Brian Groom
After giving us a talk in September 2023 on Northerners, Brian Groom came back for an encore.
This time his subject was “Made in Manchester”, which was really something of a misnomer as it was a comprehensive history of Manchester, not just what was made here. Or perhaps I’m wrong. Yes, I am wrong. He was using the word ‘made’ in its widest sense. Not just what items were made in Manchester such as Ford motor cars and Kelloggs Cornflakes but the people who made Manchester and, in turn, were made by Manchester.
As with his “Northerners” talk, he started with defining Manchester – where it is and what it is, illustrating this with his own peripatetic background. He then took a very broad brush approach, covering the whole of prehistory in a couple of sentences but pausing to give the Romans a brief mention and a similarly brief mention of the iron age fort at Mellor. By the time of the Norman Conquest Manchester was part of the Hundred of Salford which would not have gone down very well with the good burghers of Manchester. They must be a lot happier now that the boot is on the other foot and Salford is just one of the ten constituent boroughs making up Greater Manchester.
Unlike many English cities, medieval Manchester grew up about a mile north of Roman Manchester, and developed gradually on a rocky outcrop around the collegiate church, which is now the cathedral. Gradually significant people emerged, destined to play a role on the national stage, not just locally. People like John Dee, astrologer and alchemist, John Byrom, poet and scholar and Elizabeth Raffald, a cook and housekeeper who developed into a shrewd businesswoman. But perhaps a key figure in the later phenomenal rise of Manchester as the world’s first industrial city was Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater.
Many of the key figures of the early years of the Industrial Revolution were associated with Manchester to a greater or lesser extent. John Kay, Richard Arkwright, Samuel Crompton and many others drove the changes. They were helped, of course by the commercial environment in Manchester. There were no craft guilds limiting the skill base and no restrictions on newcomers coming into the area and offering competition. As well as many entrepreneurs working in the area there were engineers and scientists such as John Dalton, often meeting together as members of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society.
George Street Library of Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society
It was not just people but developments and innovations that transformed the commercial environment. The Bridgewater Canal initiated a major improvement in transport and seventy years later the Liverpool and Manchester Railway brought in an even more radical improvement in transport that had worldwide repercussions. By this time the world was fascinated by the city and all roads led to Manchester. It was not just people who wanted to see the latest industrial developments but also what the future society would look like. Those conjured up by social observers Charles Dickens and Elizabeth Gaskell, and political theorists Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, for instance. They also considered reformers such as Richard Cobden and John Bright. Not just individuals but radical organisations started in Manchester then went on to influence the nation, examples of these are the co-operative movement, the Trade Union Congress and, probably the most well-known movement, the women’s suffrage movement and, in particular, the suffragettes.
Emmeline Pankhurst addresses a crowd
Moving on to the twentieth century, Brian emphasised the role of the Manchester Ship Canal, an impressive achievement in itself, in developing industry more generally, not just supplying the cotton industry which was its original raison d’être. The industrial estate at Trafford Park was emblematic of this diversification but far from being the only example. Engineering prospered in all its forms and this proved its worth during the Second World War when companies in Manchester supplied armaments and aeroplanes for the war effort. There was also a developing electronics industry which, after the war, nurtured such companies as Ferranti and ICL, supported by research at Manchester University and UMIST. Here, the world’s first electronic stored program computer was built in 1948 and, four years later, the first transistor ‘second-generation’ computer.
Manchester University Mk 1 Computer aka Baby
The Manchester that emerged after the war had to cope with a drastic decline in the industry that had been absolutely central to its rise and subsequent prosperity – King Cotton. There was a wildly ambitious city plan which was meant to build a new city to replace the destruction caused by bombing. A start had been made in the 1920s when Wythenshawe was planned as a garden city but this was never achieved because of cut backs and changes in policy. Some houses were built but the majority was not undertaken until after 1948 when wartime building restrictions were lifted.
However, Brian finished on a much more positive note describing the city centre changes both in terms of preserving and renovating the existing high quality buildings but also the completely new developments. This comprehensive survey of Manchester’s long and varied history gave us a lot to think about. It was mainly laudatory but, at times, realistic and critical. An interesting and informative evening.
Neil Mullineux - November 2024
Further Reading: The Manchester Mural by Ford Madox Brown
Ford Madox Brown (1821-93) painted the twelve magnificent murals in the Great Hall
In the 1850s Ford Madox Brown was associated with the Pre-Raphaelites when he produced his masterpiece 'Work' which is now in Manchester Art Gallery.
The murals are later works, begun in 1879, but not completed until 1893, the year he died. During this period he moved from London with his family, living first at Crumpsall, then at Victoria Park.
About the Murals
The choice of subjects stresses the importance of Christianity, commerce and the textile industry in our city's history. The murals are a monument to the ideals of the leaders of Victorian Manchester.
Brown did a great deal of research to check the details for accuracy and he wrote the descriptions himself. The murals, except for the last four, were painted directly on to the wall, not in true fresco as the pale colours would soon have become grimy, but using a Victorian technique, the Gambier Parry process of spirit fresco. The last four murals were painted on canvas after Brown's return to London.
