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Crowds flock to remember famous son

Jo Rostron
29/ 9/2006

A CELEBRATION of Samuel Bamford's life became its own success story as literary fans flocked to Hough Hall.

With the aid of a small grant from Manchester City Council two evenings of readings, poetry and discussion were arranged.

They proved so popular that people were standing at the back for a slide show of photographs on Friday evening (22 September).

Roger Barnard, who helped to organise the event with partner Heather Mawhinney, said: "It was a beautiful atmosphere both evenings.

"People seemed to enjoy all the speakers but Robert Poole, who edited The Diaries of Samuel Bamford, brought along a lot of old photographs of Moston that people hadn't seen before.

"That went down really well."

He added that many of his guests had a keen interest in, or even indirect links to Bamford and that a lively debate ensued when it came to trying to decide on the exact location of his cottage on Charlestown Road.

The evening was attended by a number of local authors and recorded by members of the North Manchester camera club.

Roger said: "We had lots of lovely comments in the visitors' book afterwards with one person describing it as a 'perfect autumn evening' and another wrote 'so enjoyable we had to come back'."