As a society we are aiming to make 2025 an interesting year. 

We are currently working on Zoom talks, Guided Tours, Local Fairs and face to face meetings.  Along with all that we have a new edition of our Transactions currently being put together by Steve our editor.

Watch our Forthcoming Events page where these events will be posted.  Some of the Tours will have limited  numbers so be aware and book early.  

It is worth reminding everyone that Alice Lock made a full inventory of the contents of each Transactions dating back to 1883. It was a labour of love and we thank Alice for her dedication. 

This is a remarkable piece of work and well worth investigating.  The link can be found on our Transactions section on this site with the header  "Contents of Transactions".

20 members from the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society had a day trip for a behind the scenes tour of Wythenshawe Hall, led by Ingrid Holden and Libby Edwards from the Friends of Wythenshawe Hall.

The Old Manchester Collection

A group of over twenty LandCAS members visited Manchester Art Gallery to see the Old Manchester Collection which was started by our society in 1887 for the Manchester Royal Jubilee exhibtion.  Manchester clearly had an appitite for its heritage and a further exhibition followed in 1907 which ran for many years.  There are over 1054 objects and images in this collection and they help us to understand the ever-changing city of Manchester.

Hannah Williamson and her team showed us a small selection of these items during a private tour, and this was an excellent opportunity to experience the joy that she and her team have in discovering things about Manchester that had been hidden for years.

We fully intend to have another such trip, so watch this space for details.

On 11th September Danielle gave full account of the life of Anthony Woodville as detailed in her debut book.

Rob gave a fascinating talk titled Manchester Voices following on from research undertaken in Greater Manchester using some interesting techniques and a van named The Accent Van.  

The research showed how the way we speak does relate to who we are or how we percieve ourselves. He showed the really significant differences between the accents and dialects of people across the ten boroughs. It asked do we even relate to the idea of ‘Greater Manchester’, or do our voices and attitudes suggest older loyalties to Lancashire and Cheshire? Many differenes were shown.  Rob answered some of the questions that were addressed in the Manchester Voices project, the largest sociolinguistics project of its kind examining the spoken language of Greater Manchester. The findings uncovered a deep and complex relationship between spoken language and our sense of identity, and offered unique insights into how very aware many people are of the way they use language. The findings also demonstrated that accent diversity is alive and well across the region, even if some cherished dialect terms are beginning to fade away.

In this talk, Rob discussed the process and outcomes of the research, and explain why knowing more about how language works is valuable for everyone.

Prof Rob Drummond (Project Lead)

Rob is Professor of Sociolinguistics at Manchester Met. He researches, teaches, and writes about the relationship between spoken language and identity. He publishes in this area, but does other public-facing work in various additional areas around language and society. He recently published a book for a general audience called You’re All Talk: Why we are what we speak. As well as running Manchester Voices, Rob also looks after the Accentism Project. More about Rob here and on Twitter: @RobDrummond

Our historic collection of Transactions dating back to 1883 are now in digital form and will soon be accessable to members. When they are available we will post the link for our members to access the electronic version.

We ae currently working on this project so it may take a little time.

This is a huge step for our society and it has come at a considerable expense but we feel it was well worth the cost as it is our mark on history.

Lawrence Gregory, our Treasurer was recently honoured by the British Association for Local History in collaboration with the UK National Archives for ‘Outstanding Individual Contribution 2024’. The citation reads - ‘For his long-standing commitment and expertise in bringing the history of Catholicism in Lancashire and beyond to the wider community, and for his kindly support of others in this continuing task’. He has also been elected chairman of the Catholic Archives Society (UK).

Lawrence and his award. Well done we are very proud of you.

As a society we decided to offer a grant for suitable historical or archaeological projects for our area.

These grants were offered to anyone, and we had some very interesting projects.  These applications were judged by Mike Nevell our President, Fr. David Lannon and Ian Mitchell.  I was asked to say that all the applications were of an extremely high standard which made their decision very difficult.  However, we now have three projects that we are offering a proportion of our allocated funds.

These are the projects that our judges decided were best suited to our society and we look forward to them being finished so that they can appear in an edition of the Transactions.

