Peterloo Massacre

On this day in 1820, a Radical Insurrection swept across ScotlandWhen the Napoleonic Wars came to an end in 1815, Radical politics was at a low ebb across the British Isles.

Born today in 1770, Sir Francis Burdett, 5th Baronet of Bramcote, was a radical you might not have expected. The decades either side of 1800 – the so-called 'Age of Revolutions' – were a time of closed ranks for the European aristocracy.

I had an epiphany the other day. It wasn't at all to do with religion, no. This one was about a combination of radical politics a nd Manchester town centre!