Reform

The Government's strategy of repression and Loyalist propaganda largely succeeded in stamping out the radical cause. However, in the 1810's, the Government’s persecution of the reformists and repeated failings to address the issues of low wages and high food prices contributed to the reform movement winning mass support for the first time.

The reform movement was greatly bolstered by the renewed support of the handloom weavers. Wages had dropped significantly and the strike in 1819 had failed to secure a lasting rise in pay. Despite having previously distanced themselves from the radicals, by the end of the year they had turned to the cause of Parliamentary Reform to improve their condition.

In 1819 there was a rapid escalation of radical activity and a rash of reform meetings was breaking out across Lancashire. The Government was greatly alarmed by large scale public meetings, regarding them as signifiers of an impending revolution. Among these meetings, some of the most celebrated were held at Stockport on Sandy Brow.

On February 15th, the first meeting at Sandy Brow was called for "considering the propriety of remonstrating with the Prince Regent". According to Steve Cliffe's Stockport: History and Guide, Sandy Brow encompassed the area from Duke Street to Stopford House, just a stone's throw from where Stockport library now stands.

An account of the meeting was given in the Manchester Observer and reprinted by Black Dwarf, a prominent radical journal (left). The article refers to the recent increase in radical activity and the anxiety of the authorities:

"The political information so recently spread among the great bulk of the people, has produced an effect at which both Whigs and Tories are astonished. They start at finding politicians in every village and orators in every town, that shame the boasted talents of wealth and education. They see the public meetings, which they had hoped to destroy by their absence, conducted with more skill, more temper, more sense and more effect than ever distinguished those at which they attended."

The Observer refers to the presence of the authorities, the “profligate engines of despotism”, and indicates their intention of breaking up the meeting “under the command of the ALL POTENT Nadin”. Nadin was the chief police office in Manchester and despised by local radicals.

The speakers retired to the Windmill Room escorted by a cheering crowd and a group of military led by the Rev. Prescot, magistrate and rector of Stockport. The Riot Act was read in order to disperse the crowd but they refused to move, even after Harrison instructed them to do so.

The Riot Act was an act of Parliament that authorized local authorities to declare any group of twelve or more people a 'riotous and tumultuous assembly' and arrest them unless they dispersed within an hour of the act being read.

The Act was read again and the crowd started to leave, "but rallied the following hour and, we understand, gave their opponents such a drubbing, as they will have cause to remember to the last moment of their disgraceful existence" (The Black Dwarf, p116). . After the third reading of the riot act the crowd finally went home, singing the popular song "Millions be Free!”.

The protesters seem to have been completely unconcerned by the authorities' attempts to assert power, causing them a great deal of embarrassment.

Let ages yet unborn hear, when and how,
The sons of freedom fought on Sandy brow.

Letter from Lloyd to Hobhouse, Under Secretary of State, dated 16 Feb, 1819. National Archives HO 42/184.

Letter from Norris to Lord Sidmouth dated 20th Feb, 1819. National Archives HO 42/184

Rev. Harrison gave a speech to encourage donations to a subscription for the relief of the radical leaders Bagguley, Drummond, and Johnson, who had been arrested after the reform meeting of September 1st. When Harrison had finished speaking, a number of the sheriff’s men on horseback entered the ground, striking the audience as they went and attempted to seize the Cap of Liberty (left):

"It was indeed, laughable to see one stout fat fellow…address the Chairman in these words: “I-I-I de-de-demand th’-th’-th’-at Cup-Cap of Li-Li-Li-berty – in th’-th’-the name of the K’-King!!!”. At this instant, a countryman stepped forward, and exclaimed: “Thou art not the first scoundrel that has told a lie in the name of the poor Old King, and I should na wonder if thou’s been stuffing thy guts at his expense now , so tak' this toothpick, at the same moment the countryman gave Sir John a most unwelcome salute on the left ear with a stout ash-plant [...]"

"Stand firm", was the order of the day, and the air in an instant was darkened with nature’s ammunition, brick bats, stones and mud. [...] The horses, with ten-fold more sense than their riders, unwilling to face "the pelting storm", galloped from the ground, and all the foot-pad crew that were enlisted for the Sandy Brow Expedition were driven before the majesty of the people with the rapidity of lightning." (The Black Dwarf, p115).

