Blogs & News

: Full-day Spinning Workshop

Learn this wonderful traditional craft in a full-day workshop in the inspirational surroundings of Elizabeth Gaskell's House. Inspired by our Ruskin exhibition, we're offering you the chance to learn this ancient skill, as championed and admired by John Ruskin himself. At this day-long workshop, you'll take a seat at a spinning wheel under the guidance of expert woolcraft and textiles tutor, Dee Sayce, and learn to handspin your own colourful and textured yarns using sheep fleece. Your yarn can

: Full-day Weaving Workshop

Learn the traditional craft of weaving in this full-day workshop at Elizabeth Gaskell's House. Inspired by our exhibition on John Ruskin and Elizabeth Gaskell, we're offering this fabulous weaving workshop, where you can learn this ancient art - much admired by Ruskin himself. Join expert woolcraft and textile tutor Dee Sayce, as she teaches you this ancient craft, and create your own sampler, wall hanging or small purse/bag. You will learn: how to set up a simple tapestry

: Performative Talk: Songs of Work in Manchester and Bangladesh

In the neighbourhood of Oldham there are weavers, common hand-loom weavers, who throw the shuttle with unceasing sound Elizabeth Gaskell, Mary Barton There are surprising links between the Lancashire weavers of Elizabeth Gaskell's time, and those of modern Bangladeshi garment workers.  Join Jennifer Reid as she examines Bangladeshi work song and its links to Manchester weaving songs, through an exciting performative talk which will include singing and field recordings. Jennifer is a performer of nineteenth-century broadside ballads and Lancashire dialect

: Elizabeth Gaskell’s Birthday Talk: Elizabeth Gaskell and Gossip

Now to gossip, which of course is a woman's pleasure Extract: letter from Elizabeth Gaskell to George Smith We're celebrating Elizabeth Gaskell's birthday with a glass of wine and a good gossip! The Gaskell Society's Elizabeth Williams will discuss Elizabeth Gaskell's sharp eye and sharper tongue in this fascinating talk on Gaskell and gossip. Is gossip just malicious tittle-tattle, or could it be a compelling kind of story-telling? Find out more, as we delve into Elizabeth Gaskell's writings

: Talk: Peterloo 1819 – 2019

What are the Gaskell connections with Peterloo? Join us to find out, in this fascinating afternoon talk on Peterloo with historian Robert Poole, author of new book Peterloo: the English Uprising (Open University Press), and co-creator of Peterloo, a graphic novel drawn entirely from eyewitness accounts of the time. Robert's talk will mark the bicentenary, in August, of this major episode in the history of Manchester and of British democracy. Come along to meet the author and expert on Peterloo, and to find out more. Robert's