Moors, Fields, and Popular Protest in South Lancashire and the West Riding of Yorkshire, 1800–1848

Abstract

During the late eighteenth and first part of the nineteenth century, certain moors and fields in south Lancashire and the West Riding of Yorkshire were repeatedly used as sites for meetings, demonstrations, and other political gatherings. Historians have recently indicated how rituals, symbols, and texts helped to shape the political culture of radical societies and trade unions in this period. This article argues that the semirural landscape was another, perhaps more enduring, layer to this culture. Luddites, strikers, radicals, and Chartists employed particular sites, not just as venues for political activity, but also as an essential part of the symbol and ritual of protest. Mass meetings on moors and fields were spectacles: liminal spaces where free speech could be expressed and radical histories could be formed. Yet everyday life also influenced the nature of moorland protests. The daily uses and perceptions of landscape could be as significant in shaping inhabitants' political outlooks as occasional set-piece demonstrations. Demonstrations on moors reflected popular defiance of restrictions on public space and wider awareness of the effects of industrialization upon use of the land and communications.