Ours is a busy society, with a packed social calendar. At our AGM in April 2025, our wonderful Secretary, Pam Griffiths (who holds everything together!), gave her report on a busy 2024.
The first event of 2024 was, of course, our ever-popular New Year Lunch at Cottons Hotel, Knutsford. We awoke to snow, which caused problems for some of our members, but the event was able to go ahead and an enjoyable lunch was much appreciated by all. We were delighted to welcome our friend, the delightful operatic soprano, Rosie Lomas to entertain us after lunch with a varied programme of Burns songs which would have been familiar to Mrs Gaskell.
Knutsford Meetings
Held at Brook Street Chapel and led by Dr. Diane Duffy, these discussion group sessions were run both in-person and over Zoom. Sylvia’s Lovers was the chosen book for 2023-24 season, which ran monthly from January, ending in April.
We reconvened for our new season in the October, with Diane comparing George Eliot and Elizabeth Gaskell. In October and November, we compared The Mill on the Floss and The Moorland Cottage. The question is, did Gaskell influence Eliot?
Manchester Meetings
Held monthly at Cross St Chapel, these meetings were successfully attended.
In February 2024, Anthony Burton spoke on The Victorian House: Elizabeth Gaskell’s House in Context, looking at various aspects of Victorian domestic architecture, showing where Gaskell’s house fits within it.
Our last session of the 2023-24 season, in March, was taken by Jessica Smith, Creative Arts Archivist at the John Rylands Library who looked at the library’s Gaskell and Dickens Collection and the potential for digital scholarship and visualisation.
In October, Kate Raine gave us a brief survey of the life of Edmund Potter, calico printer and philanthropist. He had an illustrious career and was the grandfather of Beatrix and a lifelong friend of William Gaskell.
In November, author Sherry Ashworth looked at how Elizabeth Gaskell, George Eliot and Charles Dickens used biblical heroines to develop their characters.
And finally, in December, Anthony Burton looked at how Elizabeth Gaskell, already enjoying a certain status as the wife of a prominent clergyman, coped with her fame when she became known for her novels and stories.
The 2024 Gaskell Society Conference
The highlight of the year was our Conference, held at Sketchley Grange Hotel, Hinckley in Leicestershire. 56 members attended, not only from England but also from Paris, Toronto, Brussels, Northern Ireland and Wales. Our theme was A Passport to Freedom : Women travellers in the 19th Century. Members enjoyed excellent talks, informative trips, amusing entertainment and catching up with old friends. The hotel was excellent and all in all, a very good time was had. We look forward to the next one (which will be in 2026 – Ed).
London and South East
The London group met in May, September and November. In May, Amanda Ford, looked at Wives and Daughters, drawing on her new book The Significance of Fabrics in the writings of Elizabeth Gaskell.
In September, Hannah Palmer, a PhD student, spoke about her research into abortion and maternal histories in 19th-century literature and culture, exploring these issues in Gaskell’s letters and looked more generally at Gaskell’s role within her community.
In November, writer, researcher and podcaster, Dr Emma Probett spoke on Jane Austen and Elizabeth Gaskell’s 19th Century Novels of Manners:Narrative Experiments and Developments with the community setting.
Other Autumn events in 2024
Our 2024-25 season of talks opened with the Autumn Meeting at Knutsford Methodist Church. Dr Ingrid Hanson delivered the Joan Leach Memorial lecture, Moss and Mosses in Elizabeth Gaskell’s Worlds. It was a different and interesting theme to consider.
The Gaskell Memorial Service was held at Brook Street Chapel, falling, this year, on September 29th, the 214th anniversary of Gaskell’s birth. Flowers were laid on both Elizabeth Gaskell and Joan Leach’s graves before the service.
The South-West group continues to run a discussion group, open to all and appropriately named The Phoenix.
2024 was another busy year for The Gaskell Society, fulfilling its remit to foster and stimulate an understanding of Elizabeth Gaskell’s life and work. Many thanks as always should go to the members for their support, enthusiasm and friendship, on which this Society thrives.
Pam Griffiths