The Cap of Liberty was adopted by English radicals as a symbol of revolt against the establishment in homage to the French Revolutionaries who wore the "bonnet rouge" in order to signify their allegiance to the Revolution.

In a letter to the Under Secretary of State, magistrates clerk and sworn enemy of the reformers John Lloyd reports the events (left):

"The Reformers advertised a meeting for the 8th

February to take place at Stockport but owing to the Royton Meeting postponed it to the 15th (yesterday). Having an intimation that the Cap of Liberty was to be brought in from Manchester – I got ready with 2 or 3 men to take it on the bridge but it was smuggled in I suppose for after the orators had been some time on the stage and collected numbers to give them sufficient confidence they hoisted the Cap upon the pole of one of their flags – “The Rights of Man” the other “No Corn Bills" [...]

when the military had marched off the mob

reassembled & fell on a few constables with whom was my younger son whom they got down and attempted to kill – They succeeded in punishing him for the love they bear the father – of such cowardly materials are Reformers made but I do wrong to call them by so mild a name – They are traitors & Revolutionists – and I am enabled to prove what I say – They are now organising for a Revolution."

Acting as an agent for the government, Lloyd observed radical activity in Stockport, assembling a group of spies to infiltrate reformist organisations and sending regular reports to the Home Office. Lloyd's letters document in great detail the history of Stockport radicalism and are notable for Lloyd's expressions of intense contempt for the "Revolutionists". The letters can be found at the National Archives.

This letter from James Norris, the Manchester stipendiary Magistrate, to Home Secretary Lord Sidmouth expresses regret for the attempt to confiscate the Cap of Liberty:

"The affair which ensued by the appearance of a party to seize the Cap of Liberty was unfortunate and particularly as it gave the multitude an apparent air of triumph and no doubt several of the men who made the attempt were severely hurt - and one or two nearly killed [...]

The wages of the weavers are at present extremely low and if the principles held out on these occasions are pursued it can have but one conclusion in some serious public disturbances throughout the country."

Norris recognised that the authorities had overreacted and scored an own goal at Sandy Brow. The protesters' defence of the Cap of Liberty and defiance of the Riot Act turned an otherwise unremarkable meeting into a momentous triumph of the radicals over the authorities and provided encouragement for further acts of civil disobedience.

The story of Sandy Brow was celebrated by the well-known radical writer Samuel Bamford in the poem "The Fray at Stockport, written in 1818" (right).

The Fray At Stockport

Ha! han they ta'en our cap and flag?
Whot! han the Dandies ta'en 'em?
An' did Reformers' courage lag,
An' could they not regain 'em?
An.' did the Gentles ride so gay,
Wi' Birch and Loyd afore 'em,
To sweep the 'Gruntin herd' away,
Or bravely gallop o'er 'em?

O! whot could ston' afore the might
O' Yeomanry so loyal?
Who coom to drive the 'herd' aright,
An' would ha' no denial;
Until the stones began to fly,
An' yeds began a crackin',
An' then the Gallant Yeomanry
Wurn fain to find a backin'.

But furst coom Birch, the deputy,
Our cap and flag demandin';
I'faith, afore he'd said his say,
The lubber lost his standin'!
For up there step'd a lusty lad,
An' knock'd his shanks fro' under;
An' laid his shoon into his ribs,
Which made him gasp an' wonder.

An' then came one o' Nadin's cubs,
An' he essay'd to take it;
But Mister Bang y geet his dubs,
Which made him soon forsake it,
For Saxton blun'd his thievin' e'e,
An' gan' his jaw a welter,
Which made 'right about' to flee
As fast as he could skelter.

Then amblin' up the 'Gemmen' came
Towards the front o'th' hustin';
But soon their folly did they blame,
The 'rabblement' for trustin';
For sticks wurn up, an' stones they flew,
Their gentle bodies bruisin',
And in a hurry they withdrew
Fro' sitch unmannert usin'.

