MBs’ Trip Up the Nile

Image: Miss Marianne Brocklehurst (1832-1898); Unknown artist;  Silk Heritage Trust

A special exhibition celebrating Macclesfield’s own Marianne Brocklehurst and her collections will open at The Old Sunday School on 30 October. MBs’ Trip Up the Nile focuses on the diary and watercolours of Marianne’s trip to Egypt in 1873-74 and highlights the treasures she brought back to the town. Marianne was the daughter of silk manufacturer John Brocklehurst, and along with her companion Mary Booth, her nephew Alfred and servant George they made an epic voyage up the Nile.

The exhibition focuses on these fascinating characters. Marianne Brocklehurst and Mary Booth (collectively known as the MBs) shared their Cheshire home together in Wincle; they were travelling companions and are buried side by side in the churchyard there. When they sailed the Nile, they renamed their boat ‘Bagstones’ after the home they built at Wincle. Marianne recorded their adventures with talent and wit in her diary and filled sketchbooks with pen and ink drawings and delicate watercolours of the sights they saw.

Alfred’s main objective was to “bag a crocodile”, but he was quite happy to shoot at anything that moved! George was the practical one of the party, picking up the language, dressing in local costume and dancing along to the drumming and singing of their crew! They also travelled alongside writer Amelia Edwards, who went on to form the Egyptian Exploration Fund; Marianne and Mary set up a local branch at Macclesfield.

The star piece of the exhibition will be the mummy case of ‘Shebmut’, which Marianne smuggled back to Cheshire after burying the actual mummy it held on the banks of the Nile!

The exhibition coincides with another at The Atkinson in Southport, Adventures in Egypt, which features the collections of female explorer, Anne Goodison of Bootle, who met Marianne on her travels. Macclesfield Museums have loaned some Brocklehurst items to The Atkinson for their display, including some of Marianne’s watercolours.

The Egyptian collection’s permanent home is at West Park Museum, but the MBs’ Trip Up the Nile exhibition will be the first time the collection has been brought together and directly interpreted with Marianne’s words and pictures, really bringing to life the character of this fascinating woman.