Angela Hunter has created a stunning bronze of two clasped hands to evoke one of the darkest events in Scottish social history.

Entitled the Radical War Memorial and enclosed within a bronze ring, it will be mounted on a sandstone plinth and take pride of place in Bank Street, Greenock where, nearly two centuries ago, eight townsfolk were killed by government-hired militia. The youngest of the victims was eight-year-old James McGilp and the oldest was 65-year-old John MacWhinnie – and it is their hands, clasped in solidarity, which are symbolised in Angela’s work.

The backcloth is the so-called Radical War, also dubbed the Scottish Insurrection, which saw widespread strikes and demands for reform, particularly from weavers impoverished by economic downturn. The unrest spilled into Greenock on Saturday, April 20, 1820, when a party of prisoners was being escorted to the town’s jail by the militia set up to crush the movement.

Locals took to the streets to protest and, on their way back from the jail, the militia responded to insults and stone-throwing by opening fire – killing eight people and wounding 10 others.

In the aftermath of the insurrection in Scotland, six reformers were executed and many others transported to the new penal colonies of Australia.

Among those who opposed the radical movement was Sir Walter Scott on whose advice unemployed weavers from the west of Scotland were put to work paving a track around Salisbury Crags in Edinburgh. The path is still known as the Radical Road.

“It’s a great privilege to be able to cast some light on a part of Scotland’s secret history which we were never taught in school,” said Angela.

The commission, from regeneration firm Riverside Inverclyde, follows a long local campaign led by Councillor Jim Cloherty, depute leader of Inverclyde Council.

And it includes a memorial wall, bearing the names of all those who were killed alongside the words “Remember the 8th of April that bloody day when many were wounded and carried away”, which has been designed by landscape architect James Gordon of Broughton.

A provisional date of September 26 has been set for the unveiling which is expected to receive national media coverage. It is the latest high profile civic space commission Angela has undertaken.

In 2005 she completed five bronze penguins in Dundee city centre and, in 2009, she completed the immense bronze – Turning the Bull – which graces the Heart of Hawick.

In 2013, her bronze bust of rugby commentator Bill McLaren was unveiled at Murrayfield.