Last Saturday we were privileged to have a visit from Paul Griffiths, who together with his wife Elaine, bought Gorton Monastery for £1 and then went on to bring it back to almost its original splendour. Paul told us that the 6 foot Franciscan saints statues that went round the top of the walls had been taken away for salvage and then put up for auction in Sotheby’s. The trust had managed to get them and then due to the state of the monastery the statues had to be put into storage for decades. Now he’s happy to report they’re out of storage and that they’re being carefully restored and will eventually return to their rightful places in the monastery.

Paul then went on to tell us about how slowly but surely they had managed to bring the monastery back from the brink of complete demolition to the magnificent building it is today.

To support the building running costs, and to make sure it remains a working building the monastery is open to commercial organisations for events and meetings and also puts on its own events, such as its Victorian Christmas lunches during Christmas.

We also have a Victorian Christmas experience, where Father Christmas arrives by horse drawn sleigh. Although the sleigh does look remarkably similar to a horse drawn cart the children love it.

Anyway, after Paul had left there was a lot to talk about. After all one of the things he’d asked was what was our 5 year plan. And in reality we knew we didn’t have one. We know what we’d like to do but we don’t have any plans for making the dreams a reality.

Although to give the original volunteers massive credit they’ve achieved a huge amount in renovating the interior of the hall and dressing it as a Victorian might have seen it. And reaching their goal which was to bring the Hall back to the community.

To see for yourself come to our next open day, 19th November, you’ll get a warm welcome and you can see a little slice of Victorian England in Manchester.

So here we are again. Clayton Hall Museum opens tomorrow (1 to 4pm) so people can look around and touch Victorian England in the various rooms of this well-loved Hall.

We were also open last Saturday under the English Heritage weekend scheme where people can get to see good quality and interesting places open for free, even places that don’t usually open.

Luckily we’re free!

The gift shoppe (which I’m still running for my sins) has got a brand new counter and a few more books and interesting gifts to browse through, and if something tickles your fancy to buy.

Remember that the money we make in the gift shop and the cafe goes straight into helping us improve the hall.

Hopefully, we’ll have good weather, although even if we don’t the hall is one of those places you can enjoy when the rain is bucketing down outside.

So come on down and enjoy what we have. We’re a friendly bunch and maybe you can show us the plans which have the secret passage to the church written on?

Clayton Hall museum opens for it’s monthly outing tomorrow (16th July) and is running a new craft workshop where children get to make a peg doll (for a small charge). The entry to the museum itself is free so don’t feel that you have to pay big to look around. In addition we have a guide in each room who can explain what’s what.

And as you can see from the picture children can get dressed up in Victorian clothing and get to touch the stuff!

Hopefully we’ll get the weather we’ve had for the last two days here in Manchester – sun and blue skies. Although as I write this I notice some clouds have suddenly appeared and are looking blacker than I like.

Still, there’s plenty to do inside and of course you can come into the cafe and have a nice piece of home-made cake and a beverage of your choice.

While you’re there, say hello to me as I’ll be manning the shop. And at the moment it’s stuffed with loads of things. My only problem is that my children (and me) are going to buy lots of the things we’re meant to be selling!

Anyway, it should be good. Come along and support a volunteer created museum and see how a Victorian family might have lived.

If you like ghosts apparently we have a few. Although to be honest I’ve never felt any sort of presence.

We open on the dot at 1pm and we are looking forward to seeing you there.

Manchester basking in the sunshine is always jokingly referred to as a once in a year experience. However, like I’ve said before Manchester definitely does attract some great weather. As an example look at the fine weather we’ve been having recently. Granted it’s actually raining as I type these words but that has not dampened my enthusiasm for the lovely weather that Manchester gets. And yes that sunshine does come more than once per year.

In fact over the weekend we were blessed with beautiful weather yet again and Kay, Sarah and Rachel went off to Clayton Hall to help with the visit of the Lord Lieutenant of Greater Manchester, Warren Smith.

