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Manchester is situated to the south-west of the lower slopes of the Pennines and to the north of the Cheshire plain, at the spot where the Rivers Irwell, Irk and Medlock all come together. The present city embraces the 2 original sites which went on to become the post Industrial-Revolution city we know today.

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In Roman times the settlement, known as Mamucium, could be found where the River Medlock joined the river Irwell, in the district now known as Castlefield. The later, medieval village, was to be found on higher ground above the Rivers Irwell and Irk, around the site of the present day Cathedral. By walking along Deansgate one can re-trace the route linking Roman and medieval Manchester.

Big Wheel

Roman Manchester was an outpost of the Roman Empire and had strategic significance as an east-west meeting point between the bases of Eboracum (York) and Deva (Chester) and as a staging point on the northern route to Luguvalium (Carlisle). Much of the north of Britain was dominated by a powerful group of tribes known, collectively, as the Brigantes. When the Romans secured their authority in the area, in the later years of the first century AD, the Roman governor, Agricola, chose the site for the fort and named it Mamucium. Originally of timber, the fort was replaced, in the 3rd century, by one of stone. Although always an important military site, a settlement grew up around the perimeter walls housing the various facilities, shops, craftsmen, traders and workshops, etc., that the soldiers might need. Although a thriving community, when the Romans withdrew from Britain in the 5th century, it didn't survive and the buildings around the fort were gradually abandoned and the settlement ceased to exist as the dressed stones were carried away for use further afield.

Canal

Mamucium sank into obscurity and little is known of its subsequent history until the middle ages. By then the settlement had shifted upstream from the fortified site. It was an unimportant town and was, originally and for a short period of time, a part of the Salford Hundred created after the Norman Conquest. Roger de Poitevin, to whom the lands had been granted by William the conqueror, after the Battle of Hastings, divided his holdings into fiefdoms and included amongst these was Manchester. The first Baron of Manchester was Albert de Gresle. By the late 16th century the Barony of Manchester was held by the Mosley family, in whose hands it remained until the middle of the 19th century.

Throughout the late Middle Ages Manchester continued to grow, gaining its right to an annual fair and a charter which provided a base for its government until the 19th century. The annual fair was one of the earliest to be granted, being the first in the Salford Hundreds and only the fourth in south Lancashire. It also maintained a weekly market based on the town's growing importance as a trading centre. It was still a relatively small town but it was advantageously situated within an extensive and wealthy parish covering abut 60 suare miles and encompassing Oldham, Ashton-under-Lyne, Flixton and Eccles, and bordered by the River Mersey between Stockport and Urmston.

Over the next 3 centuries Manchester continued to develop as the most important town in south Lancashire. Its importance was based on the manufacture of woollen and linen cloths, ribbons, tape and buttons, and silk weaving along with trade in all of these commodities and more. The population grew apace and from around 2,000 residents in the early 16th century it rose to over 40,000 by the late 18th century. Manchester became one of the wealthiest towns in Lancashire (although the county itself was one of the poorest) and attracted workers from many other areas. The importance, however, was still of local significance rather than national. The changes wrought by the Industrial Revolution would alter all that.

Shambles

Cotton had made its appearance in Lancashire in the early 1600s and was then mixed with linen to make a cloth known as fustian. Production of this material grew swiftly, particularly in Oldham, Bolton and Blackburn. Manchester already had good trading links with London, the natural advantage of navigable rivers and the proximity of Liverpool for the import of raw materials. As the importance of pure cotton manufacture grew, so the importance of wool, to Manchester, declined and Manchester's signifcance on a national level increased. At this time The merchants, who were often also the manufacturers, dominated the scene and controlled the 'putting out' system whereby labourers worked in their own homes, for a wage, to produce the cloth that went for sale. Few weavers were fortunate enough to be able to weave the cloth, and market it for themselves, on equal terms with the bigger merchants.

Great wealth had come to some, in Manchester, even before the advent of the machines that would revolutionise the manufacturing industries. By the mid 18th century Manchester was a thriving centre on which roads, rivers, packhorse routes and canals all converged. Manchester and the surrounding area was poised for greatness as it become the centre of the Industrial Revolution.

