Philippa Vishnyakov
Manchester Green Badge Tour Guide. Walks and tours. The original lunchtime Manchester Netwalks for business.
I can't access DMs so please contact via website.
www.revealmanchester.co.uk
Researching women in the footnotes of Manchester history.
- This week in 1814 Lavinia Robinson was found drowned in the River Irwell ‘with icicles gemming her hair in the place of orange blossoms’. She had disappeared from her Manchester home after arguing with her betrothed. She is buried in St John’s Gardens, the graveyard of the former St John’s Church.
- 6 February 1958 A plane carrying the MUFC team crashed on take-off in Munich, with 23 fatalities including players, staff and journalists. Photo: former St George’s Church, Chester Rd, facing towards Old Trafford with clock set to 3.04, the time of the crash. See @garyjames.bsky.social article below
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- This week in 1870 Charles Dickens, by then in poor health, visited Manchester to give a ‘farewell reading’ of his work at the Free Trade Hall.
- Excited for this four weeks today. Tickets still available so join us for an entertaining history walk about the Women of Oxford Road followed by entry to Elizabeth Gaskell's House. #Manchester #IWD2026 elizabethgaskellhouse.co.uk/events/inter...
- Discover the fascinating history of Manchester's pioneering women! Celebrate International Women's Day 2026 with this unique walking tour of Oxford Road led by expert guide @revealmcr.bsky.social, Wednesday 4 March (10.30am). Book now through our website #iwd26 #givetogain #manchester #walkingtour
- 4 February 1908 Enriqueta Rylands died. In her husband’s memory she had founded John Rylands Library, Deansgate, Manchester @thejohnrylands.bsky.social. She was the first woman to be awarded the Freedom of the City of Manchester.
- Lovely group of netwalkers braved a cold Manchester today to hear stories of the Old Town, incl that of 18th century Ann Lee, believed by her followers to be the female messiah, subject of new film ‘The Testament of Ann Lee’ Join us in March to walk, network and celebrate International Women’s Day
- For business bods, this netwalk on Tuesday 3 March highlights some stories of Manchester Women of the last 100 years www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/manchester...
- This week in 1983 emerging local band The Smiths played the Hacienda. This was the first of three gigs they played there that year, with flowers increasingly filling the stage to counter the ‘sterile and inhuman’ club, for ‘harmony with nature’ and to show ‘optimism in Manchester’.
- This week in 1769 at @mancathedral.bsky.social Roger Aytoun (nicknamed ‘Spanking Roger’ for his love of fighting), aged 19, married wealthy Manchester widow Barbara Mynshull, 65, whose fortune he then squandered.
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- This week 1871 the death of Lion, the ‘Salford Fire Dog’, was reported. A favourite with firemen and credited with saving many lives, he attended 332 fires. His collar was engraved ‘When duty calls I must obey, so onward let me jog For my name is Lion, the Salford firemen's dog.’
- 31 January 1877 The last monthly meeting of Manchester Corporation (City Council) was held in the old town hall, King Street, before the opening of the new town hall in Albert Square. The colonnade of the old town hall now stands in Heaton Park.
- 30 January 1858 The first performance of the Halle Orchestra was held, at the Free Trade Hall Manchester. The Halle was a legacy of the 1857 Art Treasures Exhibition - Charles Halle had formed an orchestra of 50 musicians to give daily performances during the five-month event.
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- 29 January 1868 The Manchester Natural History Society held its last meeting. Its collection was transferred to Owens College (later the University of Manchester), forming Manchester Museum.
- This week in 1809 Reverend William Cowherd preached a sermon at his Salford church urging abstinence from eating meat, and so sparked a vegetarian movement. His followers would later help form @vegsoc.bsky.social.
- 27 January 1984 Rising star Madonna performed on Channel 4 programme The Tube, broadcast from the Hacienda Manchester.
- 26 January 1796 John Shaw died. He ran a punch house in Manchester (Sinclair’s Oyster Bar today) and would threaten lingering customers with a whip.
- This week in 1875 Manchester-born Joseph Henry Blackburne, a celebrated chess player nicknamed ‘The Black Death’, played blindfolded against 10 members of Manchester Athenæum’s Chess Club. He lost a game, won 5 and 4 were drawn. The Athenæum building is now part of Manchester Art Gallery.
- 24 January 1840 The River Irwell overflowed. Manchester’s chief of police constructed a raft out of a gate and rescued many residents from their houses. For this he was awarded a medal by the Royal Humane Society.
- 22 January 1887 Engineer Sir Joseph Whitworth died. Stating ‘you can only make as well as you can measure’, he advanced accuracy in measurement and machining, devising the ‘British Standard Whitworth’ for screw threads. He left huge wealth for Manchester projects such as the Whitworth Art Gallery.
- 21 January 1867 At a meeting in Manchester, resolutions were adopted ‘in favour of prohibiting the sale of intoxicating liquors on Sunday’.
