March 2013 – Page 5 – Manchester Historian

The entertaining juxtaposition of a King and a car park certainly makes for an eye-catching headline, but the discovery of Richard III’s body does not actually provide much, if any, useful information about his personality or his reign. In spite of our better judgement we still fall into the trap of over-valuing primary sources and Continue Reading

Railways are seemingly always present in the headlines. A consistently contested issue, the Guardian’s Seamus Milne is one of many who view rail as “a gigantic scam for siphoning off public money”, but what brought us to this point? To commuters, the private railways are not the concern of the government, nor do they have Continue Reading

Students often complain about the Manchester weather, but in June 1919 one of our alumni, Sir Arthur Whitten Brown, braved freezing temperatures and lashing sleet, hail and rain to do what was necessary. If this sounds like your morning commute to lectures, bear in mind that Brown was somewhere over the Atlantic, clinging unprotected to Continue Reading

When launching the annual Bruntwood Playwriting Prize at the Royal Exchange in Manchester earlier this year, Dame Jenni Murray stated the importance of strong roles for women. She was, however, preaching to the converted. The Exchange’s Autumn/Winter season has had many such roles (not least among them was Lady in Orpheus Descending) and it ends Continue Reading