#heritageofprotest – a history of public space

There have been some great contributions to the #heritageofprotest tag on Twitter this week. Here’s Dave Steele on the protest sites of Birmingham. I like the materiality of the site being carved out of the sandstone.

#heritageofprotest
I have been doing some work on sites of protest in Birmingham and have come up with no less than 18 meetings over 21 years from 1817-1838. Eleven of these were at Newhall Hill a former sandstone quarry on the Colemore Estate which left a perfect amphitheatre pic.twitter.com/h8v2HTMhSD
— dave (@history_dave) May 27, 2020

#heritageofprotest
… ideal for open air meetings was bisected by ‘Miss Caroline’s Canal’, a private branch of the Birmingham & Fazeley navigation commissioned in 1809 by Caroline Colmore to transport sandstone pic.twitter.com/bio3uy1f8D
— dave (@history_dave) May 27, 2020

#heritageofprotest
At an early meeting in 1818 this report honours the police for protecting the orderly meeting from ‘vagabond mountebanks’ disrupting proceedings pic.twitter.com/dMKsIlaAbj
— dave (@history_dave) May 27, 2020

#heritageofprotest
A further meeting was held in September that year in solidarity with the victims of Peterloo
Meetings were also held at the large indoor venue of Beardsworth’s Repository which held a staggering 12,000 people pic.twitter.com/HXHo2yY44W
— dave (@history_dave) May 27, 2020

Birmingham Political Union at Newhall Hill on 25 Jan 1830. The BPU held a monster rally to petition the Lords to pass the 2nd reading of the Reform Bill. Record attendance of 150,000 was cklaimed for the mtg on Oct 3 1831 but the figure was probably closer to 15,000.
— dave (@history_dave) May 27, 2020

#heritageofprotest
There is little to commemorate the significance of Newhall Hill as a site of protest heritage apart from an inaccurate plaque stating that 200,000 Chartist met in 1832 – the word Chartist didn’t appear till 6 years later but that is just splitting hairs . . . pic.twitter.com/PMb9A5z2Zj
— dave (@history_dave) May 27, 2020

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