91-497: The Manchester Murals are a series of twelve paintings by Ford Madox Brown in the Great Hall of Manchester Town Hall and are based on the history of Manchester . Following the success of Brown's painting Work he was commissioned to paint six murals for its Great Hall. Another six murals were to be completed by Frederic Shields who later withdrew, leaving Brown to complete all twelve works. The murals were begun in 1879, towards
182-521: A Chinese community in the city since the early 20th century. Chinatown, Manchester is said to be the second largest in the United Kingdom and the third largest in Europe. From the 1990s onwards Kosovans , Afghans , Iraqis and Congolese have settled in the area. It has been suggested as a result of the last two hundred years that Manchester having been involved in all these periods of immigration
273-515: A collegiate church , dedicated to the Blessed Virgin , St. George and St. Denys or St. Denis , the latter two being the patron saints of England and France respectively. Construction began around 1422, and continued until the first quarter of the 16th century. The 'merchant princes' of the town endowed a number of chantry chapels , reflecting an increasing prosperity based on wool. This church later became Manchester Cathedral . Thomas also gave
364-541: A market town and had a market every Saturday. In 1223, Manchester gained the right to hold an annual fair ; the market was held in Acresfield ;– where St Ann's Square is today – on what was then arable land. It was the first fair to be established in the Salford Hundred and the fourth in south Lancashire. Manchester became a market town in 1301 when it received its Charter . On 1 November 1315, Manchester
455-602: A " breast-like hill "). However, more recent work suggests that it could come from * mamma (" mother ", in reference to a local river goddess ). Both usages are preserved in Insular Celtic languages , such as mam meaning "breast" in Irish and "mother" in Welsh. The suffix -chester is from Old English ceaster ("Roman fortification", itself a loanword from Latin castra , "fort; fortified town"). The Latin name for Manchester
546-505: A Jewish population of about 40,000. This is the largest Jewish community outside London by quite some way. To these groups may be added (in later years) Levantines (involved in the Egyptian cotton trade), Germans and Italians. The German influence can be seen in the city's Halle Orchestra and the Ancoats area of the city was known as Little Italy. By the beginning of the 20th century, Manchester
637-454: A catalogue to accompany the special exhibition of Work . This publication included an extensive explanation of Work that nevertheless leaves many questions unanswered. Brown's concern with the social issues addressed in Work prompted him to open a soup kitchen for Manchester's hungry, and to attempt to aid the city's unemployed to find work by founding a labour exchange. Brown found patrons in
728-476: A chapel endowed by James Stanley , Bishop of Ely , in thanksgiving for the safe return of his kinsman (sometimes said to be his son) John Stanley from the Battle of Flodden . The English Reformation resulted in the collegiate church being refounded as a Protestant institution. One of the more famous Wardens of this institution at the time was Dr John Dee , known as "Queen Elizabeth's Merlin". The town's growth
819-593: A collection of books, which in 1653 became Chetham's Library , the first free public library in the English-speaking world. As of 2017, it is still open and free to use. Despite the political setbacks, the town continued to prosper. A number of inhabitants supported the Glorious Revolution in 1688. They became discontented with the Tory clergy at the collegiate church , and a separate church, more to their tastes,
910-520: A house in Fitzroy Square . Their son, Oliver Madox Brown (1855–1874) (known as Nolly) showed promise both as an artist and poet, but died of blood poisoning before his maturity. The death of Nolly was a crushing blow for Brown, and he kept a room for his son's belongings as a shrine. Another son Arthur was born in September 1856. Brown used Arthur as the model for the baby held by a ragged girl in
1001-589: A house, these plots of land could also contain workshops and gardens. The family also owned the only corn mill in the manor which was used by all the tenants of the manor to grind their corn. Medieval Manchester was centred on the manor house and the Church of St Mary mentioned in the Domesday Book. As well as a castle at Manchester, there was also one in Ringway . Ullerwood Castle , a motte-and-bailey , probably dates from
