28. A Year in the Life of Elizabeth Gaskell’s House
Posted
4th May 2025
in 10 year Anniversary, blog, Blogs & News, Gaskell House Blogs
28 April – 4 May 2025
It was deadline week for our writers in residence and they haven’t disappointed! We have a collection of poems from Princess, a script (which will also be professionally recorded) from Georgia, and a collection of short stories from Guruleen. I would be going into the weekend with a massive smile had I not now got to pull together the content for the exhibition in three short weeks, but I am incredibly happy with the project.
News and information about the upcoming Manchester Festival of Libraries (which includes our exhibition) went live at the start of this week – no pressure – so I really do need to crack on with this. Unfortunately there’s also some big operational things such as our intruder/fire alarms and lift maintenance contracts that also need sorting so it’s not just a case of being able to lock myself away in a room to get them done.
On Friday we welcomed 60, Year 5 children (in two sessions) from Haslam Park Primary School in Bolton. It was lovely hearing and seeing their excitement at visiting the House and handling some of the objects. I love hearing children’s laughter echoing through the House. Thanks to all the volunteers who deliver these sessions and for clearing up the ink afterwards!
We had several volunteer induction sessions this week and look forward to welcoming them to the team in the coming weeks. There was a couple of shifts this week when we were short on volunteers, but we just about managed. All the staff did a few shifts on tickets and the Tea Room this week to plug the gaps – myself included. (I’m writing this whilst covering the ticket desk).
Overall we had another worryingly quiet week on the visitor front although I’m guessing this is down to the very hot weather mid-week. Walking to the station on Wednesday afternoon was like walking into an oven, and although the city (and its inhabitants) did look fabulous in the sunshine, coming into a city isn’t top of the list when the sun comes out. Cake sales were also pretty poor this week as well, so there was cake for volunteers to take home on Sunday.
Whilst the sun shone I managed to get a few videos of the garden looking splendid and shared on our social. The gardeners were all out, watering and weeding in the sunshine on Wednesday and they kindly agreed I could take some of the rhubarb home.
Finally there was prep to be done for our new team member (Gaby) who starts next week. Forms to fill out, contracts to draft and IT to get set-up.
Sally Jastrzebski-Lloyd
