Top speakers at Manchester Histories Festival, 21 March

burt Codeine says..“ Photographs of Market Street before the area was demolished to make way for the Arndale and the dreadful looking food court bring a tear to my eye...I cannot go on, it's simply too much to bear...”

Ste says..“ Long overdue and a great idea to help further build a sense of pride in our city. It should be expanded in future years and perhaps even incorporate a sort of 'Manchester day' or something to focus our attention once a year. Now if only the council would spend some money on cleaning our streets effectively, we might be able to feel proud on a day to day basis. ”

Anonymous says..“ Err...the web address ends in .org.uk not .org.”

Anonymous says..“ p.s. the target for the hyperlink as well as the text needs changing for the .org.uk thing...”

Anonymous says..“ Wot about the workers? I still see the ghost of cotton warehouse people around my apartment building,, and don't the aristocracy of labour from MetVicks Rolls Royce Renolds and Arvo have play any part in Manchester history?. And where will 'The Classic Slum' figure and wot about the Co-op, and the department stores, and the pubs....? And Thatcher's blitz krieg whch did more damage than Hitler, and Guardian running away after the harlots in the City of London, and Granada (RIP) and Corrie........ and time when Manchester really was a great European city? Instead we have football, rock, feminism (where are the workers again?) and computers. It's a media thing. ”

Mari says..“ Look out for features on workers history, Avro, Ferranti, the Co-op, Granada, Withy Grove newspaper printworks, and much much more. ”

Editorial says..“ Dear Anonymous. We keep testing that link in the story and it works for us.”

Chick says..“ Looking forward to this. Slightly OT but anyone know when the Pump House museum is due to reopen? Seems like it's been the longest refurb in history”

Anonymous says..“ Ed, someone at ManCon changed the link yesterday...”

Cllr Mike Amesbury says..“ Getting loads of interest in this, I agree entirely with Johnathan that this is long overdue. We do need to celebrate Manchester's Heritage more effectively. Executive Member for Culture and Leisure”

D Prived says..“ Just been on the Histories website and all the tours are "booked out". I thought Manchester had just trained up some twenty-odd Green Badge Tourist Guides. Where are they? Perhaps Cllr Mike Amesbury can help find them and put them to work immediately!”

Robcmar says..“ I no longer live in M/Cr so my main source of info is Manc Con. So how much publicity of the histories day have the organisers done, to learn about it a couple of weeks beforehand on Man Con is too little time, epsecially as everything seems to be booked up.”

D Prived says..“ Well said Robcmar. More Guides now!!! It's URGENT.”

Bernard Cook says..“ Good God, long overdue. The fact that so much is booked up is astonishing. But excellent too. We should make this a yearly event.”

Guiding Light says..“ Four more guided walks have been added to the Manchester Histories Festival website. In addition, the website encourages people to ask on the day for availability on all the walks as some tickets have been held back.”