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#17328688798001092-564: A place in which anything could happen—new industrial processes, new ways of thinking (the so-called 'Manchester School', promoting free trade and laissez-faire ), new classes or groups in society, new religious sects and new forms of labour organisation. Such radicalism culminated in the opening of the Free Trade Hall which had several incarnations until its current building was occupied in 1856. It attracted educated visitors from all parts of Britain and Europe. "What Manchester does today," it
1183-605: A portrait of his father. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1840, a work inspired by Lord Byron 's poem The Giaour (now lost) and then completed a version of The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots , with his cousin and future wife Elisabeth Bromley as one of his models. He lived in Montmartre with his new wife and aging father in 1841. He painted Manfred on the Jungfrau , inspired by Lord Byron's poem Manfred while he
1274-469: A provisional list for UNESCO World Heritage City on numerous occasions. However, since the 1996 bombing , local authorities have persisted on a course of economic evolution rather than prioritising the past. This economic evolution is perhaps best illustrated with the 558-foot (170-metre) Beetham Tower which instantly "torpedoed" any possibility of World Heritage City status according to one author. Despite this, areas perceived as internationally important in
1365-454: A road (The Mount, off Heath Street in Hampstead , north London) and disrupting the old social hierarchies in the process. The image erupts into proliferating details from the dynamic centre of the action, as the workers tear a hole in the road – and, symbolically, in the social fabric. Each character represents a particular social class and role in the modern urban environment. Brown wrote
1456-405: A road heading north to Bremetennacum ( Ribchester ). The neighbouring forts were Castleshaw and Northwich . Built first from turf and timber, the fort was demolished around 140. When it was rebuilt around 160, it was again of turf and timber construction. In about 200 the fort underwent another rebuild, this time enhancing the defences by replacing the gatehouse with a stone version and facing
1547-768: A seat in Parliament for the first time. Maj Gen Charles Worsley , scion of an old Lancashire family and one of Cromwell 's most trusted lieutenants, had been given the Mace at the famous dissolution of Parliament in 1654. Elected Manchester's first MP, he did not sit for long before Parliament was again dissolved, leading to the Rule of the Major Generals : effectively martial law . Worsley, given responsibility for Lancashire , Cheshire and Staffordshire , took his duties seriously, turning out alehouses, banning bear baiting and cracking down on
1638-578: A speech in Manchester in 1787 "'I was surprised also to find a great crowd of black people standing round the pulpit. There might be forty or fifty of them.' From the 1940s onwards further waves of immigration brought Cypriots and Hungarians fleeing conflict but in the largest numbers came people re-settling from the British Colonies of the Indian subcontinent , Caribbean and Hong Kong . There has been
1729-428: A successful period of a few years, the club reached over 80 members, including several prominent members of the Royal Academy, but Brown resigned in 1860, and the club collapsed in 1861. From the 1860s, Brown also designed furniture and stained glass. He was a founder partner of William Morris 's design company, Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. , in 1861, which dissolved in 1874 with Morris continuing on his own. He
1820-509: A tradition of cloth production in the region, which in turn sparked the growth of the city to become Lancashire 's major industrial centre. The various townships and chapelries of the ancient parish of Manchester became separate civil parishes in 1866. Thomas de la Warre was a Lord of the Manor and also a priest . He obtained licences from the Pope and King Henry V to enable him to found and endow
1911-505: Is a defence against Viking invaders and was dug in 869–870. Whether this is true is uncertain, but the ditch does date from between the 7th and 9th centuries. The Anglo Saxon Chronicle detail that in 919 Edward the Elder sent men "to Mameceaster , in Northumbria, to repair and man it"; this probably refers to a burh at Manchester as an advanced post of Mercia . Although it is unsure where
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#17328688798002002-418: Is bent on destroying the machine. Instead of culminating in the achievement of modern Manchester, the sequence concludes with a rustic scene in a small village. According to Codell, history is portrayed as fragmented, contested, and as ending in a "penultimate" moment. This may be related to Brown's interest in anarchism and William Morris 's utopian socialism at the time, but it also arises from disputes about
