MANCHESTER / LIVERPOOL
II.2-------------------------------------------------------STUDIEN / STUDIES 2
Oktober / October 2005-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------– Ein Initiativprojekt der Kulturstiftung des Bundes in Kooperation
mit dem Projektbüro Philipp Oswalt, der Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig, der Stiftung Bauhaus
Dessau und der Zeitschrift archplus.
Büro Philipp Oswalt, Eisenacher Str. 74, 10823 Berlin, T: +49 (0)30 81 82 19-11, F: +49 (0)30 81 82 19-12,
mail@shrinkingcities.com, URL: www.shrinkingcities.com

II.2 | 

INHALTSÜBERSICHT / TABLE OF CONTENTS-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------3
The Industrial Archaeology of Greater Manchester	Robina McNeil
9

Editorische Notiz und Impressum / Editorial note and colophon

II.2 | 3

INDUSTRIEARCHÄOLOGIE IN DER REGION MANCHESTER
Der Großraum Manchester ist weltweit als klassisches Beispiel für die Industrielle Revolution
des 18. und 19. Jahrhunderts bekannt. Die Archäologin Robina McNeil beschreibt in ihrem
Artikel welche baulichen Veränderungen im Zuge der Entwicklung der Baumwollindustrie inder ehemals landwirtschaftlich genutzten Region unternommen wurden.
THE INDUSTRIAL ARCHAEOLOGY OF GREATER MANCHESTER
Greater Manchester is known world wide as a classical example for the Industrial Revolutionof the 18th and 19th century. The archaeologist Robina McNeil describes in her article which
structural changes took place in the course of the development of the cotton industry in aformerly agricultural region.
Robina McNeil, Archäologin, Direktorin/ archaeologist, director, Greater Manchester
Archaeology Unit, Manchester, robina.mcneil@man.ac.uk

II.2 | 4��� ���������� ����������� �� ������� ����������
������ ������
"Manchester ... is the capital, in every sense, of the North West of England, where the modern
world was born. The people know their geography is without equal. Their history is their
response to it." So exclaimed the late 20th century broadcaster and social commentator BrianRedhead. His definition of Manchester embraced Blackpool, Chester, Buxton and thePennines. This essay confines itself to the conurbation of Greater Manchester. Thisconurbation includes the 19th century ������ ����� of Ashton-under-Lyne, Bolton, Bury,
Hyde, Leigh, Oldham, Rochdale and Stalybridge as well as the older settlements of
Altrincham, Salford, Stockport and Wigan, which had grown around Manchester, thecommercial centre of the Lancashire textile industry.
Greater Manchester is one of the classic areas of industrial and urban growth, the result of a
combination of forces that came together in the 18th and 19th centuries; a phenomenal rise inpopulation, the appearance of the specialist industrial town, a transport revolution and weak
local lordship. Nationally, the proliferation of the specialist industrial towns was one of themost distinctive and novel elements of the Industrial Revolution. Daniel Defoe had
proclaimed in 1728 that for the great towns, including Manchester "there are few or no
Families of Gentry among them; yet they are full of Wealth, and full of People, and daily
increasing in both; all off which is occasioned by the meer Strength of Trade, and the growing
Manufactures established in them". He was one of the first to use the term �������������
����, which was in growing currency from the 1750s onwards and recognized that they owed
their wealth and growth not to gentry or patronage, but to an expanding industrial andcommercial life. Late 18th century maps show the burgeoning cities of Manchester andSalford and the rise of the surrounding ������������� �����.
The most significant dynamic in the region’s industrial economy, is the role played by thetransport revolution of the late 18th and 19th centuries and the trade this generated, firstly,
through the development of the canal network and secondly with the building of the railway
system. For Manchester, the need to transport raw materials at low cost resulted in theconstruction of a number of pioneer transport systems, including the Bridgewater Canal andthe Liverpool Manchester railway line, which were viewed from their inception as
momentous achievements in transport history. Without a doubt the development of a vastly
improved infrastructure was one of the most widespread features of the industrial revolution
and few inventions have had so vast an impact on the landscape as canals and railways.
The Bridgewater Canal was the first arterial canal in Britain. The initial stretch, built between
1759 and 1761 by the Duke of Bridgewater, enabled coal to be transported cheaply from theDuke’s mines at Worsley to the growing industrial town of Manchester. It also successfully
crossed a number of river valleys, most spectacularly with the Barton aqueduct over the River
Irwell. Opinion was mixed: “Every man how great soever his genius has a certain hobby
horse that he likes to ride; a large aqueduct bridge over a large river does not happen to bemine”, but most wondered at this engineering achievement: “At Barton Bridge he has erecteda navigable canal in the air ... whilst I was surveying it with a mixture of wonder and delight,
four barges passed me in the space of about three minutes” wrote an anonymouscorrespondent to the Annual Register in 1763. At its terminus in Manchester, where “thedukes agents hath made a wharf and are selling coals” it was considered a prodigious
engineering feat. The canal was a remarkable commercial success which served as a model

