Cotton Waterway - 100 Years of Manchester and its Ship Canal
A hundred years ago the greatest civil engineering feat of the late Victorian age linked the Irish sea with the town that had become an international symbol of modern industrialisation. Douglas Farnie traces the interaction between a waterway and the economic and industrial fortunes of the North West and its 'Cottonopolis'.
Modern Manchester has for long served as a touchstone for different views of the world, polarising opinion between the critics of the city and its apologists. One keen debate between the city's defenders and its opponents was provoked by the projection in 1882 of the Manchester Ship Canal. The construction of that waterway was an achievement without any precedent in British history. It was, however, one thoroughly consonant with the history of a town which had been transformed by the advent of a new industry into a unique centre of business enterprise.
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