20. A Year in the Life of Elizabeth Gaskell’s House
Posted
3rd March 2025
in 10 year Anniversary, blog, Blogs & News, Gaskell House Blogs
24-28 February 2025
This week we finally got announce our three writers in residency – so there was a lot of emails to answer/copy to check and images to collect at the start of the week – and then I spent /Thursday morning sharing the news across our social media and adding the final touches to our monthly visitor email. It was also lovely to welcome two of the writers back to the House on Wednesday so they could soak up the atmosphere and start to work on their creative responses.
On Tuesday we had a fantastic 40 strong group visit from a U3A group – who were very generous in our gift shop after their tour and refreshments. This makes such a difference!
This week we also took another booking from a student filming project who want to use one of the rooms in their filming project next month. Interestingly we have about three different student groups paying to use one or more of our rooms during March for their degree projects – we can’t work out if they have bene specifically asked to do something ‘period drama’ themed or if its just a trend at the moment.
Ellie and I got to grips with audio editing this week and we added more content to the new Bloomberg connect app (which goes live in April but we have to have finished by 10 March). There wasn’t quite as much swearing at the laptop on my part this week!
Ali Ronan, leader of the Trailblazing Women of Greater Manchester group/movement popped into the House on Thursdays take some of the textiles the group have made and that we currently have on display in Bronte Room. The banners and bunting they group have made over consecutive years will be displayed at two events linked to International Women’s Day (IWD) the first on 1 March at The Mechanics Institute and the second at Manchester Central Library on 8 March. But don’t worry if you haven’t seen them yet – They will then come back to us for the next few months.
As you may be aware form previous blogs we are struggling financially in some areas of the museum, as despite our very best efforts we just can’t keep up with rising costs and visitor numbers still haven’t quite returned to pre-pandemic levels. As a result we held a extra Board meeting on Thursday evening to discuss a new strategy and plan of action for the short and long-term. There are some big challenges we need to overcome but I’m positive that we will some up with a workable plan.
We also had confirmation of large donation that we hope to receive soon along with several new books for the collection, including a much wanted first edition of Ruth!
Sally Jastrzebski-Lloyd
