Mornings at Manchester Jewish Museum …..

The Manchester Jewish Museum* is one of my favourite places and has been since it opened in 1984 and is a place I regularly write about.**

Almost soon after that opening I signed up to be a “Friend” and while the scheme has changed its name, I remain happy to support its work which as it says is “a registered charity (charity no. 1154353) and accredited museum (no. 179). 

We connect Jewish stories to the world and to our society, in order to explore both our differences and similarities, and to celebrate that which makes people unique and that which connects us all.

As well as preserving and presenting the history of Jewish Manchester, our programme helps us bring communities together to understand and share experiences. 

Delivering meaningful and sustainable engagement projects with our diverse communities. [which it does through] “schools activities educating future generations about Jewish history and traditions”.

All of which is done in the “Grade II* Listed Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, which holds a fascinating collection documenting Manchester’s rich and diverse Jewish heritage.

And that is how I first came across the Museum in the 1980s when I was researching and delivering history courses on Jewish Manchester to school students.

Back then the museum was very helpful in lending material I could use.

More recently following a £6 million redevelopment the museum now has a new purpose built gallery to display our collection, which is presented  in three themes, Journeys, Communities and Identities.

All the stories told on gallery are Jewish but by framing them within these universal themes they hopefully feel relevant to all of our audiences, Jewish and non-Jewish.

Our Journeys Gallery tells the story of the different motivations that brought Jewish people to Manchester: looking for opportunity, escaping hardship, poverty or persecution, and ‘landsleit’ – the move to join existing communities that reflect your own identity. 

From 18th Century pedlars to 20th Century refugees and Holocaust Survivors, the collection reflects each wave of Jewish migration into Manchester.

Our Journeys Gallery also includes a newly commissioned 4-screen immersive film produced by Heritage Interactive and directed by Dan Lusby. Heritage Interactive produced all the digital creative content in our gallery including this film, our sliding digital panels on our organisations wall, and the Jewish identity tablets in our Identities Gallery”. 

The museum hosts a whole variety of events from cultural to comic, along special exhibitions and has an interesting policy towards those who live in the area which encourages local residents to become “one of our Museum M8s and get free admission to the museum all year round for you and your family”.

I took a trip up from Chorlton last week and was not disappointed.

Location; Manchester Jewish Museum, Cheetham Hill Road

Pictures; Thursday at the museum, 2026 & 2025 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Manchester Jewish Museum, https://www.manchesterjewishmuseum.com/

**Manchester Jewish Museum, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/The%20Manchester%20Jewish%20Museum

Sad mummy in the rain ……. bus stop art in Chorlton

It resides on a lamppost at the bus terminus in Chorlton and has done so since the exhibition opened in February.

And it advertise the Golden Mummies of Egypt.

We signed up for the event and on a day not unlike today wandered down in the rain to Manchester Museum. 

There were heaps of people, but entry was by pre-arranged appointments and despite the throng of interested visitors we got to see all we wanted.

I have just checked, and the exhibition goes on till December so I guess my mummy might not have been forgotten after all.

"After a hugely successful tour across the USA and China, this stunning exhibition offers unparalleled access to the museum’s world-class Egypt and Sudan collections.

Featuring more than 100 objects and eight mummies, Golden Mummies of Egypt presents a rich perspective on beliefs about the afterlife during an era when Egypt was part of the Greek and Roman worlds.

The exhibition is held in the museum’s brand-new Exhibition Hall, which has been created as part of our £15 million transformation".*

Location; Chorlton Bust terminus, Barlow Moor Road

Pictures; Sad mummy in the rain, 2023, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Golden Mummies of Egypt, February 18th to December 31st, 2023, https://www.museum.manchester.ac.uk/event/golden-mummies-of-egypt/

"Away, away with rum by gum,"* signing the pledge to forgo the demon drink

The temperance movement and in particular The Band of Hope haven’t always got good press.  

More often than not the campaign against “demon drink” is the butt of jokes and its adherents seen as dour kill joys.

