The Calendar of Public Walks
2025
More tours than any other guide in Greater Manchester
Not all tours will be conducted by Jonathan Schofield
All the tours are available as private or corporate tours
Most tours are dogfriendly
What guests have said about the tours
REMEMBER THERE ARE VOUCHERS AND DEALS AVAILABLE HERE
2025
Saturday 8 February
NEW 10.30am Sleazy, Sinister and Haunted Manchester
A tour highlighting the darker side of city history in all its craziness including delving into the supernatural.
The Saturday Walkabout Series
The Manchester Music Walkabout 1pm every Saturday; The Manchester Pub Walkabout 3pm every Saturday.
Total entertainment, brilliant stories, great fun.
Sunday 9 February
11am EXCLUSIVE: The Secrets of Heaton Hall and Park
This is a love story in stone, the passion between a young married couple turned into architecture. At the same time the utterly stunning interiors are all about music, so naturally amongst the lovely stories there will be playing music. This is one tour not to miss.
Saturday 15 February
10.30am Kimpton Clock Tower Hotel Tour (Refuge Assurance)
The most spectacular terracotta building in the North of England. The Kimpton Clock Tower Hotel is a beauty and on this tour you learn its secrets.
The Saturday Walkabout Series
The Manchester Music Walkabout 1pm every Saturday; The Manchester Pub Walkabout 3pm every Saturday.
Total entertainment, brilliant stories, great fun.
Sunday 16 February
11am The Secrets of Chorlton: The Surprising Manchester Series
From a hamlet on a road to nowhere to a desirable suburb the story of Chorlton-cum-Hardy is a fascinating tale of people, places and events. This tour will explore the characters that inhabited the suburb, the good, the bad and the ugly.
Saturday 22 February
10am The Secrets of Cheadle
Cheadle has a wonderful story to tell and this tour takes in the village and Abney Hall. Famous families such as the Watt's will be discussed along with folklore and more
The Saturday Walkabout Series
The Manchester Music Walkabout 1pm every Saturday; The Manchester Pub Walkabout 3pm every Saturday.
Total entertainment, brilliant stories, great fun.
Saturday 1 March
10.30am The Tour of Uninteresting Objects
We miss so much strolling the city centre because they aren't obvious yet often they provide delight and real insights into the story of Manchester and the country. Come on this tour to find out about some of the secrets of the city.
The Saturday Walkabout Series
The Manchester Music Walkabout 1pm every Saturday; The Manchester Pub Walkabout 3pm every Saturday.
Total entertainment, brilliant stories, great fun.
Wednesday 5 March
Cancelled by the library, I will conduct an alternative tour
9.45am Chetham's Medieval Buildings
The library and the school at Chetham's, close to Victoria Station, are among the most beautiful and venerable buildings in the North West of England. They are beautiful for their design and age but they also have a very significant history and have hosted influential people from across the world.
Saturday 8 March
10.30am Alexandra Park and Whalley Range
A fine park and a fascinating suburb with loads of stories to tell, there'll be music too.
The Saturday Walkabout Series
The Manchester Music Walkabout 1pm every Saturday; The Manchester Pub Walkabout 3pm every Saturday.
Total entertainment, brilliant stories, great fun.
Saturday 15 March
10am Secrets of Stockport
We go up and down and all around exploring the great stories of this sandstone town. Fine buildings to see, music to listen to, tragedies to weep over and how to count your life by moons.
The Saturday Walkabout Series
The Manchester Music Walkabout 1pm every Saturday; The Manchester Pub Walkabout 3pm every Saturday.
Total entertainment, brilliant stories, great fun.
Sunday 16 March
11am Secrets of Knutsford
An amazing town with amazing architecture and great stories. This is a really fun tour with some darker moments to add definition, some crazy sports, a mad Irishman, Elizabeth Gaskell, Richard Harding Watt and the tragedy of Alan Turing.
Thursday 20 March
3pm EXCLUSIVE: Secrets of the University of Manchester with interior visits
Interior visits to superb buildings old and so brand new the polish still shows through. Some of these places will make your jaw drop. There are wonderful stories of truly world-changing importance.
