Welcome to mediaeval Manchester, a land of ale-conners, market lookers, kersie makers huddled around t'owd church and the College. To the chronicler John Leland writing in 1540 this was “the fairest, best builded, quickest, and most populous town of all Lancashire.”

Even though the first settled community in Manchester was based in what is now Castlefield, where the Romans built the first of four forts in AD 79, after the last fort was abandoned in the 5th century Manchester grew around what is now Victoria station.

This was the heart of mediaeval Manchester.

On the Mediaeval Manchester tour we emerge from the 21st century into a land of timber-framed houses, olde worlde pubs frequented by Guy Fawkes, the threat of Bonnie Prince Charlie's army gathering by the ford of the Mersey, a Manchester of ale-tasters, kersie makers and groat-smashers settling around the unspoilt Tudor cloisters of Chetham’s, the most formidable 15th century building in the north of England.

We also go in search for remnants of the Old Town. Even when we find them, things aren’t always what they seem. That 1530 pub by the Cathedral, it seems to have moved…