Jonathan Schofield Tours

22/11/2024

Larnaca, Cyprus, on Wednesday and I’ll make no bones about the fact I saw some old bones. When Lazarus popped his clogs Jesus realised there was an opportunity to show his divinity but not before sobbing when Lazarus’s sis said she believed in Christ as the Messiah whatever happened with his resurrectioning. In the St John Gospel at this point there’s the simple words: ‘Jesus wept’.

So he brought Lazarus back to life after four days by which time he’d begun to stink hence pictures of the incident have people holding their noses, such as this one by Duccio. Lazarus then had to flee the Roman province of Judea as people were out to get him to disprove the tale.

According to tradition he ended up in Cyprus, then called Kition. Some say he swam, yes it gets more and more believable. He became the archbishop in Larnaca and was a right old misery guts. It’s said Lazarus never smiled during the thirty years after his resurrection, worried by the sight of unredeemed souls he had seen during his four-day stay in Hell. The only exception was, when he saw someone stealing a pot, he smilingly said, “The clay steals the clay.”

It seems hardly worth raising him from the dead if that was his attitude. Jeeeezus wept.

Anyway here are some of his bones in a reliquary in the Church of Lazarus. There are some more in Marseille too and also in various other places. In death part two Lazarus pops up all over the show.
.shepherd .visitcyprus

18/11/2024

The great and the gourd. Enjoying a trip around Cyprus with it all going on, charming hosts (more about them later) and one slightly berserk one, great food including smoked goat, some lovely wines including a blue one (yes blue), incredible ‘small spoons’, roses, roses, everywhere and for everything, autumn scenery, plunging valleys, tall mountains, terraces on the sides of hills, great companions, a gorgeous almost 1,000 year old monastery, zivania and more zivania, lice exterminator zivania by-products and, of course gourds...ah dear gourds you are my new favourite absurd word, you are the Swiss Army knife of fruit, so insanely gourd. I’m not going to stop punning on gourds for a week. It’s a promise. .visitcyprus .shepherd

12/11/2024

Upon reflection this was dramatic this morning

11/11/2024

On Wednesday I was in London. I had a tour round the Barbican in London. I’d only been once before and that was years ago. Strange place, a forty acre mainly 1970s rambling concrete jungle from Chamberlin, Powell and Bon which despite its monstrous character is strangely beguiling. We had a fine guide, Oliver, to help us understand the place. The water features and the way St Giles Church and some of the remains of the wall that once surrounded London are incorporated works well. Texturing the concrete with drills must have been the most terribly back breaking work.

25/10/2024

Ely Cathedral is my new favourite cathedral in the world. It’s a wonder with the biggest wonder of all, the Octagon, an astonishing 14th century work of art mingled with astounding civil engineering. The tour to the top of the Octagon and over the roof is one of the best little trips I’ve taken in yonks. Thanks to Patsy our gracious and knowledgeable guide.

06/10/2024

Lyon is a wonderful place. Thanks to Lauranne and family for hosting my son, his mother and me. The food was great and I thought I’d go thoroughly local with bone marrow, tripe, snails and sweetbreads. Every visit to another city inspires a desire for change in your own, in this instance over wayfinding and storyboards revealing the city’s history. I know someone who could write these as well.

28/09/2024

Beverley is a beautiful town in the East Riding of Yorkshire with a stunning cathedral-scale minster. There’s more beauty down at Spurn Head, the long, sea-battered tail of Yorkshire separating the North Sea from the Humber estuary and rich with birdlife, battered WWII defences and that particular haunting and melancholy atmosphere of the flat east coast of England.

Larkin’s lines in the poem ‘Here’ captures that quality perfectly: ‘Here silence stands/ Like heat. Here leaves unnoticed thicken,/ Hidden weeds flower, neglected waters quicken,/ Luminously-peopled air ascends;/ And past the poppies bluish neutral distance/ Ends the land suddenly beyond a beach/ Of shapes and shingle. Here is unfenced existence/ Facing the sun, untalkative, out of reach.’

06/09/2024

Weekend tours: Stockport, Mcr Music and Knutsford

Saturday 7 September

Secrets of Stockport 10am. A fascinating tour around a town with some cracking buildings and great stories. There is so much of interest in Stockport past and present. The future is also beginning to look very rosy indeed with big redevelopment plans some underway right now. The tour will include a surprise interior visit in a very special building.

The lively characters that have populated the town’s past and present will be revealed as we tour around Stockport’s entertaining up and down topography. Moments of fun and daftness will mingle with darker stories to spice up the town’s tale. If you think you know Stockport town centre then think again.