Saturday 22 March
The Saturday Walkabout Series
The Manchester Music Walkabout 1pm every Saturday; The Manchester Pub Walkabout 3pm every Saturday.
Total entertainment, brilliant stories, great fun.
THESE ARE SOME GUEST COMMENTS
Saturday 30 March
The Saturday Walkabout Series
The Manchester Music Walkabout 1pm every Saturday; The Manchester Pub Walkabout 3pm every Saturday.
Total entertainment, brilliant stories, great fun.
Saturday 5 April
10am Southern Cemetery Tour
A stroll through a tranquil landscape stopping at the monuments and celebrating the lives of fascinating individuals.
The Saturday Walkabout Series
The Manchester Music Walkabout 1pm every Saturday; The Manchester Pub Walkabout 3pm every Saturday.
Total entertainment, brilliant stories, great fun.
Sunday 6 April
3pm Truly Madly Brutal
The architecture of the sixties and seventies is often derided and sometimes that is justified but there are also splendid examples in Manchester that were built in an atmosphere of hope and excitement.
Saturday 12 April
10.30am Secrets of Ancoats and New Islington
Has any area of the UK been transformed so utterly than this fascinating area of mills, canals, new development and controversy? The answer is no. So join me for a stroll around the most interesting urban story in modern Britain with an extra special visit inside an 1820s mill.
The Saturday Walkabout Series
The Manchester Music Walkabout 1pm every Saturday; The Manchester Pub Walkabout 3pm every Saturday.
Total entertainment, brilliant stories, great fun.
Sunday 13 April
NEW 12noon Worsley - The Delph to the Old Hall
A stroll around an internationally important suburb with a superb canalscape and an amazing parish church designed by George Gilbert Scott among so much else. We'll finish in the lovely surroundings of Worsley Old Hall for a few stories and refreshment.
Thursday 17 April
3pm The Secrets of Cheadle
Postponed
Cheadle has a wonderful story to tell and this tour takes in the village and Abney Hall. Famous families such as the Watt's will be discussed along with folklore and more
Saturday 19 April
The Saturday Walkabout Series
The Manchester Music Walkabout 1pm every Saturday; The Manchester Pub Walkabout 3pm every Saturday.
Total entertainment, brilliant stories, great fun.
Saturday 26 April
NEW 10.00am Secrets of Chapel Street, Salford, tour
The A6 running through Salford just over the river in the city centre has an epic history full of pioneering achievement, art, architecture and absurdity.
The Saturday Walkabout Series
The Manchester Music Walkabout 1pm every Saturday; The Manchester Pub Walkabout 3pm every Saturday.
Total entertainment, brilliant stories, great fun.
Saturday 3 May
10.30am Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx in Manchester
Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx were the fathers of communism. Engels lived, on and off, for 22 years in Manchester and during this time Marx would stay with Engels for long periods. The remarkable tale of two men who changed the political world is told on this tour - two days before Karl Marx's birthday.
The Saturday Walkabout Series
The Manchester Music Walkabout 1pm every Saturday; The Manchester Pub Walkabout 3pm every Saturday.
Total entertainment, brilliant stories, great fun.
Sunday 4 May
Strangeways & Cheetham Hill
A lost river, a prison, a brewery, immigrant Manchester and a superb museum
Saturday 10 May
NEW 10.30am Manchester Cathedral and area
A tour examining the art, pathos and beauty of this stunning building.
The Manchester Music Walkabout 1pm every Saturday; The Manchester Pub Walkabout 3pm every Saturday.
Total entertainment, brilliant stories, great fun.
Sunday 11 May
10.30am EXCLUSIVE: The Secrets of Gorton Monastery
POSTPONED UNTIL LATER IN THE YEAR. ALL TICKET HOLDERS SHOULD HAVE BEEN REFUNDED AND SENT GIFT VOUCHERS.
A special building, a great history and a totally remarkable story of reinvention. Get the lowdown on a beautiful structure in east Manchester. 50% of proceedings go to the charity of Gorton Monastery.
