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28th - 31st OCTOBER 2004 |
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| Internationally famous as the supreme example of industrial development in the 19th century, Manchester was a great industrial city with its wealth derived in the main from the textile industry. Our time in this northern city will reflect this as well as the transport systems needed to move goods to and from Manchester. Manchester, of course, has an early canal interchange as well as the oldest remaining railway station in the world. |
(c) Sue Hayton, 2004 |
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Faience on the Midland Hotel (c) Sue Hayton, 2004 |
The city centre with its banks and offices, as well as the Town Hall of 1877, reflects the boom years of the late Victorian age. There are many other fine buildings to be seen ranging from the Free Trade Hall of 1856 to the Express Building designed by Owen Williams in 1935. Shops will not be ignored and will span development from Kendal Milnes, the local department store, to the Arndale Centre, very much of the 1970s though recently re-modelled. | |||
| Castlefields is the site of the Roman ‘castra’ and a key site as far as transport remains are concerned. The Bridgewater Canal and the Rochdale Canal end here and are surrounded by fine warehouses of the early 19th century, now renovated for smart housing. Here, too, is Liverpool Road Station on the first major line in the world, the Liverpool-Manchester Railway of 1830. Close by are a number of impressive railway bridges of various dates in the 19th century now complemented by a pedestrian bridge by Santiago Calatrava, a world renowned architect. The other glory of Castlefields is the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry. There are so many collections of note that it will be difficult choosing what to look at – locally constructed steam engines, the story of the city’s public utilities, the world’s first stored program computer, the Manchester ‘baby’, to name but a few! We must also note that part of the collection is housed in a former cast iron market hall – another City Safari ‘must’. |
Castlefields Bridges (c) Sue Hayton, 2004 |
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Beehive Mills in Ancoatd (c) Sue Hayton, 2004 |
Ancoats is a very much undervalued area in terms of visitor potential, but City Safari regulars will recognise a prime IA location with early 19th century textile mills by the Rochdale Canal as well as workers’ housing. This also contrasts with our final destination – Salford Quays, an impressive regeneration area, now home to the Lowry Gallery. The area was once the end of the Manchester Ship Canal, completed in 1894, which allowed the largest ocean-going ships to arrive and unload in the most modern conditions. And from the Metro, which makes use of redundant railway lines, we can see the Trafford Park area, an early 20th century industrial park on the American lines, which is also undergoing tremendous change. | |||
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City Safaris are organised by Heritage of Industry Ltd, 80 Udimore Road, Rye, Sussex, TN31 7DY
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