Then preawdly let our banner wave,
Wi' freedom's emblem o'er it,
And toasted be the Stopport lads,
The lads who bravely bore it.
An' let the 'war-worn' Yeomanry
Go curse their sad disasters,
An' count, in rueful agony,
Their bruises an' their plasters.

On the 28th June, Sandy Brow was home to one of the greatest ever radical meetings in the Manchester area with a crowd that numbered "upwards of 20,000 people"(The Black Dwarf, p440). This huge audience was composed of a number of smaller groups that had marched in processions from surrounding towns carrying banners emblazoned with radical slogans.

Local radicals had been angered by Sidmouth’s refusal to present the "Manchester and Stockport Remonstrances of January and February" to the Prince Regent. The meeting was called to decide the best way to bypass the Government and get the petition to the Throne, and to make "A solemn appeal to the People of Great Britain, praying them to join us in forming a NATIONAL UNION."

The guest of honour was Sir Charles Wolseley, the "Radical Baronet". He set the tone of the meeting by referencing the first Sandy Brow meeting, the victory of the protesters over a "lawless banditti [...] and instead of wresting from your hands your Cap and Banner, they have rendered the name of Sandy Brow sacred to the cause of Liberty’ [cries of 'Bravo, Bravo! Hoist the Cap', vociferated from thousands]" (The Black Dwarf p442).

The events of the 15th of February seemed to have emboldened local reformists, and the presence of Wolseley suggests that Stockport was becoming increasingly regarded as an important site of national Radicalism.

Wolseley was one of the founders of the original Hampden Club, a radical debating society formed in London in 1812. A member of a very old and very rich Staffordshire family, Wolseley often donated money to reformers that had been imprisoned. Wolseley’s standing in radical circles was high enough that he was elected "legislatorial attorney" for Birmingham. In 1819, reformers adopted the measure of electing representatives for towns unrepresented in Parliament. This cartoon satirises the Birminghamites attempt to create their own brass-founders, depicting a group of brass-workers making an effigy of Wolseley.

Perhaps emboldened by the air of celebration, the language used by speakers became increasingly wild. Wolseley denounced the Government in the strongest terms, instructing the informers in the audience:

“tell Sidmouth Castlereagh and the mountebank George Canning that there is no love lost between themselves and the PEOPLE OF ENGLAND for these gentry have long since shown their hatred to the labouring classes we the ‘lower orders’ must in just retaliation declare that we not only hate, but we despise and abominate them all alike that we do not intend to suffer hatred to exhaust itself in idle Words."

Saxton, the orator and writer for the Manchester Observer, likewise railed against the now deceased ex-Prime Minister, calling him “that infernal Monster Pitt".

It was the Reverend Harrison, however, that made the most objectionable comments, regarding the futility of the people “petitioning their own servants for a portion of their rights”, he argued that:

“If the people are to petition at all let them petition either of the two branches the Throne or the Lords; and indeed, if we could only get to the former, it would have this effect it would decide a point in many unbelievers, whether the seat of royalty was or was not occupied by a pig or a man.”

Prince George was notoriously fat, a characteristic that radical satirists like William Hone tended to lampoon. He was also known for an excessive lifestyle and extravagant spending at a time when the Napoleonic Wars were imposing huge taxes on the people, perhaps explaining why Harrison suggested that the Prince Regent may have been confused with a pig.

The meeting was a resounding triumph, as John Lloyd confesses in a rather melodramatic letter to Hobhouse:

“We are forever disgraced, and if the Cap of Liberty has any symbolic meaning the Revolution has actually commenced. The effect cannot easily be done away with".

Stockport radicals were on the rise and gaining the support from a wide range of inhabitants, to the considerable alarm of the authorities. The Government, fearing an imminent revolution, was prepared to sanction any measures necessary to prevent a potential uprising.

SANDY BROW

The Black Dwarf, February 24th 1819, p114.

Resources

Robert Walmsley. Peterloo: the Case Reopened, 1969.

Donald Read. Peterloo: the Massacre and its Background. 1958.

T.J. Wooler. The Black Dwarf, 1819.

Notice of the Riot Act. National Archives HO 42/10.