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A visit to the archive at the Manchester Lit & Phil
As a member of The Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, I had been asked to write a piece on our illustrious past member Ernest Rutherford. So there I was at Church House going through the Society’s files when my magpie brain suddenly...
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Volunteers on Tour : Samlesbury Hall
It was a highly entertaining day out for Elizabeth Gaskell's House volunteers at Samlesbury Hall in Lancashire this week, where we were treated to a tour by Janey the witch. Convincingly made up with acne and very bad teeth, Janey brilliantly conjured...
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John Ruskin’s Cravat
Aconite There is a deep blue aconite coming to the end of its flowering in the garden at present. It is almost the same shade of blue as the cravat worn by John Ruskin in the portrait painted of him in 1879...
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“Will you walk into my parlour?”
One of Elizabeth Gaskell's close friends was fellow writer Mary Howitt (1799-1888). Both she and her husband William were key figures in Elizabeth's early writing career. She had written to them in 1838 with an account of a visit by her to...
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Volunteers on Tour: the Church of the Holy Name
It’s a long way theologically, but only a short walk geographically, from Elizabeth Gaskell’s House to the Church of the Holy Name on Oxford Road. A group of 10 volunteers, with staff member Dympna made a visit recently to this large Roman...
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