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. In medieval times it was a dependency of the capital manor of Salford, becoming a trading centre within an agricultural community, and during the Civil War was strongly parliamentarian, although some prominent local families remained stubbornly catholic. 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. New production methods and transport facilities (e. g. Bridgwater canal) greatly increased output, and the merchants and manufacturers began to organize a factory system. Population expansion from immigrants attracted by employment opportunities resulted in social and political problems because of the conflict between a still feudally run market town (enfranchised only in 1832) and a burgeoning industrial centre. 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. Prosperous, confident, and progressive, the merchant princes of Victorian Manchester invested in bricks and mortar, railways, and the ship canal, but the smoke pushed residents into the suburbs; its commercialization attracted accusations of philistinism, and poverty and squalor persisted. Home of the Manchester Guardian, Victoria University, and the Hallé Orchestra, it was a city of enormous vitality in its cultural and intellectual life. After the decline of cotton, the huge variety of engineering projects and distributive trades helped maintain it as a regional and metropolitan centre, with less air pollution, but service industries are replacing these in their turn, and it remains a city in transition. The metropolitan area as a whole has become a magnet for Commonwealth immigrants into Britain.

A. S. Hargreaves

Manchester City on the River Irwell, forming a metropolitan district in the Greater Manchester urban area, nw England. In ad 79, the the Romans occupied the Celtic town, renaming it Mancunium. The textile industry (now in decline) dates back to the 14th century. In 1830, the world's first passenger railway was constructed between Liverpool and Manchester. In 1894 the Manchester Ship Canal opened, providing the city with its own access to the sea. In 1838, Manchester was incorporated as a borough. Modern Manchester has a diverse manufacturing base, including chemicals, pharmaceuticals, printing and publishing. It is the major financial centre of n England. Pop. (1994) 431,061.

Manchester an industrial city in northern England.
Manchester Martyrs three Fenians, William O'Meara Allen, Michael Larkin, and William O'Brien, who were hanged at Manchester in 1867, for their part in the rescue of Thomas Kelly and Timothy Deasy, two leading Fenians, in the course of which a police sergeant was shot dead.
what Manchester says today, the rest of England says tomorrow proverbial saying, late 19th century, occurring in a variety of forms; in its historical context, the Corn Law, restricting the importation of foreign corn, was abolished in 1846, and Manchester (formerly part of Lancashire), considered the home of free trade, was in the forefront of the campaign against restrictive legislation.