A Christmas Ramble (video)
We had a very jolly, festive get-together on December 1st, as the Society’s Anthony Burton took us on a walk through Victorian Manchester. We recorded his talk and you can […]
Christmas with the Gaskells
With Christmas only weeks away, Dr Diane Duffy looks at how Elizabeth Gaskell prepared for and celebrated Christmas through the years. Despite the fact that Unitarians did not recognise the […]
Elizabeth & Esther – a talk by Sherry Ashworth (video)
That Elizabeth Gaskell knew her Bible hardly needs stating, but what use did she make of it in her fiction? In particular, what use did she make of The Book […]
Marriage and Family Life
Diane Duffy continues her investigation into the lives and families of William Gaskell’s parents. See also Margaret Gaskell and Wiliam Gaskell Senior. The marriage between William and Margaret took place in […]
Researching Unitarian Women – Elizabeth Gaskell’s Unitarian Network
The Rev Dr Ann Peart gave this talk to the Gaskell Society on 6 October 2020. It is now almost exactly 25 years since I came back to live and […]
William Gaskell Senior 1777-1819
Diane Duffy continues her investigation into the lives and families of William Gaskell’s parents. See also Margaret Gaskell. The Gaskell family had originated in Upholland where the records go back […]
A busy society!
We held our Annual General Meeting (over Zoom) in late September 2020 and heard a number of reports about the Society’s activities in 2019. We thought it might be nice […]
The Gaskell Memorial Service, Brook Street Chapel
On Sunday 27 September 2020, the one closest to what would have been Elizabeth Gaskell’s birthday, we laid flowers on her grave and on that of the Gaskell Society’s founder, the […]
Elizabeth Gaskell’s Children – Part 5, Julia
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 […]
Margaret Gaskell 1780-1850
For those of you who have been lucky enough to visit the Elizabeth Gaskell House in Manchester, you may remember a large portrait of a woman hanging in the dining […]