Manchester University Press
6 Tinned salmon
Abstract
In 1890, labourers in Cheetham, a suburb to the north of Manchester, uncovered a coffin in what had been the floor of Hannah Beswick’s former residence, Cheetwood Old Hall, and this led to a revival of interest in ‘The Manchester Mummy’, with numerous stories appearing in the local and national press, and letters from readers purporting to tell the ‘true story’ of Hannah’s life, death and mummification (including from people who claimed a familial relationship to either Hannah or someone who had known her during her lifetime). Unlike the ghost stories discussed in the previous chapter, these stories followed a pattern of appealing to authority and attempting to close the generational and geographic distance between teller and listener, and so they can be understood as a form of urban legend. This chapter argues that the events of 1890 allowed for the creation of a Hannah Beswick that can be understood through the lens of the Gothic; the discovery at Cheetwood was literally the result of the industrialization of Cheetham Hill (with the post-medieval manor house being torn down to create a brickworks), and thus the reception of the story and subsequent retellings of the Hannah Beswick story reveal as much about the late Victorian popular imagination as it does about the circumstances of the discovery.
Abstract
In 1890, labourers in Cheetham, a suburb to the north of Manchester, uncovered a coffin in what had been the floor of Hannah Beswick’s former residence, Cheetwood Old Hall, and this led to a revival of interest in ‘The Manchester Mummy’, with numerous stories appearing in the local and national press, and letters from readers purporting to tell the ‘true story’ of Hannah’s life, death and mummification (including from people who claimed a familial relationship to either Hannah or someone who had known her during her lifetime). Unlike the ghost stories discussed in the previous chapter, these stories followed a pattern of appealing to authority and attempting to close the generational and geographic distance between teller and listener, and so they can be understood as a form of urban legend. This chapter argues that the events of 1890 allowed for the creation of a Hannah Beswick that can be understood through the lens of the Gothic; the discovery at Cheetwood was literally the result of the industrialization of Cheetham Hill (with the post-medieval manor house being torn down to create a brickworks), and thus the reception of the story and subsequent retellings of the Hannah Beswick story reveal as much about the late Victorian popular imagination as it does about the circumstances of the discovery.
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Dedication v
- Contents vii
- Acknowledgements viii
- Prologue ix
- I Afterlife 1
- 1 The cabinet of insects 3
- 2 Behind the giraffe 18
- 3 The ungenteel fate 35
- 4 What was her name? 49
- 5 Madame Beswick’s supernatural pranks 70
- 6 Tinned salmon 86
- 7 Ms Beswick 104
- II Life and death 119
- 8 Hannah 121
- 9 Sundry odd things 135
- 10 Oil of lavender 152
- 11 The pious band 167
- 12 Four hundred pounds 179
- 13 Unremarkable 197
- Epilogue 208
- Note for genealogists 215
- Notes 217
- Select bibliography 238
- Index 243
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Dedication v
- Contents vii
- Acknowledgements viii
- Prologue ix
- I Afterlife 1
- 1 The cabinet of insects 3
- 2 Behind the giraffe 18
- 3 The ungenteel fate 35
- 4 What was her name? 49
- 5 Madame Beswick’s supernatural pranks 70
- 6 Tinned salmon 86
- 7 Ms Beswick 104
- II Life and death 119
- 8 Hannah 121
- 9 Sundry odd things 135
- 10 Oil of lavender 152
- 11 The pious band 167
- 12 Four hundred pounds 179
- 13 Unremarkable 197
- Epilogue 208
- Note for genealogists 215
- Notes 217
- Select bibliography 238
- Index 243
