For lots more on this see my biog of Abel Heywood:

See my biography of Abel Heywood for a lot more detail on this:

Lots more on this in my bio of this remarkable man,

To learn more about the building of the Town Hall, see my book:

Hear, hear! I've been fighting that battle for Lydia Becker, leader of the suffrage movement in the 1870s. The militants' tactics were very dramatic and it required great bravery to go on hunger strike. But they wrote themselves into the central role and wrote everyone else out of the picture.

Emmeline was inspired at the age of 14 by her predecessor in the women’s struggle, Lydia Becker. For a lot more information, see my biography of Lydia:

To find out a lot more about this period of women’s votes campaigning, read my book, ‘The Great Miss Lydia Becker’.

Abel Heywood spent 4 months in this prison in 1832, for selling the illegal Poor Man’s Guardian; in later years he was very proud of his sacrifice in the cause of a free press. See my biography:

Abel Heywood was a big supporter and became treasurer of the Cobden statue appeal - the statue stands in St Anne's Square in Manchester. There is more about this renowned free-trader in my biography 'Manchester's Radical Mayor: Abel Heywood'.

Waterhouse adopted the nickname St Valentine for the competition. He worked closely with the chair of the building committee. See my biography of 'Manchester's Radical Mayor: Abel Heywood, the man who built the Town Hall' for a lot more information on the construction of this marvellous building:

It’s the biography of Heywood so it has lots about Victorian Manchester. As the Town Hall was his project, there are two chapters on his role in that. But there was a lot more to his long life as a radical thinker.

For an account of the origins of this iconic building see my 'Manchester's Radical Mayor'.

This was a cause supported by 'Manchester's Radical Mayor, Abel Heywood'. See my biography:

You can find out a lot more on this important story in my book 'The Great Miss Lydia Becker'.

Let me introduce you to my two books (so far): they are both about notable Victorians who came from Manchester, but whose lives reflect many of the trends and movements of their periods.Their achievements mark them out as great reformers and campaigners who deserve to be remembered.