|
Manchester was a Roman city and called Mamucium in 79AD. The Romans stayed for three centuries until they left Britain in 410AD. Manchester is mentioned in the Domesday Book in 1086 and recorded as an ecclesiastical centre with a parish of 60 square miles. In 1222 the town had the rights to run an annual fair, a court and a weekly Saturday market held in Market Square which was demolished in the IRA bombing of Manchester in 1996. Manchester became a Baronial Borough in 1301 ruled by a Lord Mayor.
|
|
The construction of the Bridgewater Canal in 1759 enabled coal to arrive and the first steam mill started in 1783. A process of industrialisation started and Manchester developed to be at the forefront of urban industrialization. In the mid 1800's significant industrialization had taken place and Manchester was a major world manufacturing centre this was due to its location, climate and people.
Cotton brought early wealth. Th wet humid climate made it an ideal location for spinning yarn, the streams provided power and the soft water was good for bleaching. The opening of the Manchester Ship Canal in 1830 was very significant as it allowed access to the port at Liverpool . The most productive year for the Manchester Cotton industry was 1913 when Manchester produced 65% of world output. The First World War disrupted the supply chain and was the start of the slow decline in the industry. A further blow was Ghandi's protest movement in India where Indians were asked not to buy British textiles. The death blow was a lack of investment after the war and many of the mills started to close. The mills have recently seen new life as different ventures and some now house the “knowledge economy “industries that are powering Manchester forward.
|
The Trade Union movement started in Manchester with the “Manchester & Salford Trades Union Council” in 1860 and was the driving force for the trade union movement through out the country. The Labour Party has it roots in this movement. The Women's Suffrage League was founded by Emmeline Pankhurst to secure votes for women and was successfully achieved in 1918.
The richer owners of the mills settled in the outskirts of the city and built the large houses with many still remaining. The working class lived in small compact housing in the city often hidden from view by a row of shops on the street side. Much of this development has now been demolished or changed beyond recognition into trendy inner city housing areas.
As cotton production declined in the 20 th Century Manchester had to reform. One of the changes was due to the reconstruction efforts after the 1996 IRA bomb that destroyed a large part of the city centre on a busy Saturday morning. A bid in 1992 for the 2000 Olympics focused efforts on the process of redevelopment. Manchester lost to Sydney but was compensated by winning the bid to host the Commonwealth games in 2002. Now a very changed and confident city with a mixed economy that is strong in education with over 84,000 students and a city centre now a thriving business, entertainment and residential area.
|
