RECORDING ACCESS – Christmas Travel in Elizabeth Gaskell’s Day

Elizabeth Gaskell liked to spend Christmas quietly by her fireside.  But around her, Victorian people showed increasing seasonal mobility.   Children came to celebrate with the family:  “Home for the Holidays” was a recurrent theme, featuring exuberant schoolboys in stage-coaches.  Then came the railways, with special trains even on Christmas Day.  Food was also on the move: at home the beef or turkey on the table had probably walked to market, and Christmas fruits came from the Mediterranean, the tropics, China.  Finally, from the safety of their armchairs, Victorian readers liked to discover from the media how a traditional British Christmas was celebrated at the remote ends of the empire and beyond.

Anthony Burton, after degrees in English literature, worked as a curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, specialising in the visual and literary culture of the Victorian period. He’s an active member of the Gaskell Society Committee and is currently editor of the Gaskell Society newsletter. He’s the author of a number of publications for the Society, including Christmas with the Gaskells, Elizabeth Gaskell: Homes and Haunts and Elizabeth Gaskell, Manchester’s Versatile Storyteller.

Your ticket will give you access to an online video recording, which you can view on the Gaskell Society website. We’ll leave the video online for viewing until 31 December 2025.