Celebrating the life and work of Elizabeth Gaskell
Diane Duffy looks tells the story of a tragic drowning in Silverdale in 1850, which echoed a story written by Elizabeth Gaskell three years before. While it would be good to think Elizabeth Gaskell could add the power of a … Continued
The middle years of the 19th Century must have been a great time to be a member of Cairo Street Unitarian Chapel, for not only were plans being developed to change the Georgian Chapel of 1745 into the Victorian Chapel … Continued
‘The Grey Woman’ Published January 1861 in volume IV of Charles Dickens’ All the Year Round January is a dull month after the Christmas festivities, so what could be better than brightening these cold winter days with a good Gothic … Continued
‘The Secret Life of Edward Higgins: The Squire’s Story Published in the Extra Christmas Number of Dickens’ Household Words, December 1853 After looking at some interesting Welsh locations in ‘The Well of Pen Morfa’, I am returning to England for … Continued
In Warrington’s Cairo Street Unitarian Chapel, close to the steps leading to the Priestley Gates, is an obelisk commemorating the lives of William Robson (1812-1902), his wife Anna, and their two sons, William Holbrook and Edwin. Anna is recorded as … Continued
‘The Well of Pen – Morfa’, November 1850 In the autumn of 1850, the year that Elizabeth Gaskell and her family took up residence at 42, Plymouth Grove, Charles Dickens published the second of Gaskell’s contributions to Household Words-‘The Well of … Continued
Gaskell’s last novella, Cousin Phillis, was published in The Cornhill Magazine in 1863, only two years before she died. In this story she returns to her beloved Knutsford, now named Eltham, and her grandfather’s farm at Sandlebridge, renamed Heathbridge. Gaskell’s … Continued
Mary Barton – the book that divided a nation 1848 was the year of revolution. A series of political upheavals took place across Europe. Their aim was ostensibly to remove the old monarchical structures and create independent nation-states. In February, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels … Continued
Every year, on a Sunday close to what would have been Elizabeth Gaskell’s birthday, we head to Brook Street Chapel in Knutsford to lay flowers on the Gaskell family grave and on the grave of Joan Leach, the Gaskell Society … Continued
As part of the Heritage Open Days in 2019, the doors will be open at Cairo Street Unitarian Chapel, Warrington’s oldest Dissenting Chapel. Founded on the same site in 1662, when led by the Revd Samuel Yates Rector of St … Continued