Centenary An Invitation to 15th – 18th May 2008 … giving you a flavour of our fine city and its surrounding countryside

‘Visit Manchester and see the World’. evidence of Romano British farming Visiting Manchester for the weekend settlements throughout the period. opens up a whole world of exciting It wasn’t until the Tudor period that the opportunities. Our vibrant city is reputation of the spa waters was steeped in history and traditions and enhanced when Mary, Queen of set in a background of beautiful Scotland, under the custodianship of the countryside on the edge of the 6th Earl of Shrewsbury, was given leave Pennine Hills, known in our school to take the waters for her numerous days as the ‘Backbone of England’. ailments. The Hall, now the Old Hall The Manchester Conference Liaison Hotel was specially built to house her Committee is arranging a busy and printing including the Gutenberg Bible as visits between 1573 and 1584. Georgian interesting programme for you over the well as the personal papers of Buxton enjoyed only modest success but Centenary Weekend and if you have time distinguished historical figures including after 1850 visitors started to arrive by rail for a few extra days here we know you Elizabeth Gaskell, John Dalton and John in substantial numbers to holiday and won’t be disappointed. Between the lush Wesley. take the waters. New baths, a Pump green counties of Lancashire, Cheshire In 1920, a fragment of papyrus, with Room, churches, hotels and hydros were and Derbyshire, and bordering the some of St John’s gospel, was found in built to accommodate them. The Stables beauty of Yorkshire and Merseyside, the Nile delta and placed in John were converted into the Royal Manchester offers much to see and do. Rylands Library; this was not catalogued Devonshire Hospital and had its This month’s article gives some ideas of as P52 until 1934. It is the oldest known magnificent slate roof added in 1881. The places to visit in and around Manchester. piece of the New Testament and has Pavilion and Gardens were laid out and been scientifically dated as originating in 1903, the Opera House was opened to between 125 and 150 AD. much acclaim. The popularity of Buxton as a holiday resort has been enhanced by a wide range of entertainments, dances and, as the heart of the Peak District, unrivalled scenery and walking.

