Upcoming Events

Elizabeth Williams, a Trustee of the Elizabeth Gaskell House in Manchester, will be discussing the ways in which the authors treated love, both in their books and in their own lives.

Gary Conley was a miner at the Sutton Manor Colliery for 19 years until 1991.  He initially worked at the coal face but later transferred to the surface and eventually into colliery management.  He now tells the story of growing up in a mining family, the humour and heartache of a mining life and the strike of 1985 and its aftermath.

Nick Fry is currently a beadsman and tour guide at Chester Cathedral.  This evening we will be given a fascinating insight into the multitude of imaginative misericords at the cathedral.

Professor Ian Morison has worked at the Jodrell Bank Observatory since 1965 and in 2003 the Minor Planet's committee named asteroid 15,727 in his honour, citing his work with Merlin and in searching for intelligent life beyond our solar system.  What is the answer?

Dr Michael Nevell is a landscape archaeologist and Head of Archaeology at the University of Salford.  He has particular interests in industrial and buildings archaeology and heritage disaster management.  If you think you know everything about the Bridgewater Canal, think again.

Bernard Dennis is a member of the English Longbow Society and this month we will be hearing about the development of bows and arrows, whether they were used for hunting, recreation or for war - and what about Robin Hood!

Our talk this month is given by Gavin Hunter, a local historian, on the legendary overhead railway in Liverpool affectionately known at the 'Dockers' Umbrella'.  It opened in 1893 and was 11 km long.  As the first electrically-operated elevated railway in the world it carried workers to jobs along the docks and waterfront.  It closed in 1956 after more than 60 years of operation.  It also boasted one of the first passenger escalators at a railway station.