Not in any particular order

Steven J. Dickens, Urmston

The project will be a study of the village of Flixton, Lancashire and its Parochial Council’s attempts to modernise village infrastructure at a key point in its history, 1890-1910.  A detailed analysis of Flixton Council’s dealings with Dunham Massey Estate, in Cheshire regarding the construction of a new bridge over the river Mersey will be instigated. The objective of the investigation is to examine this part of the historical boundary between Lancashire and Cheshire.

Nicola Smith, Ashton-under-Lyne

The project will research the experiences and welfare provisions accessible to disabled ex-servicemen with  mental health [dis]orders within Lancashire between 1914 and 1918, shaped by a social hierarchy of disablement embedded by the Poor Law’s classification of deserving and undeserving.

It will offer a case study of Moss Side Military Hospital, Maghull (historically a part of Lancashire until 1974) to analyse the evolution of Lancashire as a pioneer of psychiatry and mental health medicine.

Jane Smith, Hoghton

The project seeks to deepen our understanding of the specific area east of the North Entrance to Hoghton Tower where it is believed that a chapel predating 1565 once stood. Specifically, the project seeks to determine whether or not below surface structural remains are present in the specified area.  The project forms one part of the ongoing volunteer-led research work at Hoghton Tower and builds upon previous archaeological work which took place in an adjacent area.

21^st May 2024

On Saturday 11^th May we held our Annual Conference at The Friends Meeting House in Manchester. It was a huge success and very well attended.  We had a full room and had to bring in chairs from the foyer.

Our President Mike Nevell opened the day by thanking all the speakers and for everyone coming along from Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society plus our friends from Manchester and Lancashire Family History Society.  We did have some guests who had paid the £12 fee and Mike offered those people a chance to upgrade to membership of LCAS by paying an extra £8 for the annual membership of £20.  As far as I could see everyone took up his kind offer and we now have several new members, great.

The morning session focused on historical talks.  We started off with Ian Mitchel and his talk on Mantles and Myths which was about Browns of Chester c 1780-2021 and gave us an insight into retail life at that time.  Next came Helen Corlett and her fascinating talk on The Cooper at Old Bridge End discussing Finding a Place in Early 19c Manchester all of which was supported with lots of slides.  Finally, just before lunch we were introduced to John Marsden by Hilary Hartigan both from Manchester and Lancashire Family History Society.  John talked about the huge projects that their society regularly undertake into the lives of local people.  The society holds over 3.5 million records which have been gathered from so very many sources and available online to members.  They have 15 volunteers on a rota basis manning the desks at Central Library. They also have over 100 volunteers transcribing old records and John gave us an insight into the workings with slides.

The morning session went really well and we all trotted out in to Manchester to get a sandwich and a drink and to sit  in the beautiful spring sunshine. Enjoying the fresh air and sights of bustling Manchester 2024.  A far cry from the discussions of the morning.

The afternoon session was devoted to archaeology.  First out of the trap was Normal Redhead with Castleshaw Roman Fort, Saddleworth.  It was an illustrated talk on the 1^st Century AD fort that has been uncovered.   He showed slides of various stages in the dig and explained what was going on to great effect.

Next came Neil Coldrick with his talk on Medieval Ironworking in Holcombe Valley where evidence has been uncovered of ironworking in the 13^th and 14^th centuries.  Again we were shown some amazing slides and Neil, entertainingly, explained the whole process and how iron was recovered and all the stages it went through to make it a workable commodity. He also explained about how they need to be careful where and when they dig in Holcombe because it is used by the Ministry of Defence for practice.

Last but certainly not least came Kelly Griffiths and her talk, Scuttled -   Excavations on the Historic Canal Basin in Rochdale. As an industrial archaeologist Kelly had been asked by her company to check out the site before work could start on building new houses.  What was discovered was nothing less than amazing.  Boats that had been scuttled were still in evidence, hence the name.  Kelly talked about  life on the canals and how they played a vital part in the role of manufacturing in the area.  There was a whole tale to tell with some brilliant slides.  This project has aroused so much interest that an Audio Drama has been produced which will be narrated by Christopher Eccleston, our own Salford lad. Once we have more details I will post them on FB.

We had a table at the event held by Manchester and Lancashire Family History Society.  The event was well attended with lots of interesting contributors and we gained several new members.

These are the new rules  agreed at the 2017 AGM.

This is the existing constitution.