Trips & Adventures – 25 July 2019

Clayton Hall (the building) is a hidden gem. If you take the tram from Piccadilly Gardens heading towards Ashton, not far past the Etihad Stadium (Manchester City’s football ground), you will come to Clayton Hall (the tram stop).

Clayton Hall is a 15th-century manor house on Ashton New Road, in Clayton, Manchester, just two minutes away from the tram stop. It is hidden behind trees in a small park. You cannot miss it unless you blink at the wrong time.

The hall is a Grade II listed building, the mound on which it is built is a scheduled ancient monument, and a rare example of a medieval moated site.

We arrived about 12.00 noon and were ushered into the oak-beamed dining area. Although it was the hottest day of the year so far, we were greeted by a lovely log fire. We had pre-ordered food for ten people so fortunately our party was made up of exactly ten people.

We had a leisurely meal – the home made soup was delicious – and we filled up with sandwiches, cake, teas and coffees.

We split into two groups and toured round the various rooms. We were encouraged (and to be truthful, we don’t need much encouragement) to touch items, to open drawers and to try on items of clothing. In the washroom Ken tried on some bloomers and gave us a lesson in ironing. He also got us singing “Doing the Lambeth Walk” and “All The Nice Girls Love a Sailor” while we tried on various hats and waved our canes.

John was delighted to find a book about Belle Vue – “Showground of the World” remembering and celebrating the fun and heady days of Belle Vue Zoological Gardens.

The staff are all volunteers and they seemed to enjoy it as much as we did. After viewing rooms upstairs we were given a power point presentation about the history of the building which was fascinating.

We ended up with cold drinks, ices and a walk around the gardens before heading back to the city centre.

There are more photos here

To find out more about our next outings click here

Trips & Adventures – 18 July 2019

The steam train from Bury Bolton Street station takes you to Rawtenstall via Burrs Country Park, Summerseat, Ramsbottom and Irwell Vale. The East Lancashire Railway is a 12.5 mile heritage railway line and has been run by volunteers since July 1987. Passenger services between Bury and Rawtenstall were withdrawn by British Rail on 3 June 1972.

On the way we met a friend – Jean Friend – from Oldham’s LGBT group, Out & About. She was enjoying a day out, and it was great to see her.

We previously made the journey during Bury Pride when the train was renamed “The Rainbow Train”, but we wanted to have a longer visit to the town of Rawtenstall.

On the way to the station we noticed the statue commemorating Victoria Wood:

Victoria Wood, CBE was an English comedienne, actress, singer and songwriter, screenwriter, producer and director. Wood wrote and starred in dozens of sketches, plays, musicals, films and sitcoms over several decades, and her live comedy act was interspersed with her own compositions, which she performed on the piano. She was born in Prestwich in 1953, but sadly died in 2016.

“Thomas” also found time to have a ride on “Thomas the Tank Engine”.

Once in Rawtenstall we looked for somewhere to eat and found a lovely cafe which served delicious food. The afters included home made fruit crumble and custard or sticky toffee pudding with custard!

It was a lovely day out – the sun shone and we discovered Mr Fitzpatrick’s – Britain’s Last Original Temperance Bar selling vintage drinks for modern tastes. The highlight, however, was discovering the building dated 1912 (now a carpet and rug emporium) which used to be a cinema which still featured a proscenium arch. Amazing!

For more photos please click here

For more photos of the Pride in Ageing launch click here

To find out more about our next outings click here

 

 

 

Pauline has written a fantastic review of Ian McKellen’s recent one-man show at 80, which shows there is no age limit to success. See here.

Pauline was treading the boards herself on Sunday, 30 June for 100 Trans Voices with Transcreative UK at the Royal Exchange Theatre. We are very proud of you, Pauline!

We’ve been busy attending Manchester International Festival events: Invisible Cities, The Anvil and Tree, and we are enormously grateful to the organisers for supplying tickets to Out In The City. Two of our members were also involved in Street Poem.

We are also involved in the Pride in Ageing – attending the launch and contributing to the Advisory Group and Steering Committee.

Finally, we are involved with the Talking About My Generation project. We started recording our first ever podcast! Thanks to Age UK Salford for hosting our session.