THESE ARE SOME GUEST COMMENTS
Saturday 17 May
10am The Didsbury Tour
A trip around this lively area of the city revealing fascinating facts, curious buildings and fine buildings and lots of local personalities.
3pm Suffragettes, Women & the City
On 13 October 1905 the Suffragettes raised their first ‘Votes for Women’ banner. This was an epic moment in the fight for equal rights, this tour marks that and so many other heroic moments.
The Saturday Walkabout Series
The Manchester Music Walkabout 1pm every Saturday; The Manchester Pub Walkabout 3pm every Saturday.
Total entertainment, brilliant stories, great fun.
Saturday 24 May
10.30am Kimpton Clock Tower Hotel Tour (Refuge Assurance)
The most spectacular terracotta building in the North of England. The Kimpton Clock Tower Hotel is a beauty and on this tour you learn its secrets.
3pm Trees, Flowers and Manchester City Centre Green Spaces
Parks, pocket parks, old parks, new parks and gardens that were graveyards. Canals, wharfsides, rivers and rivers that become canals. There’s a lot to enjoy with the ‘green’ and ‘blue’ assets (to use the jargon) of central Manchester and Salford.
Saturday's tour will include Parsonage Gardens, Glade of Light, Cathedral Gardens, Angel Meadow.
The Saturday Walkabout Series
The Manchester Music Walkabout 1pm every Saturday; The Manchester Pub Walkabout 3pm every Saturday.
Total entertainment, brilliant stories, great fun.
Sunday 25 May
11am Trees, Flowers and Manchester City Centre Green Spaces
Parks, pocket parks, old parks, new parks and gardens that were graveyards. Canals, wharfsides, rivers and rivers that become canals. There’s a lot to enjoy with the ‘green’ and ‘blue’ assets (to use the jargon) of central Manchester and Salford.
Sunday's tour will include Parsonage Gardens, Lincoln Square, St John's Gardens, Aviva Studios and Viaducts, Deansgate Square.
Wednesday 28 May
5PM Chetham's Medieval Buildings
The library and the school at Chetham's, close to Victoria Station, are among the most beautiful and venerable buildings in the North West of England. They are beautiful for their design and age but they also have a very significant history and have hosted influential people from across the world.
NEW Saturday 31 May
NEW 10am The secrets of Rochdale with a visit to the magnificent Town Hall
With its esplanade and its superb Town Hall, plus a splendid parish church and the Pioneers' Musuem Rochdale has an incredible story to tell.
The Saturday Walkabout Series
The Manchester Music Walkabout 1pm every Saturday; The Manchester Pub Walkabout 3pm every Saturday.
Total entertainment, brilliant stories, great fun.
Sunday 1 June
NEW 11am The Secrets of Altrincham
The tour tells the story, past and present and future, of this bustling suburb.
The Saturday Walkabout Series
The Manchester Music Walkabout 1pm every Saturday; The Manchester Pub Walkabout 3pm every Saturday.
Total entertainment, brilliant stories, great fun.
Saturday 7 June
10am Secrets of Angel Meadow and the Irk Valley
(The Impossible Bridge and the Improbable Hill)
In the north of the city centre changes are afoot in one of the most historic areas of the city. This tour tells tales of bravery, misery, love and death and passes fascinating architecture and landscapes. Oh and a story about when a lot of naked people arrived in 2010.
The Saturday Walkabout Series
The Manchester Music Walkabout 1pm every Saturday; The Manchester Pub Walkabout 3pm every Saturday.
Total entertainment, brilliant stories, great fun.
THESE ARE SOME GUEST COMMENTS
Sunday 8 June
11am EXCLUSIVE: The Secrets of Heaton Hall and Park
This is a love story in stone, the passion between a young married couple turned into architecture. At the same time the utterly stunning interiors are all about music, so naturally amongst the lovely stories there will be playing music. This is one tour not to miss.
Saturday 14 June
10.30am EXCLUSIVE: Salford Lads Club Tour
(plus Middlewood Locks and Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal)
The finest and last lads' club in the country with stunning interiors and moving stories.
The Saturday Walkabout Series
The Manchester Music Walkabout 1pm every Saturday; The Manchester Pub Walkabout 3pm every Saturday.
