Since I have started at Ancoats Building Preservation Trust
(ABPT) it has been a whirlwind of activity. Heritage Lottery funding has been
acquired by ABPT. This funding will transform not only the Murray’s Mill
building but also the surrounding area.
It has been easy to make contact with people who have a passion
about Ancoats whether it’s about bricks, their own families, steam engines
or ice cream.
Some of this work will be evident in the Pump House, Bridge
Street where the Peoples History Museum is housed. It is open to the public
from 9th September for six weeks to 12 October 2003. The exhibition will be
a cele-bration of Ancoats people and the changes that have occurred.
Part of this exhibition will be work from Abbott Community
School, in Collyhurst, We have called the project “The Mill” and it
is about people who have lived and worked in the area. At the same time there
will also be Heritage Open Day, events organised by the Civic Trust.
On the 13th September Murray’s Mill will be open to the
public for the one and only time, It is a window of opportunity when people
can be taken around this very important building but because the contractors
will be on site shortly after that date it is the last chance that we will have
to see it before the changes take place. There is also the opportunity to take
a Guided Walk.
As part of this event we want people to bring any photographs
or objects that are part of their memories to Murray’s Mill, on Bengal
Street, between 12 and 4.30 p.m. We will be recording people’s stories,
scanning pictures and photographing objects and the more things we record the
better. All materials will be returned to the owners. Please come along and
make your contribution and start this off properly.
This is part of a larger project called Ancoats Memories and
it is hoped that we can start a collection of archives, which will be published,
and form the basis of a study centre in the area. It will plot some of the reasons
that Ancoats was a special place and is worth regenerating.
Many volunteers come into our office and want to know about
their families who used to live and work in Ancoats. To help them we have asked
John Walkden from the Family History Society to come and give a talk on Thursday
18th September at 6-0 pm.
If you want to know more about any of these projects please
contact Diana Terry. Beehive Mill, Jersey Street, Ancoats, M4 6JG or phone 0161
950 4299.
If you would like to go on a Guided Walk here are some dates
for your diary:
Sunday 19th October, 2pm.
Sunday 16th November, 2pm.
Sunday 4th January 2004, 2pm.