And yet nothing could be further from the truth.  There was passion, humour and above all a real sense of commitment to addressing a social problem which plunged individuals and families in to distress and poverty.

Many employers still paid out in pubs with all the intend ant dangers of drinking the family money away and pubs were designed to be warm welcoming places which were often more pleasant places than the home.

And it was not till not till 1901 that was it made illegal to sell alcohol to children under the age of 14 and even then it did not apply if the container was in a corked or sealed container.

Earlier in the century according to Annemarie McAllister in “The lives and souls of the children”: The Band of Hope in the North West** “A select committee reported that in public houses in Manchester ‘on a single Sunday in 1854 there were 212,243 visits to drink shops and 22,132 of these were made by children, some of whom went to drink on their own account – some to fetch drink.’”

It is an interesting account of both the temperance movement and the degree to which children were encouraged to become part of that movement and remain lifetime abstainers.

Temperance was an important part of many of those working class organisations which developed in the 19th century to improve working conditions and generally advance the cause of Labour. "Temperance men and women " could be found in the trade unions, and in the co-operative movement, and there was even a temperance wing of the Chartists.

Much was made of the links between the the big brewers and the Conservative Party and abstinence was at the center of some of the religious groups.  All of whom saw alcohol as  dangerous to health, a source of family poverty and  a bar to social advance.  Some like the Cross Cross Mission Emigration Society which sought to assist working class families settle in Canada were totally convinced that a life without "drink" was a powerful weapon in families bettering themselves.

It extended into every community and even here there were those who fought applications for new pubs and supported such temperance halls like our own on Manchester Road.

* Salvation Army Song, it has other titles, the author and composer is unknown, and the  verses grow with time, folksongcollector.com/tetontea.html

** The Band of Hope in the North West, in Growing Up in the North West, 1850s-1950s, Manchester Region History Review Volume 22 2011

*** People’s History Museum Left Bank, Manchester, http://www.phm.org.uk/

Pictures; Band Of Hope, Open air Temperance Meeting in Manchester, 1910, m68996, Temperance Demonstration, m18044, Temperance Billiard Hall, Chorlton, November 1958,  A.H. Downes, m18044, Courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council

Exciting news from the Manchester Jewish Museum

Now I am going to miss going to the Manchester Jewish Museum while its new extension is built over the next 18 months.*

But when it is finished the museum will have doubled in size, with new galleries, learning spaces, shop and café built in the extension alongside the existing historic building.   And at the same time the Grade II listed synagogue, will be repaired and restored.

During that period the museum will be based in Central Ref with activities being held in other venues across Greater Manchester.

“A new pop up Jewish Museum will be created in the Central Reference Library ... with its own space on the lower grand floor near the Children’s Library and next to the Ahmed Iqbal Ulla Race Relations Resource Centre.

The Museum’s collection will also be moved  into Central Library’s archive before returning to an environmentally controlled store in the new Manchester Jewish Museum”.**

All of this is against a backdrop in the rise of recorded anti-Semetic incidents.  In 2017 CST recorded 1,382 such incidents in the UK - the highest total ever recorded for a calendar year.  Three-quarters of these were in London and Greater Manchester.  In Greater Manchester 261 were recorded, which is an increase of 27% from the 206  incidents recorded in 2016.***

Location; Manchester

Picture; Central Ref, 2016, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Manchester Jewish Museum, http://www.manchesterjewishmuseum.com/

**MJM News Issue 15, Spring/Summer 2018

***CST, https://cst.org.uk/

A bus, a holiday home and a restoration project ........ Manchester Corporation 436

Now I like a good story and so much the better if it has already been written.

So naturally when I saw this one posted by Brian from the Museum of Transport Greater Manchester I just scooped it up.

And the rest as they say speaks for itself.

"One of our most precious buses is Manchester Corporation 436 - it's the only surviving pre-war Manchester double decker bus. 

