This Saturday, we are delighted to be hosting this year’s Broadside Day - an annual one-day conference for people
interested in Street Literature in all its fascinating aspects. On show will be broadsides, chapbooks, songsters, woodcuts, engravings, last dying
speeches, catchpennies, wonder-tales, almanacs, fortune-tellers, moral
tracts, reading-made-easy alphabets, and all kinds of cheap printed
material which was sold to ordinary people in city streets, at country fairs, and
from pedlars' packs up and down the country in past centuries.
The Broadside Day is organised jointly by the English Folk Dance & Song Society (EFDSS) and the Traditional Song Forum (TSF).
The Day consists of short papers, presentations, displays, discussions,
performances, and so on, and is suitable for beginners and experts
alike, who will all enjoy its lively and informal atmosphere.
Manchester was
one of the most important centres for the production of street
literature in the 19th century. In recognition of this, speakers who can
present topics specifically related to the trade in the Northwest have
been invited.
We'll be getting broadsides from or own collection to display, a number of which are pictured here.
Click here for more information and tickets.