September 29th, 1985, the 175th Anniversary of Elizabeth Gaskell's birth was commemorated in Knutsford, Cheshire, by a literary lunch and other events which led to the formation of the Gaskell Society (Registered Charity No 1098017).
Although the Society has no building as headquarters, its centre is Knutsford, with its many Gaskell associations, as Cranford and Hollingford in Wives and Daughters. Here she spent a happy childhood, was married at the Parish Church and is buried in the three-hundred-year-old Brook Street Chapel's graveyard, with her husband William. Two of her unmarried daughters and a number of her ancestors are also buried there.
The Society hold its AGM in Manchester in March. The Society also holds a special Autumn meeting in September in Knutsford.
read here about the Gaskell Society
The letter you forwarded this morning was from Mrs Gaskell--authoress of "Mary Barton": She said I was not to answer it--but I cannot help doing so. Her note brought the tears to my eyes: she is a good--she is a great woman--proud am I that I can touch a cord of sympathy in souls so noble. In Mrs Gaskell's nature--it mournfully pleases me to fancy a remote affinity to my Sister Emily--. . . ( Charlotte Bronte to W.S. Williams, 17 November 1849)
Although the Society has no building as headquarters, its centre is Knutsford, with its many Gaskell associations, as Cranford and Hollingford in Wives and Daughters. Here she spent a happy childhood, was married at the Parish Church and is buried in the three-hundred-year-old Brook Street Chapel's graveyard, with her husband William. Two of her unmarried daughters and a number of her ancestors are also buried there. The Society hold its AGM in Manchester in March. The Society also holds a special Autumn meeting in September in Knutsford.
read here about the Gaskell Society
The letter you forwarded this morning was from Mrs Gaskell--authoress of "Mary Barton": She said I was not to answer it--but I cannot help doing so. Her note brought the tears to my eyes: she is a good--she is a great woman--proud am I that I can touch a cord of sympathy in souls so noble. In Mrs Gaskell's nature--it mournfully pleases me to fancy a remote affinity to my Sister Emily--. . . ( Charlotte Bronte to W.S. Williams, 17 November 1849)