The Trust that runs Gorton Monastery is appealing for people to return statues and artifacts which disappeared during the years when the building stood abandoned. There will be an amnesty so items can be handed back anonymously.
Restoration work is proceeding on the Church of St Francis, the striking central focus of Gorton Monastery, founded in the 19th century and still in use up till the mid 1980s. After a renovation plan fell through the church stood empty and suffered damage from vandalism as well as the elements. Many priceless artifacts were lost. Now the Gorton Monastery Trust is hoping that some of them will find their way back.
Gorton Monastery will reopen as a centre for conferences, education and other events. Attendees will use the huge interior space, which has all the grandeur of a French cathedral. Though no longer a place of worship, it will no doubt retain an air of calm and spirituality.
For more information about Gorton Monastery go to www.gortonmonastery.co.uk.
In front of the monastery is an extended mural which tells the history of Gorton to the present day. The mural extends for over a hundred yards, and is one of the biggest and best I’ve ever seen, featuring great use of graphics, old photographs, text and maps. Go and see it if you get the chance.
Other news items today:
Fingers crossed for super-casino
It’s been announced that 27 local councils across the UK will bid for the right to build a Las Vegas style super-casino. In the north west, Blackpool and Manchester are competing against each other.
Are you getting your figures right, Mensa?
The organisation for people with high IQs, Mensa, have been inviting more people from Manchester to join their club. They say that with a population of 400,000 residents, Manchester should have 8000 people eligible to join but there are only 302 members in the city (Source: MEN p3, Radio Manchester MIke Shaft afternoon show).
But maybe they’ve got their sums wrong. Manchester, the City of Manchester may have only 400,000 residents, but Manchester, the wider conurbation, has five times as many. This is a good example of how Manchester’s importance – by reference to its population – is often downplayed due to the current local authority set up.
EOM thinks we should be thinking of the big Manchester, not just the City of Manchester, like the Big Apple, which is not just Manhattan.
And talking of Manhattan, here’s another in my ‘Transatlantic Cities’ photos, showing the remarkable similarity between Manhattan’s Garment District and Manchester’s Northern Quarter.
To download a free mini-photo-PDF file with all photos I took around Piccadilly Basin and the Northern Quarter today, go to this page on the www.tradebit.com site.