Category Archives: News

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 →

Why is the bee the official Manchester animal? In the aftermath of Manchester’s most awful post-war tragedy the bee is appearing throughout the city as a solidarity symbol and a tattoo choice. The bee is already evident throughout Manchester on municipal structures. In the Town Hall the platform outside the Great Hall is called The Bees and is decorated appropriately. The city’s coat of arms features a globe coated with bees. At Manchester Art Gallery the most famous and admired painting is Work by Ford Madox Brown. So how did it gain prominence? Continue reading →

Next tour: Sun 9 April 2017.
Meet: Outside the Band on the Wall, 1.30pm.

Industry began in Ancoats, a factory hoot from Manchester city centre. In 1700 this had been a semi-rural enclave by the river Medlock, Ancoats Hall home to the lords of the Manchester manor. By 1800 this was a teeming, squalid suburb, blackened with soot, deafened with the noise of thundering machinery, the smell of belching smoke hanging in the air.

The conditions were shocking: the noise of thundering machinery, suffocating air, high accident rates and notorious employment practices at the expense of an emaciated, underpaid workforce slave-driven for unsustainably long hours amidst disease, darkness, damp and desperate heat, living in dingy streets of tiny workers’ houses, jerry-built two-up two down brick boxes standing back-to-back so that as many properties as possible could be squeezed into the smallest of spaces.

The late 20th century saw Ancoats die. The mills shut, the workshops wound down, the canal almost dried up. Now it’s all cleaned up. The mills are modern workshops; the factories smart apartments, while new developments such as the much lauded New Islington project with its funkily named Chips Building and Dutch-styled houses are attracting investment… Continue reading →

Nicholas Mosley, the 7th Baronet Mosley of Ancoats, has died aged 82. Mosley will be unknown to most Mancunians but his connections with the city were strong and severe. His baronetcy of the exciting east Manchester suburb (described in recent social media reports as the “hippest” place in Manchester, or was it Britain, or maybe the rest of the world?) was a subsidiary title of also being Lord Ravensdale. And this was THE Mosley family, who owned Manchester, as Lords of the Manor, for around 250 years… Continue reading →

The Glories & Stories of Manchester – Coach Tour

City sights include the world’s first railway station and the Bridgewater Canal. The glorious Manchester Town Hall, the striking gothic style of John Rylands Library, the University area and the fascinating Gorton Monastery.

East to Sportcity developed for the 2002 Commonwealth Games including the Etihad Stadium of Manchester City FC and the Manchester Velodrome home to Team GB Cycling. West to Old Trafford and the 75000 seater stadium of Manchester United FC, finally to the unique waterside redevelopment of the old docks The Quays.

Spectacular water views and stunning contemporary architecture of Imperial War Museum North and the Lowry Arts centre. The flagship Media CityUK northern home of the BBC, ITV and the new Coronation Street studios. All sitting on the banks of the Manchester Ship Canal the last great engineering feat of the Victorian era.

Tours can be tailored to include a lunch stop, tours of Manchester City FC & Manchester United Stadium, the Velodrome or the BBC Studios, at extra cost and subject to availability. Continue reading →

On 26 November 1867 something strange happened. A woman, Lily Maxwell, voted in the by-election at Chorlton-on-Medlock Town Hall. She cast her vote for Jacob Bright, the Liberal. He won. her vote was then deemed illegal.

How did she get to vote, given it was then illegal for women to vote in parliamentary elections? Continue reading →

• Our popular canal cruise leaves at 11am and includes illuminating one way commentary by the queen of canal guides Salford-born Sue Grimditch, plus the usual great service from the crew of the L S Lowry barge, as we make our way along the Bridgewater canal, through Pomona Lock and onto the Manchester Ship Canal, the Quays and Media City.
• Please book through eventbrite or www.quaytickets.com, 0843 208 0500. Cost: £18.
• Meet at the water’s edge outside the Castlefield Hotel, Liverpool Road, M3 4JR. Continue reading →

We have a new system in place for the autumn and winter and details of our walks, tours, talks and cruises are on-line only.

To find out what’s on and when, please go to our Calendar or you can head to our Walks & Tours tab

PLEASE PLEASE make sure you check the website a day in advance in case of unavoidable late changes.
Read on for further information and for whether or not you need to book to go on our walks and tours. Continue reading →

Many thanks to the histories Festival for organising a wonderful series of events with the theme of protest and democracy this second weekend of June, and now it’s back to tours of a different hue. On Wednesday 13 June Steve Bourne will take you around John Rylands Library (1pm, St Ann’s Church), followed by the Chetham’s/Cathedral double-header at (1.45pm, Victoria Station wallmap). In the evening is our regular and barely believable “Secret History of Manchester”, the tour that has proved such a winner (5.30pm, Visitor Centre).

The following day, Thursday, John Alker will be outlining “Manchester’s 10 Best buildings, a new tour in his own inimitable style (1.30pm, Visitor Centre). 

Steve Bourne is back on Friday to find “The Lost Rivers of Manchester” (Victoria Station wallmap, 5.30pm). We can’t do the Bomb walk this year. On Saturday 16th Steve will be exploring the Grand Canals west (city centre through to Castlefield and beyond, 6pm from Malmaison). His “Welcome to Manchester” tour is at 2pm from the Visitor Centre. Continue reading →