Cottonopolis

A visit to the Museum of Science and Industry to see the magnificence of the machines which powered Manchester's early development into one of the great centres of industry. Although this came at a cost to many working class people who found themselves expendable in the factories and building of infrastructure. This steam powered spinning loom would be cleaned by the hands of children as young as five years old, often orphans that the factory owners had given the opportunity of work to. The machines would not be stopped as this would have cost money, many perished or were maimed as a result of this work. Others prospered and continued to earn a living into adulthood in the textile industry were jobs were plentiful for a time.

The term Cottonopolis became synonymous with Manchester as a plethora of cotton mills powered by water turning machinery were built. In 1781 Richard Arkwright opened the world's first steam-driven textile mill on Miller Street, Manchester. The arrival of steam power signified the beginning of a level of mechanisation that was to further enhance the burgeoning textile industries into the world's first centre of mass production. As textile manufacture switched from the home to purpose built large factories, beside fast-flowing streams (for water power), Manchester and the surrounding towns in south and east Lancashire became the largest and most productive cotton spinning centre in the world.

Ancoats was part of a planned expansion of Manchester and became the first industrial suburb centred on steam power. There were mills whose architectural innovations included fireproofing by use of iron and stone.

The number of cotton mills in Manchester peaked at 108 in 1853. Although the number of mills in Manchester subsequently declined, cotton mills were opened in in the surrounding towns, Bury, Oldham (at its zenith the most productive cotton spinning town in the world, Rochdale, Bolton (known for a time as "Cotton Town") and farther afield around Blackburn, Darwen, Rawtenstall, Todmorden and Burnley.

Following the downturn of 1883, city industrialists embarked upon the monumental and hugely expensive task of constructing the Manchester Ship Canal in an effort to boost trade. This led to new mills being built in the suburbs, such as the vast Victoria Mill at Miles Platting, the site of the last cotton mill built in Manchester in 1924.

All gone now of course, but great to see the history of the city and the machines that powered it - another recommended day out :)