Manchester’s Ancoats Little Italy

Tony Rea, a local historian, traces the beginnings of the Italian Community in Ancoats in the late 19^th century to its demise in’ the slum clearances of the 1960’s. The talk covers the new immigrants’ determination to work hard, the businesses they started as well as the difficulties of settling into a new country. He will speak of their love of life, food, music, singing and dancing, their role in the First World War and the impact of the Second World War.