It's awaiting restoration but we're gradually raising funds and you can donate by texting GMTS01 £5 (or £1, £1, £3 or £10) to 70070.

436 is in a pretty poor state right now, having survived for decades as a static caravan in Shropshire. 

But we know a lot about 436, through its maintenance records. The picture shows the first page of its engine maintenance card and if you take some care to inspect it closely it’s full of information. 

For example, in April 1935 when less than a year old it had 'repairs to auxiliary drive, 2 fan belts. 

1 aluminium fan fitted, Crossley Motors' which shows that Crossley did the work under guarantee. As late as October 1948 it had 'soft liners fitted' – this meant cylinder liners.

It also helps if you know some of the codes that MCT used for repair jobs – 'C1' meant cylinder head changed, 'F' meant work on the fuel pump, 'H' meant work on the vacuum exhauster and 'V' denoted that valves had been ground in.

It’s a fascinating window into the work that went in behind the scenes to keep the wheels turning (and still does to maintain our museum collection)”.

Location; Manchester

Pictures; from the collection of Museum of Transport Greater Manchester

* Museum of Transport Greater Manchester, http://www.gmts.co.uk/

Down at the Remembrance Lodge in Southern Cemetery......... Museums with a history nu 1

Now there are plenty of reasons for visiting Southern Cemetery.

For many of us it will be simply to visit a loved one who has been buried there.

For others it will be the peace and tranquilly of the place with the added bonus of watching the variety of wildlife.

And then there will be those who go to look and learn from the graves.

After all since it was opened it has been the final resting place for the rich and the distinguished as well as a large proportion of people from south Manchester and includes memorials to the fallen of two world wars, the 1980 Tenerife Air Disaster and the Katyn massacre.

So it is perhaps fitting that the cemetery should also host a remarkable museum in the Remembrance Lodge by the main gate.

It is the work of David Harrop who has a fascinating and unique collection of memorabilia from both world wars as well as material spanning the history of the Post Office and much more.

What is particularly important about both the collection and the display in the lodge is that they are drawn from the everyday experiences of the people who lived through the conflicts.

So amongst the medals and official communications from the War Ministry are picture postcards and letters sent from the battle fronts and souvenirs bought to aid the war effort.

And as we enter the 75 anniversary of the Battle of Britain I know that David has plans to commemorate the event with material from his collection.

The Lodge is open seven days a week.

Pictures; the Lodge and some of the exhibition courtesy of David Harrop.

150 years of Co-operation at the People's History Museum till May

A CWS jam advert circa 1930s

Now all most all my close friends can remember their mum’s co-op divi number.

Whenever you bought anything at the local store you had to quote it, to earn the dividend.

Sadly I am not one of them and try as I might it has been forgotten.

But I can remember quoting it when I was sent to the shop and came across some of those blue stamps which took the divi number’s place.

Later I went to work for the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich and later still joined the Co-op bank when we lived in Ashton.

That bank account in the 1970s was quite a life line, for in a time when there were no holes in the wall to dispense money, the Co-op would cash cheques at the weekend at the big Arcadia store.

Co-op cocoa made at the CWS & SCWS-factory,1902

All of which is an introduction to the new exhibition at The People’s History Museum* on 150 years of the Co-operative Movement which runs till May 2014.

“For 150 years The Co-operative has grown to first manufacture and then to sell products. Its services continue to support the families and communities of Great Britain and the world ‘from the cradle to the grave’.

This people’s business began its humble origins as the Co-operative Wholesale Society in Greater Manchester in 1863. The exhibition explores the story and values behind the ‘caring sharing co-op’ and offer a unique insight into the way we shop and live.”

So along with my friend Tommy and a group of fellow co-operators we were taken around the exhibition which includes a number of interactive displays along with plenty of posters and other things to see.

There was a guided tour and the staff opened up some of the archive material for us to handle.

So I shall be going again, taking the family and anyone else who wants to come.

And it is an important exhibition celebrating as it does the idea that people can co-operate to make a better world and that profit is not the only means by which products can be produced and traded.

