Category Archives: News

Last Saturday, 18 March, the Manchester Evening News ran a 2-page special, featuring our Ed Glinert, linked with the recent Sunday night TV programme SS GB, on the Nazis’ plans for Manchester and the horrific possibility, a rational fear during the War, of an SS GB Manchester.

Our next walk on the subject is on Saturday 20 May, 1.30pm at Victoria Station wallmap. Continue reading →

Talks on the Pankhursts, Religious Manchester, Peterloo…at Gorton Monastery Continue reading →

After a week’s worth of pleading, posturing and postulating we have at last found an ingenious solution for the two messed up tours of Wed 29 November, the Pre-Raphaelites & Murals tour that morning and the regular Town Hall tour that afternoon. Continue reading →

**URGENT**The Pankhurst walk is on Saturday 10, not Thursday 8 Continue reading →

Ed Glinert, who has worked with the legendary campaigning journalist, Paul Foot, and Mike Leigh, director of the soon-to-be-realised film, Peterloo, will be leading a tour this Saturday at 2pm from Central Library: “In Search of the Peterloo Memorial”.

There are a thousand Peterloo stories. These will be going into Glinert’s forthcoming Manchester Encyclopaedia and featured at length on this website in 2019, the year of Peterloo 200. Here’s one:

Lord Castlereagh, the late 18th century Tory politician involved in the subjugation of the 1798 Irish rebellion which brought Ireland under British rule, was by 1819 foreign secretary and leader of the House of Commons. He was vilified by the poet Shelley in the Peterloo poem The Mask of Anarchy in the opening line: “I met Murder on the way/He had a mask like Castlereagh”.

A few years later the public, killed and injured by Castlereagh’s soldiers, got revenge of sorts… Continue reading →

Manchester was the first city of the industrial revolution, the city that shaped the modern world, the industrial strength city.

These are the most spectacular sights to be seen, the great treasures of the city, the 7 Wonders of Manchester, each linked with our tours.
Continue reading →

Most of us have used Manchester Airport, but have you ever walked beside the runway on a carpet of grass, surrounded by fauna and flora?

Following lengthy protests by eco-warriors, Manchester Airport finally opened its second runway in 2000, spending over £17 million on environmental issues. These projects involved diverting the River Bollin, planting 150,000 trees and the creation of ponds stocked with amphibians, as well as bat barns. Since then, the wildlife has been monitored, while being left to survive naturally.

Steve will lead us to explore some of these habitats alongside the active 2nd runway, including the huge tunnel through which the river flows freely, well away from the vehicles on the busy road that we would have left behind earlier.
* Meet 2pm at the Britannia Airport Inn

Bring your binoculars, put on sturdy footwear and waterproofs, to join us on a wildlife walk with a difference.

We will encounter a few steep slopes and numerous stiles along the uneven pathways en route, so this walk is unfortunately inaccessible for wheelchairs or pushchairs. Continue reading →

It’s a bit of a cliché, but the first home-grown popular song to capture the public’s imagination and dent the charts focused on the local rain.

“Bus stop, wet day, she’s there, I say/Please share my umbrella.
Bus stop, bus goes, she stays, love grows/Under my umbrella.”

Now if it dampened the spirits we wouldn’t bother mentioning it, but Graham Gouldman’s lyrical twists made the Hollies’ 1965 release, “Bus Stop”, a worthy opener for our “Manchester in 12 Songs” walk on Sunday 3 July. It starts at 2pm from outside the Visitor Centre in Piccadilly Gardens. Continue reading →

Celebrate the 10th UNICEF Soccer Aid match at Old Trafford. Steve is taking a walk in central Manchester on the history of football – where it all began! We start outside the Malmaison Hotel at 11:30 am – to hear stories about the beautiful game, suitable for all ages – ending at the NationalFootballMuseum at 1pm with time to visit the exhibitions.

Walk £8/£7 child To book please call Steve on 07900 984376 or just turn up. Continue reading →

Move through the First World War on the streets of the city with the heroes of Manchester.
Replay their battles, their poetry, their suffering, and capture a 100 years on the effect of this apocalypse on the men and women who were sent to fight.
Click on Walks Calendar for all June & July Walks Continue reading →