About
The Museum of the Manchester Regiment is housed in Ashton Town Hall, a magnificent Victorian civic building in the centre of Ashton-under-Lyne, and tells the story of one of England's most distinguished county regiments from its raising in 1758 until its amalgamation into the King's Regiment in 1958. Over two centuries of service, the Manchester Regiment fought in virtually every major British military engagement, from the American Revolutionary War and the Napoleonic campaigns to the trenches of the First World War and the battlefields of the Second.
The museum holds one of the finest regimental collections in the North West of England, spanning uniforms, equipment, weapons, medals — including Victoria Crosses and Distinguished Conduct Medals — silver, drums, colours, paintings, and the personal effects of soldiers from all ranks. The collection illuminates not just the military history of the regiment but the human stories of the men who served: their courage, their suffering, their humour, and their bonds of comradeship forged in extraordinary circumstances on battlefields from Gallipoli and the Somme to Dunkirk and Burma.
The Manchester Regiment recruited heavily from the industrial communities of Manchester, Salford, Ashton-under-Lyne, and the surrounding cotton towns, and the museum is deeply embedded in the local identity of Greater Manchester. The regiment's badge — the Fleur-de-lis — and its motto 'Concilio et Labore' (By Wisdom and Effort) reflect both its civic pride and its long history of service. The museum serves as a place of remembrance, research, and community for veterans, families, and all those interested in the military heritage of the North West.
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Plan Your Visit
⏱️ Recommended Visit Duration
📅 Best Times to Visit
Quietest: Tuesday, Wednesday
Busiest: Saturday
💡 Weekday mornings for quietest experience
💡 Visitor Tips
- IMPORTANT: Verify opening hours before visiting. The museum's operational details may have changed — contact the museum directly or check Tameside council's cultural services pages for current information.
- Ashton-under-Lyne is very easily reached by Metrolink tram from Manchester city centre — the Ashton Metrolink stop is only a few minutes' walk from the Town Hall, making this a simple day trip from Manchester.
- If you have family connections to the Manchester Regiment, contact the museum in advance to discuss archival research opportunities — the museum holds detailed records of soldiers who served and can help with genealogical enquiries.
- The Victoria Cross collection is the emotional and historical centrepiece of the museum — allow time to read the individual stories of the men who received these awards, as the circumstances are often extraordinary.
- Portland Basin Museum is around 10 minutes' walk away, offering a completely different but complementary perspective on Tameside's industrial and community history — easily combined in a single day trip.
- The museum is located within Ashton Town Hall, a handsome Victorian civic building worth admiring in its own right. The building's architecture reflects the civic ambitions of the Victorian industrial town.
- Group visits are welcomed but require advance booking — contact the museum to arrange guided tours for schools, heritage groups, or regimental associations.
Highlights
Victoria Cross Collection
The museum holds Victoria Crosses awarded to soldiers of the Manchester Regiment — the highest military decoration for valour in the face of the enemy.
Each VC represents an act of extraordinary bravery, and the museum presents the stories of the recipients alongside their medals, documenting the circumstances in which these acts of courage took place. The VC collection is one of the most prized elements of the museum, connecting visitors directly to moments of supreme courage in the First and Second World Wars and beyond.
For many visitors, encountering the actual medals and learning the stories of the men who earned them is the most moving experience the museum offers.
First World War — Gallipoli and the Western Front
The Manchester Regiment suffered enormous casualties in the First World War, serving at Gallipoli, on the Somme, at Arras, and at Passchendaele. The museum's First World War collections include uniforms, equipment, personal diaries, letters home, and photographs that bring the realities of trench warfare vividly to life.
Particular attention is given to the Gallipoli campaign of 1915, in which Manchester battalions endured desperate fighting in extreme conditions on the beaches and ridges of the Gallipoli peninsula.
The stories told here are not those of famous commanders but of the ordinary working men of Manchester and Tameside who fought and died.
Regimental Colours and Silver
The museum displays the historic colours of the Manchester Regiment — the flags carried into battle by the regiment and embodying its honour and identity — alongside the accumulated regimental silver: a magnificent collection of presentation pieces, mess silver, cups, and trophies that traces the regiment's history and the communities and individuals who supported it.
The colours, some of which have been in action and carry the marks of their campaigns, are among the most visually striking and historically significant objects in the collection, representing the living heart of regimental identity across two centuries.
Uniform and Equipment Galleries
The museum's uniform and equipment collection traces the development of British military dress from the 18th century through to the mid-20th century, illustrated with examples specific to the Manchester Regiment.
Officers' full dress, other ranks' service dress, tropical kit, and specialised equipment are all represented, allowing visitors to trace the evolution of military clothing and kit across more than two hundred years of warfare. The collection illustrates how technology, tactics, and conditions of service changed profoundly from the musket-armed infantry of the Napoleonic Wars to the mechanised warfare of 1939–1945.
Collections
The Museum of the Manchester Regiment holds the designated collection of the regiment — the full material legacy of two centuries of military service. The collection comprises approximately 15,000 objects including medals (notably Victoria Crosses and distinguished service medals), uniforms from the 18th to 20th centuries, weapons, regimental silver, paintings and prints, photographs, flags and colours, drums and musical instruments, and a wide range of personal effects and documents belonging to soldiers of all ranks.
The breadth of the collection means it functions both as a comprehensive regimental archive and as a social history resource documenting the military experience of Greater Manchester's working-class communities across 200 years of British history.
The Manchester Regiment 1758–1958
The main gallery traces the full history of the regiment in chronological sequence, from its origins as the 63rd Regiment of Foot in the Seven Years War era through every subsequent campaign and conflict until amalgamation with the King's Regiment in 1958.
📍 Main gallery
The Great War 1914–1918
A dedicated gallery exploring the Manchester Regiment's service in the First World War, with particular focus on Gallipoli, the Somme, and Passchendaele. Personal testimonies, photographs, and battlefield objects bring the human experience of the war into focus.
📍 First World War gallery
Themes
Time Periods
Current Exhibitions
No current exhibitions. Please check the museum website for updates.