October 2014 – Page 5 – Manchester Historian

As the centenary of the outbreak of World War One is commemorated across Britain, people remember relatives that gave their lives. Perhaps the most compelling of these memorials contains 888,246 red, ceramic poppies filling the moat of the Tower of London, one for each British and colonial soldier who died in action. However, the men Continue Reading

Many things are associated with the Christmas period which we know and love and we can generally count on having a great time during the festive period. Circumstances were very different when soldiers of the Allied and German armies put down their weapons and stopped fighting to enjoy some familiar activities during the Christmas period Continue Reading

We all have images of life on the front line during the First World War: young men in uniforms, trenches, guns and tanks. But occasionally we are given a more personal insight into real experiences of the war. We were given such an insight upon the discovery of the notebooks of Nurse Mabel Earp last Continue Reading

Ashburne Hall was first created in 1899 and soon became a symbol of the move toward equality in terms of female academia. Prior to the creation of Ashburne Hall, John Owens had created a male only cohort at the university and it wasn’t until an act of parliament that the barrier preventing women attending university Continue Reading

Magdalene asylums, also known as ‘Magdalene laundries’, emerged in the late 18th century to house “fallen women”. Originally this meant women who worked in prostitution, but this term gradually expanded to include women classed as sexually promiscuous, unmarried mothers, women considered too tempting to men, and women who were considered a family burden. They were Continue Reading