Manchester

Manchester Sited where natural routes crossed and bridges could be maintained, the Roman military station Mamucium or Mancunium controlled the Brigantes, while acting as a supply base. Encouraged by the moist atmosphere, soft water, and nearby coal supplies, local textile industries so flourished that Manchester became their chief commercial centre as well as a manufacturing and finishing site. Crowded, makeshift dwellings and dangerous sanitary conditions underlay a strong working‐class radical movement and the so‐called ‘Peterloo massacre’ (1819), but unemployment and Luddism were tempered by the rise of trade unionism and methodism. Belief in free trade prompted Cobden and Bright to push for the repeal of the Corn Laws, and the city's political temper began to harden into Liberalism. Home of the Manchester Guardian, Victoria University, and the Hallé Orchestra, it was a city of enormous vitality in its cultural and intellectual life.