The Manchester Music Walkabout 1pm
A tuneful swoop through the popular music scene of the city from the 1960s to the present day, examining the huge range of inspirational sounds that have shaken the musical world. This tour follows a route past the venues and locations that formed the backdrop to the city’s lyrical legacy. The tour has the best stories and anecdotes of any of the music tours and ones that will move and amuse in equal measure. Of course, there will be samples of the city’s musical story to enjoy as we walk and every guest upon booking will receive a playlist so they can get in the mood before they join. https://www.jonathanschofieldtours.com/calendar-of-tours.html

06/09/2024

Weekend tours: Stockport, Mcr Music and Knutsford

Saturday 7 September

Secrets of Stockport 10am. A fascinating tour around a town with some cracking buildings and great stories. There is so much of interest in Stockport past and present. The future is also beginning to look very rosy indeed with big redevelopment plans some underway right now. The tour will include a surprise interior visit in a very special building.

The lively characters that have populated the town's past and present will be revealed as we tour around Stockport's entertaining up and down topography. Moments of fun and daftness will mingle with darker stories to spice up the town's tale. If you think you know Stockport town centre then think again.

The Manchester Music Walkabout 1pm
A tuneful swoop through the popular music scene of the city from the 1960s to the present day, examining the huge range of inspirational sounds that have shaken the musical world. This tour follows a route past the venues and locations that formed the backdrop to the city’s lyrical legacy. The tour has the best stories and anecdotes of any of the music tours and ones that will move and amuse in equal measure. Of course, there will be samples of the city’s musical story to enjoy as we walk and every guest upon booking will receive a playlist so they can get in the mood before they join.

Sunday 8 September

Secrets of Knutsford 10am. "Let every dawn be to you as the beginning of life, and every setting sun be to you as its close." John Ruskin, his words carved on a wall in Knutsford. This town in north Cheshire is a gem. It is the embodiment of the lowland English market town with the added bonus of containing some of the most eccentric buildings in Britain. The town is grouped around King Street and Princess Street. On one side is the mere (lake), on the other is Knutsford Heath, a large semi-natural common. King Street is a thoroughfare that has one of those splendid English haphazard harmonies of buildings from throughout the last 250 years. One of buildings on the street is the Ruskin's Rooms from which the quote at the head of this description derives from in inscription on the side of the building.

In short Knutsford is full of surprises from its crazy architecture, through its green spaces and its eccentric characters, very eccentric characters. There are dark deeds, tales of ex*****on, sunny stories full of love and life and lots of laughs on this tour.

All tours are priced £15 per ticket. Although people can purchase the eight tours for six deal here.

Book here: https://www.jonathanschofieldtours.com/calendar-of-tours.html

16/08/2024

Sunrise at Grange-over-Sands

15/08/2024

No but have written some other stuff with less general consumer appeal

14/08/2024

Rochdale Town Hall & Feelgood Festival in the gloaming on Sunday

13/08/2024

The Peterloo Massacre Walk - The Drama & The Reality. 10.30am Saturday 17 August 2024

Two hundred and five years ago an event in Manchester defined the British struggle for democracy. In August 1819 came a day that coined a phrase and stirred a nation. This tour takes in the key locations associated with a peaceful meeting in central Manchester that ended in death and mayhem. Expect powerful words, poetry and contemporary context.

‘If you want Peterloo explained with verve, wit and real knowledge then this the easily the best tour around,’ Marple Historical Society.

Meet outside Manchester Art Gallery, Mosley Street, City centre, M2 3JL.



Boonk here: https://www.jonathanschofieldtours.com/peterloo-massacre-the-reality—the-drama.html

08/08/2024

Greater Manchester people (2) Richard Cobden (1804-1865).
Every city needs a Cobden in its history. Born in Sussex, raised in Yorkshire, he came to Manchester to sell and print cotton goods but found politics and the pursuit of justice far more appealing. This meant he was in financial trouble all his life and had to be maintained by an appreciative group of friends and supporters. The support was handy as he had a wife and five daughters to support.

In Manchester he engineered the Charter of Incorporation which gave the city its first modern council, he supported a national system of secular education, campaigned against the O***m Wars and was a peace campaigner. He is perhaps best known for his association with John Bright , the MP from Rochdale, with whom he led the Anti-Corn Law League to batter down the unjust protectionism of Establishment and the land-owning classes. He susequently led with John Bright, the Manchester-based Free Trade Movement.

Famous words of Cobden include: ‘At all events arbitration is more just, rational and humane than resort to the sword’ and ‘For every credibility gap, there is a gullibility gap’.

When he died, his great friend John Bright called him ‘the manliest and gentlest spirit that ever quit or tenanted a human form’.

His ideas still influence much political and economic thought in the 21st century.

There are numerous statues and busts of Richard Cobden around the region and country, he was, afterall, the poster boy of Liberal ideas in the mid-nineteenth century. The one in St Ann’s Square, Manchester, was placed there in 1867. The money for the work was raised by public subscription. Marshall Wood was the artist.

Why not join me one of my award-winning walks in Manchester and the NW. jonathanschofieldtours.com

26/07/2024

The buddleia that made a statue of itself. We all need to find our niche in this case on the approach to Victoria Station

26/07/2024

He loves it here. Mr Heron is in his usual place on the 1844 Robert Stephenson viaduct over the River Irwell leading to Victoria Station.

22/05/2024

Guest recommendations for my tours

Jonathan Schofield Manchester Tours

21/05/2024