FORTHCOMING EVENTS
19th November 2025 Zoom Talk Anne Charleworth The Tyldesleys - Rebels With A Cause
Anne is a member of our society and has a published book Thomas Tyldesley and the Lancashire Plot.
Her talk in November traces the trials and tribulations of five generations of the Myerscough branch of the Tyldesley family. From the civil wars through to the last Jacobite rebellion, this Catholic family were unwavering in their support of the Stuart dynasty and risked everything for the cause.
10th December 2025 3pm Zoom Talk Livi Michael Elizabeth and Ruth
Livi Michael is an award-winning writer of books for adults, young adults and children. Her short stories have been widely published in various places including Granta, The Lonely Crowd and the Manchester Review. Her play, Singers Not Sinners was performed in Oldham in 2022. She has taught creative writing in various universities and was Programme Leader of the MA in Publishing at Manchester Mertropolitan University.
The talk in December is about her latest book entitled Elizabeth and Ruth, to be released on the 9th February 2026 by Salt Publishing.
"Manchester 1849. Elizabeth Gaskell, newly famous author of Mary Barton, visits a young Irish prostitute in Manchester's New Bailey prison. The girl is about to be discharged onto the Manchester streets, where her old life of poverty and violence await her. Elizabeth is determined to help her, but few people will employ an ex-prostitute from prison. In desperation, Elizabeth writes to Charles Dickens for advice."
Based on real correspondence between Elizabeth Gaskell and Charles Dickens, Elizabeth and Ruth tells a story of hypocrisy and suppression, and how Elizabeth navigates the censorship and prejudice of the day to help the young girl and to write the novel about her that will ultimately be banned and burned after publication.
21st January 2026 3pm Zoom Talk by Michael Shippobottom Michael will give a talk on the subject of James Lomax Simpson
4th February 2026 at 2pm Zoom Talk by Brian Groom These Isles: The Story of England, Sotland, Wales and Ireland
Author and journalist Brian Groom, who has previously spoken to the society about his bestselling ‘Northerners: A History’ and ‘Made in Manchester’, will talk about his forthcoming book ‘These Isles’, due out on 26 February 2026. He will tell the story from the first human footsteps to the present day, charting the kaleidoscope of overlapping and conflicting identities, including references to Lancashire and Cheshire.
12th March 2026 3pm Zoom Talk by Stephen Duxbury The subject of the talk will be Dickens in the North.
15th April 2026 3pm Zoom Talk Simon Young The Baum Rabbit: the Lancashire and British tradition of Phantom Killer Bunnies
"Rochdale's Baum Rabbit was one of Britain's most famous supernatural Victorian and Edwardian spirits. It appeared not only in local writing and the classics of Lancashire dialect, but in national reference guides and the pages of Punch. But how on earth did the town settle on an innocent-sounding bunny as its token of fear? As late as the interwar period Rochdale kids were threatened with 'The Baum rabbit will get you'! In this talk we look at the evidence for the Baum Rabbit and the wider British tradition of killer bunnies. The Baum rabbit might seem impossibly bizarre to us today, but it had many cute floppy-eared cousins who terrorised communities up and down the land.
Simon Young is a British historian based in Italy. In 2022 he published The Boggart: Folklore, History, Place-names and Dialect with the University of Exeter Press."
13th May 2026 3pm Zoom Talk Testament "Robert Rose: The Bard of Colour
Join Testament as he pieces together the life of Robert Rose the self-titled “Bard of Colour”, a black poet living in Manchester 200 years ago. Rose was part of the Sun Inn Group of poets alongside Samuel Bamford, John Critchely Prince and Isabella Banks. Testament is currently writing a play about Robert Rose.
Testament is a rapper, poet, playwright and world record holding beatboxer. Testament was writer in residence at The Royal Exchange Theatre in 2019 and is currently host of BBC Radio 4’s The Adverb.”
17th June 2026 Zoom Talk Caroline Flint
Records and Archives Officer
The Together Trust, Together Trust Centre, Schools Hill, Cheadle, Cheshire, SK8 1JE
Tales from the Together Trust Archive
The Together Trust is a Charity based in Cheadle which delivers care, support and education services across the North-West. Services include caring homes and education for young people with disabilities and complex needs along with a fostering service and therapy services for families. Community services are also run for adults with disabilities or complex health needs.
The Charity has evolved multiple times from small beginnings in January 1870 on Quay Street, Manchester when a homeless shelter was first opened for 12 boys over the age of 10. The Charity's name too has evolved through the years notably including 'Manchester and Salford Boys and Girls Refuges and Homes' and 'the Boys and Girls Welfare Society'. The services offered for children grew quickly from 1870 and within the Charity's first 50 years they ran numerous homes across a wide age range, emigration services to Canada, campaigning work to improve the lives of children, employment and training opportunities, convalescent homes, summer camps, a 24-hour shelter, a remand home and a home for children with disabilities. From 1920 most services were re-located from Manchester and Salford to Cheadle. Children's homes continued to be run from the Cheadle site before moving to smaller family homes in the community, following which specialist education services were provided on site, evolving to include post 16 education and adult day services in the local area. As Records and Archives Officer for the Trust I hope to provide an overview of the Trust's 155 year history and use the records from the early half of the Charity's history to explore some of the services offered and the young people who used them.
15th July 2026 Zoom Talk 3pm Touchstones Gallery Talk about the Touchstones Gallery in Rochdale about their history and museum
Details to follow
