October half term is just around the corner, and there’s plenty of “science-filled fun and discovery” to get stuck into at one of Manchester’s most-popular attractions.
From a taking a journey around the human body, and discovering the birth of computing, to exploring thunderous cotton spinning machines, the origins of the Madchester music scene and more, there’s something for everyone at the Science and Industry Museum this month.
Created especially to mark the opening of the world-first exhibition, Cancer Revolution: Science, Innovation and Hope, every day between Saturday 23 October to Sunday 31 October, the museum’s team of Explainers will be presenting activities that will bring the body to life at ‘Science Stops’ across the venue – including performing a drinks bottle biopsy, giving fruit and veg an MRI, and getting a closer look at cells with visitors even getting the chance to make their very own model cell badge to take away.
A range of ‘Get Curious’ events across the half term week will also give families the chance to learn more about the body, and meet people working in STEM to ask questions, and have a go at lots of hands-on activities.
There’s something for everyone at the Science and Industry Museum this month / Credit: Science and Industry Museum
On Tuesday 26 October, visitors can take part in experiments with the museum’s STEM Ambassadors to help young people get excited about future studies or careers in the industry, and then on Wednesday 27 October, PHD students from Manchester Metropolitan University will lead a bunch of workshops all about how blood is pumped around our body and more.
The museum’s historic textiles machinery demonstrations are also back at the weekend and on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, showing the machines that made Manchester and how cotton kickstarted the Industrial Revolution, alongside the welcome return of the ‘Revolution Manchester’ show, shining a spotlight on the Mancunian ideas that changed the world.
For older families, there are also two unmissable major exhibitions happening at the museum dedicated to medicine and music.
There’s plenty of “science-filled fun and discovery” to get stuck into / Credit: Science and Industry Museum
As mentioned, the brand-new headline exhibition Cancer Revolution: Science, Innovation and Hope – which has been created with support from expert partner Cancer Research UK, and is suitable for children eight years and over – is the first major, object-rich exhibition to explore the revolution in science transforming cancer care.
And if you haven’t had the chance to already, you can use this upcoming half term week as a chance to immerse yourself in the history of the iconic Manchester music label, Factory Records, in the Use Hearing Protection: The early years of Factory Records exhibition – which unearths the story of the company’s formative years from 1978 to 1982, and how their innovative work in music, technology, and design gave Manchester an authentic voice and distinctive identity.
Free tickets for all half term events are now available to book / Credit: Science and Industry Museum
As the Science and Industry Museum is currently going through a multi-million pound restoration, this means that some areas of the venue – including the Power Hall – will remain closed to the public during half term.
Aitch is playing a huge hometown set at The Warehouse Project
Danny Jones
Aitch has booked another massive hometown slot as the Moston-born rapper will be playing none other than the home of clubbing here in Manchester: The Warehouse Project.
Joining the WHP25 programme, which is already stacked right up until New Year’s Eve, the 25-year-old is the latest rapper to take on the famous club venue, following the likes of Little Simz and Loyle Carner, who played the event series back in October.
Aitch‘s new album, 4 – which denotes the number of studio LPs he’s made to date and acts as a nod to the M4 postcode – was released on June 20 and has already proved popular with fans.
Having just played Parklife as well as a secret set at Glastonbury this year, he’s already performed most of his biggest slots for the year, but the ever-rising local rapper thought he’d given Manchester another big gig and one more chance to see him live in 2025.
As an increasingly popular main event act across the UK, a headline show at Warehouse Project is nothing short of a massive deal for any artist, let alone a Manc.
The date itself will see him see him performing songs from the new record, which is his second to hit the top 10, as well as a selection of multiple platinum-selling hits.
Sharing details of early access tickets on Instagram stories shortly after the announcement, the UK hip-hop and grime star reminded fans: “This is the only chance to see me shut this sh*t down this year!!!”
It’s actually his only major domestic show in full stop, so if you’re a die-hard fan of Harrison Armstrong and his music, you really don’t want to miss this one.
He’s not the only big name coming to Mayfield this season either.
WHP25 /// FISHER – TICKETS ON SALE NOW
Don’t miss out on what’s set to be an unmissable night – packed with infectious energy from beginning to end – as he takes over Depot Mayfield alongside a lineup coming very soon.
Featured Images — Jahnay Tennai (supplied)/Aitch (via TikTok)
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‘Dazzling’ Victorian silver sculpture goes on public display in Greater Manchester after fears it was lost
Emily Sergeant
A long-lost masterpiece of Victorian silverwork has been saved and is now on display to the public in Greater Manchester.
Anyone taking a trip over to the National Trust’s historic Dunham Massey property, on the border of Greater Manchester into Cheshire, this summer will get to see the ‘dazzling’ sculpture called Stags in Bradgate Park – which was commissioned by a former owner in a defiant gesture to the society that shunned him.
The dramatic sculpture of two rutting Red Deer stags, commissioned in 1855 by George Harry Grey, 7th Earl of Stamford, was said to be an ‘act of love and rebellion’.
It also serves as a symbol of ‘locking horns’ with the society that ostracised him over his marriage to a woman considered ‘beneath him’.
“This isn’t just silver – it’s a story,” says James Rothwell, who is the National Trust‘s curator for decorative arts.
“A story of a man who fell in love with a woman that society deemed unworthy. When the Earl married Catherine Cox, whose colourful past was said to have included performing in a circus, Victorian high society was scandalised. Even Queen Victoria shunned the couple at the opera and local gentry at the horse races in Cheshire turned their backs on them.”
Modelled by Alfred Brown and crafted by royal goldsmiths Hunt & Roskell, Stags in Bradgate Park is a meticulously-detailed depiction of nature, and was considered a ‘sensation’ in its day.
Showing the rutting deer positioned on a rocky outcrop with gnarled hollow oaks, it graced the pages of the Illustrated London News, was exhibited at the London International Exhibition of 1862, and at the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1867 – both of which were events that drew millions of visitors.
A ‘dazzling’ Victorian silver sculpture has gone on public display in Greater Manchester / Credit: Joe Wainwright | James Dobson (via Supplied)
The silver centrepiece was the celebrity art of its time, paraded through streets and admired by the public like no other.
Gradually over the years, some of the Earl of Stamford’s silver collection has been re-acquired for Dunham Massey, and this particular world-renowned sculpture, thought to be lost for decades and feared to have been melted down, has miraculously survived with its ‘dramatic’ central component being all that is left.
“The sculpture is not only a technical marvel, with its lifelike depiction of Bradgate Park’s rugged landscape and wildlife, but also a dramatic human story key to the history of Dunham Massey,” added Emma Campagnaro, who is the Property Curator at Dunham Massey.
Emily Sergeant -
6th October 2021 
