Now the event was billed as “Manchester Retold ....... A City’s Journey Through History”, and was hosted by the History Press, who brought together six historians to talk about some of “Manchester's pivotal moments in history”.*
Those pivotal moments ranged from, Peterloo, through to the Great War, and the Manchester Blitz.
But that is to short change both the event and the historians who were, Graham Phythian, Joanne Williams, Michala Hulme, Sheila Brady, Andrew Simpson, and Michael Billington.**
Joanna Williams,talked about Abel Heywood.
“Known in his day as the man who built the Town Hall, Abel Heywood was a leading Manchester publisher who entertained royalty at his home and twice became Mayor of Manchester".
Michala Hume, whose book, A Grim Almanac of Manchester "collects together 365 of the darkest tales from Manchester’s history – terrifying true tales of riot, assault, murder and crime, of slums, disease, death and disaster.
It is filled with amazing historical horrors ranging from the bizarre – such as the night a poisoned cake caused a sickness to sweep through Ancoats – to the horrific, like the tragic time twenty-three people were crushed to death attempting to escape a fire in the overcrowded Victoria Music Hall".
Mike Billington, has written the Story of Urmston, Flixton and Davyhulme which was published earlier this year, and is the first substantial book on the area since 1898.
It draws on a variety of sources to tell the story of these three areas.
Graham Phythian explored the controversy around the massacre at St Peter’s Field in the August of 1891 and went on to describe Manchester Blitz, finishing with music from the period.
Shelia Brady spoke about Chapel Street, in Altrincham which was “was a row of old Georgian terraced lodging houses in Altrincham, home to some 400 Irish, English, Welsh and Italian lodgers.
From this tight-knit community of just sixty houses, 161 men volunteered for the First World War.
They fought in all the campaigns of the war, with twenty-nine men killed in action and twenty dying from injuries soon after the war; more men were lost in action from Chapel Street than any other street in England.
As a result, King George V called Chapel Street ‘the Bravest Little Street in England’”.
And as we were in Central Ref in the heart of Manchester it seemed only appropriate feature the book Manchester Remembering 1914-18, which draws on official reports and newspaper accounts as well as letters and photographs and a multitude of other personal items.
Much of this material has never been seen before and some of it is unique in that it allows us to follow families through the whole conflict challenging many of those easy and preconceived views of the war.
And many of the items in the book have been supplied from the collection owned by David Harrop, who is displaying some of that collection upstairs on the first floor of the Library.
The exhibition is called in Flander’s Fields and will run till the end of November.
So that just leaves me to thank Zara Davis from the History Press who organized the event and the packed audience, who laughed at the right moments, asked pertinent questions of the authors and bought some of the books which were brought along by Urmston Bookshop.***
And to add it gave all six of us the opportunity to meet and talk to the audience about our books.
Location; Manchester
Pictures; Manchester Retold, November 15th, 2018, from the collection of Peter Topping
*History Press, https://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/
**Manchester's Radical Mayor is a biography of Abel Heywood,Joanne Williams, A Grim Almanac of Manchester, & Manchester Bloody British History, Michala Hume, The Story of Urmston, Flixton and Davyhulme, Michael Billington, Manchester At War, & Manchester & Salford Blitz Britain, Graham Phythian, Chapel Street, Shelia Brady, Manchester Remembering 1914-18, & The Story of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Andrew Simpson
***Urmston Bookshop, http://www.urmston-bookshop.co.uk/
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| Manchester Retold |
But that is to short change both the event and the historians who were, Graham Phythian, Joanne Williams, Michala Hulme, Sheila Brady, Andrew Simpson, and Michael Billington.**
Joanna Williams,talked about Abel Heywood.
“Known in his day as the man who built the Town Hall, Abel Heywood was a leading Manchester publisher who entertained royalty at his home and twice became Mayor of Manchester".
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| Joanne Williams & Andrew Simpson |
It is filled with amazing historical horrors ranging from the bizarre – such as the night a poisoned cake caused a sickness to sweep through Ancoats – to the horrific, like the tragic time twenty-three people were crushed to death attempting to escape a fire in the overcrowded Victoria Music Hall".
Mike Billington, has written the Story of Urmston, Flixton and Davyhulme which was published earlier this year, and is the first substantial book on the area since 1898.
It draws on a variety of sources to tell the story of these three areas.
 |
| Shelia Brady |
From this tight-knit community of just sixty houses, 161 men volunteered for the First World War.
They fought in all the campaigns of the war, with twenty-nine men killed in action and twenty dying from injuries soon after the war; more men were lost in action from Chapel Street than any other street in England.
As a result, King George V called Chapel Street ‘the Bravest Little Street in England’”.
 |
| Andrew Simpson in conversation with Bill Leader |
Much of this material has never been seen before and some of it is unique in that it allows us to follow families through the whole conflict challenging many of those easy and preconceived views of the war.
 |
| Michala Hume talking to a member of Central Ref staff |
The exhibition is called in Flander’s Fields and will run till the end of November.
So that just leaves me to thank Zara Davis from the History Press who organized the event and the packed audience, who laughed at the right moments, asked pertinent questions of the authors and bought some of the books which were brought along by Urmston Bookshop.***
 |
| Four of the authors |
Location; Manchester
Pictures; Manchester Retold, November 15th, 2018, from the collection of Peter Topping
*History Press, https://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/
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| And some of their books |
***Urmston Bookshop, http://www.urmston-bookshop.co.uk/
