William Robson – Warrington’s Abolitionist
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 […]
This Month in Writing – November
‘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 […]
Cousin Phillis
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 […]
This Month in Writing – October
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 […]
Samuel Gaskell – Warrington’s forgotten pioneer in the treatment of mental health
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, […]
This Month in Writing: ‘An Accursed Race’
We all think of Elizabeth Gaskell as a brilliantly entertaining storyteller, whom Dickens addressed as ‘my dear Scheherazade’. But how many of us know her works of non-fiction? One interesting […]
The Gaskell Revival
Elizabeth Gaskell, the wife of a Unitarian minister of religion in Manchester, shared her husband’s interest in literature: they published some jointly written verses in 1837. Elizabeth became a best-selling […]