Very little survives of Ashton-under-Lyne Poor Law Union, so I spent a week at the National Archives looking into the Poor Law Correspondence papers, putting together whatever I could find to help fill in local gaps.  I will cover the history of the Poor Law locally and then some discoveries of when the New Poor Law of 1834 and how it took fully 17 years to implement locally.

The Woodhead Railway Heritage Group set up in 2016 have been working for some time to set up a museum at Guide Bridge Railway Station: officially opening early this year. Both Woodhead and Guide Bridge have fascinating and gloomy histories and this visit should be fascinating.

‘A History of the City that Shaped the Modern World’

An illustrated presentation given by Brian Groom,

author of his soon-to-be published book of that title,

and of 'Northerners - a History'.

The astonishing story of how the people of Manchester and its region shaped the emergence of the modern world, from the Romans to today, will be outlined by

Brian Groom, author of the bestselling 'Northerners: A History'. Based on his forthcoming book, 'Made in Manchester: a People's History of the City that Shaped the Modern World', Brian will talk about individuals, famous or not, who built the region and its culture and ask what part it can play in Britain’s future.

Adrian will demonstrate several iterations of maps over time and how they can help with your family history.

Hilary Hartigan gave this talk to the Oldham Group of Manchester and Lancashire FHS earlier this year which I found to be one of the simplest ways of interpreting your DNA Matches.  Hilary explained everything in clear and uderstandable language. I feel she takes the jargon out of a complex subject. Not to be missed.

I will be asking our cafe to prepare a buffet for us in our meeting room and hopefully we will have our usual raffle and quiz.