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Manchester and Salford (Ancoats, Castlefield and Worsley)

Property names are listed in the language in which they have been submitted by the State Party.

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (Europe and North America)
Date of Submission: 21/06/1999
Criteria: (ii)(iii)(iv)
Category: Cultural
Submitted by: Dep. For Culture, Media and Sport Buildings, Monuments and Sites
Coordinates: Long. 2°18'53" W / Lat. 53°27'88" Greater Manchester, England
Ref.: 1316

Description

Manchester is the archetype city of the Industrial Revolution. It witnessed the creation of Britain’s first industrial 'true' canal, Britain's first mainline, inter-city passenger railway and the country's first industrial suburb based on steam power; it is on these three themes that the proposed World Heritage Site designation concentrates. Thus, the city centre itself, which is arguably the finest expression of a Victorian commercial district in England, complements the present nomination but is not included within the boundary of the proposed Site. The areas proposed for inclusion focus on these three themes and are linked to each other by the Bridgewater and Rochdale Canals. The proposed Site comprises the hillside of Worsley Delph and the western half of the Worsley Village Conservation Area focussed on the Bridgewater Canal, and then follows the canal to the Barton Swing Aqueduct in the Bartonupon-lrwell Conservation Area, before looping round Strettord to enter the Castlefield Conservation Area, much of which is included in the Site. It then follows the Rochdale Canal from Castlefield Basin to Ancoats, widening to include the two canal warehouses east of Dale Street and the south western part of Ancoats Conservation Area. Industrial canals, as opposed to strategic canals in continental Europe, were pioneered in Britain. The Bridgewater Canal, which opened to Manchester in 1765, was the first true industrial canal cutting across country and, with an aqueduct at Barton, James Brindley, its engineer, carried it spectacularly over the area's main existing navigation, the River Irwell. The Canal's success in bringing cheap coal to fuel the emerging industries in Manchester was widely recognised at the time, and over the next 30 years led to the development of a national network of such canals. The Basin at Worsley Delph gave access through two entrances in the quarried face to a system of underground canals, which at their peak totalled 46 miles (74 kms) on three levels and was the most extensive such underground system in the country. The surface expression of this system is limited to the basin at Worsley and the immediate landscape above the core of the mine. Worsley is the centrepiece of the "Steam, Coal and Canal" project which seeLs to create a Linear Industrial Heritage Park along the Bridgewater Canal from Leigh to Castlefield. The Manchester terminus - the Castlefield Basin with its warehouses pierced by bargeholes for covered loading - became a model for canal basins across the country. After a period of dereliction, the area of canal arms and basins, criss-crossed by a wonderful landscape of soaring railway viaducts, has been restored under an urban regeneration programme, and with its converted warehouses has now become a focus for leisure and entertainment. The Rochdale Canal, which connects with the Bridgewater Canal at Castlefield, was the first canal to cross the Pennines, opening throughout in 1804. Its line through Manchester was festooned with branches serving wharfs and individual cotton mills, and some of the largest of these branches served the industrial suburb of Ancoats which had developed from 1794 in expectation of the arrival of the canal. The industrialisation of Ancoats was intense and dramatic even by Manchester's own standards, so that by 1849 it was stated that "Ancoats...is to Manchester what Manchester is to England". Some very important cotton mills, demonstrating significant advances in the use of constructional iron, survive in the Ancoats Conservation Area and they are being restored under an area regeneration partnership. The third element in the development of Castlefield was the arrival of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in 1830. George Stephenson's line crossed the River Irwell by an impressive skew-arched masoury bridge to the north of the canal basin and its terminus, the oldest mainline station in the world, survives in Liverpool Road backed by the impressive ranges of the earliest custom-built railway warehouses in the world. The Grade I Listed station building, with its quasi-domestic appearance, contrasts strongly with later, grander, mainline termini emphasising the pioneer nature of its design. Nevertheless, it introduced the concept of separate facilities for different classes of passenger and the internal layout of the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester preserves the distinctions. The Liverpool and Manchester Railway was a spectacular commercial success which served as a model for railway entrepreneurs throughout Europe and in North America. Locally, it was soon followed by other lines, and many of these cross the Castlefield area on impressive metal viaducts which, when they are reflected in the canal basins below, impart a spectacular aspect to the area. Contemporary notice of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway focussed on the structures at either end and on the Sankey Viaduct where it crossed the St Helens Canal. The termini and the Sankey Viaduct became icons for the new method of transport and thus, as much of the Liverpool end has gone, the features at the Liverpool Road Station and its approaches in Manchester, with the Sankey Viaduct, encapsulate the line. Boundaries The proposed Site starts at The Delph, Worsley where the Bridgewater Canal emerges from the underground colliery canal system. It includes the southern part of the Conservation Area bounded by the southern side of Worsley Road to include the Green and its associated houses, and south to where the Canal leaves the Conservation Area. It then follows the southern bank of the Canal and its western arm to join the western boundary of the Area. The proposed Site then comprises the Bridgewater Canal itself, broadening at Barton to include that part of the Conservation Area to the east of Barton Road containing the Swing Aqueduct with its island and swing bridge, the canal cottages south of the aqueduct and the surviving abutment of Brindley's original aqueduct, and thence on to Manchester where it enters the Castlefield Conservation Area. It broadens to include the canal arms and basins bounded by the River Medlock to the north west and Egerton Street to the west picking up the Conservation Area boundary to the east of the church and thence to Deansgate. To the north west it follows the railway viaduct, over Water Street to the River Irwell, includes the railway bridges over the Irwell. The railway structures in the Castlefield area are included, but the track itself and related operational infrastructure such as signalling, cabling etc is excluded. The boundary continues along the eastern bank of the river past the canal entrance lock and the warehouses converted into an hotel to New Quay Street, back along the east side of Water Street broadening to take in the Grape Street Railway Warehouse, the 1830 Liverpool Road Warehouses and Station, continuing behind the warehouses over Lower Byrom Street, along Tonman Street to meet the Conservation Area boundary at Deansgate. The proposed Site then continues as the Rochdale Canal to Dale Street where it widens to include the former canal basin with its two warehouses and the underground waterwheel which drove hoists in adjacent warehouses. North-east of the basin it follows the canal to the Ancoats Conservation Area where it follows the Conservation Area boundaries to include the southern two thirds of the Area terminating at a line which follows Radium Street and then south to Bengal Street.