Manchester’s Haunted Museum

Manchester Museum, Oxford Road, Manchester, Greater Manchester UK.

In 2013 Manchester Museum made global headlines because of an alleged haunted statue, which drew even more visitors to one of the UK’s best museums. Manchester Museum is a wonderful museum displaying works of archaeology, anthropology and natural history and is owned by the University of Manchester, in England. The museum is situated on Oxford Road at the heart of the university’s group of neo-Gothic buildings, it provides access to about 4.5 million items from every continent. It is the UK’s largest university museum and serves both as a major visitor attraction and as a resource for academic research and teaching. It has around 430,000 visitors each year.

The First Floor Of The Museum In 1903.

The museum’s first collections were assembled by the Manchester Society of Natural History formed in 1821 with the purchase of the collection of the early textile industrialist, John Leigh Philips (1761-1841). The society established a museum in Peter Street, Manchester, on a site later occupied by the Young Men’s Christian Association, in 1835. This was extended in 1850 to include the collections of the Manchester Geological Society (who were founded in 1838).

The Museum’s Extension And Bridge Were Completed In 1912.

From 1835 to 1838 William Crawford Williamson, a young Yorkshire naturalist and geologist, was employed as manager and curator, the start of his long career in Manchester, mixing natural history and medicine. The museum charged for the admission of non-members, including the working classes, but by the 1860s the middle-class membership was falling and both societies encountered financial difficulties The museum first looked to local government for support, but on the advice of the evolutionary biologist Thomas Huxley it was Owens College, founded in 1851, which agreed to take the collection Owens College (now the University of Manchester) accepted responsibility for the collections in 1867. The museum in Peter Street was sold in 1875 after Owens College moved to new buildings in Oxford Street. However there was display room only for geology.

A Victorian Collection. Manchester Museum’s Egyptology Gallery c.1912.

By 1887, however, the college’s supporters had funded and built a large gothic museum, at the front of the college quadrangle. It connected with the Beyer Building which housed geology and zoology and botany, and, like the other college buildings, it was designed by the acclaimed artechetiure Alfred Waterhouse. Thomas Henry Huxley had advised on the principles of the building, while William Boyd Dawkins had developed the galleries, first as curator to the Natural History Society and then as Professor of Geology at the college. It was built on a site in Oxford Road (which was then Oxford Street. The new galleries were to be used by college staff and students, but they were also open to the public. The Manchester Museum was opened to the public in 1888. At the time, the scientific departments of the college were immediately adjacent, and students entered the galleries from their teaching rooms in the Beyer Building.

The Manchester Museum houses over 18000 objects from ancient Egypt making it one of the largest collections in Britain.

Two subsequent extensions mirror the development of its collections. The 1912 pavilion was largely funded by Jesse Haworth, a textile merchant, to house the archaeological and Egyptological collections acquired through excavations he had supported. The 1927 extension was built to house the ethnographic collections. The Gothic Revival street frontage which continues to the Whitworth Hall has been ingeniously integrated by three generations of the Waterhouse family. When the adjacent University Dental Hospital of Manchester moved to a new site, its old building was used for teaching and subsequently occupied by the museum.

The former Dental Hospital, The Museum Café Is Now Located In The Basement.

Taxidermist Harry Brazenor sits atop the Museum’s sperm whale skeleton during its installation, 1898.

And today situated In The The Vivarium, Which Houses A Collection Of Live Amphibians And Reptiles Including Many Critically Endangered Species.

In 2004 the museum acquired a reproduction cast of a fossil Tyrannosaurus Rex which is mounted in a running posture. “Stan”, as it is called, is based on the second most complete T. rex excavated in 1992 in South Dakota, by Stan Sacrison.

Manchester Museum’s “Stan” The Tyrannosaurus Rex .

The museum is one of the University of Manchester’s ‘cultural assets’, along with the Whitworth Art Gallery, and John Rylands Library amongst others. The Manchester Museum has been extended several times, usually to accommodate new kinds of collections. It is also home to .Maud The Tigon, Maude was the most famous animal in Belle Vue Zoo in the 1940s. When she died, in 1949, her skin was given to the Manchester Museum, part of The University of Manchester, now, she has been prepared by an expert taxidermist and can be admired in her full glory.

Maud The Tigon, Belle Vue Zoo’s most famous animal.

