Summer visit to Rochdale Town Hall and Rochdale Pioneers Museum
A party of 34 members and guests enjoyed a tour of Rochdale’s splendid, recently reopened Victorian Town Hall – whose ornate stylings are rivalled only by the Palace of Westminster, according to Historic England - coupled with a visit to Rochdale Pioneers Museum, birthplace of the modern co-operative movement.
A guide explains the town’s crest in the tiling at Rochdale Town Hall
Rochdale Town Hall is a Grade-I listed building designed by William Crossland, opened in 1871 as a symbol of the town’s industrial standing in the textiles trade. It reopened last year after a four-year restoration. Volunteer guides gave us a brilliant account of the Town Hall’s genesis and early years, including fascinating detail such as window decorations devised to stop local urchins from staring into the Mayor’s Parlour. After a buffet lunch in a private room at the Town Hall, we made the short walk to the Pioneers Museum, housed in the building where 28 working men opened a co-operative store in 1844, selling fairly priced, good quality food. We were given a lively account of how hard local shopkeepers and landowners tried to stop them.
May Bank Holiday Walk 2025
A group of 23 members and friends enjoyed our traditional May Bank Holiday walk, this time a 7.25-mile, low-level walk through the picturesque villages of Saddleworth. The weather stayed fine.
Starting from Uppermill, we walked along a bridleway through Greenfield and then back along the Huddersfield Narrow Canal. This canal, linking Ashton-under-Lyne with Huddersfield, opened in 1811 but had taken 17 years to build, encountering serious construction difficulties, notably in building the Standedge Tunnel, the highest, longest and deepest canal tunnel in Britain, which almost bankrupted the project. Celebrated engineer Thomas Telford had to be brought in to advise on how to rescue it.
From a spectacular railway viaduct which carries the TransPennine line over the canal, we walked along a disused railway line, the Delph Donkey, to the village of Delph, where we had lunch at the popular Old Bell Inn, an 18th-century listed coaching house. A final leg after lunch took us back to the viaduct via a woodland path and then back to the bridleway where we had started.
AGM and Informal Dinner February 2025
Our AGM and Dinner took place for a second time at the Stockport Guildhall on 13th February. After a brief and efficient AGM, our members and their guests enjoyed dinner before hearing our speaker. We were very fortunate to be joined by Professor Laura Tunbridge (Queen's, 2003), currently Professor of Music and Henfrey Fellow and Tutor in Music at St. Catherine’s College. From 1st October 2025 she is to be Heather Professor of Music, the senior academic in the Music Faculty and the first woman in this role in its 400-year history.
Our eminent speaker tailored her talk to the occasion and spoke of ‘Beethoven’s life in food and drink’. With illustrations and musical excerpts, she gave us a fascinating overview of Beethoven’s life and times, comparing what he composed with life and events around him. She showed us shopping lists, and conversation books where friends wrote down questions because he could no longer hear. These gave us a real glimpse of the man and in particular his life-long love of coffee. There was then an opportunity for questions before the conclusion of a friendly and fascinating evening. Our thanks for organising this go to our Chairman, John Schultz, who was unfortunately prevented from attending by illness.
Autumn Lecture 2024
Unfortunately, our Autumn lecture on the many and varied people who contributed to the Oxford English Dictionary had to be cancelled as the speaker fell ill with Covid just before the event.
Freshers' Event, September 2024
Our eighth annual Freshers’ Meeting was held in September. It was once again generously hosted by Eversheds Sutherland in their Manchester Office. Over the years the size of the event has doubled, and in 2024 over sixty freshers arrived to meet one another and ask questions of a panel of undergraduates.
There was plenty of practical advice, from managing your work-load to drying your washing, and also time to connect with other freshers destined for the same course or college. The event was ably chaired by Sarah Herdan, and supported by OUS Manchester members and Oxonians from Eversheds Sutherland.
It is very rewarding to see problems answered and apprehension dissolved in the nervous weeks leading up to the first term at Oxford.
Walking Tour of St Peter’s Square, Castlefield, and St John’s, Manchester, September 2024
Thirty-five of us thoroughly enjoyed a walking tour – enlightening and amusing in equal measure – of St Peter’s Square, St John’s, and Castlefield. Our guide Jonathan Schofield combined his great love and knowledge of Manchester with an irreverence entirely appropriate to a city with a history of cocking a snook at the establishment. And he managed to speak above the noise of the raucous crowds enjoying the warm Indian summer sunshine.
Highlights included the benefits of assertive press independence at the time of the Peterloo Massacre; the seven bees on the seven seas carved atop the former YMCA building, signifying Manchester’s past pride in its busy global trade; the innovative use of wooden sets to dampen the noise of carriage wheels outside a hospital; two bollards that started life as canon barrels in Bonnie Prince Charlie’s army; a pub named after a variety of potato; the intimidating railway arches that featured so aptly in Peaky Blinders; and the utter disregard for the oldest Roman stone in the city, hidden out of the way and not even labelled! We finished with an uplifting reminder of the successful return of residents to the city centre, both in the Georgian terraces of St John’s and in the new blocks towering over Castlefield.
The instant, spontaneous applause that greeted Jonathan at the end of the tour showed how much everyone appreciated his ability to bring local history to life.
Tour of Bramall Hall, Stockport, Greater Manchester
Thirty-two of us – members, partners, and friends – enjoyed a fascinating glimpse into the history of Bramall Hall, a local manor house whose delights are not widely enough known.
Its owners since the 14th century have included some of the great landowning families of Cheshire, a local Victorian entrepreneur, and – since 1935 – the local council. Fortunately, most have taken good care of it, in many cases sympathetically adding new elements or converting existing rooms in contemporary style. As a result, we saw prized 16th century wall paintings, exemplary ceiling plasterwork, Arts and Crafts era decorations, and so much more, all within a mainly Tudor exterior. Stockport Council and the Heritage Lottery Fund deserve considerable credit for continuing to maintain this fine property.
Our two tour guides did a great job, as did the café staff in providing a rather fine sandwich lunch.
YOUNG ALUMNI GROUP
Several events have been organised by our young alumni (i.e. those who matriculated in 2000 or later), after-work drinks continue to be the most popular. Further social events are being planned.
To find out more about our Young Alumni activities, please email the group's Secretary, giving your contact details, Alumni number, Oxford college, subject and year of matriculation, so that we can add you to our mailing list and keep you informed.