In an age of banker’s bonuses and that much peddled idea that the markets determine all it is worth reflecting on the Co-op which “is the UK’s largest mutual business, owned not by private shareholders but by over seven million consumers. 

Bus advertisement for The Co-operative Bank circa 1970s

They are the UK’s fifth biggest food retailer and a major financial services provider, operating The Co-operative Bank and The Co-operative Insurance. 

They also operate a funeral services, the third largest pharmacy chain and one of Britain’s largest farming operations. The Group operates 4,800 retail trading outlets, employs more than 100,000 people and has an annual turnover of more than £13bn.

Their members are their owners; members tell them what is important to them and they listen and act on it. 

Its part of their model: as a consumer co-operative, they run their business for the benefit of members. That means members are involved in democratic decision-making and profits are shared with the members. 

Dividend stamps introduced nationally by CWS in 1969

Members also set a social and campaigning agenda that they support.

They have become pioneers in areas such as Fairtrade and combating climate change. The more commercially successful they are, the more they can do to give back to the communities they serve and to influence the wider world.”

So even despite its current embarrassment with its banking arm and faces challenging from the big companies
I think the Co-op is still worth considering and certainly visiting its history.

*The People’s History Museum, Manchester, http://www.phm.org.uk/

Follow @PHMMcr on twitter to keep up to date with the exhibition  #coop150ex

Pictures; A CWS jam advert c1930s, National Co-operative Archive, © The Co-operative Group,
Advertisement-for-co-operative-cocoa-made-at-a-joint-CWS-and-SCWS-factory-in-Luton-from-1902-National-Co-operative-Archive-© -The-Co-operative-Group, Bus advertisement for The Co-operative Bank circa 1970s, National Co-operative Archive, © The Co-operative Group, Dividend stamps introduced nationally by CWS in 1969, National Co-operative Archive, ©The Co-operative Group

Back in Platt Hall with Christian Dior and the gallery of costumes

It is one of those places I haven’t been to for years, which is a shame, because Platt Hall and its costume gallery are well worth a visit.

It was built in 1746 and replaced an older timber farmed building which had been the home of the Worsley family.

Now the interiors are still pretty stunning including the main staircase and entrance hall.

It reopened in 2010 following a major £1million renovation project.

"Entirely funded by Manchester City Council, the Grade 2* listed Georgian house has had a much-needed makeover, including essential repairs and improvements behind the scenes.

The public facilities have been updated too. 

The costume displays have been refreshed and there’s a new changing exhibitions gallery, improved disabled access and a large lecture room and workshop space.

The Gallery of Costume houses one of the most important costume collections in Britain, second only to the V&A in London. It contains over 20,000 fashion items from the 17th century to the present day."*

Now I have always liked the 18th and early 19th century displays but we were drawn by the new exhibition, Christian Dior: Designer in Focus which runs from now till January 2014

“Christian Dior's brief but supremely influential career began with his iconic 'New Look' in 1947. He reigned supreme in Parisian fashion for ten years until his untimely death in 1957.

This unique exhibition features Paris and London couture, many outfits recently acquired by the Gallery of Costume. Stunning displays include day, cocktail and evening wear, and represent many of Dior's seminal collections."**

Pictures; of Platt Hall from the collection of Andrew Simpson and the interior courtesy of Manchester City Council
*Manchester City Council
**Manchester City Council

At the Manchester Jewish Museum in April

It’s all happening at the Jewish Museum* in April.

Acclaimed Manchester historian, Bill Williams, will be launching his latest book, 'Jews and other foreigners, Manchester and the rescue of the victims of European fascism, 1933-40' at the Museum on Sunday 7th April.

Short-listed for the 2012 Portico Prize for Non-Fiction, the book explores the response of the Manchester community to those threatened by the rise of Fascism in Europe in the 1930s.

