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GREATER MANCHESTER DID YOU KNOW

The Royal Connection

Queen Victoria first visited Manchester in 1851. It was the first time for over 150 years that a reigning monarch had been to the region. In Peel Park a group of 80,000 Sunday school children sang the National Anthem. Prince Albert, who had already organised his Great Exhibition in the Crystal Palace that year, an event which highlighted British technical achievements, will have been most impressed by the growing skills in the area.

In May 1857 Prince Albert arrived in Manchester a month before Queen Victoria and unveiled a statue to the Queen which was in Peel Park and celebrated that earlier visit.

On 21st May 1894, nearing the end of her reign, Queen Victoria returned to perform the official opening of the Manchester Ship Canal. The Canal took seven years to build and stretched for 35 miles, creating the city's link to the open sea. She also knighted the mayor of Salford, William Henry Bailey and the lord mayor of Manchester, Anthony Marshall at the opening of the Canal.

She then rode past, in her carriage, newly developed parts of the city and saw the Albert Memorial in Albert Square (no not that one), which was a tribute to her late husband.

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Greater Manchester Eats

Eccles is a town in Greater Manchester which used to be in Lancashire. The Eccles cake is basically a currant filled flaky pastry with the crust coated in demerara sugar. It was first made, so they say, by a James Birch in his shop in the town centre way back in 1793. Unlike some of the other "Eats" we have written about, the Eccles cake does not have "Protected Geographical Status," which means cakes made outside the town can legally carry the name.

Traditionally, in Eccles at any rate, the cake was served with Lancashire cheese. Technically they are not even cakes, being a pastry. They are round and flat in shape and as well as currants the fillings may also contain citrus peel, dried fruits and spices. There is a story that they were even around before 1793, at the time of Oliver Cromwell. It is said he brought in an Act of Parliament banning the sinful pastry that was tempting to the human soul. I don't think Oliver and I would have got on very well. I love Eccles cakes.

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Greater Manchester VIPs

Seven random people who were born in Greater Manchester in the last 100 years:-
Marcus Rashford (Footballer), Philip Scofield (TV Presenter), Phoebe Dynevor (Actor), Rebecca Long-Bailey (Politician), Danny Boyle (Film Producer), the late Victoria Wood (Comedian) and Sara Cox (DJ and Presenter)

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Richard Remembers

I'm afraid I have a bit of bad news here. I don't remember anything at all about Greater Manchester and I'm not sure I have ever been there or even driven through there. This makes remembering anything a trifle difficult, if not impossible. I do remember, and this possibly says more about my childhood interests, that I supported Manchester United but, even more important, that an English cricketer, Jim Laker, took all ten wickets in an innings during a test match at Old Trafford, in Manchester, back in 1956.

For the non-cricketers amongst you this will mean little but to some it may be of interest. Amazingly in the first innings he took nine wickets and is the only man to take 19 wickets in a test match. And against the Australians. In an Ashes Test. Even more amazingly, to me anyway, was that earlier that same year when playing for his county Surrey against those Australians, Laker took ten wickets in an innings as well. Earlier in his career, Laker had bowling figures of 14-12-2-8. Again I apologies to non-cricket followers but that's what I remember. I wanted to be like Jim Laker so I learned to bowl off-spin as he bowled and once, in an inter-school game, I had figure of 8-5-7-8. If nothing else I must thank Manchester for indirectly reminding me of this.

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Owlbut's Birdwatch

This may be a bird you haven't heard of but you will almost certainly have seen. The dunnock is a small brown and grey bird but it is quiet and tries to be unnoticeable. You can often see them on their own, creeping along the edge of a flower bed and close to a bush. They like parks and gardens or the edges of farm fields and woods. They keep mainly on the ground and have a sort of shuffling walk.

They have brown, black and grey feathers, pink legs and a short, thin, black beak. They eat insects, spiders, worms and seeds. There are over 2 million territories of dunnocks. For birds, a territory is a defended area and can be any size. For small birds, like the dunnock, it will be a small area and could be held by a single bird, a pair or a small flock. Birds chose a territory because that area can provide food, water, shelter and a place to nest.

Dunnocks are only about 14 cms in length, have a wingspan of about 20 cms and weigh between 19 and 24 grams. When shuffling around they will often flap their wings quite a lot.

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Two extra sections, "It Happened Here" and "Now That's Weird", will appear on 19 May 2025