ACTRESS Maxine Peake led a moving ceremony to remember the victims of the Peterloo Massacre.

The BAFTA-nominated actress read out the names of the 15 who died in the massacre when they called for Parliamentary change in the early 19th century.

Maxine, originally from Westhoughton, and star of the hit BBC drama Silk, joined hundreds of walkers from Bolton and the rest of Greater Manchester on Sunday as they followed in the footsteps of the campaigners who gathered in 1819 at St Peter’s Fields in Manchester.

Marchers from Bolton set off at 8am and walked the 11.4 miles to St Peter’s Square for the commemoration.

As well as the 15 fatallities, hundreds of people were also injured at the pro-democracy rally when they were charged at by soldiers.

The massacre is seen as a landmark moment in the British democratic movement and the weekend’s anniversary commemorations were organised by the Peterloo Memorial Campaign.

A ceremony was held at 1pm under the red Peterloo plaque at the front of the Free Trade Hall, which is now the Radission Edwardian Hotel in Peter Street.

Maxine’s involvement in the event followed her reading from the Masque of Anarchy at the Manchester International Festival last summer. The poem was written the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley following the Peterloo Massacre.

At the anniversary, she read from Samuel Bamford, a writer who gave an eyewitness account of the massacre.

Chris Chilton of Bolton Socialist Club said: “The walk went very well. We had about 30 people march with us by the time we reached Salford Crescent.

“It was a poignant ceremony. The names and biographies of those who had died were read out and there was a minute’s silence for those who had died.

“It was a simple ceremony to remember those who had fallen, but also a celebration of those people and the rights we have today because of them.”