- This week in 1806 @porticolibrary.bsky.social Manchester opened. By 1814, non-members of this subscription library and newsroom were ‘outside the circle of Manchester cultured society’.
- 19 January 1856 Margaret Ashton was born in Manchester. Manchester’s first female councillor, she was a pacifist and suffragist. She campaigned for better wages for factory girls and improved maternal health care, helping found Manchester Babies’ Hospital.
- Looks like a bargain to me
- 18 January 1989 The Hitman & Her was filmed at the Hacienda, Manchester.
- 17 January 1863 David Lloyd George was born in Chorlton on Medlock, Manchester. As Chancellor of the Exchequer he introduced national insurance. In 1916 he became Secretary of State for War, then Prime Minister that same year.
- This week in 1883 Superintendent James Bent, who had set up an Old Trafford soup kitchen run by police, reported it to be feeding 1,400 people, mainly children, each night.
- This week in 1713 Manchester wigmaker Edmund Harrold wrote in his diary (now kept @chethamslibrary.bsky.social) how ill he was after an all day ‘ramble’ (pub crawl).
- 13 January 1902 The Manchester Guardian (now @theguardian.com) reported on the dire finances of football club Newton Heath. It re-formed as new entity Manchester United that year.
- 12 January 1878 At Salford Town Hall, Mark Addy was presented with 200 guineas to recognise his many rescues of people from drowning. Over his lifetime, he saved 50+ people from the River Irwell and was awarded the Albert Medal by Queen Victoria for his ‘gallantry and daring’.
- January 1891 Alfred Waterhouse (architect of Manchester Town Hall, Manchester Museum and the Natural History Museum London) completed designs for the Refuge Assurance Building, now the Kimpton Clocktower Hotel (formerly the Palace Hotel).
- January 1749 The heads of Deacon and Syddall, displayed on spikes on Manchester’s Exchange, were stolen, and later buried, by a medical student. The Manchester men were executed for joining Bonnie Prince Charlie in the 1745 Rebellion.
- 9 January 1991 The Hacienda Manchester held a night called Thanksgiving to celebrate renewal of the club’s licence. Six months earlier George Carman QC had successfully defended the club, under threat of losing its licence, buying time for it to address drug issues.
- Two months until International Women's Day 2026. That week I'll be guiding lots of great history walks about Manchester Women including...
- This week in 1786 a series of cockfights took place at the Exchange Manchester, Lancashire vs Cheshire. Cheshire won by eight battles.
- Reposted by Philippa Vishnyakov#OTD 7 January 1792, Mary Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Women was published. This text was hugely influential and is regarded as one of the earliest works of feminist philosophy. #WomensHistory #GenderHist
- 7 January 1857 Joseph Brotherton died suddenly while travelling by bus from Salford to Manchester. Salford’s first MP, he opposed the death penalty, child labour and slavery. A follower of Reverend William Cowherd who preached abstinence from meat-eating, Brotherton helped found @vegsoc.bsky.social.
- 6 January 1844 John Edward Taylor died. A witness of the Peterloo Massacre, he founded the Manchester Guardian, now The Guardian.
- This week in 1862 a fund began for a Manchester memorial to the late Prince Albert. The resulting Albert Memorial, giving its name to Albert Square, and pre-dating the Town Hall there, was described in 1964 as ‘a very expensive pigeon loft which ought to be demolished forthwith’.
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- 4 January 1870 A night shelter for boys living on Manchester streets was opened on Quay Street, the origins of charity @togethertrust.bsky.social.
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- 3 January 1942 Actor John Thaw, famous for TV programmes including Inspector Morse and The Sweeney, was born in Manchester.
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- 2 January 1878 Catherine Chisholm was born. First female medical graduate of Mcr Univ, she founded Manchester Babies’ Hospital (later, Duchess of York Hospital) with financial help from Margaret Ashton, Manchester’s first female councillor. The hospital was initially staffed by female doctors.
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- Reposted by Philippa Vishnyakov#OTD The Moss Side People’s Centre was the centre of community operations for the Abasindi Black Women’s Co-operative that was established by Kath Locke, Elouise Edwards and other Moss Side activists on 1st January 1980.
- 1 January 1900 The John Rylands Library @thejohnrylands.bsky.social opened to public readers. The library, ten years in construction, was founded in memory of a cotton millionaire by his wife Enriqueta Rylands, first woman awarded the Freedom of the City of Manchester.
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- 31 December 1862 Despite the cotton famine – when raw cotton was prevented from reaching Lancashire during the American Civil War - a meeting at the Free Trade Hall Manchester resolved to support Abraham Lincoln, in solidarity against slavery.
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- @ronanhession.bsky.social thought of this when I read Leonard and Hungry Paul, although the anger levels couldn’t be more different. Gem of a book, thanks.
