East tells the story of east Manchester’s ongoing regeneration. It's about places being transformed and projects that make a difference. But most of all, East reports on local people's contribution to the UK's most ambitious regeneration project.
Back in 1878, the year that football referees first started using whistles, the workers of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway would play their home matches on North Road, opposite the carriage and wagon works where the players toiled together during the day.
Their team – Newton Heath (L and YR) Football Club – played in a strip of gold and green and subsequently joined the newly-formed football league in 1892 and, a decade later, were renamed Manchester United.
The rest, you might say, is history and to continue the clichés, history does have a habit of repeating itself. So, only last month, FC United of Manchester, the anti-Glazer club set up in 2005, announced its intention to move back to its ancestral home in Newton Heath. Backed by Manchester City Council and New East Manchester the supporter-owned club plans to develop a rundown sports centre into a 5000-capacity stadium with community sports facilities alongside.
Len Grant nips across to Gorton Visual Arts (GVA) at The Angels to report on Yvonne Royle’s solo exhibition.
"We're looking for a permanent home for the work now," says Yvonne
Although I photographed Yvonne preparing for this show a couple of months ago I wasn’t expecting the riot of colour and energy she has put into these large-scale murals.
The panels are full to bursting with weird and wonderful characters that begin life in her imagination. “Music is my inspiration,” says Yvonne, who joined GVA as the community art group were completing their Belle Vue mosaic. “I feel free when I’m drawing and listening to music. Anything from the 80s and the images just come to me.”
Yvonne’s original drawings were projected onto the wooden panels and then, assisted by artist, Andrew McKay, Yvonne has transformed them into larger-than-life characters.
Yvonne's neice Rebecca gets up close
It was great to see so many friends and family descend on the GVA’s studio last night to celebrate Yvonne’s achievement.
“We’re looking for a permanent venue for the work now,” she tells me, “somewhere it can be enjoyed for a long time.”
Len Grant accepts an invitation to take a tour around Clayton Hall.
Clayton Hall: once home to the Byron family and the Chetham brothers
East Manchester continues to amaze me. The diversity of what goes on here and the commitment of local people is astonishing. This last week I found myself taking photographs in Clayton Hall, the 16th century ‘moated’ hall concealed in the middle of the unassuming Clayton Park. Each of four rooms are now decked out in the late Victorian style to give visitors a real taste of history in east Manchester’s most notable historic building.
Come and see the sunken cold store, dining room, kitchen and outside wash house
Yes, I’ve seen this sort of thing before in National Trust properties and in museums run by local councils. But here in Clayton – with the trams lines being re-laid outside on Ashton New Road – this piece of historical restoration has not been put on by a team of full-time curators but by local volunteers from the Friends of Clayton Park.
Over the last couple of years these dedicated volunteers have sympathetically renovated four previously empty rooms into what is now a cultural high spot and an invaluable learning resource for local schools.
Small grants have paid for some of the items – the kitchen range was bought from ebay – but others have been donated by friends and relatives and, since the displays have been open to the public, from visitors supportive of the Friends’ work.
Experience a Victorian kitchen: no fridge or microwave here!
The Grade 2 listed hall is open to the public every third Saturday of the month between 1–4pm (so that’s this Saturday, 20th March) and children are particularly welcome. There’s an ID quiz so youngsters can identify items in each room and plenty of hands-on activities from helping out in the kitchen to ‘ironing’ clothes in the wash house.
As a backdrop to the National Curriculum the Friends are keen to encourage more schools to book visits and use the hall as a teaching resource.
To contact the Friends email info@friendsofclaytonpark.org.uk or ring Manchester Leisure on 0161 231 3090.
Chinese New Year is becoming something of an annual spectacle at Ashbury Meadow Primary School in Beswick. 2010 is the Year of the Tiger and the pupils and staff – with the help of their friends from the Chinese community – celebrated in style with dance, music, food and crafts.
Here’s a slideshow of the fun. Click to get started and don’t forget to turn the volume up on your computer.
Commenting on the success of the day, head teacher, Lorna Rushton said, “We enjoy a multi-ethnic school community here at Ashbury Meadow and so it’s really important to understand each other’s cultures. The children, staff and parents really enjoy this annual celebration and we all get a lot out of it.”
The panels are full to bursting with weird and wonderful characters that begin life in her imagination. “Music is my inspiration,” says Yvonne, who joined GVA as the community art group were completing their Belle Vue mosaic. “I feel free when I’m drawing and listening to music. Anything from the 80s and the images just come to me.”
