'Holberry' a new historical play at Upper Chapel

St Mark’s Church and By the Book Drama Group are performing a dramatised play reading of a new play about Sheffield’s most famous Chartist revolutionary, Samuel Holberry, written by David Price, author of Sheffield Troublemakers: Rebels and Radicals in Sheffield History.

There is free entry with no ticket required but there will be a retiring collection for the two churches involved. (Admission subject to seating limits).

The play is being performed on the 183rd anniversary of Holberry’s death, which took place on 21 June 1842 in York Castle where he was imprisoned.

This was a time of distress and turmoil in Sheffield. There was a depression in trade and many people were unemployed and impoverished. The Government had recently introduced a harsh new workhouse regime for those who were destitute.

In 1832 the middle classes had been given the vote but the working classes still had no say in the running of the country. The Chartist movement emerged demanding the vote for working class men. In July 1839 the House of Commons turned down the Chartist petition. The Chartists were split into those favouring physical force and those favouring moral force.

In Sheffield, those favouring physical force were led by a forceful young ex-soldier called Samuel Holberry. He was newly married but entirely focused on planning an uprising to begin in Sheffield in January 1840 after which many other towns would join in.

The play traces the twists and turns of Holberry’s plot from the point of view both of the conspirators and the guardians of law and order, leading to a crisis on 11 January 1840, followed by Holberry’s imprisonment and death.

He then became a Chartist martyr. In the 1970s his memory was revived. The cascades in the Peace Gardens are dedicated to his memory.

You are invited to come and enjoy the first performance of this new and dramatic play set Sheffield.