Total entertainment, brilliant stories, great fun.
Sunday 15 June
11am The Secrets of Chorlton: The Surprising Manchester Series
From a hamlet on a road to nowhere to desirable suburb the story of Chorlton-cum-Hardy is a fascinating tale of people, places and events. This tour will explore the characters that inhabited the suburb, the good, the bad and the ugly.
Saturday 21 June
NEW 10am The Secrets of Wilmslow
There are fabulous stories and a lot to talk about while taking a walk around Wilmslow including St Bartholomew's church and Lindow Common.
The Saturday Walkabout Series
The Manchester Music Walkabout 1pm every Saturday; The Manchester Pub Walkabout 3pm every Saturday.
Total entertainment, brilliant stories, great fun.
Sunday 22 June
11am-1pm Liverpool, port city tour (part one)
As a qualified tour Blue Badge guide for the North West of England, Liverpool is on my patch. I've guided it many times but never included it on my public walks schedule. The first two-hour walk of the day will take in Liverpool Town Hall and the Pierhead.
2pm-4pm Liverpool, cathedrals, houses and monuments (part two)
The second tour of the day will stroll from the cathedrals through the Georgian town houses to the monumental structures and buildings on St George's plateau.
Saturday 29 June
The Saturday Walkabout Series
The Manchester Music Walkabout 1pm every Saturday; The Manchester Pub Walkabout 3pm every Saturday.
Total entertainment, brilliant stories, great fun.
Saturday 5 July
NEW 10am Secrets of the Northern Quarter and Piccadilly
There's art, sculpture, grand buildings and humble buildings and a lively street scene. This tour reveals the Northern Quarter and Piccadilly with all the good, the bad and the ugly.
The Saturday Walkabout Series
The Manchester Music Walkabout 1pm every Saturday; The Manchester Pub Walkabout 3pm every Saturday.
Total entertainment, brilliant stories, great fun.
NEW 3pm The Stones of Manchester: How to read the architecture of Manchester
What style is a particular building in the city centre? Why was that style chosen? Who are the architects who made and are making Manchester? Find out on this entertaining tour.
Sunday 7 July
NEW 11am Secrets of Old Trafford, a most significant suburb
Of course we'll mention the incredible sporting institutions here but there is so much more to talk about from radical politics to art shows that changed the way people looled at art plus the greatest loss of greenery in the city's history.
Saturday 12 July
10.30am Secrets of Ancoats and New Islington
Has any area of the UK been transformed so utterly than this fascinating area of mills, canals, new development and controversy? The answer is no. So join me for a stroll around the most interesting urban story in modern Britain with an extra special visit inside an 1820s mill.
The Saturday Walkabout Series
The Manchester Music Walkabout 1pm every Saturday; The Manchester Pub Walkabout 3pm every Saturday.
Total entertainment, brilliant stories, great fun.
Sunday 13 July
3pm The Manchester Music Walkabout
With Oasis in town this is an extra music tour with guaranteed total entertainment, brilliant stories, and great fun.
Saturday 19 July
NEW 10.30am Sleazy, Sinister and Haunted Manchester
A tour highlighting the darker side of city history in all its craziness including delving into the supernatural.
The Saturday Walkabout Series
The Manchester Music Walkabout 1pm every Saturday; The Manchester Pub Walkabout 3pm every Saturday.
Total entertainment, brilliant stories, great fun.
Wednesday 23 JULY
5PM Chetham's Medieval Buildings
The library and the school at Chetham's, close to Victoria Station, are among the most beautiful and venerable buildings in the North West of England. They are beautiful for their design and age but they also have a very significant history and have hosted influential people from across the world.
Saturday 26 July
The Saturday Walkabout Series
The Manchester Music Walkabout 1pm every Saturday; The Manchester Pub Walkabout 3pm every Saturday.
Total entertainment, brilliant stories, great fun.
Saturday 2 August
3pm Secrets of Stockport
We go up and down and all around exploring the great stories of this sandstone town. Fine buildings to see, music to listen to, tragedies to weep over and how to count your life by moons.
