Elizabeth Gaskell wrote most of her most famous books – including Cranford, North and South and Wives and Daughters, as well as a biography of Charlotte Brontë – at her home in Manchester where she lived from 1850.
She was married to a socially active Unitarian Minister, William, and was very aware of the stark differences of life in Manchester at the time. The rampant progress and wealth creation of the industrial revolution benefitting the few, contrasting against the extreme poverty and deprivation of the working population, was the background theme of much of her writing.
The couple rented the house for £150 a year. She adored it, and its garden, but clearly felt guilty about the cost – noting it was ‘selfish’ to spend so much ‘while so many are wanting’.
Elizabeth’s first novel Mary Barton, written after the death of her son William, had been a bestseller and with this modest good fortune behind them the family continued to live at 84 Plymouth Grove for 15 years, instigating many projects to benefit the city’s poor and needy.
Writing at her dining room table, doubtless with endless interruptions from her children, staff and William’s students and colleagues, Elizabeth juggled all this with entertaining an ever-expanding circle of friends. Visitors to the house included Charlotte Brontë , John Ruskin and Harriet Beecher Stowe. Charles Dickens became a great friend as did the conductor, Charles Halle who was a near neighbour.
It’s a relatively modest Victorian house, packed with a disproportionately fascinating history, heritage and stories. And in spite of the house’s significance, there was a time when it fell into disrepair and faced an uncertain future.
It was originally built as part of a new development planned by Manchester architect Richard Lane in the late 1830s, and is one of only two remaining examples today. Elizabeth’s two daughters – Meta and Julia – purchased the house and lived in it till the death of their father in 1884, continuing the family tradition of philanthropy and entertaining artists and notables of the time.
After Meta’s death, the house was sold to the Harper family and the contents dispersed in a six-day sale. In 1968, Manchester University took over the building to provide student accommodation, but it fell into disrepair and was eventually acquired by an independent charity – Manchester Historic Buildings Trust – in 2004. By then, it was missing its roof and was suffering a multitude of other dilapidations.
After a decade of fundraising and restoration, it opened to the public in 2014, having received a major Heritage Lottery Fund grant and funding from English Heritage, as well as a plethora of other grant-giving and charitable organisations.
It’s now managed by Sally Jastrzebski-Lloyd who joined the charity in 2017. ‘I was with Marketing Lancashire previously and really enjoyed the work I did with the county’s museums and historic houses,’ she said. ‘Having read English at university, the opportunity to look after and help reinvigorate such a unique place, rooted in the heart of northern literature at such a time of change was an irresistible challenge.’
Restoration of the house to take it back to its original state for the visitor has been a painstaking effort – but one helped by Elizabeth herself in her writings and the investigative abilities of a team of 40 volunteers, specialists and researchers.
‘The décor and contents of the rooms were planned to a period of around 1857, but there were very few original items and the place was a wreck,’ Sally added. ‘Luckily we had the auction records from the sale in 1913, which helped a lot, and we were able to research what the family would have read because we had the Portico Library records of books that William Gaskell borrowed at the time.’
What was William’s library/study now features 1,000 original volumes of the period, and the Gaskell family, local museums and individuals have donated or loaned numerous artefacts – including family portraits, furniture, letters, textiles and jewellery – to the house.
Elizabeth’s great love was the garden, where she watched her children play while writing. It’s beautifully maintained by the volunteers – albeit on a smaller scale than when there was more land and the family kept poultry, a cow and a pig.
During lockdown, Elizabeth’s bedroom has been recreated. ‘That’s where she really helped us out,’ said Sally. ‘She stayed with Florence Nightingale and afterwards complained in a letter about the lack of a carpet, mirror and sofa in her guest bedroom – so it’s pretty safe to say that she would have had all of those in her own.’
Her letters to friends also reveal the types of desk and styles of chintz she ordered for the house’s gradual redecoration in her time there. These and paint sampling, discovery of scraps of wallpaper and other pieces of research have resulted in a faithful recreation of the house as it would have been when Elizabeth and her family lived there. Elizabeth’s great-great-great-granddaughter Elizabeth Prince is still involved with the house and recently played a part in opening the new ‘Brontë Room’ classroom and interactive exhibition space in the house, funded by an AIM Biffa History Makers grant. Charlotte Brontë was a lifelong friend who adored Elizabeth’s daughters, and fittingly it was Gaskell who Brontë ’s father asked to write her biography after her death.
Nowadays, an ongoing series of events is held online – often in collaboration with other heritage organisations associated with contemporaries Jane Austen, the Brontës and Charles Dickens – and are immensely popular, with sessions engaging global audiences of up to 250. The introduction of these, as well as hosting small weddings now make a significant contribution to the running costs of the house.
This all has the advantage of bringing Gaskell’s work – not only her literary catalogue, but her life as a reformer and radical changemaker – to a wider audience. This included getting fresh milk to families suffering during the cotton famine, starting a sewing school for women unable to work in the mills at this time and using her fame as a novelist to persuade local wealthy individuals to contribute much needed cash to her, and her husband’s, relief work.
Early in the 20th century she was dismissed by (male) critics of the period as a ‘romantic’ female writer, but a re-evaluation of her novels in the 50s and 60s recognised her writing as truly radical for the time and paved the way for the female emancipation and trades union movements that were to come after her.
Today, the house is a popular attraction where nothing is roped off and there is a real feeling that he family have just popped out for a minute and might return at any time to invite you to stay for dinner.
Elizabeth Gaskell’s House and tearoom is open to the public on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays from 11am-4.30pm.
Go to elizabethgaskellhouse.co.uk for up-to-date details and pricing. Pre-booking is strongly advised.
Elizabeth Gaskell’s House is part of Historic Houses, which represents well over a thousand independently owned homes and gardens in the UK. Hundreds of them, including Elizabeth Gaskell’s House offer free access to members. Find out more at historichouses.org.