2093-695: Is buried in the St Pancras and Islington Cemetery in East Finchley . He was given a secular funeral, and the funeral oration was delivered by the American Moncure D. Conway , the secularist after whom Conway Hall was later named. The Ford Madox Brown, a J D Wetherspoon pub in Oxford Road, Manchester , is named after Ford Madox Brown. It states on the Wetherspoon's website that "This J D Wetherspoon pub
2184-414: Is named after the much-travelled artist Ford Madox Brown, a one-time resident of Victoria Park, a suburb south of the pub." The pub opened in 2007. History of Manchester 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
2275-505: Is often given as Mancuniun . This is most likely a neologism coined in Victorian times, similar to the widespread Latin name Cantabrigia for Cambridge (whose actual name in Roman times was Duroliponte ). 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
2366-573: Is the most polyglot of all British cities aside from London The unconventional background of such a diverse population stimulated intellectual and artistic life. The Manchester Academy , for example, opened in Mosley Street in 1786, having enjoyed an earlier incarnation as the Warrington Academy . It was originally run by Presbyterians being one of the few dissenting academies that provided religious nonconformists , who were excluded from
2457-545: The Bank of England was established in 1826. The city had one of the first telephone exchanges in Europe (possibly the first in the UK) when in 1879 one was opened on Faulkner Street in the city centre using the Bell patent system. By 1881 it had 420 subscribers—just 7 years later a new exchange had the capacity for 10 times that number. Manchester Central exchange was still the largest outside
2548-477: The Great Famine of the 1840s. In 1851, it was estimated that 15% of the population of Manchester were Irish born. The first Irish community in the city was said to date back to 1798 and with further waves of immigration from Ireland coming after the second World War. The Irish influence continues to this day and, every March Manchester plays host to a large St Patrick's Day parade. It is estimated that about 35% of
2639-524: The Industrial Revolution , such as Castlefield and Ancoats , have been sympathetically redeveloped. The name Manchester originates from the Latin name Mamucium or its variant Mancunio . These names are generally thought to represent a Latinisation of an original Brittonic name . The generally accepted etymology of this name is that it comes from Brittonic * mamm- (" breast ", in reference to
2730-857: The Pas-de-Calais and relatives in Kent , but he showed artistic talent in copying of Old Master prints. His father initially sought a naval career for his son, writing to his former captain Sir Isaac Coffin. The family moved to Bruges in 1835 so Brown could study at the academy under Albert Gregorius . Brown moved to Ghent in 1836 to continue his studies under Pieter van Hanselaere . He moved to Antwerp in 1837 to study under Gustaf Wappers . He continued to study in Antwerp after his mother's death in 1839. His sister died in 1840, and then his father in 1842. The Tate Gallery holds an early example of Brown's work,
2821-588: The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood . Though closely linked to them, he was never actually a member of the brotherhood itself, but adopted the bright colours and realistic style of William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais . He was also influenced by the works of Holbein that he saw in Basel in 1845, and by Friedrich Overbeck and Peter Cornelius , whom he met in Rome in 1845–46. Brown struggled to make his mark in
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2912-681: The River Medlock . The fort was sited on a sandstone bluff near the confluence of the rivers Medlock and Irwell in a naturally defensible position. It was erected as a series of fortifications established by Gnaeus Julius Agricola during his campaign against the Brigantes who were the Celtic tribe in control of most of what would become northern England . It guards the Deva Victrix ( Chester ) to Eboracum ( York ) Roman road running east to west, and
3003-408: The 12th century and was owned by Hamon de Massey who owned several manors in the north east of Cheshire . The first lord of the manor to actually live in Manchester was Robert Grelley (1174–1230); his presence led to an influx of skilled workers, such as stonemasons and carpenters, associated with the construction of the manor house. In the early 13th century, Manchester for a period was not under
