Conserving the Peoples History: Lessons from Manchester and Salford

The closest that Margaret Thatcher comes to an admission of failure in her voluminous political memoirs concerns her efforts to promote history as a subject for school children. Ironically, however, one of the acknowledged legacies of the Thatcher years, a by-product of the transformation of the British economy from manufacturing to services under her stewardship, is the proliferation of museums and historical precincts that pepper the countryside from New Lanark to Wigan Pier.