Your Invitation to Celebrate Ten Years of Elizabeth Gaskell’s House
Posted
24th February 2025
in Blogs & News, news
“Oh, I can’t describe my home. It is home, and I can’t put its charm into words.” Margaret Hale, North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell, 1855
Elizabeth Gaskell’s House has welcomed more than 50,000 visitors since its doors first opened in October 2014. Now in our 10th anniversary year, we are celebrating the decade since the beautiful restoration with a range of online events all about house and home… and you are cordially invited!
Kick the season off with a unique online tour by ‘House detective’ Frank Galvin MBE on Wednesday 2 April. This tour is a must for literary and Elizabeth Gaskell fans!
From the Morning Room and Study, to the Drawing and Dining Rooms, you’ll learn about the stories behind this beautiful Victorian villa, where Elizabeth wrote her famous novels, and about celebrity visitors to the house, including Charlotte Brontë and Charles Dickens.
Frank Galvin could often be spotted in his blue hard hat during the restoration. He later became Chair of Trustees and was awarded an MBE in the 2025 King’s New Year Honours for Services to Heritage in Greater Manchester. Book your place on this special tour here
Book Frank’s Restoration Online Tour here.
Elizabeth Gaskell has sometimes been dismissed as a writer of ‘domestic’ literature. The stereotype of the Victorian home is a place of domestic bliss with an angelic woman caring for her devoted family. So, how did Elizabeth portray ‘home’ in her novels and short stories? Did she subvert this ideal or gently endorse it?
Speaker Sherry Ashworth interrogates the meaning of ‘home’ as she looks at literary depictions, both good and bad, across Elizabeth Gaskell’s writing in a new talk on 23 April.
You can enjoy the cosy houses of the amazons of Cranford, step inside the respectable working-class homes in Mary Barton and see the reality of industrial strife and starvation in North and South.
Share your love of literature as we ask, what did ‘home’ mean to Elizabeth Gaskell?
Book Writing Home Online Talk with Sherry Ashworth here.
And if that’s not enough, you can join us on 30 April for a virtual visit to the houses and homes that featured in Victorian classics including Cranford, North and South, Mary Barton, Wives and Daughters and many more. Dr Diane Duffy is back with extracts from Elizabeth’s writing to guide the way from working class homes in the industrial city to country piles in the beautiful English countryside.
Book House Locations Online Talk with Diane Duffy here.
Elizabeth Gaskell was a modern woman in many ways. She managed a hugely successful writing career, was a hands-on mother to four girls and supported her husband’s work. But what was life really like at home in 84 Plymouth Grove?
Take a look behind closed doors at the family and personal life of one of our greatest novelists. How did she mix writing classic works with being a conscientious mother, managing servants, acting as hostess to numerous high profile guests, charity work and a busy social life, all in an age before easily-available paid childcare?
The last in the season of our 10-year themed events is an intimate portrait of Elizabeth Gaskell’s private world on 17 September.
Book At Home with Elizabeth Gaskell online talk here.
And just to squeeze some more into spring, we’re also hosting online workshops (see here for further information), reading groups and our legendary monthly second-hand book sale, alongside our new events season on the classic novel Ruth.
To see the full season’s calendar, click here.
So, you are warmly invited to sit back in the comfort of your own home to celebrate the restoration of Elizabeth Gaskell’s House. What are you waiting for? See you online this April!