One of the most fascinating exhibits is a detail from an Assyrian cuneiform slab, from the lower part of the slab, depicting a winged Assyrian deity (or genie) holding a pine cone. The inscription is formulaic and in honour of the King, Assur-nasir-pal II of Assyria. This dates the piece to 883-859 BC and is believed to have once being part of King Assurnasirpal II’s Northwest Palace at Kalhu (modern day Nimrud).

Detail from an Assyrian cuneiform slab, 883-859 BC.

In June 2013 time-lapse footage showing a 10-inch Egyptian statue in the museum’s collection, Neb-Senu a 4,000-year-old Egyptian statue made in about 1800 BC as a medium for the soul of an ancient Egyptian man, had curators at Manchester Museum puzzled after it began to mysteriously rotate overnight, despite being housed in a secure glass case. The statue viewed apparently spinning around unaided, attracted worldwide media attention. Various theories were put forward, with the university’s Professor Brian Cox suggesting “differential friction” between the glass shelf and the object, possibly caused by vibrations made by visitors, caused the object to move. The museum’s Egyptologist Campbell Price, said “it has been on those surfaces since we have had it and it has never moved before. And why would it go around in a perfect circle?” The Manchester Evening News reported that the incident “sent visitor numbers soaring at the Manchester Museum”,and Tim Manley, head of marketing and communications, commented that “There’s been a definite spike in visitors”.

On my last visit to the museum I was delighted to see an ancient statue representing the head of Sekhmet, the Egyptian lion headed goddess. Sekhmet, meaning “she who is powerful”, was an aggressive lioness-goddess associated with destruction. Hundreds of life-size statues of Sekhmet, were erected by King Amenhotep III at his mortuary temple in Western Thebes. Some like the statue in Manchester Museum were moved to cities such as the ancient city of Bubastis. Sekhmet along with Lilith (Mesopotamian and Jewish mythology) is one of the main themes in the first book in my Highgate Trilogy Asylum.

Black granite head of Sekhmet. When complete, this Statue would have shown Sekhmet with a human body and the head of a lioness. Here she wears a crown made up of the solar disc and cobra. Origin Bubastis, Reign of Amenhotep III (c. 1390-1352 BC).

Manchester Museum, Oxford Road, Manchester, Greater Manchester UK.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Asylum-Highgate-Novels-Book-One-ebook/dp/B09J34VZTM.

Manchester’s Industrial Past- The Whitworth.

The Whitworth, Oxford Road, Manchester, Greater Manchester UK.

Manchester’s The Whitworth (formerly known as Whitworth Art Gallery ) stands amongst Whitworth Park, it’s origins stem from the time of the Industrial Revolution, when Manchester was the largest centre of manufacturing. The gallery was founded in 1889 by Robert Dukinfield Darbishire with a donation from Sir Joseph Whitworth, as “The Whitworth Institute and Park”.

Postcard, The Whitworth In 1908.

Edmund Crompton-Potter (the uncle of Beatrice Potter) owned Rusholme House (built around 1810), which once stood on the corner of Moss Lane East and Wilmslow Road. His estate spanned Rusholme Brook, which separated Rusholme from Chorlton-on-Medlock and included Grove House,(built about 1830) and an area called “Potter’s Field”, in total an area of 20 acres. When Crompton-Potter died in 1884 arrangements were made to sell the whole estate. The Manchester Guardian debated the case for the City Council acquiring the Potter Estate for a public park. During this time Robert Darbishire opened the garden of Rusholme House and Potter’s Field to the public, who turned up at weekends in their thousands, on occasion being entertained by a brass band!

Whitworth Park In 1907.

On Joseph Whitworth’s death, in January 1887, his legatees bought the estate for the Whitworth Trust at about the original asking price. An offer was made to give the land conditionally to the city for a public park subject to the council building an art gallery. Rusholme House was demolished, and Alfred Wilsher, the park superintendent was sent to the continent to see examples there, and the whole estate re-laid as an organised Park with wide avenues, new trees and flower beds, a bandstand and shelters, and later a lake with large fountain, islands, boathouse and pavilion.

Whitworth Park In 1910.

Grove House became home to a growing collection of sculpture and paintings and on 16 June, 1890 the Whitworth Institute, which had been incorporated in 1889, quietly opened Whitworth Park to the public as “a woodland park and pleasure ground”, the event being marked by a public notice on the gate and in newspapers but no formal ceremony was held. The Park was very popular and attracted large numbers of people and more attractions were added. An observatory to record meteorological data was added by Owens College next to the lake in 1893 and in 1895 Darbishire donated a sculpture by George Tinworth, Christ blessing the Children. This was, apparently, the first sculpture erected in a Manchester Park. Band concerts were a regular feature. I would love to have seen the park in it’s heyday as a pleasure ground I’m sure it never looked more beautiful.

