Hexham's a riot

Jun 16 2004 By Tony Henderson, The Journal

Scapegoat needed

According to Tom Corfe, the authorities were wary of further inflaming a tense situation after the riot with widespread arrests.

But a scapegoat was needed as an example and that fate fell to one of the leaders of the Morpeth protests. He was Peter Patterson, a prosperous farmer aged 73, who was executed.

Another unlucky individual who was made an example of was farmer's wife Jane Longstaff, who had walked the 16 miles to Hexham with Throckley pitmen.

She was jailed for three months and fined a shilling.

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Events

Saturday's event lasts from 10am-4pm.

There will be 18th Century town tours by the Hexham Guild of Guides at 10am, noon and 2pm with traditional dance displays at 10.30am and 11.30am and a Northumbrian piper at 12.30pm and 1.30pm.

The re-enactment begins at 3pm with the plaque unveiling at 3.50pm and choirs at 4pm.

Beaumont Street will have period-style market stalls, while a display of family links with the riot will be on show in the north transept of Hexham Abbey.

A riot exhibition will be staged in the foyer of the Queen's Hall and the Abbey grounds will host a militia encampment and traditional games.

In the grounds at 10am and 1.45pm there will be military drill and musket firing. At 10,30am, 12.30pm and 2.30pm poet Keith Armstrong will give readings accompanied by a Northumbrian piper.

At 11.15am and 12.15pm there will be displays by the British Association for Historical Swordplay and at 11am a drama on the riot by Hexham Middle School.

Northumberland Community Choirs will perform at 11.45am, 12.15pm, 12.45pm and 1.15pm.

The day will wind up with a ceilidh featuring Hedgehog Skin at 7.30pm in the Wentworth Leisure Centre.

Tonight at 7.30pm Tom Corfe and Anna Rossiter will give readings from riot eyewitness accounts at Queen's Hall when Tom's book on the subject is launched.