Interestingly, Manchester had come out strongly in favour of Parliament in the struggle against the king, that became the Civil War, in the mid 17th century. In 1642 the town was besieged, unsuccessfully, by forces loyal to King Charles l. In 1644 Prince Rupert advanced to besiege Liverpool, taking Bolton on his way, but decided that Manchester would be too much of a stumbling block to tackle. When plague came to Manchester, the following year, parliamentarians in London showed their appreciation of Manchester's support by raising money for aid. When Oliver Cromwell dissolved parliament, proclaimed a commonwealth and took upon himself the title of Lord Protector, he presented the parliamentary mace to the town in token of his gratitude. It was brought to Manchester by Lieutenant Colonel Charles Worsley. Apparently, even after the Restoration in 1660 and as late 1875, liberal politicians in Manchester harboured the same ethics and, in that year, erected a statue of Cromwell outside the Cathedral. The sculpture was based on the famous portrait of Cromwell, by Lely, dressed ready for battle and with sword in hand. It wasn't a popular decision in all areas of the city, angering and upsetting conservative politicians and enraging the numerous Irish townsfolk who remembered all too vividly the harshness of Cromwell's reprisals in Ireland. Notwithstanding, it remained in place for just over a hundred years until the 1980s when it was relocated to Wythenshaw Park, once a billet for Roundhead soldiers. It even survived a demand, by Queen Victoria, for its removal as a condition of her accepting an invitation to visit Manchester and open the new Town Hall. Cromwell remained in his place and the Town Hall was opened by the Lord Mayor.

Castlefield

Although Manchester is often considered to be synonymous with cotton manufacture, in fact, success didn't stem just from the mills and factories but from Manchester's position as an important trading base with a high concentration of warehouses and commercial premises, many being found in King Street, St. Ann's Square, Cannon Street, High Street, around Market Street, Mosley Street and subsequently Portland Street and Princess Street. This was the commercial heartland of what was to become a great city. However, we must be careful not to over-simplify this success. Manchester wasn't just a mill town; there was a vast range of industry, both related and unrelated to cotton; it was home to sawmills and timber yards, to foundries and ironworks, to offices, shops, inns and an endless number of other enterprises both large and small.

One of the first canals to be cut in the region was the Bridgewater, built to transport coal, from Worsley to Manchester, in 1762. It was extended to Runcorn in 1776, the result being to halve the cost of transporting the raw cotton from Liverpool. More canals linking Manchester to outlying districts were cut; the Mersey and Irwell navigation in 1736, the Leeds & Liverpool canal (linking to the Bridgewater at Leigh in 1821), the Rochdale canal in 1804 with a short section linking to the Bridgewater at Castlefield and joined by the Ashton canal near the present Piccadilly station; and, of course, the mighty Manchester Ship Canal which was opened right at the end of the 19th Century. Most of the goods transported along these inland navigations were heavy freight such as coal, raw cotton, grain, timber, stone and other building materials. Manchester might have been one of the first to realise the potential of a canal system but it was also at the forefront, alongside Liverpool, when a railway network was seen to be something other than a dream. The Liverpool and Manchester Railway was opened in 1830, only a year after the Rainhill Trials of Stephenson's winning locomotive, Rocket.

The great wealth that was being generated in the city lay in the hands of only a few. It was a city of labourers living and working in appalling conditions. Life expectancy amongst the poor was short and there was very little aid provided to alleviate the suffering endured by the populace. Although it seemed, at times, as if nothing could be done to change the accepted order, resistance wasn't always either passive or silent. St Peter's Square stands on the site of St Peter's Field and was the scene of the infamous Peterloo Massacre in 1819. A massive crowd, according to some sources numbering upwards of 50,000 people, gathered together to demonstrate against the poverty and hardship that was endemic in the city. Panicstricken athorities, fearful of what might happen if such a huge crowd rioted, ordered the troops to disperse the gathering. As the troops rode at the tightly packed crowd it became impossible to escape and within minutes 11 people were dead and about 500 lay injured in an incident that later came to be known as the Peterloo (after comparison, by one trooper, with Waterloo) Massacre.