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II.2 | 5

for canal entrepreneurs throughout Britain and the following decades saw a period of �����
�����.
As early as the 1800s Manchester was already the hub of a considerable canal system which
included not only the Bridgewater Canal, but also the Ashton Canal, the Rochdale Canal andthe Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal, all built in the 1790s. Other canals such as the
Huddersfield Canal, the Leeds and Liverpool Canal and the Peak Forest Canal wereconnected to this inner core and gave the county a pre-eminence in the cheap transportation offuels and raw materials. It also linked the burgeoning cotton towns of the region with otherindustrial heartlands such as the mill towns of West Yorkshire, the manufacturing centres of
the Potteries and the Midlands, as well as London and the seaports of Hull and Liverpool.
Canal building in Britain is marked at its beginning and at its end by two major engineering
works both from the Manchester area; the Bridgewater Canal, opened as far as Manchester in
1761, heralded the birth of the industrial canal and led to the development of a national canal
network, whilst the Manchester Ship Canal opened in 1894 transformed the city into an inland
port 55 miles from the sea and marked the final flourish of industrialised water transport. The
����� ����� survives as a significant piece of industrial archaeology and is associated with anumber of new archaeological sites, notable amongst which are the Barton Swing Aqueduct, astructure possibly unique in the world and, Trafford Park, the archetypal ����� ������� withhouses, libraries, schools, the streets laid out on a grid pattern, and an industrial enclave, withwarehouses, granaries and engineering works.
Manchester maintained its role as a transport hub throughout the development of the railways
even though the first railway in the region was the Bolton & Leigh, engineered by George
Stephenson in 1829. Inevitably it has been overshadowed by the Liverpool and Manchester
railway line of 1830, the first mainline passenger carrying service, which from its inception
was viewed as a momentous achievement in transport history. Manchester has the distinctionof having the first mainline passenger station in the world. Quasi-domestic in appearance it
was the prototype for later developments. However the most famous building at Liverpool
Road is the 1830 Warehouse, a striking piece of industrial archaeology, cathedral like in its
proportions and spaces and a remarkable historic building. The Warehouse was the firstbuilding on the site to be completed and is therefore the earliest railway building in the world.
The county’s railway system was constructed in two main phases between 1830 and 1880
linking Manchester to other major industrial centres such as Birmingham, Glasgow and
London. Yet as early as 1849 there were three lines over the Pennines; the Manchester andLeeds through Rochdale, the London & North Western line to Huddersfield via Ashtonunder-Lyne and the Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire via Ashton and Glossop.
Embankments, cuttings, viaducts and tunnels were used to deal with the geographical featuresof a particular route. These engineering works have now become a familiar part of thelandscape, although at the time of construction they excited admiration and wonder. The
substantial remains of the two inclines of the Bolton & Leigh at Bolton and Chequerbent andthe great 4 & 3/4 mile embankment over Chat Moss, 5 feet above the surface but withconsiderable depth below, received much acclaim. The principle tunnels are on the transPennine routes. The construction and length of the Summit Tunnel on the Manchester &Lancashire Railway and the Stanedge Tunnel on the London & North Western Railway are atribute to the Victorian attitude to civil engineering. Railways, like canals, involved theconstruction of large numbers of bridges and viaducts to carry the line over obstacles and toMANCHESTER / INDUSTRIEARCHÄOLOGIE IN DER REGION MANCHESTER

