The award-winning Whitaker Gallery & Museum is a multi-purpose venue which celebrates the area’s varied and amazing heritage whilst providing a dynamic, challenging and diverse programme of events, exhibitions and education-based activities. And the cafe’s pretty good too!
Discover Rochdale’s rich history on this guided tour, featuring the newly restored Town Hall, St Chad’s Church, and the Pioneers Museum.
from £20.00
Enjoy a rare visit inside the glorious Heaton Hall, while uncovering the fascinating history of the ‘people’s park’ outside.
from £25.00
Poetry at the Dusty Miller is a now regular night with invited readers, organised by Carcanet-published Carola Luther and Judith Willson in the Coiners’ Room in the Mytholmroyd pub.
free entry
Mark International Workers’ Day with J.J. Lepink’s powerful one-woman play, bringing a vital yet overlooked figure of British labour history to the stage.
from £13.00
GASP! Horror Film Festival returns with three days of screenings dedicated to championing diversity in genre cinema.
from £5.00
Join an access-all-areas guided tour of Chetham’s Library and the surrounding school – among the most venerable buildings in the North West.
from £20.00
Greater Manchester Improv Festival debuts. Expect a fearless, unscripted showcase of local talent, wild invention, and pure fringe spirit.
from £5.00
Dance a Céilí with Altogether Otherwise as part of their singing and dancing months in May and June.
free entry
The Eagle and Child in Ramsbottom does what good pubs do best, and more.
Now ten years old, this double market combines a farmers’ market and a craft fair and provides the perfect excuse to visit the picturesque town of Ramsbottom, which nestles in the Lancashire foothills to the north of Manchester.
Helmed by chef-owners Fiona and Joe Botham, this tapas restaurant in Ramsbottom serves exclusively Spanish drinks and some of the best small plates going.
Colleen’s is a casual dining neighbourhood restaurant in the heart of Ramsbottom serving seasonal dishes.
Sports venue in Ramsbottom and home to the annual Ramsbottom Festival.
Burnley’s Panopticon, ‘Singing Ringing Tree’, is a unique musical sculpture which overlooks Burnley from its position high above the town on Crown Point. Constructed from pipes of galvanised steel stacked in layers, this Panopticon takes the form of a tree bending to the winds and harnesses the energy of those winds to produce a low, tuneful song.
Historic house, art gallery and museum. Museum houses a variety of displays, encompassing natural history, Egyptology, local history, textiles, decorative art and regional furniture. Art gallery is focused on Victorian and Pre-Raphaelite art, “with some earlier paintings as well”.
Burrs Country Park lies on the River Irwell covering an area of 36 hectares of scenic countryside, one mile northwest of Bury town centre.
The Weavers Triangle is a modern name for an area on the banks of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal that was once at the heart of Burnley’s textile industry. The name was first used in the 1970s, as interest developed in preserving Burnley’s industrial heritage, and refers to the roughly triangular shape of the region.
Burnley Mechanics Theatre showcases an array of talent; touring shows and local theatre also.
Glassmonkey Studio is the largest glass fusing studio in the area. The studio is home to a gallery selling handmade fused glassware jewellery, art and greeting cards. They also host regular workshops for fused glass, soap making, enamelling, and silver clay jewellery making.
Affectionately referred to as the ‘Downton of the North’, Gawthorpe Hall was redesigned in the 1850s by Sir Charles Barry, designer of the Houses of Parliament and the ‘real’ Downton Abbey, Highclere Castle.
Eclectic as ever. You'll find inventive reworkings, world-class contemporary dance and Greater Manchester's inaugural Improv Festival in our guide.
If it's inspiring, inclusive events and avant-garde, experimental afternoons you're after, look no further than live literature this spring – we've got you covered.
Vintage Alfred Hitchcock and a family friendly film festival are amongst our highlights this May.
Crocodile-themed Easter egg hunts, sense-sational museum trips and more this Easter!
Spring is here and the North is buzzing with must-visit new restaurants and bars.
Open air clubs, new festivals and long-awaited gigs. The North West's live music scene is heating up this spring.
Willow weaving, textile collages, digital arts and ecology - all this and more in our exhibition top picks this month
We've got many a good time in store this month as we round up the best walking tours, cultural classes and makers markets in the land.
