The beer festival .......the swing band and an apology

Now, the 12th Didsbury Beer Festival was a success.

The Swingin' Affair Big Band

There were lots of people there, and lots of them had travelled some distance to enjoy the event.

Leaving aside those of us who had taken the tram from Chorlton, along with those who had crossed the city from the north, there were beer fans from Yorkshire, Somerset and the south east.

And I doubt anyone was disappointed by the range of beers on offer, or the wonderful Swingin’ Affair Big Band, which were everything Andrew Holland told me they would be.

Andrew Simpson, Andrew Simcock, and Peter Topping

Peter and I were there from just after midday and within the space of a few hours the venue was full, and plenty of people showed an interest in our new book, Manchester Pubs – the Story Behind the Doors- Didsbury.

And here I have to offer up an apology to Andrew Simcock, who supplied some excellent photographs of the Royal Oak, and as ever we were careful to acknowledge Andrew in both the credits and again in the story.

But somewhere along the line those credits disappeared, and it remains a mystery, for which as the author I have profusely apologized to Andrew.

Emmeline Pankhurst

And as these things go I know Andrew will not have made the same mistake with his new book, First in the Fight,  which is out later this month, which began as an account of the project to create a statue of Emmeline Pankhurst, and developed into much more.

According to the press release, First in the Fight has been “written by Helen Antrobus and Andrew Simcock, and with 20 individual Women in Print illustrations, First in the Fight tells of a city where, from the women who marched to St Peter’s Field flying the flag for reform to the first entrepreneurs, women have stood shoulder to shoulder in the fight for equality and change.

First in the Fight has been on a fascinating journey of its own, beginning with the public campaign championed by local councilor Andrew Simcock that led to the creation of the Emmeline Pankhurst statue, that now stands in St Peter’s Square in Manchester.  

All 20 women featured in the book were also part of the campaign, with their stories united by historian and author Helen Antrobus in First in the Fight.  

First in the Fight

The stories featured in First in the Fight are those of Margaret Ashton, Lydia Becker, Louise Da-Cocodia, Margaret Downes, Elizabeth Gaskell, Annie Horniman, Sunny Lowry, Kathleen Ollerenshaw, Emmeline Pankhurst, Christabel Pankhurst, Sylvia Pankhurst, Mary Quaile, Elizabeth Raffald, Esther Roper, Enriqueta Rylands, Olive Shapley, Shena Simon, Marie Stopes, Ellen Wilkinson and Emily Williamson”.

Now this may seem a long way from the Didsbury Beer Festival, but not so as Andrew was there all three nights working as a volunteer behind the counter and was on hand to have his picture taken with us.

Pictures; the Swingin’ Affair Big Band, 2019, and part of the Beer Festival, 2019, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and the picture of Andrew, me and Peter, along with the statue of Emmeline Pankhurst, 2019, from the collection of Andrew Simcock