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 founder. We then attend a special commemorative service in the Chapel, this year led by the chapel’s minister, Alex Bradley

Christine Willgoose, of the Gaskell Society committee, laid flowers on the Gaskell grave. Rosemary Donaldson and Janet Kennerley laid floral tributes on Joan Leach’s grave.

Pictures by Clive Heath (click to enlarge).