Industrial Sculpture

As a result, the Factory Act was introduced to improve social conditions but went nowhere near far enough to make any real differences. The horrific working and living conditions fomented an atmosphere of discontent and anger that generated radical ideas and thinking that were stronger than those generated in much of the rest of the country. Exacerbating the problem was the fact that Manchester, despite its size, wealth and economic importance, was still without a representative in Parliament until the Reform Act of 1832. In an attempt to remedy this situation, John Edward Taylor, a radical, had founded a newspaper that he named the Manchester Guardian, as a platform from which to campaign for constitutional reform.

The constituency boundaries, across the country, had been drawn hundreds of years previously, before the population explosion in the industrial centres. Thousands of city dwellers found themselves with no-one to speak for them in parliament whereas a handful of small farmers, scattered across a rural landscape, might have an MP all to themselves! Reformers and radical thinkers were viewed with great suspicion and intolerance by the establishment figures because they were seen as a threat to the established order enjoyed by the fortunate and privileged in society. There was a great deal of opposition to progress and changes in any form. After Peterloo, voices urging reform had been widely suppressed, and it was left to the Chartist Movement, founded in London but vigorously promoted in Manchester, to campaign for universal male suffrage, secret ballots and regular elections. The movement prepared the way for the political and social changes that would eventually become the norm. Manchester gained city status in 1853, when its Royal Charter was granted.

By the beginning of the 20th century Manchester was at the forefront, and playing a significant part, in the newly developing Labour Party which promoted the interests of the working-man. The city was also strong in its support of the demand for women's suffrage and was home to the Suffragette Movement. The latter years of the 19th century saw the rise of the trade unions and a succession of disputes over working conditions, production controls and wages. Some strikes boiled over into violence and sabotage with some businesses being forced to close down.

The early years of the 20th century saw both the peak of the cotton industry's success and then its swift decline. Economic factors, and greater overseas competition, after the First World War, led to a rapid slump in the industry around Manchester. Mills began to close; there was resistance to new technology being introduced and synthetic materials made their appearance. During the Second World War factories and engineering works at Trafford Park adapted their machinery to meet the needs of war as bomber planes and armaments rolled off the production lines. By the end of the 1950s the cotton industry in Lancashire had collapsed. Manchester, however, had always had a 'finger in more than one pie' and the economic emphasis shifted to the Ship Canal and the diverse industries at Trafford Park, therby alleviating the losses suffered as cotton 'died'.

But the only certainty is uncertainty, and nothing remains unchanged; motorways, with their huge container lorries, snaked into every corner of the country allowing trading estates to spring up in hitherto unthinkable locations; ports, including Liverpol, unable to handle massive container ships lost trade; Liverpool's decline as a major port seriously affected the Ship Canal traffic and consequently Manchester's own shipping trade. The once foremost industrial city in Britain was sinking into a trading position of weakness and insignificance. As if these economic blows weren't enough, the production of national newspapers in Manchester was threatened by the introduction of new technology and working practices. The Manchester Guardian dropped Manchester and became just,The Guardian, in 1959 and by 1964 had moved all its production out of Manchester to London. The Daily Express, leaving its stylish building on Great Ancoats Street empty, followed.

A change of direction was desperately needed. Cue the advent of the consumer age; the age of tourism and leisure activities; the age of mass media entertainment. Manchester saw the future and responded. Radio and Television companies are now based in the city; the city's industrial heritage has been exploited, and promoted vigorously, attracting tourists from far and wide. Shops and shopping became the new imperative and stores selling everything from vital necessities to luxury goods opened in their hundreds. Manchester had found the way forward.

City at Night

Today, at the beginning of the 21st century, Manchester is again a vibrant and successful city, with the emphasis on, amongst other things, the provision of offices, shops, warehouses, hotels, cinemas, theatres and museums documenting the industrial heritage of the city.

Nearby - Read up on the History of Liverpool here

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A Brief History of Manchester...