The Saturday Walkabout Series
The Manchester Music Walkabout 1pm every Saturday; The Manchester Pub Walkabout 3pm every Saturday.
Total entertainment, brilliant stories, great fun.
Sunday 3 August
10am The Magical Mystery Bike Tour
Bring your bike along and we'll go on a fabulous spin around some of fascinating areas of the city centre and its surroundings.
Saturday 9 August
1030am Kimpton Clock Tower Hotel Tour (Refuge Assurance)
The most spectacular terracotta building in the North of England. The Kimpton Clock Tower Hotel is a beauty and on this tour you learn its secrets.
The Saturday Walkabout Series
The Manchester Music Walkabout 1pm every Saturday; The Manchester Pub Walkabout 3pm every Saturday.
Total entertainment, brilliant stories, great fun.
Saturday 16 August
10.30am The Peterloo Massacre Tour
The definitive tour about a moment that helped shape the future of the nation.
The Saturday Walkabout Series
The Manchester Music Walkabout 1pm every Saturday; The Manchester Pub Walkabout 3pm every Saturday.
Total entertainment, brilliant stories, great fun.
Saturday 23 August
The Saturday Walkabout Series
The Manchester Music Walkabout 1pm every Saturday; The Manchester Pub Walkabout 3pm every Saturday.
Total entertainment, brilliant stories, great fun.
Saturday 30 August
The Saturday Walkabout Series
The Manchester Music Walkabout 1pm every Saturday; The Manchester Pub Walkabout 3pm every Saturday.
Total entertainment, brilliant stories, great fun.
Saturday 6 September
10am Southern Cemetery tour
We go up and down and all around exploring the great stories of this sandstone town. Fine buildings to see, music to listen to, tragedies to weep over
The Saturday Walkabout Series
The Manchester Music Walkabout 1pm every Saturday; The Manchester Pub Walkabout 3pm every Saturday.
Total entertainment, brilliant stories, great fun.
Sunday 7 September
11am Secrets of Knutsford
An amazing town with amazing architecture and great stories. This is a really fun tour with some darker moments to add definition, so crazy sports, a mad Irishman, Elizabeth Gaskell, Richard Harding Watt and the tragedy of Alan Turing.
Saturday 13 September
The Saturday Walkabout Series
The Manchester Music Walkabout 1pm every Saturday; The Manchester Pub Walkabout 3pm every Saturday.
Total entertainment, brilliant stories, great fun.
3pm The Railway Age begins: an anniversary tour
On 15 September 1830 the Liverpool to Manchester Railway opened and a page was turned in human history. This tour looks at the buildings that remain from that day and discusses developments since.
Saturday 20 September
The Saturday Walkabout Series
The Manchester Music Walkabout 1pm every Saturday; The Manchester Pub Walkabout 3pm every Saturday.
Total entertainment, brilliant stories, great fun.
Saturday 4 October
10am The Didsbury Tour
A trip around this lively area of the city revealing fascinating facts, curious buildings and fine buildings and lots of local personalities.
The Saturday Walkabout Series
The Manchester Music Walkabout 1pm every Saturday; The Manchester Pub Walkabout 3pm every Saturday.
Total entertainment, brilliant stories, great fun.
Thursday 9 October
3pm EXCLUSIVE: Secrets of the University of Manchester with interior visits
Interior visits to superb buildings old and so brand new the polish still shows through. Some of these places will make your jaw drop. There are wonderful stories of truly world-changing importance.
The Saturday Walkabout Series
The Manchester Music Walkabout 1pm every Saturday; The Manchester Pub Walkabout 3pm every Saturday.
Total entertainment, brilliant stories, great fun.
Saturday 11 October
10am The Secrets of Cheadle
Cheadle has a wonderful story to tell and this tour takes in the village and Abney Hall. Famous families such as the Watt's will be discussed along with folklore and more
Sunday 12 October
3pm Suffragettes, Women & the City: A Manchester Anniversary Tour
On 13 October 1905 the Suffragettes raised their first ‘Votes for Women’ banner. This was an epic moment in the fight for equal rights, this tour marks that and so many other heroic moments.