Sculpture By George Tinworth, Christ Blessing The Children With Extended Grove House Behind.

The Whitworth Institute made plans for its growing art collection and in 1891 an architectural competition to rebuild Grove House as an Art Gallery, was won by J.W.Beaumont, a Manchester architect already involved in other projects including the design of the buildings in the Park. The rear part of Grove House was demolished to make way for new galleries built to the winning design between 1892 and 1898.Although the Park was very successful, the cost of its development and maintenance was inhibiting the completion of Beaumont’s scheme, and in 1904, the Park was leased to the City Council for 999 years in exchange for a small annual rent. The Institute retained Grove House and about two acres of the original 20 acre plot.

Invitation To The Opening Of The Gallery 1908.

Although Darbishire died shortly afterwards, his contribution to late 19th and early 20th century life in Manchester had earned him the freedom of the city in 1899. His obituary in the Manchester Guardian describes a man of an independent and non-conformist nature who pursued his interests and objectives with great tenacity, who donated his collections to public institutions and found ways to promote and enable many good causes.

Aerial View Of Whitworth Art Gallery And Park In 1922.

A statue of King Edward VII by John Cassidy on the east side, unveiled in 1913, commemorates the royal visit when the new Royal Infirmary was opened in 1909. The bronze statue, mounted on a square, stepped granite plinth and pedestal, is a grade II listed structure.

King Edward VII By John Cassidy Photographed In 1920 With The Art Gallery Behind , Photographed From The Entrance, Early 20th, And Today.

In the early years of the 20th century, the emphasis was on creating national collections of print and modern art. Margaret Pilkington, gallery director from the 1930s to 1950s, oversaw 339 acquisitions, with more to come when the gallery became part of the University of Manchester in 1958. And in 1967, the Whitworth was given a collection of wallpapers that stands alongside that of the V&A.

The Whitworth’s North And Central Gallery Early 1900’s.

Around this time, the university decided to overhaul the Edwardian building. The architects Bickerdike, Allen and Partners transformed the gallery, and by the late 1960s its breathtakingly bold, open-plan, Scandinavian-style spaces, along with a reputation for championing new artists of the time such as David Hockney, which led to it acquiring a new nickname, dubbing it, “Tate of the North”.

The Whitworth’s Art Gallery Darbishire Hall 1908.

The Whitworth’s Gallery Entrance Early 1900’s and Today.

The Whitworth Art Gallery In 1930.

In 1995, another extension – the RIBA award-winning Sculpture Court, was added, but even so the Whitworth quickly began to run out of space. In 2015, the Whitworth reopened after it was transformed by a £15 million capital redevelopment that doubled its exhibition spaces, restored period features and opened itself up to its surrounding park. The gallery received more than 440,000 visitors in its first year and was awarded the Art Fund’s Museum of the Year prize in 2015.The present day building expansion was created by the innovative practice, MUMA (McInnes Usher McKnight Architects). The original building, meanwhile, has been beautifully restored.

The Beautiful Interior Of The Original Whitworth Building.

The Gallery recently hosted Albrecht Dürer’s material world exhibition, the first major exhibition of the Whitworth’s outstanding Dürer collection in over half a century. Woodcuts, etchings, and engravings, from the Whitworth’s collection, are juxtaposed with a range of objects from Dürer’s time, including armour and tableware, books and scientific instruments, textiles, and exotic artefacts. We’d visited the gallery especially and weren’t disappointing it went far beyond our expectations and gave us a chance to visit the rest of The Whitworth my first visit in many years. Considering Dürer’s contribution to printing it is very relevant to a writer such as myself.

Aspects Of The Albrecht Dürer’s Material World Exhibition.

The Whitworth, Oxford Road, Manchester, Greater Manchester UK.

https://t.co/IoUe0JMhZ1

Read my books of horror. #Horror #HorrorCommunity #Kindlebooks pic.twitter.com/JejoSicRLH

— Lillian.K.Logan (@LillianKLogan1) January 4, 2024

The Beauty of Stenner Lane- Part Two The Haunted Parsonage Of Fletcher Moss.

The Old Parsonage, Stenner Lane, Didsbury, Manchester, Greater Manchester, UK.

