Blogs & News

blog : Volunteer trip to Royal Northern College of Music Archives and Museum

A group of volunteers recently enjoyed a fascinating trip to RNCM’s archives and museum of historical musical instruments. Archivist and Museum Manager Heather Roberts showed us some gems from the collection relating to Meta Gaskell, Elizabeth Gaskell’s daughter. Meta was closely involved in what was originally the Royal Manchester Music College from its inception. In the record book of subscribers to set up the college in 1892, the very first slip reveals Meta’s signature and record of her

blog : Elizabeth Gaskell’s Children – Part 5, Julia

witty and wild and clever and droll, the pet of the house Julia Bradford Gaskell 1846-1908 Julia Bradford Gaskell was born in September 1846, the year after her brother William died and while the family was still living at 121, Upper Rumford Street. She was four when their new life began at 42 (now 84) Plymouth Grove. Elizabeth’s youngest daughter was named after Julia Emma Bradford, formerly Taylor, the wife of an American merchant who lived for a

blog : Elizabeth Gaskell’s Children – Part 3 Florence Elizabeth

Florence has no talents under the sun; and is very nervous and anxious... Florence Elizabeth Gaskell 1842-1881 Florence, or Flossy as she was affectionately called, was born in October 1842,  just after the family’s move from 14 Dover Street to 121 Upper Rumford Street, a larger house further from the industrial centre of Manchester and nearer to the open the fields which the family could see from their windows.  Florence was, despite the comments made by her mother

blog : Elizabeth Gaskell’s Children – Part 2, Margaret Emily

Untidy, dreamy, and absent; but so brim full of I don’t know what to call it... Margaret Emily Gaskell 1837-1913 Margaret Gaskell, known as Meta, was born two and a half years after Marianne. In her diary for December 1837, Elizabeth writes: “Meta; 10 months old on the 5th of this month. She has a much more passionate temper than Marianne, perhaps much livelier. She is very bright and saucy when all goes right, and very affectionate.  The

blog : Elizabeth Gaskell’s Children-Part 1, Marianne.

…such a sense of duty and she obeys her sense Elizabeth Stevenson married Rev. William Gaskell at St John’s Church, Knutsford in 1832 and on 10th July 1833 she gave birth to a stillborn girl. Jenny Uglow writes in her biography “She saw the baby but did not give her a name.” This early death of a child had a huge impact on Elizabeth and in July 1836 she wrote a sonnet ‘On visiting the Grave of my