page_title: History of Manchester
section_title: Prehistory
hierarchical_section_title: History of Manchester / Prehistory
caption_attribution_description: English: Aerial view of Manchester Airport
context_page_description: The history of Manchester encompasses its change from a minor Lancastrian township into the pre-eminent industrial metropolis of the United Kingdom and the world. Manchester began expanding "at an astonishing rate" around the turn of the 19th century as part of a process of unplanned urbanisation brought on by a boom in textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution. The transformation took little more than a century.
  Having evolved from a Roman castrum in Celtic Britain, in the Victorian era Manchester was a major locus of the Industrial Revolution, and was the site of one of the world's first passenger railway stations as well as many scientific achievements of great importance. Manchester also led the political and economic reform of 19th century Britain as the vanguard of free trade. The mid-20th century saw a decline in Manchester's industrial importance, prompting a depression in social and economic conditions. Subsequent investment, gentrification and rebranding from the 1990s onwards changed its fortunes and reinvigorated Manchester as a post-industrial city with multiple sporting, broadcasting and educational institutions.
context_section_description: Prehistoric evidence of human activity in the area of Manchester is limited, although scattered stone tools have been found.
  There is evidence of Bronze Age activity around Manchester in the form of burial sites. Although some prehistoric artefacts have been discovered in the city centre, these have come from redeposited layers, meaning they do not necessarily originate from where they were found; wider evidence has been found for activity in other parts of the borough. Before the Roman invasion of Britain, the location lay within the territory dominated by the Brigantes and prior to the Roman conquest of the area in the 70s AD, it was part of the territory of the Brigantes, a Celtic tribe, although it may have been under the control of the Setantii, a sub-tribe of the Brigantes.
  For the important prehistoric farm site at Oversley Farm, see Oversleyford § Oversley Farm.
caption: Runway 2 of Manchester Airport lies on top of Oversley Farm, a Neolithic farming community.
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