With Halloween almost upon us, our thoughts turns to scares and the paranormal, spirits and the places they haunt, the Old Parsonage on Stenner Lane, Didsbury is one such place. Facing old St James Church, medieval in origin, the oldest building in Didsbury, the Parsonage holds the title of being the second.

Hallway of The Old Parsonage.

The Parsonage is a Grade 2 listed building, within the St James’ conservation area. The first record of the house is from 1646, the home of Thomas Walker, when it was known as Ash House, and referred to as ‘the home of the minister’. A section of stone flooring, (I have trod upon it many times, hoping to feel some essence of times gone by or even a ghostly presence, sadly not) hails back to 1650.

Stone section of the floor of the Old Parsonage, the oldest part which dates back to 1650.

By the 17th century it was owned by the Tatton family, again as a home. John Davenport also lived there as did William Hesketh, at some point, presumably not all at the same time. Between 1761 and 1795 it was lived in by the Bamford family and then in 1795 Sam Bethell moved into the house until 1804. The next occupant, up to 1829, was Miss Twyford, landlady of the nearby Cock Inn until 1824.

Beautifully decorated room, now one of the galleries at the Old Parsonage.

In 1832 a grocer (sometimes referred to as a curate), Sam Newell, and his wife, lived in the house and the name was then changed to Spring Bank. It was Mr Newell who added the two wings at either end of the house. After which time it was let to Rev W J Kidd in the 1840’s who stayed for 10 years before leaving, his servants quitting before him.

The Old Parsonage, Didsbury Lancashire, United Kingdom. Old Ordnance Survey map.

It was at this time the rumours of haunting began, probably spread by those same servants, as both they and the good Reverend himself had reported ghostly activity. Which soon dissuaded any replacements becoming available. He followed soon after complaining of “ghosts and troubles”, the servants claimed that the house was haunted by the ghost of Mrs Newell, and would not stay, though it was rumoured that Mr Newell himself had seen ‘something’. Following his tenancy there were rumours that several tenants failed to settle in the property, they too reported the same spectral presences, which only added to its reputation.

Upstairs at the Old Parsonage, where an orb and a ‘ghostly figure have been seen by the present day staff.

Fletcher Moss himself maintained that the parsonage was haunted, stating that he himself was woken, “probably hundreds of times”, by someone coming upstairs stealthly, opening and closing doors, yet each time he investigated, there was only a waft of chilled air, or simply a “consciousness of something”. Often his dog would bark at nothing or growl and follow an invisble something with his eyes. So fearful was the reputation of the parsonage that when Fletcher Moss’s gardener was offered the facility of ‘living ‘in’ he refused, saying he would, “rather chuck up his place first”.

The ‘ghost’ or ‘ghosts’ are still present in the parsonage, according to the current staff. Recently the CCTV cameras captured an orb travelling along one of the upstairs corridors. A figure of a female was seen along the same corridor, and was at first mistaken for one of the staff, until it was discovered none were present at the time. A figure in white was also spotted by one of the staff in the parsonage gardens at dusk.

The Old Parsonage, Didsbury, Lancashire, UK Mid 19th Century.

It became home to Didsbury’s most famous benefactor, local Alderman and JP, Fletcher Moss, when the house was acquired by the Moss family in 1864, they were corn merchants. Maps of 1851 show that the building was now known as The Old Parsonage and the stone name plate on the Stenner Lane entrance also states the same. Fletcher Moss, then aged 22, moved in with his parents, subsequently buying the house in 1885.

Fletcher Moss on his beloved horse in front of the Old Parsonage 1889.

It is believed that at one time the house was connected to the Cock Inn and this is shown on a map dated 1851. Fletcher Moss wrote in 1906 , “Over the stables of the Cock Inn and extending into this house, is a large upper room called The Wakes Room, but why the inn and parsonage should overlap and have bricked up doorways, I could never understand”. By 1893, the buildings were separated although the outbuildings were still shared.

The Old Parsonage, Didsbury, Lancashire, United Kingdom 1890.

Most of the oak panelling, staircase and beams were added by Fletcher Moss. He believed that beneath the stucco (render) there was a black and white timber building, but discovered that was not the case. He did consider restoring it but decided that the extensions would not fit in if he did.

Staircase of the Old Parsonage, with wood panelling.

The doorway is fashioned from a massive oak tree taken from Broad Oak Farm in Didsbury and is beautifully carved, as is a lot of the woodwork inside. The Eagle Gate on Stenner Lane was bought by Fletcher Moss for £10 when the Spread Eagle pub, once owned by the Moss family, in Corporation Street, Manchester was being demolished. He paid £10 for the gate, and £80 to have it erected on site.

