37. A Year in the Life of Elizabeth Gaskell’s House
Posted
14th July 2025
in 10 year Anniversary, blog, Blogs & News
7-11 July 2025
After the excitement of the exhibition launch last week, I must admit I was feeling a little frazzled at the start of the week, not helped that it was my birthday over the weekend, as well. There seemed to be an awful lot on my to do list, all with impending deadlines.
Most urgent on the list was the marketing material for the summer holiday artist/writer workshops we are running, thanks to funding from Museum Development North during August. The major deadline being that we need to get flyers to local schools before they finish for summer. By Friday morning the flyer was at the printers (phew) and we had a plan for the rest.
After being focused on the new exhibition for the past few weeks, I also had quite a lot of building management things to catch-up on – not exactly my favourite part of the job. It’s unbelievable how much time it takes contacting people/organisations repeatedly. This week I needed to get the mid-year guttering clean booked in asap, get two quotes for a new company to take over maintenance of the lift (and to carry out some upgrade work) and contact someone at BT about adjustments to our contract. As I look at my list on Friday morning it’s only the lift quotes that I’ve had luck with – no-one else seems to want to reply to my emails or call me back.
But it’s not all paperwork and navel-gazing – we/I did have a scattering of things to celebrate and laugh about. Firstly my article about Oasis and Elizabeth Gaskell was picked up by a few Manchester media platforms (we are not alone in jumping on the bandwagon), Oasis opens in Manchester on 11 July. And the music video filmed at Elizabeth Gaskell’s House from Manchester Band, The Guest List, went live on Wednesday (see below). I also had several really interesting meetings (not in the House) with our supporters and partners, including one at Manchester Art Gallery* and another at the John Rylands Library discussing 100 year anniversary ideas for celebrating/acknowledging the 1928 Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act which granted women the right to vote at the same age and on the same terms as men.
Amidst my meetings and to do list we also had a small private tour on Monday, a wedding on Friday (with cows as the cake toppers) and the usual open days on Wednesdays and Thursdays, which with the return of the hot weather were fairly quiet. Worth noting however that Sunday 6 July had been very busy so we were a little disappointed with numbers this week – although it was lovely to see those who came engaging with the new exhibition. We also were good on volunteers numbers this week so I only had to cover the front desk once during a lunch break on Thursday.
Gaby, Lynda and I managed a quick planning meeting about Christmas on Wednesday with actions for us all to do over the coming weeks. Considering the sun was blazing outside we were all very Christmassy in our ideas. One thing we will be doing is asking our volunteers to join a working group and will also be seeing what they think about dressing-up in some form during the festivities. (mentioning it here to see if anyone reads this so they can tell me personally). Also got time to catch-up with Ellie about her to do list for the next few months including the July Friends newsletter and feedback survey (which went out on Monday) and the Cultural Welcome Week in the autumn for students. It’s not surprising that it feels like we are several months ahead of ourselves!
Sally Jastrzebski-Lloyd
*Got to say hello one of my favourite paintings at Manchester Art Gallery – The Dinner Hour, Wigan by Eyre Crowe (which features on a fair few editions of Mary Barton). Do other people say hello to specific paintings when they are passing or is this just me?
