Event: Our Sam - The Middleton Man: New community film recognises forgotten Peterloo legend Sam Bamford
Saturday 27 July 2019
1pm
Touchstones Rochdale
The Esplanade
Rochdale
OL16 1AQ
DETAILS:
Radical reformer and writer, Samuel Bamford, is beyond doubt Middleton’s most famous ‘forgotten’ son, having inspired a call for an end to poverty and the beginning of democracy; and having led a group of marchers from Middleton to St Peter's Fields in August 1819, for what was subsequently known as the Peterloo Massacre.
Community media company, REELmcr, produced by Middleton’s Jacqui Carroll, has worked with hundreds of local people over the last two years to make a film that brings Samuel Bamford back to modern day Middleton, introducing him to a whole new generation.
The film, supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, saw young people develop a script, having gone on heritage trails to learn more about Sam Bamford. And the local hero’s real words were used in the subsequent drama, which follows the story of teenager, Samantha, as she brings together the town’s young people to represent themselves in a positive way – with Sam’s encouragement that ‘there’s strength in unity lass’.
Samuel Bamford was a weaver born in Middleton on 28 February 1788 and died 13 April 1872. In 1817 he was imprisoned in the New Bailey Prison in Salford on suspicion of high treason, on account of his political activities. After Peterloo, he was arrested and found guilty of inciting a riot and sentenced to one year in Lincoln jail. He was a writer of poetry and pamphlets, including Passages in the Life of a Radical (1840-1844).
Our Sam The Middleton Man stars Award winning actor Tom Charnock as Sam Bamford.
The film will be shown on Saturday 27 July 1.00pm at Touchstones, Rochdale and Wednesday 14 August at the Outdated Café Middleton, 7.00pm.
01706 924928