Trips & Adventures – 20 February 2020

The train from Manchester Piccadilly to Warrington was so crowded that most of us had to stand, but the journey took just over twenty minutes, so it wasn’t too bad.

We walked from the station, through the shopping centre to avoid the rain, and ended up at The White Hart, a nice quiet pub. There was table service and the food was really high quality. Most of us chose jacket potatoes with various fillings which we enjoyed, but Walter had steak and ale pie and huge chunky chips. However, they forgot to put Peter’s meal through the till, so he wasn’t served until most of us had finished our meals! In the circumstances he was given a free meal.

We then walked to the Warrington Museum and Art Gallery to view an exhibition of paintings by Eric Tucker, known as “The Unseen Artist”. This special exhibition features work by Warrington artist Eric Tucker, whose prolific talent came to light after his death – family members discovered several hundred paintings and thousands of drawings while clearing out his home.

He has been dubbed Warrington’s ”secret Lowry” in recognition of his chosen topic – working-class life in a Northern town, from the smoky pub to the bustling street scene. Following a pop-up exhibition in Eric Tucker’s home last year, this is the first opportunity for the public to see a much wider selection of the artist’s work. We thought that the paintings also had the style of Beryl Cook.

His paintings show pubs filled with cigarette smoke as couples chat or men huddle together in groups, wearing flat caps, relaxing and enjoying themselves.

Eric Tucker lived with his mother and his stepfather before they died and he never married. He has been described as a “complex character and there was a lot of sadness in his life”. While “funny, sociable and affable”, he was also “shy and diffident and a bit of a loner”.

After our visit we went through the old fish market, and had a photograph at the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party in the Golden Square shopping centre. The sculpture was fashioned in stone by Edwin Russell and depicts Alice joining the March Hare, Dormouse and the Mad Hatter for a tea party. Alice looks distinctly bemused, rather than amused!

For more photos please click here

For details of next outings, please click here

Trips & Adventures – 13 February 2020

Our planned outing to the National Coal Mining Museum in Wakefield was postponed to 27 February, as the tours down the pit were fully booked up.

Instead members of Out In The City visited Manchester Cathedral for a tour from 11.00am to 12.00 noon. There was also a group from Warrington University of the Third Age.

The organ which cost £2.5 million pounds was being tuned, so this drowned out most of the commentary on the tour. But Wikipedia tells me: “The medieval church was extensively refaced, restored and extended in the Victorian period, and again following bomb damage in the 20th century. The collegiate church became the cathedral of the new Diocese of Manchester in 1847, and is one of fifteen Grade I listed buildings in Manchester.”

The group went on to The Moon Under Water for refreshments.

There are some amazing photos which can be seen here

Have you looked at the website recently? There is a lot of information including:

Resources which include a series of essays by Don Milligan – Gay Liberation: a brief moment in turbulent times

Audios and videos

Timeline

A list of legislation and significant events in the UK

Trips & Adventures – 6 February 2020

What a busy time! This month is LGBT History Month 2020.

Whilst I was in my local library in Chorlton, I spotted a small display of books. In the bottom right hand corner is “Tales From Out In The City”.

This was published by our group in 2009 and is an uplifting read. Whilst the memories and reminiscences pull no punches – telling of anxiety, joy, unrequited love, passion, embarrassment and bravery in the face of discrimination, there is also determination, wisdom and a diversity of experiences. This book is about LGBT family, companionship, love, living with discrimination, humour and community.

At our usual Wednesday meeting we held a Taster Session on Mindfulness and we would like to thank Pauline who led the session and Anna who organised it on our behalf.

It is also Hate Crime Awareness Week. This is a week when we focus on prejudice and how we can end it.

Finally, we had a great day out at the Manchester Museum with a handling session. We had lunch at The Turing Tap, a classic pub in the heart of the university area, before walking down Oxford Road to meet our host, Karen.

She took us through a closed section of the museum to a room where we could handle a few of the four million objects in the museum’s collection. Although we didn’t handle dinosaur skeletons or mummies from Ancient Egypt, we had a great time.

More pictures can be seen here.

Trips & Adventures – 30 January 2020

The BBC has suspended plans to wind down its Red Button text services. Its shutdown was due to start today (30 January), but the BBC has called a halt to the closure and TV sets will continue to carry text services – keeping alive a tradition started by the launch of Ceefax 45 years ago. Walter from Out In The City was relieved to hear the news and was heard to say: “If things don’t change, they will stay as they are”.

Today members of Out In The City travelled to Irlam Railway Station which has been restored to its former glory. After the opening of the railway between Manchester and Liverpool in 1873, Irlam required a station. A magnificent red brick ticket office was designed to serve the passengers.

In 1894, to accommodate the newly built Manchester Ship Canal, the line had to be raised to provide clearance for ships. Elevating the platform, the original station was demolished and the present ticket office was built on the other side of the tracks.

After years of welcoming passengers the station was closed in the 1970s and was left to crumble. The once derelict building has now been lovingly restored. Local residents have formed the Friends of IRlam STation to improve the area and develop a hive of community activity.

We had lunch hosted by Jo and her staff in the railway cafe. The staff are very friendly and helpful and the food was really excellent and the cakes amazing.

Patrick also gave a very informative talk about the history of the station and Jo told us some historic local information about Irlam and Cadishead, an area that produced goods such as candles, basketwork and steel.

For more photos please see here

 

Trips & Adventures – 23 January 2020

We met at Yates for a lunch time meal. The food was fabulous (although by 12.00 noon they had already run out of jacket potatoes). After an hour or so of incidents and accidents, hints and allegations, laughter, tears and the odd pint, we set off on the short walk to Godlee Observatory.

This can be seen from Sackville Park, and is located in a tower on the roof of one of the University buildings. It was given to the city of Manchester by Francis Godlee when construction was completed in 1902. The dome is constructed out of papier-mâché, and famously survived the bombings during the Second World War.

We met our tour host who for many years has been a regular member of the Manchester Astronomical Society, one of the oldest astronomical societies in the country, having become independent in 1903.

The society meets every Thursday with the aim to encourage the study of astronomy for both the newcomer and seasoned observer alike.

We went up lifts, walked down corridors, went from building extension to original building and eventually reached Floor G of the Sackville Street building. There are meeting rooms where we were entertained by our tour host with his interesting and informative talk. We “caught a falling star” by handling a piece of meteorite which had landed in Brazil over 4,000 years ago.

The highlight was entering the actual observatory, accessed by climbing up a spiral staircase and going through a trap door, and seeing the Godlee double telescope made by Grubb of Dublin.

Lots of fantastic photos can be seen by clicking here