Welcome to the Manchester History Club

Join the new club for Mancunian history fans and share the story of the world's first modern city

Thank you so much to everyone who has subscribed, followed and read this little newsletter since I set it up 12 months ago.

It’s been a great pleasure to write it and to chat to lots of you about your Mancunian family history.

I’ve written about everything from hero police officers to backstreet drinking dens, rat baiting, burglars, scuttlers, slum clearances and cholera.

The newsletter is now celebrating its first birthday — and we’ve marked it in fine style by reaching 1,000 subscribers.

Keep scrolling down to hear about my plans for the newsletter’s future including some bonus content just for you.

Take a journey through Manchester’s history

The support I’ve had on here has helped me to make a big decision — to attempt to make my living from telling stories about the history of my home city.

In that vein, I bought an umbrella last month and began leading walking tours of one of Manchester’s most historic districts, Angel Meadow.

The tours have been a great success, with nearly 200 tickets sold so far, and I’ve had to announce new dates for June and July to keep up with demand.

If you want to join us on one of the next tours, there are still some tickets left and you can find out all about it via the button below.

And here’s a few photos to give you an idea of what it’s like.

If you join us, you’ll be in good company.

One of the greatest unexpected joys of the tours has been to see a group of strangers start talking to each other and become, for the brief journey of the walk, like old friends.

I’ve also had the pleasure of showing people where their ancestors lived and sharing their stories with other members of the group.

Join the Manchester History Club

Now, you’ve probably noticed that I’ve also marked the newsletter’s birthday by giving it a little revamp and changing its name to the Manchester History Club.

The aim when I started writing last year was to encourage people to share and celebrate the history of the city we call home and I’m now hoping to take that to the next stage by creating a virtual ‘club’.

While you’ll continue to get the same free posts about the history of Manchester, there’ll now be an option to pay to subscribe, which will bring you some extra benefits with a starter offer of around £3.60 a month.

As a fully paid up member of the club, you’ll get an additional monthly newsletter with tips on how to explore your Manchester family history.

And, as an extra thank you, you’ll also get:

• A 25 percent discount on my book Angel Meadow: Victorian Britain’s Most Savage Slum.

• Access to occasional events such as online talks on family history, or a history project we could do together.

• Access to my full story archive.

• More history goodies as I think of them.

There’s also an option to become a ‘super supporter’ — for those who want to provide some extra support for my writing career.

If you don’t feel able to pay to subscribe, that’s fine too. Times are tough and I’m grateful to you for helping keep the newsletter alive by reading it and enjoying it.

As a free subscriber, you’ll still get the same newsletter containing stories about old Manchester you are already subscribed too.

But if you can afford to, please do consider buying me a coffee or two through my Buy Me A Coffee page.

My passion for Manchester history has led me to try to make a career of writing about it and and your support really will help me to keep the newsletter going.

All you need to do though is to keep reading and I’m looking forward to catching up with you on the chat group or perhaps meeting you on one of my tours.

Thank you.

But before I go off to paint our virtual clubhouse, I wondered if you could do me a quick favour and and let me know what type of stories you’d prefer to read at the Manchester History Club by doing this quick poll!

Have a great weekend and bye for now.