3094-514: The 16th century. In 1892 there was 80,000 Welsh born residents in the North West of England with particularly high concentrations in Manchester and Liverpool. David Lloyd George was born in the city and Welsh socialist Robert Jones Derfel spent much of his life in the city. Large numbers of (mostly Jewish) immigrants later came to Manchester from Central and Eastern Europe . The area, including Broughton , Prestwich and Whitefield today has
3185-472: The 1850s, with his paintings failing to find buyers, and he considered emigrating to India. In 1852 he started work on two of his most significant works. One of his most famous images is The Last of England , painted from 1852 to 1855, which was sold in March 1859 for 325 guineas ( 2010: £26,700 ). It depicts a pair of stricken emigrants as they sail away on the ship that will take them from England forever. It
3276-506: The Navy after the end of the Napoleonic Wars . In 1818, Ford Brown married Caroline Madox, of an old Kentish family. Brown's parents had limited financial resources, and they moved to Calais to seek cheaper lodgings, where their daughter Elizabeth Coffin was born in 1819 and their son Ford Madox Brown in 1821. Brown's education was limited, as the family frequently moved between lodgings in
3367-505: 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 . The Roman fort of Mamucium was established c. AD 79 near a crossing point on
3458-635: The Romans left Britain, the focus of settlement in Manchester shifted to the confluence of the rivers Irwell and Irk . During the Early Middle Ages that followed – and persisted until the Norman conquest – the settlement of Manchester was in the territory of several different kingdoms. In the late 6th and early 7th centuries, the kingdom of Northumbria extended as far south as the River Mersey , south of what
3549-650: The Rossetti family were later buried alongside. Emma Hill became a frequent model for Brown from 1848; for example, she is the wife in The Last of England . She became his mistress, and they shared a house in London, but social convention discouraged him from marrying an illiterate daughter of a bricklayer. Their daughter Catherine Emily was born in 1850, and eventually they were married at St Dunstan-in-the-West in April 1853. Ford leased
3640-541: The beginning of the Industrial Revolution . The Spinning Jenny in 1764 marked the beginning of the Industrial Revolution and brought with it the first fully mechanised production process. The myriad small valleys in the Pennine Hills to the north and east of the town, combined with the damp climate, proved ideal for the construction of water-powered cotton mills such as Quarry Bank Mill , which industrialised
3731-567: The capital in Edwardian times when it employed 200 operators and the city had several other important roles in the history of telephony . The growth of the city was matched by the expansion of its transport links. The growth of steam power meant that demand for coal rocketed. To meet this demand, the first canal of the industrial era, the Duke's Canal, often referred to as the Bridgewater Canal ,
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3822-586: The celebration of Christmas . He eventually died in 1656, at a time of the gradual ebbing away of Cromwell's authority. On the English Restoration in 1660, as a reprisal for its defence of the Parliamentarian cause, Manchester was deprived of its recently granted Members of Parliament . No MP was to sit for Manchester until 1832. The consequences of the restoration led to a great deal of soul searching. One clergyman, Henry Newcombe , could not remain in
3913-474: The control of the Grelleys. Robert Grelley was one of the barons who made King John sign Magna Carta . Grelley was excommunicated for his role in the rebellion and when King John later ignored the terms of Magna Carta, Grelley forfeited his lands. King John died in 1216 and Hubert de Burgh, 1st Earl of Kent , returned Grelley's land to him on behalf of King Henry III In the medieval period Manchester grew into
4004-417: The details for accuracy and he wrote their descriptions. Recent commentators have identified satirical and critical features in the compositions which complicate any simple explanation of the paintings as expressions of "Victorian ideals" that the chosen subjects imply. The art historian Julie F. Codell refers to these as the "pratfalls and penultimates" of history, as opposed to its stately progress. Most of
4095-412: The edge of Ashton-under-Lyne in the east, and the edge of Prestwich in the north. That such a large area was covered by a single parish has been taken as evidence of the area's "impoverished and depopulated status". The only tax the parish was subject to was Danegeld . There was a castle in Manchester overlooking the rivers Irk and Irwell, where Chetham's School of Music stands today. This castle
