Strolling in Moston part 2............ pubs I never visited

Here are the Ben Brierley and the Museum.

Now Andy tells me he has been in both and I wish I had.

The Ben Brierley was named after the Lancashire poet and dialect writer who was born in 1825 and died in 1896.

I first came across him through my old friend Rod Whitworth just as I was becoming aware of that group of self taught working men who wrote poetry, were experts in a whole range of scientific subjects and made important contributions to politics and social thinking.

My own favourite is Richard Buxton who like many of the others lived  an obscure life in and around Great Ancoats Street during the first half of the 19th century.

He worked making children’s shoes and died as he had lived in poverty.

And yet he was an expert botanist whose book on the plants around Manchester is still regarded as an important source of information.*

I wish we had more pubs named after these working men and women who toiled away made great contributions to their community and the wider world and are now largely forgotten.

So I am please that the Ben Brierley is still standing even if it has long ago served its last pint.

As for the Museum this is a place I know nothing about but I bet there is someone who does and I hope will share their knowledge and perhaps even a few stories and pictures.

In the meantime I shall go and revisit that interesting site on Ben Brierly and go looking for that collection of his poetry which I have somewhere and neglected for too long.













Pictures; Moston, 2015 from the collection of Andy Robertson

*Richard Buxton, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Richard%20Buxton

**** Benjamin Brierley, http://www.malcsbooks.com/benjamin-brierley.php