Door and Doorway of The Old Parsonage.

Eagle Gate Entrance at Stenner Lane to the Old Parsonage.

The library in Didsbury is a Carnegie Library and Fletcher Moss was instrumental in it coming to Didsbury in 1915. The library was built on what was the bowling green of the Grey Horse pub. Fletcher Moss travelled around the country extensively and wrote many books about the great houses and the local history of the area. He was also an avid collector and the milestone in the garden was sited at Parrs Wood toll.

Two Old Postcards of The Old Parsonage.

After his mother’s death, Fletcher Moss lived there alone until his own death in 1919, after a life of public service, and had become well-known for his writings on local history. He stayed there for over 40 years, he bought the gardens and house, named ‘The Croft’ in 1912. The Croft was the birthplace of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB).
He also had a plan to build a retirement home for gentlefolk who had fallen on hard times though it never came to being realised.

Fletcher Moss and his mother, Old Parsonage Gardens, late 19th Century.

He bequeathed the parsonage and gardens, the Croft and surrounding land to the people of Manchester in 1914, there was one condition given, that being, he could stay in the house for the rest of his natural life. In his own words he declared, ” I am determined to offer all that part of my property extending from the Fletcher Moss Playing Fields to Stenner Lane, to the corporation if I could retain the use of it for my life”. That life came to an end on the 26th of December 1919.

View Of The Old Parsonage Gardens from inside one of the rooms.

View Of The Old Parsonage.

Two views of the Old Parsonage Gardens, one featuring the medieval church of St James in the background.

The Library with the beautiful Stained Glass Window early twentieth Century and in 2023.

It is said that Alderman Moss, bequeathed the house and gardens to the City of Manchester because he wanted the house and its contents to remain intact “to show what a comfortable house of the olden times was like”. Unfortunately, the house became difficult to maintain and in 1922 many features were removed, including the stained glass and fireplaces.

His dying wish was to be buried in the shrubbery by the yew tree in his garden, alongside several of his dogs and a horse. This appears not to have been granted, as his grave is located in Cheade Municipal Cemetery.

Graves of Fletcher Moss’s Beloved Horse And Dogs.

Fletcher Moss Grave at Cheadle Municipal Cemetery, Cheadle, Stockport, Greater Manchester, UK.

In 1923 the Fletcher Moss Museum opened in the Parsonage, containing some of the furniture and paintings of old Manchester. Much of the collection left by Fletcher Moss was on view to the public. There were also three paintings by Turner, a painting by Augustus John, and etchings by Goya. In 1978 the art gallery closed for economic reasons, and the building was used for offices by the City Council.

Green Man Caving, from a 200 year old Weeping Ash Tree in the Old Parsonage Gardens. The tree had succumbed to Ash Die Back in 2022. Wood Sculptor Andy Burgess carried out the work in September 2023.

In 2011 Didsbury Civic Society started a fundraising effort to raise the money to renovate the house and formed a separate charity (owned by the DCS). Over £160,000 was raised and thankfully the house was once again opened to the public in September 2012, this time as a community space. It is leased to the Trust by Manchester City Council. It has been a major success as a lovely centre for the community, it houses classes ranging from children’s drama to art, from lace-making to yoga.

It also hosts business seminars, weddings and arts events. In the spirit of its time as a much loved Art Gallery there are monthly changing art exhibitions by local artists. As a community space it provides rooms for local group meetings, hosts community events and is now an integral part of the Didsbury community. Its gardens have won several local and national awards having been restored and maintained by the Friends of Fletcher Moss Park and Parsonage Gardens.

Parsonage Gardens in 1925 (black and white photo) and in 2023.

For which we should be eternally grateful and to the marvellous man who bequeathed the house and gardens, Alderman Fletcher Moss himself. The Fletcher Moss pub in the village was originally named The Albert and was renamed in honour of Fletcher Moss, since moving to Didsbury it has become our local.

The Fletcher Moss, William Street, Didsbury, Manchester, Greater Manchester, UK.

The park and house remain today as a hidden gem, and is one of my very favourite places, there is a tranquil peaceful welcoming atmosphere, in the parsonage and if Mrs Newall still walks between the walls of her old home, her presence is a friendly and calming one.

The old parsonage has left such a lasting impression on me that it is featured as the old parsonage in chapter one of the first book in the Highgate Novels -Asylum.

The Old Parsonage, Stenner Lane, Didsbury, Manchester, Greater Manchester, UK.