The Royal Phil Heads to Manchester

Over a four-day visit, two dozen members of the Society had the chance to see different sides of Manchester and learn more about one of the UK’s most interesting cities.

On Monday 19 May 2025, twenty-four eager and interested members boarded a luxury coach and headed south on a four-day excursion to Manchester.

Guides added colour to the history of the village visiting the library, and the miner’s cottage.
The most interesting experience was to enter a fully restored lead mine where our guide explained the harsh working conditions, pointed out the seam of lead, some still visible, then using the only illumination of a candle let us experience the stark existence that the men, women and children employed, had to endure. It was extremely cold but thankfully we had modern warm clothing and hard hats.

The first visit was to The Museum of Lead Mining in Wanlockhead a mere eight miles from the M74. Wanlockhead is Scotland’s highest village.

Didsbury House Hotel, Didsbury was to be our home during our trip and this boutique hotel was extremely welcoming, modern, spacious, and incredibly comfortable.

Shortly after our arrival Andrew Simcock, a local councillor, took us on a tour into Fletchers Moss a park named after Alderman Fletcher Moss, a philanthropist , who donated the park to the city of Manchester in 1915.

One building, The Croft, within the park has an historical provenance as it became the home of Emily Williamson who was so horrified by the fashion for feathered hats that she started a campaign to halt the plumage trade. In 1889 she invited her lady friends to tea at her home in and asked them to sign a pledge to wear no feathers. This was the beginning of the Society for the Protection of Birds.

We saw the Parsonage, with its ornate lead windows in which Fletcher Moss lived after vacating The Croft.

In the evening at the hotel we were joined by President Peter Wright together with five other prominent members of the Manchester Lit & Phil.

Andrew Simcock gave a brief talk on Emily Williamson mentioned in his book ‘First in the Fight’ which is about twenty women who made Manchester.

After the talk we all enjoyed an exquisite meal with our special guests.

On the Tuesday morning, the first visit was to Lyme Park a National Trust property in Disley, Cheshire.

The estate was granted to Sir Thomas d’Anyers in 1346 and passed to the Leghs of Lyme by marriage in 1388. It stayed in the possession of the Legh family until 1946, when it was given to the National Trust.

Our guides escorted us throughout the huge building and areas not normally seen by the public.

The next visit was to Jodrell Bank Observatory which hosts a number of radio telescopes as part of the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics at the University of Manchester.

Our first stop was the First Light Pavilion where we experienced two short presentations in a custom-built planetarium-style auditorium.

A modern ‘hands-on’ exhibition explained the work of Sir Bernard Lovell’s construction of the massive steerable dish radio telescope.

Dr Laura Wolz, senior UK scientific advisor on Square Kilometre Array (SKA) gave us an illustrated talk about SKA which involve separate more sensitive radio telescopes situated in South Africa and Australia.

On Wednesday morning our first visit was at Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester hosted by Amy George and Sophie Harai.

Whitworth has acquired the ABC Wax Archive, the last surviving industrial design archive from an important Manchester textile company. The artifacts are an extremely beautiful and treasured resource illustrating the history of British textiles made for export to markets in Ghana. Our hosts explained the intricate processing of wax-print cloth production.

After lunch at Manchester City Library Shelagh McNerney, Head of Regeneration Eastern Gateway of Manchester City Council gave an illustrated presentation titled “Manchester reaches for the skies.” Her slide presentation included the history and current situation about Manchester city centre regeneration. A lively question and answer session followed.

Immediately after the lecture we were taken on a walking tour by Johnathon Schofield an experienced and proud Mancunian who pointed out iconic buildings plus statues of Abraham Lincoln, Chopin, and Emmeline Pankhurst.

The tour ended outside The Britons Protection a Grade II listed public house where we enjoyed a drinks reception with members of the Manchester Lit & Phil then as a group we adjourned to the Quaker Meeting House for a scheduled lecture by Dr Dean Kirby on the subject of ‘Past meets Present’ describing Manchester during the mid-1900’s.

The lecture was based around the city living conditions as described by Friedrich Engels in his book “The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844”. Engels lived in Manchester for twelve years as his father had a cotton textile business in Salford.

That evening in Manchester’s China town we thoroughly enjoyed a meal of banquet standards in Little Yang Sing restaurant.

Thursday began with a visit to Salford Quays where Frank, an official guide on his walking tour, described the domestic, media, museums and commercial buildings surrounding the Manchester Ship Canal Salford Docks, reinforcing his descriptions with historical photographs of the docks’ construction – officially opened by Queen Victoria in 1894.

The walking tour ended at The Lowry a modern building which has the largest public collection in the world by L. S. Lowry, with over four hundred works.

The memorable part of the galley is a special room providing an ‘Immersive Experience’ which surrounds the standing audience with a creative exploration, of a painting that celebrates the excitement, anticipation, and ritual of going to a football match on a Saturday afternoon.

Our guide skilfully walked us round the gallery pointing out the most notable drawings and paintings. An enthusiastic traveller, Lowry visited various parts of the UK as shown by sketches of the Bass Rock and the Glasgow docks.

On the journey home there was one final stop in Carlisle to visit Carlisle Castle, one of the most besieged castles in England.

Returning in early evening to Glasgow we all left for our respective homes, more informed, educationally challenged and delighted with the full four days of friendship, interest, and edification whilst in the company of likeminded members of the Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow.

The tour, the fourth society venture, was arranged by Tony Burton, who carefully and meticulously constructed this stimulating programme.