Saturday 11 October
The Saturday Walkabout Series
The Manchester Music Walkabout 1pm every Saturday; The Manchester Pub Walkabout 3pm every Saturday.
Total entertainment, brilliant stories, great fun.
Saturday 25 October
10.30am The Pan-African Congress, Slavery, and Thomas Clarkson Tour: A Manchester Anniversary Tour
The city was at the heart of the anti-slavery movements in the UK and Empire yet its mainstay product, cotton, was largely slave-picked. Epic history and a contradiction explored.
The Saturday Walkabout Series
The Manchester Music Walkabout 1pm every Saturday; The Manchester Pub Walkabout 3pm every Saturday.
Total entertainment, brilliant stories, great fun.
Sunday 26 October
11am The Manchester Literary Tour
Words, wonderful words. The day before the anniversary of Elizabeth Gaskell's birthday on 29 October 1810, this tour of Manchester will be laden and laced with entertaining and informative tales from a city bulging with stories.
Friday 31 October
4pm 6pm 8pm Halloween: The Ghosts of Manchester
A rip-roaring and fascinating tour of the haunted areas of Manchester, finishing in a dark place for a surprise.
Saturday 1 November
10am Secrets of Stockport
We go up and down and all around exploring the great stories of this sandstone town. Fine buildings to see, music to listen to, tragedies to weep over, tragedies to weep over and how to count your life by moons.
The Saturday Walkabout Series
The Manchester Music Walkabout 1pm every Saturday; The Manchester Pub Walkabout 3pm every Saturday.
Total entertainment, brilliant stories, great fun.
Saturday 8 November
10.30am Kimpton Clock Tower Hotel Tour (Refuge Assurance)
The most spectacular terracotta building in the North of England. The Kimpton Clock Tower Hotel is a beauty and on this tour you learn its secrets.
The Saturday Walkabout Series
The Manchester Music Walkabout 1pm every Saturday; The Manchester Pub Walkabout 3pm every Saturday.
Total entertainment, brilliant stories, great fun.
Saturday 15 November
The Saturday Walkabout Series
The Manchester Music Walkabout 1pm every Saturday; The Manchester Pub Walkabout 3pm every Saturday.
Total entertainment, brilliant stories, great fun.
Saturday 29 November
10.30am Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx in Manchester
Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx were the fathers of communism. Engels lived, on and off, for 22 years in Manchester and during this time Marx would stay with Engels for long periods. The remarkable tale of two men who changed the political world is told on this tour - five days before Friedrich Engels birthday.
The Saturday Walkabout Series
The Manchester Music Walkabout 1pm every Saturday; The Manchester Pub Walkabout 3pm every Saturday.
Total entertainment, brilliant stories, great fun.
Saturday 6 December
The Saturday Walkabout Series
The Manchester Music Walkabout 1pm every Saturday; The Manchester Pub Walkabout 3pm every Saturday.
Total entertainment, brilliant stories, great fun.
Saturday 13 December
NEW 10.30am Bombed and Besieged: Manchester at War
Close to the anniversary of the Christmas Blitz in 1940 this tour takes a look at major conflicts that affected Manchester: the English Civil Wars, the 1945 Jacobite rebellion, the Napoleanic Wars, and the two World Wars of the twentieth century.
The Saturday Walkabout Series
The Manchester Music Walkabout 1pm every Saturday; The Manchester Pub Walkabout 3pm every Saturday.
Total entertainment, brilliant stories, great fun.
Saturday 27 December
11am This Mighty Manchester
Say goodbye to 2024 with a riproaring skip through the heady delights of the Manchester story.
The Saturday Walkabout Series
The Manchester Music Walkabout 1pm every Saturday; The Manchester Pub Walkabout 3pm every Saturday.
Total entertainment, brilliant stories, great fun.
Thursday 1 January
11am New Year's Day Tour
Start 2025 with a fresh, informative and amusing tour of the city.
REMEMBER THERE ARE VOUCHERS AND DEALS AVAILABLE HERE
More tours will be announced soon
Please check the website 24 hours before the tours
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