passed down through his family and came into the museum in 2009.
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