II.2 | 6

accommodate existing roads. Two stand out through their scale and architecture. The great
brick viaduct at Stockport, a magnificent landmark straddling the Mersey, is the largest brickstructure in Europe. At Castlefield the cast iron viaducts combining brute strength withromanticism are spectacular features of the landscape around the Bridgewater canal and serve
as enduring symbols of the power and majesty of the railway.
Prior to the 18th and 19th centuries Greater Manchester had been predominantly an agriculturalarea of isolated farmsteads, hamlets and market towns. Cloth manufacture had long been
important, and the area still has hundreds of weavers cottages, but by the 1780's the national
demand for textiles, particularly cotton and the range of natural and economic advantages of
the area resulted in a dramatic increase in mill building and transformed the area into thegreat centre of the factory-based cotton industry. The period 1780 to 1820 saw a dramatic
expansion of the cotton trade and the emergence of the multi-storeyed steam-powered mill.
Some of the most significant mills date from this period and the greatest concentrations ofthese is found in Manchester, in particular in Ancoats, which was laid out as part of a planned
expansion of Manchester. Ancoats was the first industrial suburb based on steam power andcontains a notable grouping of mills, whose architecture, design, fireproofing, innovations andimprovements in processes span the industrial revolution. At one end are the 18th and early
19th century mills - Murrays, McConnel & Kennedys and Beehive - rare survivals of earlymill construction, and at the other end Paragon and Royal Mill, two spinning mills ofadvanced design driven by electric motors.
The resurgence of the cotton industry in the late 19th century in Greater Manchester accounted
for a high proportion of the mills surviving today. These mills were built during periods of
economic boom in the surrounding towns, with little mill construction in Manchester itself.
The new mills were larger and there was considerable development in their form and detailed
design under the influence of specialist mill architects. Improvements in machinery andpower systems achieved a more efficient internal layout of processes. Cavendish Mill in
Ashton-under-Lyne and Houldsworth Mill in Reddish are typical of these advances. The final
stage in the development of the cotton mill in Greater Manchester, during the early years ofthe 20th century, was characterised by the construction of numerous huge spinning mills andcontaining over 100,000 spindles. Often on new sites they dominated the landscape and many
incorporated electric power for driving textile machinery. Examples of this late mill landscapecan still be seen along the canal in Leigh, Wigan, in Oldham and Stockport town centres andat Chadderton. Most of these late mills were designed by specialist architects, notably the
Stotts of Oldham who accounted for the highest number of mill buildings in all parts ofGreater Manchester, as well as abroad, and the Bolton firm of Bradshaw, Gass and Hope. The
mills are distinguished from earlier mills by their massive size and flamboyant
embellishments in red brick and terracotta, reflecting Edwardian fashions and the prosperityof the industry.
There has been much debate about ������������. Manchester and the ������ ����� gained aninternational reputation for the cotton factory system and the distribution and export of cotton
goods; the mills representative of the former and the warehouses of the latter. The number ofindustrial towns in Europe and the Americas, some 100, named after Manchester are
testament to the region’s international reputation. The mills in Greater Manchester are aunique grouping covering the origins, growth, development and maturity of this monument
type. Collectively the surviving mills demonstrate why the region was at the forefront of theindustrial revolution in cotton manufacture and the surviving mill buildings include a wide

