Pre-industrial Manchester:

The city of Manchester was originally of Roman origins. The Romans built a fort near the junction of the Irwell and Medlock rivers named fort Mancurian that served as a minor way - station for the network of roads they established on the territory which today is the area of Northwest England. A town subsequently developed around the fort, consisting of a castle and a church, which designated the emerging town as a religious headquarters.

By the early to mid - middle ages Manchester had begun to develop a cotton and textile industry. It's designation as a town for trade and commerce during this time was based largely on local climate, topography (flatness of the land), and the surrounding soil. By 1292, a trade had been established in linen and wool laying the groundwork for the later development of the city as a "cottonopolis." By the end of the 16^th century, the town had expanded into the production of other fabrics including flax and cotton as well as wool and linen.

While Manchester was a continued place of trade and commerce and saw population growth and the development of urban buildings, it remained a relatively small center until the late 18^th century, which saw the invention of more reliable forms of transportation, allowing for expansion.

1750 - 1840

By the second half of the 18^th century Manchester had attained the status of a major provincial center. The first full-scale cotton mill was opened in 1776 by a Mr. N. Hall on the banks of the river Tame and soon after many similar mills began opening in the areas north and East of the city. These mills largely benefited from local sheep stock and access to natural waterpower. The invention of the flying shuttle (1733), the spinning Jenny (1764), and the spinning mule (1779), added to the growth of industry in the area. The machine based manufacture of cotton and the emergence of these cotton mills led to a demand for space for factories, warehouses, and mills. As a result of this demand, fringe valleys and existing residential areas of the city were transformed into commercial quarters.

The size of the labor force employed in the cotton trade in the region grew during this time and population jumped from 17,000 in 1760 to 180,000 in 1830. A large portion of the expanding population resulted from migration which gave Manchester a sense of cultural diversity that set it apart from other more homogenous areas in the region. The migrants consisted mostly of the workless poor who settled in or near the city center with certain localities being colonized by certain groups. "Little Ireland" was the largest settlement of migrants at this time. The rapid growth of export trade during this time was aided by this cheap and abundant supply of labor. The growth of an export trade of cotton products was also aided by Manchester's access to the developing regional system of canals and waterways.

1830 saw the opening of the Manchester - Liverpool railway which was the first passenger rail service in the world. By the mid 19^th century, Manchester had become a central terminal for rail lines crossing between most of the manufacturing towns and cities of the North of England. The city became connected up with other centers of industry and population and Manchester served as a major regional and national center of transportation. Manchester emerged at this time as the heart of an industrial region and became known as "the first industrial city."

1840 - 1900

Manchester was known as the 'shock city' of the 1840's. During this time it grew at a very fast pace, rapidly putting up a new landscape of mills, warehouses, and commercial offices. During the mid- nineteenth century, while cotton remained the major economic good, Manchester's manufacturing base began to diversify and other markets were stimulated including metals, engineering, transport, and chemicals. The urban core became specialized and by the 1880's spinning and weaving moved from the city of Manchester to it's surrounding towns.

Physically the towns grew closer together as well; as industry grew, the space between Manchester and the surrounding towns (including Stockport, Oldham, Rochdale, Bolton, and Salford) shrank. The conurbation emerged as a result of this with Manchester at the center. This resulted in an expansion of the city's financial and commercial services and the area became the largest manufacturing center in the world as well as Britain's largest urban region (except for the city of London).

1900 - 1950

In the early 20^th century Manchester covered a much larger area than it had in 1850. Municipalities had grown and formerly independent surrounding townships had become more a part of the conurbation. At the same time, during this period Manchester experienced major decentralization trends with suburban growth and inner city decline occurring simultaneously. This period saw little population growth or decline in the overall conurbation, but there was a large amount of internal readjustment taking place. Economically the Greater Manchester region was also changing as industrial decline began to effect the area. Between the two World Wars employment in textiles was halved and the export of cotton goods fell to 1/5 of their pre-war levels. Factories began to shut down and relocate, increased technology led to job displacement, and the Northwest of England saw a massive industrial decline. 1939 saw a huge decline of the cotton industry, and by the 1950's there was an almost universal collapse of mill production.

While the city core was able to maintain and grow due to a broad employment base and some remaining manufacturing work, the spinning and weaving towns of the conurbation lost a lot of work and a huge number of jobs. As work was lost in these periphery towns but remained and expanded in the center, people began to travel to the city to work and the conurbation became an area of continuos and congruent urbanization as it became closely integrated as a uniform labor market.

While people retained some hope that new technologically advanced manufacturing would take over with the decline of the old industries, this was not the case. By 1950 industrial decline was evident and Manchester had lost its hold on its economic base and began to take on the appearance of what would come to be known as the "deindustrialized city."

1950 - 1980

The crisis in mass manufacturing that effected the Northwest region of England began in the 1950's and continued to accelerate throughout the 1970's and 1980's. The worst affected areas were concentrated in an inner ring of suburbs surrounding the CBD. Between 1951 and 1981 the inner city lost over 52% of its inhabitants and the rate of unemployment grew. By 1981 inner city unemployment was over 20% and the area was covered with rundown housing, industrial wasteland, abandoned factories, and out of work residents. 207,000 manufacturing jobs were lost in Manchester between 1972-1984 and the service economy did not provide enough replacement jobs to secure employment for the majority of those displaced by deindustrialization.

By the early 1980's there was also a slowing down and then relative decline of retail activity in the commercial core of the city and a reduction in the rate of growth of office activities. Employment in the center fell, intensifying the problems of poverty and unemployment affecting the entire surrounding area. By 1981 Manchester was employing only 31,400 people in the textile trades declining to 21,200 in 1989; the textile industry was now only the 15^th largest industrial sector in the Greater Manchester region.