Tag: Manchester

Books etc

Len Johnson, Manchester’s uncrowned boxing champion and communist

‘I am here  to meet all comers’: the story of Len Johnson, Manchester’s Uncrowned Boxing Champion and Communist, by Michael Herbert. ‘Anything that I have and anything that I am, I owe unconditionally to the booth. The booth with its work, its careful living and, above all, its frame of mind… I am here to meet all comers and all comers I must meet,’ so … Continue reading Len Johnson, Manchester’s uncrowned boxing champion and communist

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Events, SSLH news

John Halstead Memorial Lecture 2026

The fifth annual John Halstead Memorial Lecture will be delivered by Professor John Goodridge, President of the John Clare Society.  Organised by the Society for the Study of Labour History and taking place at the John Rylands Library, Manchester on Saturday 13 June 2026, the lecture will be titled ‘Reading by glow worm: the struggles of labouring-class poets’. All are welcome, but you must register … Continue reading John Halstead Memorial Lecture 2026

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Commentary

Manchester Free Trade Hall: a place in labour history

In our continuing series on places in labour history, Keith Flett revisits the contested site of the Peterloo Massacre. The Manchester Free Trade Hall was built on the site of the 1819 Peterloo Massacre, its address being Peter Street. Constructed on land given by Richard Cobden it was designed to mark the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846 and was completed in 1856. While … Continue reading Manchester Free Trade Hall: a place in labour history

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Books etc

Book: Minutes of Manchester and Salford Women’s Trades Union Council

“All help possible will be given”: The complete Minutes of the Manchester and Salford Women’s Trades Union Council, 1895 – 1919. Transcribed by Bernadette Hyland, edited by Michael Herbert. Manchester and Salford Women’s Trades Union Council was set up in 1895 and continuing in existence until 1919 when it merged with the men’s trades council to form a single body. During its quarter of a … Continue reading Book: Minutes of Manchester and Salford Women’s Trades Union Council

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Events

Lunchtime lectures in Manchester

Manchester (with Liverpool and Chester) Branch of the Historical Association is running a series of lunchtime lectures, taking place at Friends’ Meeting House, 6 Mount Street, Manchester, M2 5NS. Admission is free for members of the Historical Association and £4 for non-members. All lectures begin at 12 midday. Saturday, 18 October 2025. Talk by Dr. Natalie Zacek (University of Manchester) on Manchester and Transatlantic Slavery. Saturday, … Continue reading Lunchtime lectures in Manchester

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Events

Play: Chopped Liver and Unions

Manchester Jewish Museum is hosting a performance of the one-woman play Chopped Liver and Unions on Thursday 1 May to mark International Workers’ Day. The play is based on the life of Sara Wesker, a Jewish trade unionist and activist in the Communist Party of Great Britain who led the “singing strikers” walk-out at the Rego Factory in London’s Bethnal Green in 1928, stood on … Continue reading Play: Chopped Liver and Unions

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Documents & objects, Events

PHM to unveil 2025 banners exhibition

The People’s History Museum 2025 Banner Exhibition opens on Saturday 18 January. Running until 29 December 2025, the exhibition includes banners produced by trade unions, political parties, the co-operative movement, peace campaigns and others over more than a century of campaigning. Among the historic trade union banners represented in this year’s exhibition is that of the National Union of Railwaymen, Hither Green branch banner, made … Continue reading PHM to unveil 2025 banners exhibition

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Books etc

The Journalism and Writing of Madeline Alberta Linford

Michael Herbert (ed.), “M.A.L” The Journalism and Writing of Madeline Alberta Linford, self-published through Lulu.com and available here, 2024, p/b, pp. 540, £15.99, ISBN 978 14452 05465 Madeline Linford (1895-1975) was a pioneer. She was the first woman on the editorial staff of the Manchester Guardian and edited the first women’s page for the paper from 1922 to 1939. (‘Women’s World’ columns, often merely sops … Continue reading The Journalism and Writing of Madeline Alberta Linford

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Commentary

Class Encounters: John Harland, ballad collector

In the fourth of our series on meetings with figures from labour history, Jennifer Reid encounters the collector of Lancashire dialect poets, John Harland John Harland 1806–1868 was a renowned journalist and ballad collector. Although originally from Kingston-upon-Hull, as chief reporter for the Manchester Guardian he was aware of all the Lancashire dialect poets and worked hard to immerse himself in people’s lives in Manchester. … Continue reading Class Encounters: John Harland, ballad collector

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