Manchester is a relatively new city; born of the Industrial Revolution, it took the lead in the world’s textile manufacture and production in the late 18th century, a position it held until its decline in the 1960s. Leaders of commerce, science and technology, like John Dalton and Samuel Arkwright, helped create a vibrant and thriving economy – most of the nation’s wealth was created in this region during Victorian times. But it was undoubtedly textiles, and other associated trades, which dominated and created a young dynamic city, whose very symbol is the worker bee – an emblem repeated in mosaics all over the floor of the Town Hall.
Historic Manchester
The original Manchester was an old town which has been inhabited since Roman times, when General Julius Agricola built a fort just north of the site of present day city, though it was not until the 18th century that this hitherto remote and inconspicuous little medieval township sprang into the forefront of world attention, and not until the mid-19th century that it became a city. Actually, it was the neighbouring City of Salford that dominated the region, and the Salford Hundred covered all lands between the River Ribble to the north and the Mersey to the south, and to this day the sovereign still bears the title of Lord of the Manor of Salford. Not until the 19th century, after many protests and petitions to parliament, notably by the Chartists, did Manchester gain the status of a city.
Manchester & the Industrial Revolution
During the Industrial Revolution the powerhouse that was Manchester became the hub of a wide network of many small Lancashire townships – “little Manchesters” as they were sometimes known – towns that serviced the city’s massive cotton industry. Places like Blackburn, Burnley, Bolton, Wigan, Salford, Oldham and Rochdale, (to name but a few) sent their woven and spun produce to the Exchange in Manchester and from thence to the world via the newly created Manchester Ship Canal, and received raw materials which were distributed out from the city and its well established system of canals and railways.Steam power drove the Victorian city, with water from the many local rivers like the Irwell, Medlock, Irk and Tame, and coal from Worsley via the Duke of Egerton’s Bridgewater Canal to Castlefield, or other coal pits around Wigan.