Drawing on a wide range of documentary and oral sources, Williams takes a close look at the response of particular sections of Manchester society, from Jewish communal organisations and the Zionist movement to the Christian churches, pacifist organisations and private charities.

Williams will be talking about the book and signing copies at the Museum.

Sun 7 April, 2pm
Normal admission charges

WORKSHOP: Family History
Museum 'Best Friends' and 'Patrons' are invited to this family history workshop. Archivists from Manchester Libraries will be offering guidance and advice on how to research your family history.

Sun 28 April, 10am
Booking is required - call 0161 834 9879 or email here
Exclusively for MJM 'Best Friends' & 'Patrons'

TOURS: History Gallery 
The Museum will be launching its new gallery tours to the public on Wednesday 10th April. Visitors will be taken back in time to discover what Jewish Manchester was like over 100 years ago. MJM volunteers will use the Museum's displays, exhibits and props (including wigs and carbolic soap!) to tell the stories of five Jewish individuals who actually lived in Manchester in 1912.

Freshly made traditional kosher cakes will be served to mark the launch of these new tours!

Weds 10 April, 2pm
FREE but booking is required: 0161 834 9879 or by email here

WALK: Historic Jewish Quarter
Discover Manchester's Jewish past on a guided walk around Cheetham Hill.

Our guide will captivate you with tales and anecdotes, bringing to life Manchester's fascinating Jewish past.

Sun 28 April, 1pm (lasts approx. 2 hours)
Tickets: £7 (£5 concessions)

TOURS: History Gallery 
The Museum will be launching its new gallery tours to the public on Wednesday 10th April. Visitors will be taken back in time to discover what Jewish Manchester was like over 100 years ago. MJM volunteers will use the Museum's displays, exhibits and props (including wigs and carbolic soap!) to tell the stories of five Jewish individuals who actually lived in Manchester in 1912.

Freshly made traditional kosher cakes will be served to mark the launch of these new tours!


Pictures; courtesy if the Jewish Museum,

*http://www.manchesterjewishmuseum.com/

This Month at the Manchester Jewish Museum

Now as you know from time to time I indulge my love of Manchester Museums, so here at the Jewish Musuem are events during this month

EXHIBITION: THE WINDERMERE BOYS (until 31May 2012)The Windermere Boys exhibition tells the story of 300 Jewish childrenwho, having survived the Holocaust, found a haven in Windermere,before joining Jewish communities in Manchester and London.A fascinating and uplifting story of survival and newbeginnings, this is an exhibition not to be missed! (Museum admission charge) Funded by Arts Council England.

HISTORY TALK: “A Sanhedrin - in France”! Sun 25 Mar, 2pm (Future talks: 15 Apr, 13 May and 3 June)The second in a series of modern Jewish history talks by Jeremy MichelsonThis talk explores why Emperor Napoleon was reviving the ancientSanhedrin, the law making body of world Jewry and what effect it wouldhave on Jews throughout Europe. (FREE but booking essential)

JEWISH FAMILY HISTORY ROADSHOW Sun 22 April (both 11am-3pm)Bring in your family archives or personal objects handed down by Jewishfamily members. A panel of experts will be on hand to examine them and answer yourquestions. (Museum admission charges apply)

The People’s History Museum.

I always get a real sense of the past when I visit The People’s History Museum. Here in a place dedicated to working men and women, are the stories of their struggle for the right to vote, to decent working conditions and above all the freedom to organize themselves in to trade unions, friendly societies and freely express their point of view.
The museum also carries out the important job of conserving banners of the trade union movement and has an extensive archive. I well remember standing in the old venue on Princess Street where the T.U.C. first met and held the minutes of the first meeting of the Labour Representation Committee soon to be renamed the Labour Party, and there at the bottom of the page was the signature of its first secretary, Ramsay MacDonald, who became the first Labour Prime Minister and less than a decade later split the Party by forming a National Government with the Conservatives and Liberals.
Along with the permanent displays there are plenty of temporary events and exhibitions. Running at preset is Picturing Politics – exploring the political poster in Britain which runs till June 2012. To keep up to date with the ongoing research on political posters, background information on some of the individual posters and the odd sneak preview of material, visit the blog written by Chris Burgess http://picturingpolitics.wordpress.com
The Museum is located at the bottom of Bridge Street, at the Left Bank, Spinningfields, http://www.phm.org.uk/
Picture; by Lawrence Beedle from the exhibition Exploring the political poster in Britain

