Madge Addy, Rusholme
After a career in hairdressing Madge went on to nurse for the International Brigade fighting fascism in the Spanish Civil War.
The fine city of Manchester is full of secret and strange places; it can boast scores of interesting residents from the past who have helped shape the city, and there are loads of artifacts and fascinating stuff just waiting to be pored over in our many fascinating museums and galleries. My book Manchester: Secret & Strange Places to Visit makes the job easier for you by collecting 100 or so of them in one book – ideal for dipping into at your convenience and planning your voyages of discovery.
Roughly very two weeks I’ll be blogging one or two of these for you; if you want to receive them regularly then make sure you bookmark our site, or visit the author at www.paulchrystal.com.
Madge Addy
Hannah died in 1758 and is buried in Manchester General Cemetery in Harpurhey; but it was a long and circuitous underworld. Madge Addy was an extraordinary woman, and not quite the sort of woman you would expect to encounter in Chorlton working in a hairdressers. In between the shampoos and perms Madge and her family lived with their widowed mother in Rusholme Grove, Rusholme.
And here’s the interesting bit: after the pink rinses she went on to nurse for the International Brigade fighting fascism in the Spanish Civil War; Madge arrived in Spain in 1937 and became a head nurse at a hospital in a monastery at Uclės in Castile and was taken prisoner at the war’s end. When Franco released her, she went on to work for the ‘Special Operations Executive’ in France with MI9 in World War 2 where she played a key role in setting up one of the largest escape and evasion networks for Allied troops in western Europe. Apart from the OBE, Madge is honoured with an International Brigade memorial plaque which decorates the outside of the hairdressing salon. Madge also married three times – we take this in our stride today but in the 1940s this was unusual to say the least, particularly when two of the marriages were to foreign men.
Whitworth Gallery, Oxford Road
60,000 artworks and installations in this astonishing and inspirational collection have been delighting visitors since 1908.
As well as artworks the gallery offers The Natural and Cultural Health Service (NCHS), a programme of outdoor activities that promote good physical and mental wellbeing ranging from Meditating in Nature to Gardening for Good Health (GROW) to Sow& Grow: Wildflower Meadow Sowing. In addition Friends of the Whitworth present a series of free Sunday afternoon concerts that are open to all when students from the Royal Northern College of Music perform in the South Gallery, overlooking Whitworth Park. Past concerts have ranged from classical flamenco guitar to contemporary flute.
The Whitworth boasts notable collections of watercolours, sculptures, wallpapers and textiles, with a special focus on modern and contemporary artists including works by Gainsborough, Degas, van Gogh, Gauguin, Pissarro, Picasso, Moholy-Nagy, Paul Klee, Walter Sickert, Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Ford Madox Brown, Eduardo Paolozzi, Francis Bacon, William Blake, David Hockney, L. S. Lowry, and a superb collection of works by Turner.
‘Image of Genesis’, 1929-31 (marble) by Epstein, Jacob (1880-1959). Jacob Epstein’s ‘Genesis’ shows a heavily pregnant woman with a face based on an African mask. It is carved out of marble, weighing 3 tons and was first exhibited at Bluecoat in 1931 when nearly 50,000 visitors paid sixpence to see what was considered Britain’s most shocking sculpture. When shown as part of Epstein’s February 1930 exhibition at the Leicester Galleries, the response to Genesis was vicious, not just from the popular press but from more serious journals.
Manchester Secret & Strange Places to Visit
This wonderful new book is available now, delving into the curious places and stories of this city, along with Salford, Stockport and other surrounding areas.