The hall positively shone in the summer sun and with the nicely mown lawns looked very much a well-kept Victorian house.

Greater Manchester’s Lord Lieutenant was apparently very impressed with what is being achieved at Clayton Hall. Hopefully he’ll come again and see how much other people like it too.

When I turned up, after Mr Smith had departed, I discovered that the gift shop had been stuffed to the rafters with new and exciting toys, books and other goodies.

I can’t wait for the next open day because it’s great to get feedback about how people see the hall and to listen as they tell you their own experiences with the Hall itself, other Manchester Victorian experiences or Clayton and the immediate areas around Clayton when they were children.

We went to Buxton last Saturday when the sun was beaming down and making everywhere look fantastic.

Even being in a queue from the M57 right to Glossop couldn’t dim our enthusiasm for the trip. Then just after Dinting I turned right towards Marple and went through  Hayfield before joining the A6 and missing the rest of queue and benefiting from the fabulous country views.

Now this is starting to worry me because my childhood was spent in the country (mainly Lincolnshire and Rutland), does this mean I’m losing my love of the big(ish) city?

Anyway we arrived in Buxton to find it too bathed in sunshine and teaming with life. The Opera house positively shone in the warm spring sunshine. And Spring Gardens itself was very busy and all the shops nearby seemed to be bristling with people browsing and shopping.

Meanwhile our time in the queue had really pushed our stomachs beyond endurance and lunchtime so we went to Waitrose to select a sandwich. Unfortunately none of us were impressed with what they had to offer so went next door to Marks and Spencer where I’m happy to report our sandwich needs were fulfilled Plus as an added bonus I sneaked a couple of cheese and ham crepes into the shopping basket for when we got home!

The reason we’d gone to Buxton in the first place was to see one of Kay’s friends Mothers house as they were selling it and it had some interesting Victoriana that would be useful in the museum.

Sure enough they’d got a rather lovely Singer sewing treadle currently in pride of place in the kitchen at the Hall. They also kindly gave us a chair and loaded us down with other things that will really help the hall to look even more lived in and give everyone the chance to see what life was like in Victorian times.

If you’d like to come and see that sewing machine, and another hand machine they gave us come on down to Clayton Hall on the 16th April (it’s open every third Saturday).

Clayton hall has it’s open day tomorrow. Work is currently going on in another building next to the house to create a little gift shoppe and also a pleasant cafe. That’s not to say the current cafe upstairs at Clayton Hall should be missed, just that it will be even better with more room in the kitchen and much easier access for everyone when the new one is finished.

So everyone is invited to come along and play with the Victorian experience. See how they set their dinner tables. Mind you when you look at the table you don’t really see the massive amounts the Victorians seemed to be able to pack away during a meal.

Look at how they used to wash, dry and iron in the outside wash house. Get your kids to attempt a bit of ironing. Maybe it’ll persuade them to help you at home more?

Check out the kitchen and enjoy chopping a few veg for the soup that’s always on the go.

And of course, you get to talk to the people who created the museum and who are a mine of useful facts on Clayton Hall and the area around it.

Equally we’re always interested in people coming along and sharing their own experiences of Clayton Hall.

So come along and enjoy an hour, or more, with us and the Victorian experience

Well here we are once again. The Clayton Hall Summer Fair, or should that be Fayre?

Anyway, Wednesday 11th August is the day that Clayton Hall flings wide its doors to the public once again. However, this time it includes a number of different things.

I understand that they’ve had posh new toilets installed, including a disabled one. So if you fancy spending a penny it’s not a problem!

The Friends of Clayton Hall and Manchester Leisure have been very busy making the gardens look nice and I’m looking forward to seeing how the new raised beds look outside the wash house.

So make a date and pop across to Clayton, visit Clayton Hall and buy yourself one of their rather nice postcards of the Hall and gardens.

Now as to bodging, you’re in for a treat. Except it’s on now at Clayton Vale, until around 12.  So if you can get your skates on you can go and see how you turn wood without all by human-power. And who knows you may even get the chance to have a go yourself.

