ALL the joys of Manchester Histories Festival coalesce on Saturday 3 March.
There are talks, walks, films, games for all ages, exhibitions, workshops and taste experiences. The events are centred at Manchester Town Hall and Friends’ Meeting House but take place throughout the city centre and beyond.
The first Manchester Histories Festival in 2009 saw over 4,000 regional history enthusiasts visit the Town Hall and organisers expect even greater numbers this year.
The History Game with Larkin’ About and The Library Theatre takes place around the Town Hall. It fuses theatre and game playing where participants chase around interacting with each other and uncover secret worlds created by five artists.
Manchester celebrity chef Robert Owen Brown cooks up regional heritage food, from Lancashire hotpot to Eccles cakes. Demonstrations, with tasting opportunities, will be at the Town Hall Banqueting Hall. Full portions will also be served up at lunch time, along with other local fayre.
Other highlights at the Town Hall include a panel discussion chaired by DJ and writer Dave Haslam about the city’s alternative music press, a full programme of film screenings from 1970s local TV to new documentaries and also Moss Side, Hulme and Ancoats history along with a free performance of a one-man show about controversial City goalie Bert Trautmann.
The Friends’ Meeting House on Mount Street has a full programme of talks from experts in everything from Cotton Queens to the American Civil War.
Giving talks are Archaeologist Dr Faye Simpson who spent five years on C4’s Time Team with Tony Robinson, Professor Michael Worboys on local breed dogs, writer Gary James on the city’s football teams since the nineteenth century, CP Lee on Manchester film making and Michael Herbert on Black boxer Lee Johnson who stood six times for election in Moss Side for the Communist Party.
A free heritage bus will also take visitors to and from Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) and the Museum of Transport , Greater Manchester, throughout the day from Albert Square.
The first Manchester Histories Festival in 2009 saw over 4,000 regional history enthusiasts visit the Town Hall and organisers expect even greater numbers this year. There will be over 80 historical organisations exhibiting, from Manchester Museum to the Manchester Sporting History Group throughout the day.
All events at the Town Hall and Friends’ Meeting House are free, apart from the Town Hall Clock Tower tours, but booking is advised for the talks.
Click here for more information on Manchester Histories Festival programme. Tickets are available through the website and on tel: 0161 306 1982.
Manchester Confidential's editor Jonathan Schofield is running a series of guided tours for Manchester Histories Festival on Celebration Day
The Peterloo Massacre Tour
16 August, 1819: the moment that defines the British struggle for democracy, the day that coined a phrase and stirred a nation. The tour takes in the key locations associated with the mass protest meeting in central Manchester that ended in death and mayhem. 11.30am Saturday 3 March 2012 (a Manchester Histories Festival Walk, tickets £7 (£6 concs) from www.quaytickets.com). Meet outside Manchester Art Gallery, Mosley Street, City centre, M2 3JL
Friedrich Engels in Manchester (including visit to Chetham’s Library – a contender for the most beautiful interior in the city)
Engels, with Karl Marx, was the father of communism. The 22 years he spent in Manchester shaped his thoughts and ideas. As the well-known historian Asa Briggs said, ‘If Engels had lived not in Manchester...his conception of class and his theories of the role of class might have been very different. In this case Marx might have been not a communist but a currency reformer. The fact that Manchester was taken to be the symbol of the age in the 1840s was of central importance in modern world history.’ 1pm Saturday 3 March 2012: Engels and the north and west of the city centre (a Manchester Histories Festival Walk, tickets £7 (£6 concs) from www.quaytickets.com)
A Tour Of Uninteresting Objects
Ah yes, the unregarded things that make a city. This tour reveals odd sculptures, mad details, washed up remnants of things inside and outside buildings. It’s different – guaranteed. Each tour will tackle a different area of the city centre and environs and uncover massive quantities of uninteresting objects. 3.30pm Saturday 3 March 2012 (a Manchester Histories Festival Walk, tickets £7 (£6 concs) from www.quaytickets.com). Meet outside Manchester Art Gallery, Mosley Street, City centre, M2 3JL
For other tour information click here.
Manchester Town Hall
