Onward and Upward! 

Wood Street Mission is a Manchester children’s charity which helps children and families living in poverty in Manchester and Salford. We provide practical help to meet children’s day-to-day needs and improve their life chances, and raise awarenss about child poverty through communications and living heritage activities.Every year the charity helps about 7000 children and 3000 families – a figure which has doubled in recent years.

Wood Street Mission

The concept of the ‘family holiday’ is a recent one. For much of the last century, the vast majority of families could not afford an annual get-away and many children never experienced life away from home. Yet over 50,000 children enjoyed a week by the sea in Wood Street Mission’s purpose-built Blackpool resort in the twentieth century. The holiday was a life changing experience with staff recounting tales of children kneeling down to kiss flowers and ‘gasping’ when they caught their first ever glimpse of the sea. ‘I never saw so much room out of doors in my life before!’ cried one child after getting to the beach for the first time.
This illustrated talk by Julie Marie Strange, Professor of History at the University of Manchester, charts the growing popularity of the family holiday, the key role charities like Wood Street Mission played facilitating it, and explores why holidays are good for us. It accompanies the exhibition Queues, Clogs & Redemption Salford  which looks at the work undertaken by one of the city’s oldest charities to alleviate the impact of poverty and improve life chances since it was set up in 1869.
The talk is illustrated with archive footage and costumed character performances and the ticket price includes a drink and fish and chip supper!

Salford Museum and Art Gallery

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Onward and Upward!

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Onward and Upward!

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