MANCHESTER / INDUSTRIEARCHÄOLOGIE IN DER REGION MANCHESTER

II.2 | 7

variety of architectural types and dates and represent diversity, continuity and development in
the cotton industry. Textile mills have thus been central features of this industrial landscapefor over 200 years and consequently mills are the most distinctive type of historic building in
the region.
������������ was at the centre of the world, but as early as 1795 Manchester had assumed thestyle and manners of one of the commercial capitals of Europe. More than any other buildings
the Manchester warehouses collectively represent the �������� �� ��� ���� ������� in a citywhich espoused the enterprise, daring and success of the medieval Florentine merchants. As
early as 1806 there were 1,182 warehouses and by 1815 there were 1,819. At first these wereconcentrated around King Street but by 1850 they had spread to Portland Street and by theearly 20th century to Whitworth Street. One of the best concentrations is along Charlotte
Street demonstrating the "flamboyant facades and very plain rears" and consistent proportionsof the ������� warehouse blocks. Other notable triumphs include Richard Cobden’s building
in Mossley Street, the first palazzo warehouse, the exuberant Watts warehouse of 1854, andthe later packing warehouses, built on an imperial scale and centred around Whitworth Street.
Covering a square mile of Manchester, ��������� ���� is arguably the finest expression of a
Victorian commercial centre in Britain.
Although cotton dominated these new manufacturing centres coal and engineering were also
very significant elements of the industrialised economy. Perhaps the most significant of these
two industries was that of coal. The crescent-shaped Lancashire coalfield, running from
Wigan, Leigh and Bolton in the West to Ashton-under-Lyne, Hyde and Poynton in the southeast, is almost completely encompassed by the modern county. Extensively exploited sincethe 16th century by 1854 there 362 collieries in this area, and the numbers peaked at 480 in
1880, the mines employing tens of thousands of people. In the Wigan area a number ofcolliery communities grew around the pit heads such as Atherton, Leigh and Tyldesley.
However, the rapid decline of the mid-20th century and subsequent regeneration efforts has
meant that little of this industry now remains.
Greater Manchester also became a major engineering centre during the 19th century. Events inthese areas began as a spin-off from cotton, but soon developed their own momentum. The
main products from about 1780 included textile machinery, power equipment, steam engines,
water wheels, boilers, mill gearing, iron pillars, beams and girders for mill building andbridges. Initial engineering centres included Park Bridge near Ashton-under-Lyne, Bolton andManchester. From 1830 the region played a lead role in the development of machine- tool
production and of precision engineering with new centres emerging in Bury, Oldham, Salford
and Stockport. After the 1870s the region also developed a significant manufacturingexpertise in electrical power plant and cables with notable centres in Broadheath, Dukinfield
and above all Trafford Park. Although engineering has declined greatly in the last 20 years theClarington Forge in Wigan and the Kenyon Rope Works in Dukinfield are examples of 19th
century works which are still operating in the 21st century.
Professor Owen Ashmore pioneered the study of industrial archaeology in North West
England during the 1960s and 1970s, and his work has been continued by a variety of local
societies and full time archaeologists. This has led directly to the saving and opening to the
public of a number of important industrial sites; from the Liverpool Road Station (now theMuseum of Science and Industry in Manchester), and the East Lancashire Railway to theMANCHESTER / INDUSTRIEARCHÄOLOGIE IN DER REGION MANCHESTER

II.2 | 8

Elland Road Mill steam engine. In Greater Manchester nearly 3500 industrial sites are known,grouped into the following classes:

textile mill sites
print & bleach works
metal industry
engineering
coal
stone
salt
chemicals and soap

1.089
528
109
15
342
110
5
231

glass
paper
hat making
roads
rivers and canals
railways
canal warehouses
warehouses

