VISITS AND EXCURSIONS MADE BY THE SOCIETY IN 1892. May 6.-Clayton Hall. May 21.-Burnley, Gawthorpe Hall, and Townley Hall. June 8 to 11.-The Wye Valley. June 25.-Tattenhall and Neighbourhood. July 9.-Bucton Castle. July 20.-Handforth Hall, Dean Row Chapel. August 1.-Congleton. August 27.-Sandbach, Brereton Hall, and Holmes Chapel. September 17.-Mobberley. October 1.-Knowsley Hall. Meetings for the Reading of Papers, Discussions, and Exhibition of Antiquities were held monthly during the Winter Session in the Chetham College, Manchester, and a special meeting, with lecture, was held at the Manchester Town Hall, on January 10th, 1893. The Annual Conversazione was held at the Concert Hall, on November 30th, 1892. CONTENTS. MANCHESTER GILDS AND THE RECORDS OF THE LICHFIELD COR- VISORS. By Henry Thomas Crofton PAGE LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. MOBBERLEY CHURCH. From a Photograph Frontispiece TONGE HALL, MIDDLETON. From a Drawing by G. H. A FEW months ago there came into my possession an interesting collection of records, extending over a period of three centuries (1561-1870), of the now extinct Gild or Society of Corvisors or Shoemakers of Lichfield. A perusal of them suggested the enquiry whether Manchester, which now occupies such a proud position in the commercial world, was formerly the seat of similar gilds, which are so nearly allied to the modern trade unions. The search had very meagre results; indeed, it would appear that the ground had been previously explored, or, at any rate, that the absence of traces of such societies had occasioned the conjecture that the rapid rise of Manchester, along with the similar progress of both Leeds and Birmingham, was largely due to freedom from the fetters of such societies. It is probably information to very few, if any, of the members of this Society that the word gild is generally B |