Many thanks to all those who have been on our experimental free tours this year.

It was a push to get people out post-Covid.

The idea was that folk would pay at the end of the tour, say around ten pounds. Instead there have been a few pound coins, a few pence here and there and a lot of nothings! Some good folk have parted with a note but not enough to keep me off the dole.

Pre-Covid, we snaffled around ten squid from you before the tour. It worked, but then there was the worry that the tour guide might not be up to much, that they might tell you nonsense like “Rolls and Royce met at the Midland Hotel” or “the three stripes on Manchester’s coat of arms represent the three rivers of Manchester” or “the pillar box on Corporation Street is the one that survived the 1996 IRA bomb”.

With registering for the tour for free, the idea was that the guide did such a good job, not parroting the above nonsense for instance, that people would happily pay at the end, but alas they’re not. This might be because people think we’re paid by the council or the tourist board or an oligarch or two. We’re not. We live and die by the quality of our tours. At the moment we’re dying, so it’s back to pre-pay from June.

Of course if you do pay in advance but then do get a bad tour – the guide telling you nonsense like “Rolls and Royce met at the Midland Hotel” or “the three stripes on Manchester’s coat of arms represent the three rivers of Manchester” or “the pillar box on Corporation Street is the one that survived the 1996 IRA bomb” – then I’m sure we can sort something out.

In the meantime, we at New Manchester Walks need to show that we’re different from the other free guides wandering round Manchester talking the most unmitigated crap like the above –I hear them every day – and then angling for tips at the end.

Ed Glinert