Manchester can boast of having many great feats of history: the first computer, the splitting of the atom, the first industrial city … yes, and the place where the last hanging in Britain took place.

For some reason or other it’s not something the city council boasts about in its tourism literature.

Manchester should not have been the setting for this, the last state-decreed hanging. (Last before it becomes law again, that is). The government announced that Manchester and Liverpool would hang two murderers simultaneously, but the screws at Strangeways…well, you’ll have to come on the walk to find out what happened, and to to hear about all the other horrific happenings at the end of the noose.