Gaskell House Blogs

Did you know Julia Gaskell has links to the Manchester and Salford Women’s Trade Union Council?

The minute books of the Manchester and Salford Women’s Trade Union Council have recently been deposited at the Working Class Movement Library, one of our Hidden 8 partners. Lizzie one of our volunteers discovered a connection to Julia Gaskell, Elizabeth’s daughter.

“Manchester and Salford Women’s Trade Union Council was formed by a small group of philanthropists, including C. P. Scott, the editor of the Manchester Guardian and Julia Gaskell, daughter of author and social campaigner Elizabeth Gaskell. The MSWTUC then went onto to be shaped by grassroots activists including Olive Aldridge, Emily Cox, Sarah Dickenson, Eve Gore Booth and Mary Quaile and the many other women and men who worked hard to help women set up their own trades unions and challenge injustice and inequality at work.”

Julia, was born in 1846 (The Gaskell’s youngest daughter), and charmed Charlotte Bronte when she came to stay at Plymouth Grove. She never married but she and Meta, as the Miss Gaskells, carried on the family tradition of entertaining and philanthropy after the death of their parents. Thackeray’s daughter wrote after a visit to Plymouth Grove: ‘O what kind ladies! O what a delicious dinner! O what a nice room!’ Julia died in 1908.

Find out more about the Manchester and Salford Women’s Trade Union Council at The Working Class Movement Library