Page "Blanketeers" Paragraph 8

On 10 March 1817 around 5, 000 marchers, mainly spinners and weavers, met in St. Peter's Field, near Manchester, along with a large crowd of onlookers, perhaps as many as 25, 000 people in total.

Each marcher had a blanket or rolled overcoat on his back, to sleep under at night and to serve as a sign that the man was a textile worker, giving the march its eventual nickname.

The plan was for the marchers to walk in separate groups of ten, in order to avoid any accusation of illegal mass assembly.

Each group of ten carried a petition bearing twenty names, appealing directly to the Prince Regent to take urgent steps to improve the Lancashire cotton trade.

The organisers stressed the importance of lawful behaviour during the march, and Drummond was quoted as declaring: " We will let them see it is not riot and disturbance we want, it is bread we want and we will apply to our noble Prince as a child would to its Father for bread.

" Nevertheless, magistrates had the Riot Act read, the meeting was broken up by the King's Dragoon Guards, and 27 people were arrested including Bagguley and Drummond.

Plans for the march were thus in confusion, but several hundred men set off.

The cavalry pursued and attacked them, in Ardwick on the outskirts of Manchester and elsewhere, including an incident at Stockport that left several marchers with sabre wounds and one local resident shot dead.

Many dropped out or were taken into custody by police and the yeomanry between Manchester and Stockport, and the majority were turned back or arrested under vagrancy laws before they reached Derbyshire.

There were unconfirmed stories that just one marcher, variously named as " Abel Couldwell " or " Jonathan Cowgill ", reached London and handed over his petition.