Beyond Peterloo: Elijah Dixon and Manchester’s Forgotten Reformers

ELIJAH DIXON played a key role in the Blanketeer’s March of 1817. Arrested, chained in double irons and imprisoned without trial, the episode set the stage for the Peterloo Massacre. Everybody in Victorian Manchester knew of Elijah Dixon. Over a period of sixty years, he was an ever-present force in the tumultuous politics of the town. He worked alongside the great figures of nineteenth century Radicalism, and as ‘The Manchester Man’ he became the town’s ambassador for Chartism. An early apostle of votes for women, Temperance advocate, Christian convert, Dixon rose from poverty to make a fortune as Britain’s first mass-producer of matches. In Beyond Peterloo, Robert Hargreaves and Alan Hampson bring Elijah’s previously overlooked yet vital contribution to social reform to life. Set against the backdrop of the Blanketeer’s March of 1817 and the Peterloo Massacre of 1819, they reveal the fascinating story of his life and work as Manchester’s forgotten reformer. AUTHORS: Robert Hargreaves, retired journalist and solicitor, and Alan Hampson, retired computer analyst, are neighbours living in New Moston, a north Manchester suburb founded by Elijah Dixon. Keen historians, they chanced upon on scraps of information about Dixon’s imprisonment, dug deeper - and resolved to tell the tale of a lost local hero. Sharing a passion for railways they were delighted to discover Dixon’s role in the coming of the railways, as well as his pervasive influence on events which shaped their city and neighbourhood. This is their first book. 25 illustrations