Nineteenth century industrial Lancashire was a land of smoke and tall chimneys, fortunes for the Cotton Lords and misery for their workers, the ‘hands’. But that’s only part of the story.  

Workers’ Playtime: culture and community in industrial Lancashire is an exhibition that goes beyond the factories to explore the cultures and communities created by the workers in pursuit of a better, fuller life for themselves and their children. It is a tale of political, economic, and cultural self-organisation in pursuit of mutual improvement and creative expression. Above all, it is a tale of culture and community made by the hearts and minds of the hands themselves.

Through the items on display, you can:

• Explore workers’ lives outside of the factory including playing sport, trips to the seaside or supporting the growing Co-operative Movement;
• Uncover the clubs and societies set up by workers including the Moss Side Debating Society and the brass band from Dobb Lane Sunday School; 
• Read books by Lancashire mill-workers Ethel Carnie Holdsworth, Ben Brierley and Sam Fitton who became popular writers; and
• Explore the social side of working-class politics and the early history of the Labour Movement. 

The exhibition has been curated by Michael Sanders (Professor of 19th Literature and Culture, University of Manchester). Mike is co-investigator on the AHRC-funded Piston, Pen and Press research project exploring how industrial workers in Scotland and the North of England, from the 1840s to the 1910s, engaged with literary culture.

Visit the exhibition at the John Rylands Research Institute and Library in Deansgate, Manchester. Running from 29 March 2023 to 9 September 2023, it is open Wednesday-Saturday, 10am-5pm. Free entry.