My Trip to Manchester England, May 2024

My maternal grandfather, Robert Smith (aka Bob Smith, Grandpa Smith), was born in Manchester England in 1897.  His was a large family, and his mother died when he was about 11.  Apparently he was a handful, and his father decided to send him to Long Beach in California when he was 14, where his older married sister was living.

A while back cousin Joan said that one of her daughters was going to visit England and was thinking of seeing Grandpa’s old stomping grounds.  I guess that planted a seed in my head, and I asked Laura if I could go to visit Manchester for a week, and got permission.  :-)

One of our English cousins recalled that Grandpa and Grandma would always stay at the Midland Hotel when they visited Manchester on their trips, so I decided to stay there during my visit.  The Manchester Central Library is across the street from the Midland, and I spent some time there asking about the neighborhood where Grandpa lived.  They said they'd like to get the home movies Grandpa took when he visited England in the 50's and 60's, so I sent the canisters to them when I got back home.

The Midland is a grand old hotel, really beautiful, and the Central Library is also a wonderful historic place.

The Midland

The Manchester Central Library

They have a plaque about Mr. Rolls and Mr. Royce who apparently agreed to start their company while dining at the hotel.

 

The Founders of Rolls-Royce; One of Their Automobiles is On Display In The Midland Entryway

To get to Manchester, I took a high-speed train from London.  Between the cities the landscape was really beautiful - Green rolling hills, lots of trees, lots of farms and sheep and cows.

Pastoral Train Ride to Manchester

The city was jam-packed with crowds over the weekend, due to a big soccer match between the two local teams, Manchester United and Manchester City.  Then on Sunday there was the annual Manchester Marathon, followed by a Banker's Holiday on Monday.  Lotsa people!

During the week, I spent a few hours in the Central Library, and also wandered around Manchester, taking in the sights and wondering what it was like for Grandpa to grow up there.  I took a free walking tour (well, tips were expected), which was a lot of fun and a good way to see and learn about the city.

The Tram (English for Trolley) Is a Great Way To Get Around the City

Really Fun to See a Magic Bus

One Hundred English Pounds - Too Much!

Casey Told Me I Should Drink Some Cask Ale, and This Pub Advertised it,

So I Went In and Had a Pint.  Very Tasty!

Cousin Jeanne suggested I visit a transportation museum in Bury, which was a short tram ride from the hotel.  The museum is great, and they also have a wonderful tourist railroad, the East Lancashire Railway, with operating steam locomotives.  They were also having a "40's Weekend" and people were dressed up with attire from the 1940s.

I Got to Take A Train Ride on the East Lancashire Railway,

Pulled by this Wonderful Steam Locomotive.

Here Is Another Locomotive That They Operate.

A View Down the Line

Going Back In Time - A Couple and a BBC Radio Broadcast In The 1940s.

=

I Walked Around The Town of Bury and Had Some Fish and Chips.

They Were Also Having s Swell Car Show.

Back in Manchester, I visited a few pubs and sampled some British cuisine...

The Rain Bar; Three Cheese and Onion Pie with Mushy Peas and Chips

Sinclair's Oyster Bar; Liver & Onions with Chips

Three rivers flow through Manchester, and the city and surrounding countryside has many canals.  Long narrow boats are used like houseboats on the canals.

Canal and Barges:  In the Photo on the Left, a Houseboat Barge is Barely Visible.

In the Photo on the Right, the Barge is Not a Houseboat, but Shows

TheirGeneral Shape and Size

I visited the Manchester Art Museum and had fun discovering the connection between a Manchester artist L.S. Lowry, and a song from my youth, "Pictures of Matchstick Men".  I also visited the John Ryland Library, which looks like it's right out of Harry Potter

Doing Some Reading in the John Ryland Library

I visited the Manchester Science and Industry Museum.  Sadly, the railroad section was closed for renovation, but they had a very interesting exhibit about the textile industry, which was how Manchester developed into an industrial powerhouse between 1780 and the mid-1960s.  I also visited Quarry Bank Mill, a preserved textile factory, which was extraordinary.  It's in a beautiful country location, and has a working water wheel, working steam engines, and working cotton machines for spinning and weaving.  The grounds and owner's house next to the mill are gorgeous.

Left, The Science and Industry Museum in Manchester;

Right, Textile Exhibit in the Quarry Bank Mill

 

Views of Quarry Bank Mill;  The Yellow Structure in Back is the Owner's House.

Really Lovely.

Other fun experiences were a river cruise through the city, and a visit to Cstlegate Viaduct, which is a park built atop an old abandoned railway bridge built over one of the city's canals.

 

Boating up River Irwell, With Interesting Commentary Along the Way

Castlegate Viaduct Park

Finally, there are a number of monuments all around the city, which were really interesting to see.  The young fellow who guided us on our walking tour was very knowledgeable about them and their history.

This is Alan Turing, who is widely considered to be the father of theoretical computer science. He developed the Turing Machine and explored the notion of computable numbers.  He also played a crucial role in cracking intercepted messages that enabled the Allies to defeat the Axis powers in many crucial WW2 engagements,

This is "Rise up, Women," also known as "Our Emmeline," a sculpture of Emmeline Pankhurst in St Peter's Square, very close by the Midland.  She organised the British suffragette movement and helped women to win in 1918 the right to vote in Great Britain and Ireland.  "Deeds, Not Words!"

And this is a monument to a soft drink developed in Manchester in 1908, as an alternative to alcoholic beverages.  Our tour guide said it's quite popular outside England, especially in the Arabian Peninsula.

Well, that's about it.  I had a really swell time visiting Grandpa Smith's old stomping grounds, and would highly recommend Manchester as a great place to visit.  A week wasn't enough!