4186-479: The end of Brown's career, but were not completed until 1893, the year he died. During this period he moved from London to Manchester with his family, first living in Crumpsall and then Victoria Park . The murals form part of the decoration of the Great Hall, the central room designed by Alfred Waterhouse . On entering the hall, six murals are on the left hand wall and six on the right, progressing chronologically from
4277-654: The foreground of Work , but he died aged only ten months old in July 1857. His daughters Lucy Madox Brown and Catherine Madox Brown were also competent artists. Lucy married William Michael Rossetti in 1874. Catherine, married Francis Hueffer ; through Catherine, Brown was the grandfather of novelist Ford Madox Ford and great-grandfather of Labour Home Secretary Frank Soskice . Brown's second wife died in October 1890, and he died in Primrose Hill, north London, in 1893. He
4368-458: 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
4459-403: The fort, made up of traders and families of the soldiers. An area which has a concentration of furnaces and industrial activity has been described as an industrial estate . The vicus was probably abandoned by the mid 3rd century, although a small garrison may have remained at Mamucium into the late 3rd and early 4th centuries. The Castlefield area of Manchester is named after the fort. Once
4550-469: The hall. It was painted on canvas and adhered to the wall. Ford Madox Brown Ford Madox Brown (16 April 1821 – 6 October 1893) was a British painter of moral and historical subjects, notable for his distinctively graphic and often Hogarthian version of the Pre-Raphaelite style. Arguably, his most notable painting was Work (1852–1865). Brown spent the latter years of his life painting
4641-579: The kingdoms of Northumbria, Mercia and Wessex struggled for control over North West England . In 620, Edwin of Northumbria may have sacked Manchester, and the settlement may have been sacked again in 870 by the Danes. According to legend, Nico Ditch – which runs east–west from Ashton-under-Lyne to Stretford and passes through Gorton , Levenshulme , Burnage , Rusholme , Platt Field Park in Fallowfield , Withington and Chorlton-cum-Hardy –
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#17328688798004732-461: The left wall nearest the entrance to the right wall opposite, repeating the basic structure of the scheme of William Bell Scott 's murals on the history of Northumbria in Wallington Hall . The subjects chosen reflect the Victorian ideals through which the history of Manchester was seen, focusing on Christianity, commerce and the textile industry. The artist did a great deal of research to check
4823-407: The machinery. The result was the rapid spread of cotton mills throughout Manchester itself and in the surrounding towns. To these must be added bleach works, textile print works, and the engineering workshops and foundries, all serving the cotton industry. During the mid-19th century Manchester grew to become the centre of Lancashire 's cotton industry and was dubbed " Cottonopolis ", and a branch of
4914-500: The main route in and out of the town. The name may derive from hangan meaning hollow, although there is an alternative derivation from the Old English hen , meaning wild birds, and the Welsh gan , meaning between two hills. It dates to at least 1343 but may be even older. In the 14th century, Manchester became home to a community of Flemish weavers, who settled in the town to produce wool and linen. This in part helped to develop
5005-602: The more modern subjects. Paintings depicting the Peterloo Massacre in 1819 and the end of the Lancashire Cotton Famine in 1865 had been proposed, but were rejected by the council's committee as too controversial. All but the last four murals were painted directly on to the wall. They were not created using the true fresco process but taking advantage of a Victorian technique, the Gambier Parry process , which
5096-401: The natural distribution centre for raw cotton and spun yarn , and a marketplace and distribution centre for the products of this growing textile industry. Richard Arkwright is credited as the first to erect a cotton mill in the city. His first experiment, installing a Newcomen steam engine to pump water for a waterwheel failed, but he next adapted a Watt steam engine to directly operate
5187-521: The north of England, including Plint, George Rae from Birkenhead, John Miller from Liverpool, and James Leathart from Newcastle. By the late 1850s he had lost patience with the poor reception he received at the Royal Academy and ceased to show his works there, rejecting an offer from Millais to support his becoming an associate member. He founded the Hogarth Club in 1858, with William Morris , Edward Burne-Jones , and his former pupil Rossetti. After
