Blogs & News

10 year Anniversary : 34. A Year in the Life of Elizabeth Gaskell’s House

16-20 June 2025 I've not been in the House since Sunday 15 June as I was at the annual AIM (Association of Independent Museums) Conference at the Mary Rose Museum in Portsmouth for 3 nights. With the hot weather returning, we saw our visitor numbers drop once again although perhaps not quite as bad as some days in early May as we also had two private group tours on Tuesday and a school group to welcome on Friday.

blog : Transport on Plymouth Grove

In early May, I enjoyed a volunteer trip to the Museum of Transport, Greater Manchester (MoTGM) with other volunteers from Elizabeth Gaskell's House. (Lizzie, one of our other volunteers, has already reported on the enjoyable volunteer trip to the Greater Manchester Museum of Transport, which you can read here). During the trip, I was keen to try and find out more about the transport options which would have been available to the Gaskell family in their time at

Events : Feisty Females – New Online Course for Autumn 2025

You can enjoy a special treat this autumn. Elizabeth Gaskell’s House is delighted to announce a new online course about feisty females with the ever-popular Dr Sherry Ashworth. So from September you can take a look at literature's feisty females including some of your favourite heroines from classic novels like Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South. Literature is full of impressive female characters and we have picked four of the feistiest from your

blog : A Testament to an American Soldier

From 1861 to 1865 the American Civil War raged and has since been described as one of the most destructive wars of all time. It is now estimated that 2% of the population – over 620,000 men – lost their lives in the conflict. One of those men was Robert Gould Shaw. His untimely death moved Elizabeth Gaskell to write to his mother in August 1863, 'My Dear, Dear Mrs Shaw – You cannot think how our hearts

Blogs & News : Your Invitation to Celebrate Ten Years of Elizabeth Gaskell’s House

“Oh, I can’t describe my home. It is home, and I can’t put its charm into words.” Margaret Hale, North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell, 1855 Elizabeth Gaskell’s House has welcomed more than 50,000 visitors since its doors first opened in October 2014. Now in our 10th anniversary year, we are celebrating the decade since the beautiful restoration with a range of online events all about house and home… and you are cordially invited! Kick the season off with