How Manchester came close to a massacre a decade before Peterloo

Years before the Peterloo Massacre, a cavalry charge on unarmed protestors left one man dead

The crowd of handloom weavers watched in silence as the dragoons formed their horses into a long line on the far side of the field in the early evening light.

They could hear the dragoon captain shouting orders before the line finally jolted forward.

The horses came on slowly at first, but in seconds the ground was trembling beneath their pounding hooves …