Category Archives: News

Calling all Probus/U3A/W.I. groups, works outfits, social societies: book a private tour with New Manchester Walks, an umbrella group of official, trained Blue Badge and Green Badge tour guides. We have created a unique and ambitious programme of tours in and around Manchester.

We have taken thousands around the city in recent years on Peterloo, Pankhursts, Pre-Raphaelite, Castlefield, Ancoats, Town Hall, Salford Quays tours, just to name a few.

We also venture to Knutsford, Macclesfield, Haworth, Hebden Bridge and Liverpool.

We pride ourselves on tours that go that bit further with trenchant analysis, witty anecdotes and original research. You thought that Rolls and Royce met at the Midland Hotel? Hear the real story on our Midland Hotel tour? Think again. You thought that the pillar box on Corporation Street is the one that survived the 1996 IRA bomb? Think again, and in the meantime we look forward to meeting you. Continue reading →

Here’s an exciting new series for everyone interested in Manchester history: “The Story of Manchester in 101 Objects” by Ed Glinert, one of Manchester’s most experienced journalists and writers, in conjunction with those good folk from I Love Mcr.

This is a unique chronological history of the world’s first industrial city…the capital of the North, covering every subject imaginable, every major figure, every important location. It will run throughout 2019. Continue reading →

Let’s have a political start to the year: the year of Peterloo 200.

Here is my open letter to the Conservative Party and the Prime Minister, which I will be sending them, regarding Peterloo.

***

Open Letter to the Conservative Party
from Ed Glinert of Manchester

Dear Prime Minister, Conservative Party Chairman and Conservative Party,

I write this open letter to you from Manchester. My name is Ed Glinert. I am one of the city’s leading historians, most experienced writers, and its most prolific tour guide. This 2019 major commemorations will be taking place on Friday 16 August to mark the 200th anniversary of the most tragic and violent political event in British history, the Peterloo Massacre of 16 August 1819.

That day … Continue reading →

That’s it folks. No more Town Hall for six years but to remember the great days, dramatic architecture, action-packed events, you will soon be able to buy Ed Glinert’s Town Hall book: Manchester Town Hall: 140 Glorious Years. Available soon from all good book shops – and some shops that aren’t that good. Continue reading →

What better way to entertain your social club, historical society or corporate clients than with a private New Manchester Walks tour, talk, walk or canal cruise?

So, calling all members and organisers from the U3A, the National Trust, the WI, Probus, come, book an enthralling and entertaining tour with our enthralling and entertaining guides.

Competitive rates…knowledgeable guides. We have access to the largest group of guides in the North-West. Continue reading →

We hope all our customers and potential customers are well. Understandably we are getting a lot of requests of refunds. Some polite; some not so. I shouldn’t have to say this but at this distressing time it is not acceptable to treat the guide and the concept of a tour as a punchbag. Amazingly New Manchester Walks are actually getting e-mails asking for a refund without that simple piece of politeness and good manners. Continue reading →

If Manchester city council didn’t exist Manchester would still be run by the mediaeval lords of the manor, and the lord of the manor of Manchester would be Max Mosley. What fun that would be: sex orgies, motor racing, but at least no racist leaflets. Well, not any more. But back in 1961, in a by-election in Moss Side, Mosley published a leaflet from 113 Upper Lloyd Street in the heart of the constituency, for the local Union Movement candidate, Walter Hesketh… Continue reading →

In Object No. 2 we learned how Christians were almost certainly present in Roman Manchester, c. 180 ad, long before Rome became Christian, thanks to the accidental finding of a piece of revealing pottery. So it is fitting that Manchester is home to the oldest piece of the New Testament ever discovered, the St John Fragment.

This is a tiny piece of papyrus, only three inches high, Continue reading →

In a thousand years time people will look back on Manchester in the 1970s and 80s, and say how amazing it must have been to be alive when Mark E Smith was alive and how lucky those people must have been to see The Fall live. End of an era.

The Fall were more than just another group. They were an institution. They embodied everything about the Manchester music spirit. They were anarchic, awkward, wildly amusing, incorrigible and effortlessly brilliant.

They took on the music mantle left by Frank Zappa, Can and Captain Beefheart, and twisted it with Northern wit. Who else could write a lyric: “Winston Churchill had a speech imp-p-p-p-p-ediment”? Who else could devise a version of “Jerusalem” that made you weep laughter as the singer tore into the Government – all of them. We will be honouring the main man in our forthcoming music tours. Continue reading →

As Britain’s most political city (sorry, Liverpool), Manchester is the appropriate setting for a festival of protest. Run by the Manchester Histories Festival, it begins this Thursday, 7 June, with Ed Glinert’s Peterloo Massacre talk at the Portico Library and continues with a range of events including a number of popular political protest walks.

Fri 8 June
Seditious Salford, 2pm, People’s History Museum
Marx & Engels pub walk – “Drinkers of the world unite!”, 6pm, St Ann’s church

Sat 9 June
Ten Manchester Speeches That Shook the World, 11.30am, Central Library
The Pankhursts of Manchester, 2.30pm, St Ann’s Church !!SOLD OUT!!

Sun 10 June
The Pankhursts of Manchester, 11am, St Ann’s Church !!EXTRA SLOT!!
The Story of the Peterloo Massacre, Central Library, 1.30pm. Continue reading →