Father Christmas made his grand entrance on a horse and cart waving to all and sundry at Clayton Hall last Saturday.

So Christmas has arrived! My children were roped in to assist Santa Claus dole out presents to excited children. And part of the package (at an astoundingly low price) was to have your photo taken with Santa himself.

Santa was nicely situated next to the chimney in the loving refurbished dining room which was laid with a sumptuous Victorian Christmas feast.

Once they got their prezzies the children went upstairs where the proud parent could choose the photo they wanted printing. Then it was off to the craft room to make a card frame decorated with snowmen, Father Christmases or Christmas trees.

Plus if they wanted they could make snowmen decorated carry bags for carrying home the decorated frame. And also colour in some rather attractive tree ornaments. Even I did a rather jolly little Father Christmas decoration.

So yet again the year draws to a close at Clayton Hall. And we’re all eagerly looking forward to further rooms being opened to the public so that they can see how a Victorian family might have lived. If they lived in a Hall surrounded by a moat, that is!

There’s still feverish activity at the new Clayton Hall Museum as everybody finishes the painting, adjusting the pictures and placing the food in the most artistic way they can.

The Clayton Hall Museum is obviously going to be an ongoing project with furniture added and changed. Room dressing changed from time to time. Maybe even the guides will take turns! It’s certainly expected that more rooms will be opened up for the museum as time goes on.

There’s a unique opportunity for you to see the results of months of hard graft when Clayton Hall Museum actually opens on Saturday 28th November at 1pm until 4pm for viewing. There will be people on hand to answer questions and tell you something about the rooms.

I’ve been asked if I could help man the event. Is that called volunteering?

Anyway, I will be there. So look out for a slightly sleep deprived person who will still to do his best to answer your questions as intelligently as possible!

The museum itself is half of Clayton Hall and has been dressed to show the Halls’ Victorian period. The other half of the Hall has residents, some of whom are apparently ghosts,

Clayton Hall is one of the few remaining moated manor houses in England and you reach the hall over a nice little bridge.

I look forward to welcoming you to the Clayton Hall Museum Victorian experience on Saturday, for one day only (at least from me anyway).

Today I was helping at the Clayton Hall summer event where I was given the task of looking after, and selling, a table full of books.

The park is a nice little one set in front of the old Clayton Hall and both it and the Hall are surrounded by a moat. Although at the moment the moat remains dry. You can see the bridge across the moat going from the trees to the middle of bottom of the picture, shown to the right.

Unfortunately the crowds didn’t descend on us this year although we did get a fairly steady amount of people arriving over the few hours we were there.

The event was a little bit of fun, and had the brilliant opportunity for people to buy books too!

I think the reasons for the lack of crowds are many.

Firstly because the event was held across the moat and is concealed by trees and buses anyone casually walking past wouldn’t notice it.

Secondly, it would be interesting to see whether the day we held it (Saturday) made any difference to families with children. That is would they rather go somewhere further away or into Manchester, or to watch a football match on this sort of a day? What do you think?

Thirdly, the weather was a bit unkind early on and it bucketed down for the first half hour. After that it brightened and the blue skies made a welcome return. So maybe the weather had some effect, although other events that had rain actually seemed to make no difference to the crowd.

Fourthly, as my wife Kay pointed out, although all the schools had posters about the event, it was unlikely that the children would tell their parents about it. I mean we have 4 children and I’ve never heard of them make any mention of any posters that are up in school – and yes there are actually quite a few. So maybe a simple letter telling parents could be slipped into the bag of each primary school child, before the last day of the summer term? At least that way the parents could see it and decide for themselves whether they and other children could attend.

It does seem a bit of a shame for so much effort to go into organising an event that children would definitely enjoy and not to have the hordes we know would enjoy it. Maybe you can think of a more likely reason that people didn’t attend this year? If so let me know and I’ll pass it on to the merry band of souls who do such sterling work in Clayton Hall.