5278-769: The opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway , the world's first steam passenger railway. This provided faster transport of raw materials and finished goods between the port of Liverpool and mills of Manchester. By 1838, Manchester was connected by rail with Birmingham and London, and by 1841 with Hull . The existing horse-drawn omnibus services were all acquired by the Manchester Carriage Company, Ltd in 1865. Horse-drawn trams began in Salford (1877) and Manchester (1880–81), were succeeded by electric trams in 1901–03 and by 1930 Manchester Corporation Tramways were running
5369-409: The paintings contain Hogarthian satire (in contrast to Bell Scott's works). In the first picture the wife of the Roman general wearing a blond wig distracts him from his work; their son – a Caligula in the making – kicks an African servant. The painting that seems to celebrate industrial technology, John Kay: Inventor of the Fly Shuttle , depicts the hysterical inventor fleeing from an unruly mob which
5460-408: The parish and in medieval times the royal manor of Salford was the most important of these. Manchester was administratively part of the Salford Hundred . In 1086 the hundred covered about 350 square miles (910 km ) and had a population of about 3,000. It was given to Roger de Poitou ; Roger divided the hundred into fiefdoms and made the Gresle family barons of Manchester. Albert de Gresle
5551-477: 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. Manchester has been on
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#17328688798005642-413: The political complexion of the town's elite had changed. The Jacobite army got no further than Derby and then retreated. On their way back through Manchester, the stragglers were pelted by the mob. The luckless 'Manchester Regiment' were left behind to garrison Carlisle , where they quickly surrendered to the pursuing British Army . Manchester remained a small market town until the late 18th century and
5733-473: The population of Manchester and Salford has some Irish ancestry. Scottish migration in to Manchester can be traced back to before 1745 when the Jacobites marched through the city but the population of Scottish born residents peaked at almost 2% of the city's total population in 1871. Many of the city's machine making firms which powered the Industrial Revolution had their roots in emigrant Scottish engineers. A Welsh community has existed in Manchester since
5824-435: The quarrel with Charles I . Indeed, it might be said that the English Civil War started here. In 1642, Lord Strange , the Royalist son of the Earl of Derby attempted to seize the militia magazine stored in the old college building. In the ensuing scuffle, Richard Percival, a linen weaver, was killed. He is reckoned by some to be the first casualty in the English Civil War . Lord Strange returned and attempted to besiege
5915-428: The remodelled Anglican Church , and was instrumental in the establishment of the Cross Street Chapel in 1694. This later passed into Unitarian hands, and a new chapel on the original site can be visited. Humphrey Chetham purchased the old college buildings after the civil war, and endowed it as a bluecoat school . Chetham's Hospital, as it was known, later became Chetham's School of Music . The endowment included
6006-465: The site is, it is possibly a reference to the Roman fort. In 1055, most of what later became Lancashire was under the control of Tostig . The ancient parish of Manchester covered a wider area than today's metropolitan borough (although not including its full extent), and was probably established in the Anglo-Saxon period (there were at that time only two churches in the parish: at Manchester and Ashton-under-Lyne). Forty distinct townships developed in
6097-408: The site of Manchester Cathedral ; St Michael's Church may have been in Ashton-under-Lyne . The parish of Manchester – of which St Mary's Church was a part – was the ecclesiastical centre of the Salford Hundred. It covered about 60 square miles (160 km ) and extended as far as the edges of Flixton and Eccles in the west, the Mersey between Stretford and Stockport in the south,
6188-466: The site of the old manor house as a residence for the priests. It remains as one of the finest examples of a medieval secular religious building in Britain and is now the home of Chetham's School of Music. By the 16th century the wool trade had made Manchester a flourishing market town. The collegiate church , which is now the cathedral, was finally completed in 1500–1510. The magnificent carved choir stalls date from this period, and in 1513 work began on
