Their Day — Lincoln in Manchester, and what time the Americans should arrive.

Nobody in Heywood has noticed it's the fourth of July. The bins went out as normal. But Stanley has reason to think about America. After leaving the force, he spent some years as security advisor to an American scientist — which meant collecting his colleagues from Manchester Airport and explaining England to them on the way. None of them knew there was a statue of Abraham Lincoln in the middle of Manchester. None of them knew why. It's quite a story. It involves cotton, a blockade, a hall full of starving millworkers, and a vote that Lincoln himself wrote to thank them for. There's a cobbled road above Rochdale that's still there if you don't believe him. Also in this episode: what a moor actually looks like, how a young Texan in cowboy boots got on at the local, the tradition of women dancing together and where it comes from, and Mrs C answering the only question the Americans ever asked about VE Day. A follow-up, of sorts, to last week's episode about the man who called Manchester a town. If you know an American, send them this one. Send us Fan Mail Support the show