Everything But A Beach

Buffalo Bill has packed up his travelling show, taking hundreds of performers back on the road. But what legacy has been left behind in Greater Manchester? Historian Dean delves into the truth of whether Sioux performers from North Dakota slipped into the Salford streets and ended up make their homes in Victorian England. Using archive material and family records, we close in on the truth to this enduring local legend - making a surprising discovery. 

Special thanks: Manchester BIPC; Image: Hardman Creative; our podcast music was provided by The Podcast Host and Alitu: The Podcast Maker app.

American promoter Buffalo Bill Cody brings the greatest show on earth to a racecourse ground in Salford, where an army of performers and crew construct ‘the largest theatre ever seen in the world’. The Wild West show thrills England’s Victorian millworkers and is remembered for decades to come.  But did, according to local legend, hundreds of native American performers disappear into the smog-cloaked streets of Victorian England, never to be seen again? In this episode, we explore the legend of the Salford Sioux. We’ll discuss the performers who took part in the show, the tumultuous and violent period in American history, and the impact this enormous wild west touring performance had on the imagination of workers in Victorian England’s powerhouse city.

Special thanks: Manchester BIPC; Image: Hardman Creative; Music: Our podcast music was provided by The Podcast Host and Alitu: The Podcast Maker app.

Which Manc words have survived over time? We look at the work of journalist and poet Samuel Bamford, who created an ambitious collection of words from the Victorian city and its surrounding towns, and we also make some surprising discoveries about expressions that are still used today. We’ll talk about the poets, actors, comedians and singers - from Gracie Fields to Victoria Wood to Liam Gallagher - who have kept Greater Manchester idioms at the forefront of popular British culture. Finally, Chris, Dean and Yakub also try to separate stereotypical expressions (do people still say ‘mad for it’?) from the real language used by Mancunians in the 21st century..

Special thanks: Manchester BIPC Music; Image: Hardman Creative; Our podcast music was provided by The Podcast Host and Alitu: The Podcast Maker app.

Are you a choughin-yed? Do you feel wambly? Does someone you know talk too much flother? In this episode, we look back at the language used by 19th century Mancunians, whose dialect was championed by novelist Elizabeth Gaskell in her novels Mary Barton and North and South. We’ll discuss how Gaskell challenged lazy stereotypes about women writers, becoming a literary superstar and important social campaigner. Dean, Chris and Yakub discuss how she introduced expressions used by everyday working people to a wider Victorian audience - as well as delving into the meaning of words used in the thriving industrial city of Manchester - including ‘nesh’, ‘frabbit’ and ‘baggin-time’.

Special thanks: Manchester BIPC; Image: Hardman Creative; Our podcast music was provided by The Podcast Host and Alitu: The Podcast Maker app.

Today Manchester City and Manchester United are sporting superpowers with supporters around the globe. But both clubs can trace their origins to the industrial boom of the late 19th Century and workers craving respite from drudgery of mills and factory life. In this episode, we discuss the early stars, sponsors and business interest that propelled these clubs to professionalism - including the role of tenacious social reformer Anna Connell in creating the club that would become City. We also discuss how the intense rivalries between the two Manchester has grown over time, what the atmosphere was like in the Victorian terraces, and the influence of rail, road and transport links in fuelling fan culture.

Special thanks: Manchester BIPC; Image: Hardman Creative; Our podcast provided by The Podcast Host and Alitu: The Podcast Maker app.

Manchester is home to some of the biggest sports brands on the planet. In this episode, Chris, Dean and Yakub argue the city is also the birthplace of modern football as we understand it. We tell the story of the city's economic boom and the grinding factory conditions which saw the working population turn to sport for recreation and escape. We'll talk about how the city played a key role in pivotal decisions about the early game as well as introducing some of the game’s first superstars, including coal miner turned football hero Billy Meredith.

Special thanks: Manchester BIPC; Image: Hardman Creative; Our podcast music was provided by The Podcast Host and Alitu: The Podcast Maker app. 

Welcome to Victorian Manchester, where the streets throb with violence and teenage gangs are waging war. The Scuttler gangs pose a menace unlike any England has seen before. Groups calling themselves the Bengal Tigers and Meadow Lads prowl the cobbled streets, marked by their distinctive clothes and vicious weapons, including brutal brass belts. Battling for status, territory and bonded together by crushing poverty, the gangs of lads and lasses fight pitched battles of such intensity that the authorities fear the violence will spill into open warfare. In this episode, Dean, Chris and Yakub talk about the rise and fall of the Scuttlers, their fascination with fashion (including why they put butter in their hair), how the 19th century phenomenon sparked the birth of sports and social clubs (including Manchester City FC and Salford Lads Club) and the cult youth movement’s possible inspiration for Anthony Burgess' dystopian A Clockwork Orange.

Special thanks: Manchester BIPC Music; Image: Hardman Creative; Our podcast music was provided by The Podcast Host and Alitu: The Podcast Maker app.

As Britain’s official executioner, Albert Pierrepoint hanged notorious murders, spies and war criminals. But he also lived a seemingly ordinary life as a grocery man and pub landlord in Greater Manchester, balancing his work behind the bar with grim professional duties as a Home Office hangman. As his fame grew, so too did doubts about the death penalty and Pierrepoint becomes unwillingly tangled in some of Britain’s most controversial and notorious criminal cases. Chris, Dean and Yakub discuss the peculiar double life and legacy of this enigmatic public figure.

Content: this episode contains descriptions of executions, which, while avoiding too much detail, some listeners may find uncomfortable.

Special thanks: Manchester BIPC. Image: Hardman Creative. Our podcast music was provided by The Podcast Host and Alitu: The Podcast Maker app.