The Rise of Manchester

The War Series: Cities under Fire

It has only been in the past three years, where our attention is drawn to every strange event or odd activity, that we start to question what exactly has been going on in our Cities. To understand what is happening today it is necessary to delve back in to the history, religion, politics, geography, society and even structure of these places.

From Romans to Magna Carta

Manchester, the model of devolution for modern day governance, was a suprisingly small town until the 1800’s. The population numbered just 10,000 at the start of the 1700’s, 89,000 at the start of the 1800’s and 700,000 by 1901 according to ‘Manchester in the 19th Century’, by Emma Griffin (2014). Manchester was only granted City status in April 1853.

Romans built a small fort at the confluence of the Rivers Irwell and Medlock. The settlement that grew around this original fort position, stood at the junctures of three kingdoms: Northumbria, Mercia and Wessex. In the early 1000’s it was divided in to fiefdoms, governed indirectly by landowners through the employment of stewards.

In 1017 Ranulph was granted the lands and Lordship of Tray-ford to the west of Manchester after the invasion by King Cnut of Norway. Tray-ford became Trafford and Ranulph was titled Lord of Trafford, building a manor with moat defenses on the lands. He fought against William the Conqueror’s man Sir Hamo de Massey, at Tay Bridge in 1070. Eventually the two families merged by marriage, creating a large estate.

The settlement of Manchester became part of a much bigger administration, called the Hundred of Salford, which stretched from Rochdale and Bolton in the North and Ashton to Eccles in the south. Manchester made use of the rivers Irk and Irwell and two long ditches, one called Nico Ditch, as defenses, incorporating what were known as plough-lands, which belonged to the churches of the Manor of Manchester. The high lands of the Rossendale plateau sit to the north and the Pennines to the east. Rivers converging from these higher lands to the plains below would have created marsh lands, before they were claimed for farming and establishment of the town.

In late 1100’s Robert de Gresle (Grelley) brought in masons and carpenters to construct his Manor house. He, together with other Barons, made King John sign the Magna Carta, which brought King John under the law of the land, curbing his exploits abroad and exploitation of the baronies. This document was seen as temporary by King John and the agreement only lasted three months. As a result of his involvement, Gresle was made to forfeit his lands, which were returned to him on King John’s death.

Thomas de la Warre, a priest and Baron, founded the Collegiate Church and built Manchester Cathedral as part of the collegiate in 1421, on the site of an old Saxon Church. This was 120 years after Manchester received its town charter. What is now Chetham’s Library and Chetham’s School of Music, was built to house the Collegiate Church priests and dates from 1420. Today this complex sits just to the south of the AO arena and Victoria Station and the Cathedral sits below that. They line this section of the bank of the River Irwell.