6
15
33
248
43
203
31
475

Industrial sites are perhaps more vulnerable than any other class of archaeological monument
because of their frequent urban location in ��������� ������ and the continuing pressure for reuse. Where the traditional industry has declined the buildings and structures are at particularrisk. For instance, over 2.400 textile mills and cloth-finishing works were built between 1732
and 1924 in the Greater Manchester area, an area covering 25 square miles. By 1988, when
the Greater Manchester Cotton Mills Survey was completed, the absolute decline of the cotton
industry had resulted in the loss of over half these mills, and this figure is today further
reduced with only about 800 mills extant. Across the county it has been calculated that theloss of significant recorded industrial sites and buildings between 1982 and 2004 is about
40%. These losses are not evenly spread but are greatest in two industrial sectors with thehighest attrition rate being amongst the remains of the coal industry, which have largely
disappeared. Astley Green colliery has the last remaining pit head gear in the Lancashire
coalfield, and elsewhere remains of what was once the county’s second industry after cotton
are rare. Engineering works, an industry which has witnessed a dramatic collapse in the last
20 years, have suffered a similar fate.
Despite this loss there remains a huge industrial legacy and the challenge is how best to
manage this rich heritage resource in the future. The success of town centre projects such as
the Castlefield Canal Basin and Wigan Pier, and the preservation and presentation of anumber of important industrial sites such as the Liverpool Road Station in Manchester. The
Burrs textile sites in Bury and the Park Bridge Ironworks and Portland Basin Canal
Warehouse, both in Tameside, demonstrate that industrial archaeology is a heritage asset andcan make a real contribution to urban regeneration and sustainable tourism.
The archaeological heritage is Manchester and the concept of Manchester resonated aroundthe world. Manchester is the exemplar of the integration of key elements such as capital,transport, application of power, the factory system and commerce. Its virtuosity ofachievement was a precursor for similar cities elsewhere and the Manchester model was
exported worldwide. With such a legacy, Manchester and Salford have been included on the
United Kingdom Tentative List of World Heritage Sites. The citation reads “Manchester is thearchetype city of the Industrial Revolution. It witnessed the creation of Britains’s firstindustrial ‘true’ canal, Britain’s first mainline, inter-city passenger railway and the country’s
first industrial suburb based on steam. Manchester the first modern city of the industrial
revolution deserves the accolade of World Heritage Site.“II.2 | 

WORKING PAPERS------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------I IVANOVO ................................................................................. I.1 Studien / Studies 1 (rus/dt)															 I.2 Studien / Studies 2															 I.3 Ausstellungsbeiträge / Exhibition Contributions

II MANCHESTER / LIVERPOOL ............................................ II.1 Studien / Studies 1															 II.2 Studien / Studies 2															 II.3 Ausstellungsbeiträge / Exhibition Contributions
III DETROIT ................................................................................. III.1 Studien / Studies 1															 III.2 Studien / Studies 2															 III.3 Ausstellungsbeiträge / Exhibition Contributions
IV HALLE / LEIPZIG .................................................................. IV.1 Studien / Studies 1															 IV.2 Studien / Studies 2															 IV.3 Ausstellungsbeiträge / Exhibition Contributions
V STÄDTE IM VERGLEICH / CITIES BY COMPARISONVI KULTURELLE STUDIEN / CULTURAL STUDIES ...... VI.1 Musik / Music															 VI.2 Film															 VI.3 Literatur / Literature															 VI.4 Vandalismus / Vandalism															 VI.5 Eigentum / Property															 VI.6 Rechtsextremismus / Right-wing Extremism
VII Vermischtes / Miscellaneous------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Im Frühjahr 2006 erscheint außerdem Shrinking Cities: Complete Works 2, Interventionen/Interventions, die die zweite Phase desProjekts dokumentieren.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Shrinking Cities: Complete Works 2, Interventionen/Interventions, a documentation of the second phase of the project, will be
published in spring 2006.

Editorische Notiz/Editorial note
Die Beiträge wurden so wie von den Autoren zur Verfügung gestellt ohne redaktionelle Bearbeitung publiziert. Das Copyrightliegt bei den Autoren. Fast alle Pdfs sind im A4 Format (vertikal) und können zum lesen und archivieren auf jedem Drucker
ausgedruckt werden.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The contributions were published as supplied by the authors and have not undergone any additional editing. The copyright lies
with the authors. Almost all of the PDFs are in A4 (portrait) format and can be printed on any printer to be read and archived.
Impressum/Colophon
Shrinking Cities: Complete Works 1, Analyse/Analysis. Herausgeber und Konzeption: Philipp Oswalt im Auftrag der Kulturstifung
des Bundes. Unter Mitarbeit von: Andrea Andersen und Kristina Herresthal. Grafik: Tanja Wesse und Hansjakob Fehr.
Erschienen im Arch+ Verlag GmbH, www.archplus.net------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Shrinking Cities: Complete Works 1, Analyse/Analysis. Edited by: Philipp Oswalt for the Kulturstifung des Bundes. With the assistance of: Andrea Andersen and Kristina Herresthal. Graphic design: Tanja Wesse and Hansjakob Fehr. Published by: Arch+
Verlag GmbH, www.archplus.net