The Growth of the Industrial City
Mapping Manchester’s industrial past
Manchester was the world’s first industrial city. Its damp climate was ideal for processing cotton and its network of canals, rivers and transportation systems provided the perfect conditions for new cotton mill technology to thrive.
The import and manufacturing of cotton in the late 1700s revolutionised the textile industry in Manchester and marked the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.Maps created during this time provide evidence of the rapid expansion of the city and present us with a powerful visual representation of the transformation of Manchester’s landscape. They document the infrastructure of the city, and the emergence of its canals, railways and transport links. They show us Manchester’s wealth and culture in depicting its civic buildings and affluent residential areas. But they are also testament to overcrowding and and the grim living conditions experienced by many of the town’s residents.
Examine the maps below to reveal the vibrant history of industrial Manchester.
Map 1
Description:
A plan of the towns of Manchester & Salford in the County Palatine of Lancaster. Published by John Berry and Russel Casson, 1746. Print on paper. 60cm x 101cm.This map was the earliest known street map of Manchester and Salford in the 18th century. It was made for, and sold by John Berry, a local grocer, watchmaker, auctioneer and printer. Casson and Berry dedicated their map to the industrious ‘gentlemen and tradesmen within ye towns’, confirming the town’s rising commercial status. The first edition was published in 1741 and five further editions were published up until 1757, demonstrating public demand.
New public buildings such as The Exchange, residential squares lined with new town houses, and affluent family houses surround the map, celebrating Manchester’s culture, style and wealth. Streets are numbered and identified to aid navigation around the city. An inset map shows a plan of Manchester from around 1650 which helps us to visualise how Manchester has expanded within the last hundred years.
However, both the main plan and the view of Manchester and Salford depicted at the bottom of the map, show how Manchester is still enveloped by fields. This will change dramatically over the next fifty years.
Map 2
Description:
A Plan of Manchester and Salford, drawn from an actual survey by William Green, begun in the year 1787 and completed in 1794. This edition published in 1904 by Manchester: Geo. Falkner & Sons of The Deansgate Press. Print on paper. 117cm x 144cm.William Green produced the first large-scale detailed map of Manchester in 1794, over fifty years after the publication of the first edition of the Casson and Berry street map. The original map measures over three metres wide. It shows how a small market town is expanding rapidly and the impact of population growth on the landscape. At the start of the 18th century, Manchester had a population of fewer than 10,000. By the end of the century, it had grown almost tenfold, to 89,000.
Green intentionally extended the map beyond the boundaries of the town centre, recognising that rapid expansion would soon consume the surrounding pastures. Fields include the names of landowners, from wealthy and prominent families. Rows of streets are identified and named but have not yet been built upon.
The decorative cartouche in the corner of the map heralds a new Manchester, personified as female. She is accompanied by Britannia (also female) who represents trade. The factory, bobbin, shuttle and beehive, symbolise Manchester’s industrial progress.
Map 3
Description:
Ordnance Survey. Six-inch series of England and Wales (scale 1:10560). Manchester sheet 104, surveyed 1845, published 1848. Print on paper.69cm x 102 cm.The Ordnance Survey has mapped the British Isles for over two hundred and fifty years at a variety of scales. Its original purpose was to aid military planning but by the mid 19th century, the organisation was coming under increasing pressure from civil engineers and town planners to produce more detailed mapping to assist urban development such as street widening schemes and improvements to sanitation and public health. The Ordnance Survey began mapping Lancashire in the 1840s. This map shows how the landscape has been transformed in the fifty years since Green’s map and one hundred years since Casson and Berry. From a small market town in the early 18th century, Manchester was growing at a phenomenal rate. It’s population had grown from less than 10,000 in the early 1700s to 400,000 by the time this map was published in 1851.
The area highlighted yellow was most likely to have been coloured much later than the map was printed. Maps are utilitarian objects often annotated by city planners and developers. Part of the area identified shows the land which will be used for building the Manchester Docks and the Manchester Ship Canal. When the ship canal opened in 1894, it was the largest river navigation canal in the world and turned a land-locked city into a port.
Map 4
Description:
Ordnance Survey. County Series. 1:2,500 (25 inch to 1 mile). Lancashire,sheet CIV.6. Surveyed in 1888–1889; published 1892. Print on paper.74cm x 104cm.The Ordnance Survey continued to produce ever more detailed maps for urban areas with high populations and these were revised on a fairly regular basis. The rich detail on these maps help us to analyse land use by identifying buildings such as mills, warehouses, gas works and types of housing. The proximity of factories and railways to back to back housing can be seen, as well as the distribution of public houses, schools and places of worship.
An index map can help you to identify the sheet number which covers an area of interest, then you can browse the maps to find the sheet number you need*. There are usually four editions for the 1:2,500 series covering central Manchester, which range from the 1890s to the 1930s. The first edition is in colour and later editions are black and white.
*We have not yet digitised all the sheets on the index but more map sheets are available to view on the National Library of Scotland website.
Discussion points:
- What type of buildings surround the railway station in the 1892 (1:2,500) Ordnance Survey map? What do you think it would be like living or working in Manchester at this time?
- Compare the extent of the town on the map by William Green (1794) with the Ordnance Survey map (sheet 104) published in 1848. How has it changed?
Additional resources:
To examine the William Green map in more detail see our latest resource:
Wyke, T., Robson, R. and Dodge, M., 2018. Manchester: mapping the city. Edinburgh: Birlinn.
Consult the maps:
If you are interested in using any material from Special Collections please get in contact with our Reading Room staff : uml.special-collections@manchester.ac.uk
Images reproduced with the permission of The John Rylands University Librarian and Director of the University of Manchester Library. All images used on this page are licenced via CC-BY-NC-SA, for further information about each image, please follow the link in the description.
