The Oldham Gallery opens today. Roughly 200 miles south of Gallery Oldham. Perhaps we should make a twinning arrangement?

A Lancashire Town, 1938, by Oldham-born Harold Workman, 1897-1975 (Gallery Oldham). Trained at Manchester School of Art. #NorthernArt

Trip to the Liverpool Biennial included an artwork that was literally a seagull shitting on the gallery floor… 1/2

Oldham, Lancashire, from Glodwick Fields, painting by James Howe Carse, 1819–1900 (Gallery Oldham). #NorthernArt

Spotted a ray of sunshine on my travels today…

My children still maintain this is the worst castle I ever took them to. And I took them to plenty… www.bbc.com/news/article...

Enjoying a couple of days at @hayfestival.bsky.social History and poetry yesterday. More of the same today…

Enjoyed the opening event at Stockroom in Stockport yesterday. Serious case-envy in the new Archives space!

Meeting at the Museum of Wigan Life this afternoon. Obligatory photographs of Hacker T Dog and Uncle Joe’s Mintballs factory…

Sad sight when coming across the Pennines this evening. Moor fires still burning.

Trip to the Saatchi Gallery to see the Flora exhibition…

Girl with Bobbin, Bolton, 1937, by Humphrey Spender.

Trip to The Whitworth for the opening of Women in Revolt. Delighted to meet the legendary Bobby Baker and her edible family…

Really enjoyed the range of exhibitions in the Spazju Kreattiv, Valletta

A few days pottering in Malta. I’m a sucker for a good reliquary and this was the best I saw. Skull of St Publius in the museum of Mdina Cathedral.

An important read on the recent discussions over the British Council selling off their art collection and how this sets a dangerous precedent... "Our national collections are the true wealth of the nation, a public benefit which everyone can value and share." www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

Made it to the Barbara Walker exhibition at The Whitworth on its final day. The show is excellent and I don’t know why I waited so long!

Oldham Street Sweepers, by John Haughton Hague, 1842-1934 (Gallery Oldham).

Night out at The Lowry

Interesting visit to the Eureka Science & Discovery centre at Birkenhead today. Great views inside and out.

Morning walk south from Bridlington. This is the best preserved of several WW2 pillboxes on the route.

Misty morning walk at Willow Grove, Reddish

Immersed in Hockney this afternoon at Aviva Studios, Manchester. Enjoyable and engaging experience.

“Bugs” is a very non-specific excuse…

Currently on display in the Oldham Stories exhibition at Gallery Oldham

In shock that the #museum I have dedicated most of my working life to is threatened with closure. I urge #Leeds people to respond to the upcoming public consultation and fight to preserve such a loved and important site. Local government funding needs fixing urgently.

Our final #LancashireDay visit to our blog archive looks at the tragic fate of James Platt, MP for Oldham, accidentally shot dead by the mayor of Oldham. Find out more about the events of 27 August 1857 in our blog: victoriancommons.wordpress.com/2015/08/27/m...

Hi! We're the Museum of Transport Greater Manchester, an award-winning museum celebrating the 200-year long history of our region's buses. We're open 3 days a week and yes, we let you go on some of the buses. Sometimes we even give rides. In honour of being here, here are some of our blue buses...

This is nice from Ipswich Town today. Presume a Suffolk Lowry would have painted ‘matchstalk farms and matchstalk men in smocks’

The Helen Clapcott exhibition at Stockport Art Gallery really is as good as people told me… www.stockport.gov.uk/current-exhi...

What some well judged graffiti can do to a marketing campaign #Stockport #Berlin

An occasional reminder that if you want regular pictures/stories from my local cemetery then @willowgrovecem on Insta is where you’ll find them…

Spotted in Bridlington today. Insert your own punchline…

Love it! Orleans Gallery, Twickenham The Wellcome Manchester Science & Industry The honey harvest at Gallery Oldham

Details of what promises to be a great talk from Michelle Ravenscroft, organised by Elizabeth Gaskell House, on #Manchester in #Victorian #Literature. What's not to like?

Exciting to take a tour of the original Oldham Library and Art Gallery and see it being brought back to life

Remembershoes. 9/10 no notes

Fabulous evening at Leeds Light Night

What is going on at Haigh Hall? Dark clouds above the project to match one of Theodore Major’s paintings… www.wigantoday.net/news/politic...

Art installations, a giant spider and even Andy Burnham. Something for everyone at tonight’s launch of the Manchester Science Festival…

Registration is open for The Radical North, 1779–1914: A Symposium in Memory of Malcolm Chase (29/11, Leeds)! This free event has 3 panels of papers exploring aspects of radicalism, a roundtable discussion & a book launch. To view the programme and register: shorturl.at/58LXK Please repost!

Also made it to The Wellcome to see two excellent and stimulating exhibitions. Food for thought on the train back north…

Visit to Twickenham this weekend. Very jolly war memorial - reminds me of the Waterhead war memorial in Oldham (pictured alongside)

Reddish sky over Reddish tonight. I’ve lived in this house for eight years and never made that joke before! #NorthernLights

Nerdy museum picture. #dullmuseumsnap even. But the fixing points for this painting on a stairwell really are something…

A trip to Bury today. Forgot how much detail is packed into the war memorial’s splendid bronze reliefs. #WW1

Good article setting out the increasing pressure on civic museums www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

#LabourHistory Brenda Prince was one of four women photographers who created an exhibition on women in the miners’ strike. Forty years on she wants to find out where it is. Can you help? sslh.org.uk/2024/10/02/i...

Gravestone of William Chadwick, ‘The old Chartist’, at Willow Grove, Reddish. Served six months in prison in 1848, died sixty years later after ‘a strenuous life … of many political battles.’

Face to face with the Brontë sisters today at Haworth(!)