Manchester - Usher Heritage

Manchester (MCR)

Manchester is a city in North West England and the fifth largest city in the United Kingdom.It is a city and metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England.

Manchester is a very important city in England, and is often called the “Capital of the North“.Manchester has many places for the arts, places for learning, businesses providing media as well as lots of shops.It has two well-known football teams, Manchester United and Manchester City.

The town of Manchester was granted a charter in 1301 by Thomas de Grelley, Baron of Manchester, who was also the Lord of the Manor of Manchester.

Manchester remained a small market town until the late 18th century and the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. It was also the first ‘industrialised’ city, meaning that it was the first city to have a big amount of industry in it ;all thanks to the Industrial Revolution. It became the main place for making cloth and fabric.During the 19th century it had the nickname Cottonopolis,because it had so many cotton mills. In the 1800s, Manchester became most important cotton town in the world.The city has many canals and rivers which were important to its growth, especially in the 18th and 19th centuries.

In 1853 the Borough was elevated to city status. In 1885 further areas were added to the City of Manchester with Bradford, Harpurhey, Rusholme and parts of Moss Side and Withington townships.

Interesting Facts

In 1830, Manchester was at the forefront of transport technology with 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.

Manchester became the first city in the UK to get a new tram system when the Manchester Metrolink opened in 1992.

Trafford Park in Stretford (outside the city boundaries) was the world’s first industrial estate and still exists today, though with a significant tourist and recreational presence.

Manchester Airportis the third largest airport in the United Kingdom.The airport has the most passengers in the UK outside London, with 22.1 million passengers in 2007. Planes fly to lots of destinations in Europe, North America, the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East and Asia (with more destinations from Manchester than from London Heathrow).

The University of Manchester is the largest university in the UK. Manchester has the most students in the United Kingdom in term time.The University of Manchester, created in 2004 when Victoria University of Manchester and UMIST were combined, is the largest full-time non-collegiate university in the United Kingdom.The Manchester Business School,now known as the Alliance Manchester Business School at the University of Manchester, was the first school to offer an MBA course in the United Kingdom in 1965.

The introduction to Manchester cannot be complete without the Manchester Bee.The Manchester worker bee is one of the best-known symbols of Manchester and has been an emblem for the city for over 150 years. The bee denotes Mancunians’ hard work ethic and the city being a hive of activity. It has also come to represent the sense of unity of the great city.