Kersal Moor - Salford, UK
Posted by: 
dtrebilc
N 53° 30.883 W 002° 16.439
30U E 548141 N 5929775
This round plaque on a small concrete slab has information about 2 things from the past on this small piece of moorland.
Waymark Code: WM11Y51
Location: North West England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 01/09/2020
Views: 2
"Kersal Moor is a recreation area in Kersal, Greater Manchester, England which consists of eight hectares of moorland bounded by Moor Lane, Heathlands Road, St. Paul's Churchyard and Singleton Brook...
...The first Manchester racecourse was sited on the moor. The earliest record of horse-racing is contained in the following notice in the London Gazette of 2–5 May 1687:
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On Carsall Moore near Manchester in Lancashire on the 18th instant, a 20£. plate will be run for to carry ten stone and ride three heats, four miles each heat. And the next day another plate of 40£. will be run for at the same moore, riding the same heats and carrying the same weight. The horses marks are to be given in four days before to Mr. William Swarbrick at the King's Arms in Manchester.
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The racecourse is shown on the map of 1848 as a roughly oval-shaped course extending around the west, north and east of the moor, crossing Moor Lane and carrying on around the ground that is now the home of Salford City F.C., roughly following the line of what is now Nevile Road. John Byrom (1692–1763), the owner of Kersal Cell, was greatly opposed to the racing and wrote a pamphlet against it, but the racing continued for fifteen years until, probably through Dr Byrom's influence, they were stopped in 1746, the year of the Jacobite rising. After this there is known to have been at least one race in 1750; regular fixtures recommenced in 1759, and were then held every year until 1846, when they were transferred to the New Barns racecourse...
...In 1848, the moor was used as an encampment for the East Norfolk Regiment as part of an increased military presence in Lancashire brought about by the unrest caused by Chartist agitation.
The largest of a series of Chartist meetings was held on the moor on 24 September 1838. The meeting, which was planned as a show of strength and to elect delegates for the Chartist national convention, attracted speakers from all over the country and a massive crowd, which was estimated at 30,000 by the Manchester Guardian and 300,000 by the Morning Advertiser.
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“ THE GREAT MEETING OF THE RADICALS OF LANCASHIRE (abridged from the Morning Advertiser)
Monday night, half-past six o'clock.
The morning was a lowering one but, notwithstanding this, crowds of persons began to assemble in the streets shortly after daybreak and many processions from the country had arrived by nine o'clock. The various trades of Manchester assembled in Smithfield, and previous to their marching to Kersal Moor, presented a formidable appearance in respect to numbers. The moor is nearly four miles distant from Manchester, and the ground fixed for the meeting is that upon which the Manchester Races take place. The hustings were erected near the Stand-House and in such a position that they were surrounded by an amphitheatre of at least fifteen acres, every person on any portion of the ground being enabled to see all that passed. All along the roads to Manchester the footpaths were thronged to excess, and in the area before the old Collegiate Church, which overlooked the procession, there were many thousands of females assembled. By twelve o'clock one half of the ground was occupied, and the immense multitude even at that time presented a truly awful appearance. Before one o'clock however the ground was completely occupied and the meeting then was certainly the largest that has ever taken place in the British Empire. – not less than 300,000 people could have been present. As the various speakers arrived upon the hustings they were loudly cheered ... – Freeman's Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser (Dublin, Ireland) "
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The Chartists were active for the next eight months but the poor attendance at a second meeting, held on the moor at the same time as a racing fixture on 25 May 1839, signalled the end of the movement. Although the movement was not successful initially, most of the Chartists' demands were eventually met by Parliament."
extracted from this website
Kersal Moor
The Moor was the site of
the first Manchester Racecourse
(c 1687-1846) and the great
Chartist rallies of 1838 and 1839,
when over 30,000 workers met to
demand the right to vote and
the reform of Parliament.