Buxton and the Peak District The earliest known settlement in what is Museum North now Buxton dates from the Middle Stone Age or late Mesolithic period around One of the most talked about Museums 5300 BC. Stone Age farmers made the in Britain today, Imperial War Museum area their at about 3500 - 1800 BC North is about people and their stories, and left numerous monuments in the Lyme Park about how lives have been and still are form of barrows and the famous henges Originally a Tudor house, Lyme was shaped by war and conflict. at Arbor Low and Bull Ring. They were transformed by the Venetian architect The award-winning building by followed by dwellers of the Bronze Age Leoni into an Italianate palace. Some of international architect Daniel Libeskind is whose stone circles and burial cairns are the Elizabethan interiors survive and a symbol of our world torn apart by still visible around Stanton Moor and contrast dramatically with later rooms. conflict and is situated at The Quays, a elsewhere. Evidence of Iron Age The state rooms are adorned with waterfront destination two miles from settlements can also be seen in the hill Mortlake tapestries, woodcarvings . forts at Castle Naze and Castleton’s attributed to Grinling Gibbons and an Rylands Library Mam Tor. important collection of English clocks. The John Rylands Library, , The Romans called the town “Aquae The 6.8-hectare (17-acre) Victorian houses some of the most significant Arnemetiae” which translates as “The garden boasts impressive bedding books and manuscripts ever produced. Waters of the Goddess of the Spring”. schemes, a sunken parterre, an The magnificent neo-gothic building in Buxton was an important Roman site Edwardian rose garden, Jekyll-style Manchester’s city centre is a major visitor with no less than three bath houses and herbaceous borders, lake, a ravine attraction as well as a research library of a shrine, and only Bath (“Aquae Sulis”), garden and Wyatt conservatory. The world renown. was elevated to such levels with the garden is surrounded by a medieval deer The collections include exquisite granting of the appellation, “Aquae”. park, with herds of red and fallow deer, medieval illuminated manuscripts, Coins dating from 100 - 400 AD have covering almost 566 hectares (1,400 examples of the earliest forms of modern been found in the area and there is acres) of moorland, woodland and 12 CATENA Centenary parkland and containing an early 18th- Chatsworth House century hunting tower (The Cage). Lyme Chatsworth is one of Britain’s best loved appeared as ‘Pemberley’ in the BBC’s historic sites and offers something for adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and everyone to enjoy, from famous works of Prejudice. art, young animals and the spectacular The Museum of Science fountains in the garden to the finest and Industry shopping, food and drink and many miles Today the Museum occupies the former of walks. This home of the Duke and Liverpool Road Station, one of Duchess of Devonshire is set in the Manchester’s most important historic magnificent landscape of Derbyshire’s sites. Liverpool Road Station, which Peak District National Park. opened in 1830, is the world’s oldest The house, garden, farmyard, surviving railway station. It only operated adventure playground, gift shops and as a passenger station from 1830 to restaurant are open every day during Manchester Art Gallery is part of 1844, but continued as a goods station May 2008, and the one thousand acre Manchester City Galleries, a department until 1975 when British Rail closed it. park and the farmshop and its restaurant of , which At that time, the Museum needed a are open all year round. operates four venues in and around the permanent home. Opened in 1969, the Chatsworth has one of Europe’s finest city: North Western Museum of Science and private art collections, built up by • Manchester Art Gallery Industry quickly outgrew its temporary successive generations of the Cavendish • The Gallery of Costume premises on Grosvenor Street, Chorlton- family over nearly five centuries, and still • Heaton Hall on-Medlock. Its main funder, Greater growing today. The collection • Hall Manchester Council, agreed to purchase encompasses 4,000 years of art and Here the city’s internationally renowned the 1830 part of Liverpool Road Station craftsmanship, from ancient Classical and designated collections of fine art, from British Rail for the token sum of £1 sculpture to modern by Lucian decorative art and costume are cared for. in 1978. Council Freud, and Edmund de An ambitious programme of temporary later decided to purchase the eastern Waal. exhibitions and displays, public events end of the Station too. It includes objects as diverse as Royal and education programmes is promoted The Museum opened at its new site on thrones, a giant ancient Greek marble throughout the year. 15 September 1983, the 153rd foot, a lace cravat carved from wood, The main venue, Manchester Art anniversary of the Liverpool and Dutch flower vases, the titanium fan of a Gallery, was re-opened in 2002 after a Manchester Railway. Initially, only the Rolls Royce jet engine, a Victorian four year, £35m redevelopment. Since Power Hall and parts of the Main Building painting of a poodle pretending to be a then it has won several national awards and Station Building were in use. Now judge in court and a clock made of and developed a reputation for high funded by the Department of Culture, Russian malachite - all objects of wonder quality, family friendly services. Media and Sport, the Museum has and delight. Manchester City Galleries is the lead continued to restore the buildings to hold Chatsworth has a long tradition of organisation of the North West Museums new galleries and facilities. welcoming local people and holiday Hub, part of a national framework set up makers from around the world. We by Government through the Renaissance recommend that you allow at least five in the Regions programme, to develop hours to see all that Chatsworth has to centres of excellence for museums and offer. audiences. Manchester Central Library Centenary Exhibition The history of the Catenian Association from the beginning of the ‘Chums’ to the current day will be exhibited with artifacts and memorabilia during the period 14th April to 30th May 2008 in the Manchester Central Library This venue is one of Liverpool Road Station Sundial Manchester’s most prestigious and iconic buildings and only a short walk from the city centre hotels. It is expected to attract considerable interest from the public and wider Catholic community.

The Manchester Provinces 1 and 17 look forward to welcoming you to our city for the Centenary Conference in May 2008. There is still time to send in your booking form issued with November’s Catena and now available to print from the Conference link through the members pages of the The Chapel at Chatsworth built in 1688 (by Association website A Mirlees Internal-combustion Engine kind permission of Chatsworth House Trust) www.thecatenians.com CATENA 13