Transport and Industrial Manchester
The Canal System
Canals were the key transport arteries of early industrial Manchester. Greater Manchester lacked navigable rivers, and artificial water routes were therefore needed to transport goods.
Canals brought in materials including coal and raw cotton, and exported finished goods (initially mostly to the home market). Good transport links to the Midlands and southern England were essential for Manchester to take advantage of new consumer markets for its products.
By the 1820s, Manchester was at the heart of an extensive canal network. Perhaps the most important canal was the Bridgewater Canal, developed by the 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, which ran from Runcorn to Manchester. This was linked to the Leeds and Liverpool canal in 1821, creating a direct link with Liverpool, the main port for raw cotton imports.
To the north and east of Manchester were the Rochdale and Ashton canals, which connected the important textile towns of east Lancashire and west Yorshire. To the south, the Macclesfield canal joined the Midland canal system, linking to the Potteries and Birmingham. Apart from cotton, these local canals were important for moving coal, stone, timber and salt across the region.
Canal trade suffered from the arrival of the railways, although some canal owners cut tolls to remain competitive. Although relative volumes of trade declined, Manchester’s canals remained important for trade until the late 19th century.
The Manchester Ship Canal
The Manchester Ship Canal was a very different type of canal project. An exercise in grand engineering, its aim was nothing less than to turn Manchester, or more accurately, Salford into a major British port.
By the 1890s, Manchester was an international centre for commerce and distribution. However, it relied heavily on Liverpool as its port of import and export. Liverpool was not only relatively distant, but port and rail costs were high. Local entrepreneurs believed that a new waterway to the Mersey Estuary, which could take ocean-going ships, would provide vital impetus to Manchester’s economy, and allow for the development of new industries.
The Canal was built between 1887 and 1894; it ran for 35 miles and had numerous technical innovations. It was funded by a mixture of private and public money (provided by Manchester city council). At its height, the port of Manchester was the third largest in the UK.
Some of the hopes for the Canal were not fulfilled, with some debt having to be written off by the council. However, it was important in the Manchester’s development as a food processing centre, by bringing in North American and colonial foodstuffs. It also encouraged American firms to invest directly in the Trafford Park industrial estate which grew up alongside the Canal. The engineering firm, Westinghouse, and the carmaker Ford were two American firms which established manufacturing bases at Trafford Park.
Railways
Manchester is of course well-known as one part of the first steam-powered passenger railway service in the world. The Liverpool and Manchester Railway demonstrated the radical potential of the speedy movement of goods (despite rail’s obvious potential for moving textile goods, most of the subscribers to the Railway were from Liverpool, not Manchester).
Manchester’s first railway station opened at Liverpool Road in 1830 and was followed by Victoria, London Road (Piccadilly), and ultimately Manchester Central station, which opened in 1880. A notable feature of these stations were their large warehouses and initially, railways were used primarily for moving freight, rather than passengers.
By the 1870s, Manchester had a substantial railway network, connecting with all the major cities and including numerous suburban stations. Manchester with its growing service sector became a city for commuters. There were several railway companies operating, of which the London and North Western Railway Company was the most important.
Roads
Manchester’s road system contributed significantly to its development as an industrial city. Despite the attention given to rail and canals, a great volume of goods continued to be moved by road.
Roads were particularly important to intra-regional transport. As the cotton industry was highly decentralised, textile goods at different stages of the production process had to be moved efficiently between different locations within the region e.g. from spinning mills to weaving sheds. Roads were often the most efficient way of doing this, and there were major roads linking Manchester to Oldham, Bury, Rochdale, Ashton and Stockport.
The arrival of motor vehicles saw the road system increase in importance. Manchester’s arterial roads were reconstructed in the inter-war period, notably the dual carriageways Kingsway and Princess Parkway in south Manchester. These roads included provision for tramways (which aligned with the road rather than the rail network) and marked an increasing shift of emphasis toward commuter settlements and light industries in the south of the city, rather than with the older links to the satellite towns to the north and east of Manchester.
Discussion Points
What stimulated the development of transport systems in 19th century Manchester?
What were the connections between Manchester’s economy and its transport system in the 19th and 20th centuries?
Additional Resources
Douglas Farnie, The Manchester Ship Canal and the rise of the Port of Manchester 1894–1975 (Manchester 1980)
Ian Harford, Manchester and its Ship Canal Movement: class, work and politics in late-Victorian England (Keele 1994)
R H G Thomas, The Liverpool and Manchester Railway (London 1980)
J R Kellett, Railways and Victorian Cities (London 1969).
