Blog

1. Walker’s Croft Burial Ground

   The redevelopment of Manchester Victoria has meant that bodies from the former Walker’s Croft burial ground are being exhumed and re-buried in Southern Cemetery. Walker’s Croft was in use from...

   12th April 2013 • Read more

2. The Strange Case of the Belgian Tarts

     When in 1885, a French antiquary in Louvain noticed some curious writing on the paper being used by a baker to wrap his tarts, he bought the lot and...

   12th April 2013 • Read more

3. Isaac Newton: The Last Magician

   BBC2 is showing an hour-long programme about Isaac Newton tonight (Isaac Newton: The Last Magician, Friday 12th April, 9-10pm). We are proud to own several works by Isaac Newton, including...

   12th April 2013 • Read more

4. Living without working

   This radical manifesto addressed to “the Electors and Non-Electors of the Borough of Oldham” was produced by Thomas Micklethwaite, who proposed to stand for election for Oldham in the General...

   11th April 2013 • Read more

5. M-m-m-m-m-m-m-my Pomona…

   Pomona Gardens was one of the most important pleasure gardens in nineteenth-century Manchester. Pomona was opened in 1845 by William and Joseph Beardsley who leased land in Stretford from Sir...

   10th April 2013 • Read more

6. The magic of Belle Vue

   In recent months we have had four masters students from Manchester University working on the Belle Vue collection as part of their placement. Find out what they’ve been up to...

   10th April 2013 • Read more

7. John Reed at Oxford

   John Reed (whose diaries we have recently acquired)was at Magdalen College in the early 1950s where he was a diligent if rather anxious student. He enjoyed all the usual activities...

   5th April 2013 • Read more

8. How manifold are thy works!

     We have recently acquired this beautiful panoramic representation of the 104th Psalm illustrated by Susan Maria ffarington of Leyland in Lancashire.  The work measures 10cm by over three and...

   4th April 2013 • Read more

9. Reminiscences of MOSI

   We are very pleased to make available a pdf of Richard Hills’ new work The North Western Museum of Science and Industry: Some Reminiscences. This is only available through Chetham’s...

   3rd April 2013 • Read more

10. The Great Herbal

      Basilius Besler’s ‘Great Herbal’ is one of the largest books in the Library and certainly the heaviest. The enormous large folio volume is full of beautiful engravings of the...

    27th March 2013 • Read more