The first passenger railway station now home to the Manchester Museum of Science & Industry

The Museum of Science & Industry has come a long way from its early days on the corner of Upper Brook Street and Cavendish Street. It was housed in a fine building with a wonderful mural on the gable end but the place was really too small to do justice to what was on show.

So the move to the old railway station and warehouse complex on Liverpool road was a wonderful step forward. Here was an historic site with plenty of space to expand and develop. There are exhibitions on public health, the gas and electricty industries along with steam locomotives, textile machines and archive.

And this is one of the reasons why I return so often to the museum because at the heart of the place is the Liverpool Road railway station and the 1830 warehouse. These were built as part of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway which had been constructed to transport goods to and from Liverpool more cheaply and more quickly.

The railway and these buildings were at the cutting edge of technology. No one had built such an ambitious railway before and the designers and engineers were working at the limits of what they knew. Much was copied from the knowledge of building canals, and many of the men employed on its construction would have also worked on the canal network which had crisscrossed Britain during the last half century.

But there were new demands. Not least was how you physically transported the goods along the iron railway. Very early on the plan to use static steam engines using metal cable was abandoned in favour of steam locomotives. And this led to the Rainhill Trials where interested parties were invited to submit their own locomotive to compete in a competition to see which was best suited to haul a number of wagons from Liverpool to Manchester. It was as if today NASA asked for companies to build a new spacecraft and test it at the further reaches of Venus with a plan to start an interstellar passenger service.

Not that the directors were at first keen to entertain a passenger service. One reluctantly conceded that they might just carry some, but it would be in open boxes and at night. Once the decision was taken to ferry people the obvious design choice was an adapted stage coach complete with luggage on the roof and an outside seat for the guard. But this was for their first class passengers, the rest travelled in open blue boxes.

And there were other ways that this first real railway line looked back into the past. The first warehouse was a direct copy from the canal warehouses, and even contained arches to allow wagons to be taken directly into the building. But unlike the canals where a barge could turn in the water, in the case of the 1830 warehouse each wagon had to be uncoupled and turned 90⁰ degrees on a turntable from the track before it could enter the warehouse.

In other ways they mixed the old with the new. The roof of the carriage shed where the trains came into the station was constructed of wooden beams and would have been familiar to anyone who lived or worked in a wooden building but the roof rested on cast iron pillars.

The museum has used these building with a degree of imagination and a keen eye on how they can enhance the exhibitions. And while in an early phase much damage was done to part of the 1830 warehouse, more recently the remainder has been restored with a keen sense of what the original was like.

For a full picture of the exhibitions and events visit http://www.mosi.org.uk/ or turn up to Liverpool Road.
Pictures; restored carriage circa 1837 restored by the Friends of the Museum and part of the carriage shed of the station from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Manchester Museums

Manchester Museums
You would expect a city with such a rich history would have some good museums and we do. My own favourite is the Museum of Science and Industry on Liverpool Road at the bottom of Deansgate. At the other end of that long fine road is the Peoples History Museum at the bottom of Bridge Street. Slightly further north on Cheetham Hill Road is the Jewish Museum while south of the city centre is the Manchester Museum and in the centre close to Piccadilly on Newton Street is the Police Museum.
And across the Irwell there is a wonderful set of shop and house fronts dating from the late 18th through to the Victorian period in the Salford Art Gallery, while east of Manchester in Ashton-Under- Lyne is the museum of the Manchester Regiment.
Pictures; Jewish Museum Cheetham Hill Road, the Peoples’ History Museum, Left Bank, Spinningfields