MMU at the Manchester Histories Festival

THE Manchester Histories Festival starts this weekend, and MMU are involved in a huge range of exciting events, from forgotten treasures to Mancunian motorbikes.

The North West Film Archive are holding a number of events, including daily screenings at the Manchester Central Library, plus other screenings at the Town Hall and Cornerhouse, a drop-in handling session and the launch of the new Archives+ viewing pods.

Jonathan Spangler and Rosamund Oates, from the Department of History, will be leading a tour of some of Manchester’s gentry houses on Saturday, March 22, many of which are currently closed to the public, while MMU’s own “hidden gems”, the Victorian greetings cards produced by Manchester-based publishers S Hildesheimer & Co will be showcased at an event in Special Collections on Tuesday, March 25.

Also on Tuesday, Dr Richard Brook will give a talk at the Museum of Science and Industry looking at post-war transport planning in Manchester, when a scheme was introduced to reconfigure the city centre based on petrol-fuelled mobility.  

Cars, coffins and crafts

MMU’s football research centre will be hosting two events as part of the festival - an “in conversation” event with Manchester United legend Martin Buchan, the former City midfielder Ian Mellor, and the current Chief Executive of the Professional Footballers Association, Gordon Taylor on Thursday, March 26, and a discussion between former football journalist David Meek and author Colin Shindler on Saturday, March 29, about their memories of Manchester football from the 1950s to the present. Both events will take place at the National Football Museum. 

On Thursday, March 27, Dr Craig Young and Helen Malarky have arranged for professional tour guide Emma Fox to conduct a tour of Manchester’s most famous burial site, Southern Cemetery, as part of the Encountering Corpses event. Find out why the graves of some illustrious names have fallen into disrepair and wonder at the glory of the saviour of ice cream and the humble cross that marks Trafford’s most famous son.

The same evening, the Manchester Modernist Society will be launching their limited-edition print history of the Toastrack at a fabulous event in the Benzie Building, while in Special Collections archivist Jeremy Parrett will be looking at the life of “the incurable collector” Sir Harry Page, whose collection of Victorian ephemera provides a fascinating insight into the lives of middle class ladies of leisure.

Continuing the motoring theme, on Saturday, March 29, Craig Horner will be sharing the memories of some of Manchester’s first “mass motorists” and looking at whether dodgy brakes, wheezy wipers and the refusal of some cars to work on frosty mornings was balanced out by the new personal freedom experienced by many for the first time.

The final event that MMU is involved in will also take place on the last Saturday of the festival, with artist Sharon Blakey exploring the Mary Greg Collection of Handicrafts of Bygone Times, which was given to Manchester Art Gallery in 1934.

Venue and time details are available by following the links above.