6279-413: The spinning and weaving of cloth. Indeed, it was the importing of cotton , which began towards the end of the 18th century, that revolutionised the textile industry in the area. This new commodity was imported through the port of Liverpool , which was connected with Manchester by the Mersey and Irwell Navigation —the two rivers had been made navigable from the 1720s onwards. Manchester now developed as
6370-404: The third largest system in the UK. The Industrial Revolution resulted in Manchester's population exploding as people moved from other parts of the British Isles into the city seeking new opportunities. Particularly large numbers came from Ireland , with one area of the city centre becoming known as Little Ireland between 1827 and 1847. Numbers of Irish immigrants increased further after
6461-399: The town, which had no permanent fortifications. With the help of John Rosworm , a German mercenary, the town was vigorously defended. Captain Bradshaw and his musketeers resolutely manned the bridge to Salford. Eventually, Strange realised that his force was ill-prepared, and after hearing that his father had died, withdrew to claim his title. During the Commonwealth , Manchester was granted
6552-566: 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
6643-529: The twelve works known as The Manchester Murals , depicting Mancunian history , for Manchester Town Hall . Brown was the grandson of the medical theorist John Brown , founder of the Brunonian system of medicine . His great-grandfather was a Scottish labourer. His father Ford Brown served as a purser in the Royal Navy , including a period serving under Sir Isaac Coffin and a period on HMS Arethusa . He left
6734-544: The universities of Oxford and Cambridge , with higher education. It taught classics , radical theology , science , modern languages , language and history . In the arts, the Hallé Orchestra , was patronised in its early years, by the German community and attracted a loyal following. Manchester's rapid growth into a significant industrial centre meant the pace of change was fast and frightening. At that time, it seemed
6825-587: The walls with stone. The fort would have been garrisoned by a cohort , about 500 infantry, of auxiliary troops. Evidence of both pagan and Christian worship has been discovered. Two altars have been discovered and there may be a temple of Mithras associated with Mamucium. A word square was discovered in the 1970s that may be one of the earliest examples of Christianity in Britain. A civilian settlement (the first in Manchester), or vicus , grew in association with
6916-493: Was Work (1852–1865), begun in Hampstead in 1852 and which he showed at his retrospective exhibition in 1865. Thomas Plint advanced funds to enable Brown to complete the work, in anticipation of obtaining the finished painting, but died in 1861 before the painting had been completed. In this painting, Brown attempted to depict the totality of the mid- Victorian social experience in a single image, depicting ' navvies ' digging up
7007-425: Was "spirit" based producing a more hard-wearing image. Brown completed the last four murals on canvas, after he had returned to live in London. John Wycliffe is depicted on trial, defended by his patron, John of Gaunt . Geoffrey Chaucer , another protégé of Gaunt's, acts as recorder. This was the last of the paintings to be completed. It is not strictly a mural, since Brown was by this time too frail to work in
7098-400: Was a close friend of the landscape artist Henry Mark Anthony . Brown's major achievement after Work was The Manchester Murals , a cycle of twelve paintings in the Great Hall of Manchester Town Hall depicting the history of the city. Brown would be 72 by the time he finished the murals. In total, he took six years perfecting the murals, which were his last major work. Ford Madox Brown
7189-548: Was a very cosmopolitan place and had additionally received immigrants from France , Greece , Armenia , Lithuania , Poland and Ukraine . The opening of the Manchester Ship Canal in 1894 lead to influx of workers from Africa , Asia , Middle East and Scandinavia . There has been a presence of Black people in Manchester since the 1700s. There are records of black people being buried at Manchester Cathedral from 1757. The abolitionist Thomas Clarkson noted during
7280-495: Was born in 1843 and the family moved back to England in 1844. They travelled to Rome in 1845 to alleviate the illness of his wife, who was suffering from consumption (pulmonary tuberculosis ). She died in Paris in June 1846, aged 27, on the journey back to England from Rome, and was buried on the western side of Highgate Cemetery . Christina Rossetti , Elizabeth Siddal and other members of
