Blogs & News

: NEW Creative Writing Workshop

**** The January session has now sold out - spaces still available on other months ****   Inspired by our current exhibition, Household Commotion, this new creative writing course, led by poet Dr Rachel Sills, will run over five months, and give you the opportunity to try different forms of writing: flash fiction poetry experimental writing character sketch monologue. Session One, on January 23 will be Flash Fiction. Using the Victorian household objects, the histories of the House's

: The Victorian Christmas – Friends Event

The Victorian Christmas Join the Friends of Elizabeth Gaskell's House for a Victorian Christmas in a day of illustrated talks by Anthony Burton, including a lunch of Christmas Pie (vegetarian option available) with trimmings and a Tea of Twelfth Night cake and mince pies. Find out how the Victorians re-invented Christmas customs and introduced the Christmas Tree as a new fashion in the 1840s, along with new ways of decorating the home for Christmas. Hear how literature was also

: Remembrance Sunday Poetry Reading

Join us in the Dining Room at 12.30pm for a short poetry reading to mark the centenary of the Armistice and to remember and honour those who have sacrificed themselves to secure and protect our freedom. Thank you to Andrea Ellis for doing the poetry reading. Included in admission. At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, we will remember them. Laurence Binyon - 1914

: Easter at Elizabeth Gaskell’s House

Join us for Servant School, Easter crafts and family activities in the beautifully restored home of Manchester’s most famous Victorian author. "There was Easter proper, which always required new clothing of some kind, for fear of certain consequences from little birds, who were supposed to resent the impiety of those who do not wear some new article of dress on Easter-day…So piety demanded a new bonnet, or a new gown" Elizabeth Gaskell, from Wives and Daughters Sunday 7

: Half-term Family Crafts

Join us for family crafts on Wednesday during half-term, from 1-3pm. We'll be making quill pens and using home-made ink to write our own Victorian-style letters, just like the letter in our servants exhibition, written to Elizabeth Gaskell's stable boy, Will Preston, and found tucked away in the eaves of the House during renovations. Come along, make a quill, and be inspired to write a letter of your own!      £1 per child with adult paying house