If you’re a Manchester professional /business person, interested in the city’s history and informal networking, join me for a lunchtime netwalk. On 21 April theme is Mancunian Celebrations - who and what brought crowds onto Manchester streets in centuries past www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/manchester...
10 March 1848 The (new) Blackfriars Bridge over the River Irwell was opened toll-free to the public with the removal of its gates and bars. The original was built by a group of actors for Mancunians to get to their Salford theatre.
A lovely group today for my netwalk on Manchester Women of the last 100 years #IWD. Featuring stories of Penny Henry & Yasmine Lakhaney (thanks to @audreyjgolden.bsky.social's 'I Thought I Heard You Speak'), Maureen Charlton (thanks to @garyjames.bsky.social's 'Manchester Corinthians') and many more
Our #1832AtoZ has reached X. We don’t have any x-ray or xylophone-related posts to draw on, so X is for the mark on a ballot paper. Here’s our post on the first use of the secret ballot at a parliamentary election: historyofparliament.com/2013/08/15/f...
Margaret Downes (sabred), Mary Heys (trampled by cavalry), Sarah Jones (truncheoned), Martha Partington (fell into cellar) died at Peterloo Massacre in Manchester 1819, protesting for voting reform. Women were disproportionately hurt and possibly deliberately targeted. #IWD
Canal with barge, tall apartment buildings on opposite bank reflected in the water
8 March 1803 Francis Egerton, Duke of Bridgewater, died. Disappointed in love, he concentrated his efforts on building the Bridgewater Canal to bring coal from Worsley to Manchester. Referred to as Britain's first modern canal, it used no existing waterways.
For International Women’s Day I went to interview a Manchester Corinthian about her time playing for the club 60+ years ago. She went on a tour of Italy in 1961 and talked of games where @mancity’s Bert Trautmann attended. As always, great to chat. #IWD2026 #ManchesterCorinthians
This week 1872 a letter in the Salford Weekly News complained about drunken carters ‘led into temptation and induced by others... to get more beer than they intended’ when stopping at pubs to water their horses. The writer proposed a watering trough for horses and cattle.
This week in 1828 in Manchester / Salford a vessel ‘Emma’ capsized in the River Irwell on the occasion of its first launch. The number of deaths recorded vary – possibly 47. One hero, who saved many, had his clothes stolen during the rescue and died of hypothermia.
Also Richard, husband of Emmeline. My biography of him is out 30 May - available for pre-order now at 30% off:
3 March 1787 Joseph Jordan was born in Manchester. On Bridge St, he founded the first provincial School of Anatomy, dissecting corpses obtained by body snatching. He was fined and his ‘resurrectionist’ imprisoned for rifling a grave. He kept bones under his bed for reference.
This week in 1838 work began on Victoria Bridge, named after a Queen who said Mancunians were ‘very intelligent but painfully unhealthy-looking’. The bridge, crossing the River Irwell near @mancathedral.bsky.social, replaced a version which had held a prison, with cells which the river would flood.
This week in 2003 10,000 people marched through heavy rain in Manchester in a demonstration against war in Iraq. The peace rally ended in Albert Square with speeches by Lemn Sissay and Jeremy Corbyn.
This week in 1846 a meeting at Manchester Town Hall supported the Ten Hours Bill, to limit the working hours of women and children in mills.
7 March 1796 A riot took place in the Theatre Royal Manchester during the singing of ‘God Save the King’, started because of 'some imagined irreverence on the part of two or three persons'.
Photograph of a man sitting in a chair. He is reading a newspaper.
#OnThisDay 1866 the Commons passed the second reading of a bill for the abolition of church rates. Percy Wyndham, who had accidentally been locked out of the division lobby, was allowed by the Speaker to have his vote counted with the Noes: hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/1866...
There's still time to book on this guided walk in Manchester tomorrow to mark International Women's Day. It's about women, not exclusively for women, suitable for adults.
For @lgbthm.bsky.social ❤️ 🏳️🌈 🏳️⚧️
Black and white image of women workers.
Join us this #WomensHistoryMonth in amplifying women’s voices past and present.
Our website is a wonderful place to start learning more. Spread the word!
womenshistorynetwork.org
#WHM2026 #WomensHistory #GenderHist
Image: Pit girl brow workers, Wigan, 1900. COPY 1/445, The National Archives.
Chopwell war memorial.
Chopwell war memorial. Chopwell, Tyne and Wear. First and Second World Wars and Korea. #LestWeForget
Mill Street Mission (Macclesfield) war memorial plaque.
Mill Street Mission (Macclesfield) war memorial plaque. The Silk Museum, Macclesfield, Cheshire. First World War. #LestWeForget
THESE ISLES: Aneurin Bevan (1897-1960), Welsh Labour politician, spearheaded the creation of the UK’s National Health Service in 1948 and was one of the most influential left-wing politicians in the Isles’ history. He overcame a speech impediment to become a renowned orator. 1/10
I'm really pleased to see 'Finding and leaving traces: Prehabitation and the presence of the past in the Victorian-era prison' - co-written with Dominique Moran and Jennifer Turner - is now out in @jofhistgeog.bsky.social
doi.org/10.1016/j.jh...
#OnThisDay 1835 the Commons appointed a committee to consider the provision of a new building for Parliament in the wake of the October 1834 fire. Find out more about that event in our article: victoriancommons.wordpress.com/2012/10/16/p...
In this week’s newsletter: #AlfredtheGreat’s embassy to #India.
📬 Sign up for Miscellanies at mailchi.mp/historytoday..., and we’ll send it to you on Thursday.
1 March 1819 The Manchester and Salford Lock Hospital (for treatment of venereal disease) opened in the area now known as Spinningfields. It would move several times including to Castlefield. In 1823 it recorded 17 in-patients in 7 beds.
My new book about Richard Pankhurst, husband of Emmeline and father of Christabel and Sylvia, will be out on 30 May. You can pre-order it at 30% off from Pen and Sword:
See my biog:
24 February 1827 Suffragist Lydia Becker was born in Manchester. Often eclipsed by the suffragettes, she was a pioneer for women's voting rights decades before their militant actions.
26 February 1844 Artist and suffragist Annie Swynnerton was born in Hulme, Manchester. Criticised for her more realistic depictions of women - ‘the features are coarse and blubbered’ - she was the first woman elected to the Royal Academy of Arts.
