Understanding the Peterloo Massacre and Its Impact

Much of what we know about Peterloo comes from ordinary people who wrote down what they saw. Mothers shielding children. Workers crushed under horses. Musicians playing as the crowd panicked. In Peter’s Field, we’ve set some of those real accounts to music — not to dramatise, but to honour the people who lived it. This epic musical chronicle is a further development of work first created by Sound Roots UK and @sean_cooney in 2019, as part of the commemorations marking 200 years since the Peterlo