A sponsored walk is taking place to commemorate the handloom weavers uprising which took place in April 1826.

The Weavers Uprising Remembrance Walk is aiming to raise funds the Ramsbottom Pantry, as well as raising awareness about the forthcoming bicentennial of the uprising in 2026, and and the mass starvation of weavers and dependents in East Lancashire during the 1826 economic recession.

The 'weavers uprising remembrance walk' will be representative of the route taken by the handloom weavers during the four-day uprising in April 1826 and will be somewhere between 45-50 miles in total. 

This sponsored walk in aid of Ramsbottom Pantry has been initiated and will be undertaken in full by Dr David Scott, although they will be helped-out along the way by many other people

Between April 24 and April 27, 1826, thousands of weavers walked from town to town across the West Pennines and Rossendale with the aim of deliberately destroying as many power looms as possible in the East Lancashire cotton mills. 

This destruction was part of a co-ordinated and symbolic action to raise political awareness of their extreme poverty and the absence of any government intervention to protect their wellbeing.

Many hundreds of power looms were destroyed over these April days and six people were killed and many others wounded.

Dr David Scott said: "In a time of increased demands for the right to food and the ever-deepening cost of living crisis in UK, it seems more important than ever to recognise the suffering of the East Lancashire weavers nearly 200 years ago and to provide support for local people struggling with food poverty today through organisations like Ramsbottom Pantry."

The Weavers Uprising Bicentennial Committee - which will be formally launched on the first day of the remembrance walk, will aim to lobby the local councils and MPs, and work with local heritage groups and museums to advocate/organise commemorative events over the next four years.

The walk is the first such event and will include the laying of a wreath in Chatterton at noon on April 26 as part of the act of remembrance to all those who died.

The walk will begin near Accrington on April 24 and end just outside Bacup on April 28.

For more information follow the committee on Twitter at @UprisingWeavers.

You can donate to the Ramsbottom Pantry by following this link.