7371-503: Was founded by Lady Ann Bland. St Ann's Church is a fine example of an early Georgian church, and was consecrated in 1712. The surroundings, what is now St Ann's Square but was previously known as Acresfield, were in imitation of a London square. About this time, Defoe described the place as "the greatest mere village in England", by which he meant that a place the size of a populous market town had no form of local government to speak of, and
7462-461: Was given further impetus in 1620 with the start of fustian weaving. In this period Manchester grew heavily due to an influx of Flemish settlers who founded Manchester's new weaving industry. In the course of the 17th century, thanks to the development of the textile industry and contacts with the City of London , Manchester became a noted centre of puritanism . Consequently, it sided with Parliament in
7553-493: Was in Paris. In 1843 he submitted work to the Westminster Cartoon Competition, for compositions to decorate the new Palace of Westminster . His entry, The Body of Harold Brought before William , was not successful. His early works were, however, greatly admired by the young Dante Gabriel Rossetti , who asked him to become his tutor. Through Rossetti, Brown came into contact with the artists who went on to form
7644-475: Was inspired by the departure of the Pre-Raphaelite sculptor Thomas Woolner , who had left for Australia. In an unusual tondo format, the painting is structured with Brown's characteristic linear energy, and emphasis on apparently grotesque and banal details, such as the cabbages hanging from the ship's side. The husband and wife are portraits of Brown and his second wife Emma. Brown's most important painting
7735-655: Was married twice. His first wife Elizabeth Bromley was his first cousin, the daughter of his mother's sister Mary. They were married in Meopham in Kent in April 1841, shortly before his 20th birthday and less than a year after the sudden death of his sister Elizabeth. They lived in Montmartre in 1841 with Brown's invalid father who died the following summer. Their first child died young as an infant in November 1842. Their daughter Emma Lucy
7826-489: Was opened in 1761, linking Manchester to the coal mines at Worsley . This was soon extended to the Mersey Estuary . Soon an extensive network of canals was constructed, linking Manchester to all parts of England. One of the world's first public omni bus services began in 1824; it ran from Market Street in Manchester to Pendleton and Salford . In 1830, Manchester was again at the forefront of transport technology with
7917-477: Was probably a ringwork and has been described as "of no political or military importance". By the late 13th century the Grelleys or Gresles, who were barons of Manchester for two centuries, had replaced the castle with a fortified manor house . They used the house as the administrative centre of the manor. While the town was owned by the lords of the manor, they directly leased land to tenants and created burgage tenements for indirect rent; as well as containing
8008-618: Was still subject to the whims of a lord of the manor . In 1745, Charles Edward Stuart and his army entered Manchester en route to London. Despite its previous radicalism, the town offered no resistance and the Jacobites obtained enough recruits to form a ' Manchester Regiment '. It is suggested that this was because the town had no local government to speak of, and the magistrates , who could have organised resistance, were mostly conservative landowners. Moreover, these Tory landowners had taken to apprenticing their sons to Manchester merchants, so
8099-526: Was the first baron of Manchester. Although the Gresle family did not reside at the manor, Manchester continued to grow in their absence and stewards represented the lords of the manor. Manchester's entry in the Domesday Book reads "the Church of St Mary and the Church of St Michael hold one carucate of land in Manchester exempt from all customary dues except tax". St Mary's Church was an Anglo-Saxon church on
8190-431: Was the starting place of a rebellion by Adam Banastre. Banastre, Henry de Lea, and William de Bradshagh rebelled against Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster . The medieval town's defences incorporated the rivers Irk and Irwell on two sides and a 450-yard (410 m) long ditch on the others. The ditch, known as Hanging Ditch, was up to 40 yards (37 m) wide and 40 yards (37 m) deep. It was spanned by Hanging Bridge ,
8281-414: Was then the settlement of Manchester. Etymological evidence indicates that the areas to the north west of Manchester (such as Eccles and Chadderton ) were British while the parts of Manchester (such as Clayton , Gorton and Moston ) were Anglian , and the south west of Manchester was Danish (including Cheadle Hulme , Davyhulme , Hulme and Levenshulme ). Between the 6th and 10th centuries,
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