Meet the Neighbours
After moving into a new house, it is always useful to know your neighbours. I am sure Elizabeth would have already known many of her new neighbours in Plymouth Grove, […]
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 […]
Mrs Gaskell’s Personal Pantheon (video)
This talk was given to the Gaskell Society by Bob Gamble on 19 August 2020. In it, he presents undiscovered biographical information about Elizabeth Gaskell. His research casts fresh light […]
Elizabeth Gaskell and the Cultural Life of Manchester
Manchester was Britain’s first industrial city and in 2017 became a UNESCO’s City of Literature. It has, for nearly 200 years, been a place where art and science, culture and […]
The Shoddy Court Literary & Mutual Improvement Society
Our very good friend, Dr Michael Sanders, Senior Lecturer in C19th Writing at the University of Manchester, is running a virtual reading group via Zoom during the COVID-19 lockdown period. […]
A Tale for Our Times: the Cholera Epidemic of 1832
While we are all locked down, attempting to survive the ever-increasing threat of ‘The Virus’, I thought it might be interesting to share with you an incident in the early […]
Oh my Prophetic Soul!
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 […]
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, […]