Trips & Adventures – 4 July 2019

We set off from Piccadilly Bus Station at 12.00 noon and arrived at the Turing Tap in the university area within twenty minutes or so. The pub was named after Alan Turing and features some photos of him, but oddly also had some old style telephones attached to the wall. Most of us had some food, which was very tasty, but Peter’s fish was so huge we thought he had been served with Moby Dick!

The Whitworth Art Gallery is only a block away and is set in Whitworth Park. Unusually, the gallery does not feature permanent exhibits, as the collection is too big (about 55,000 items) but changes displays every few months

There was a tour scheduled for 2.00pm and we met with our guide Jason, in the rear extension, which was only opened four years ago. He started with a history of the building which was previously owned by wealthy tradesmen who had made their fortunes in the cotton industry.

He explained that in recent years the Art Gallery had made a feature of the outside garden and park areas linking the building to the park and so we stepped outside to admire the sculptures. We walked around the building, whilst Jason gave us a very interesting and informative talk. He was also very attentive to our needs taking a route with few steps and finding us places to sit down.

A statue of King Edward VII commemorates the royal visit when the Royal Infirmary (just over the road) was opened in 1909. Jason told us that the bronze statue is often decorated with a traffic cone by university freshers each year. I wondered if one of those freshers was called “Jason”?

The garden has Japanese blossom, mint plants and linden trees and attracts green parakeets as well as migrating birds.

The gallery is free to enter and also has free Sunday concerts – it prides itself on being a “Gathering of Strangers”. However, in 2003, three paintings — Van Gogh’s The Fortification of Paris with Houses, Picasso’s Poverty and Gauguin’s Tahitian Landscape – were stolen from the gallery. They were later found rolled up in a nearby public toilet and were subsequently put back on display.

In our usual practice we made our way to the café for a much needed tea or coffee.

Trips & Adventures – 27 June 2019

Phew! It was the hottest day of the year! From Manchester Piccadilly to Preston to St Anne’s (via Moss Side) took an hour and a half by train and costs £9.90, £12.10 or £18.15 depending on what senior discounts you are entitled to. By chance we met up with one of Ken’s friends who was making her way to Lytham and joined us on that section of the journey.

Lytham and St Anne’s are two separate towns, which are often joined up as “Lytham St Anne’s” apparently much to the annoyance of the local residents.

We made our way to the Trawl Boat Inn and ate our meals outside as the sun was shining brightly and it was such a glorious day.

We then walked to the sea front. There were miles of sandy beaches as the sea could only be seen in the far distance. People were relaxing, boys were playing football and donkeys were giving rides.

We walked along the pier through a noisy amusement arcade, past a couple of cafes, to the end, but still the sea was far away. From the end of the pier we could see the “Big One” in Blackpool (the UK’s tallest roller coaster ride at an impressive 235 feet!) but not Blackpool Tower.

The pier had a notice board showing the history of the pier. This included a poster for the performance of a gay summer show with a brilliant cast called “Let’s Go Gay” opening on 28 June 1958 (61 years ago) at the Pier Pavilion, St Anne’s. The guest star was Russ Conway, a popular pianist who had 20 hit singles in the UK Singles Chart including two number one hits. He never came out as gay as, in those days, it would have been career suicide. The show also included The Gay Four and was presented by the Noel Gay Music Co Ltd.

Whilst others walked along the front, Walter and I sat down with ice creams, which cost the same price as a mortgage on a small house in 1958, and reminisced about Doris Speed who used to play pub landlady Annie Walker in Coronation Street. All in all, a great day out.

Friday, 28 June 2019

Today is the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, which helped spark the fight for LGBT rights around the world.

Being gay or transgender was classified as a mental illness. Gay people were regularly threatened and beaten by police, and were shunned by many in society.

Even here in the UK, being gay was a crime until 1967.

But the Stonewall riots in 1969 were a landmark event in history, which helped to fight homophobia and campaign for equal rights.

On 28 June 1969, police raided the Stonewall Inn – a bar in the gay area of New York, US. It was the second time that week the police had raided it. They threw 200 people out onto the streets and beat up some people.

The community were angry about the way they were being treated by the police, so they chose to fight back.

This event triggered a week of protests and rioting by people, who were fed up of being harassed by the authorities.

News of the riots spread around the world, and this inspired others to join protests and rights groups to fight for equality.

A month after the riots, the first openly gay march took place in New York, demanding equality.