Böcker av Paul Hindle

A fascinating collection of images showing how Prestwich and Whitefield have changed across the last century.

A pocket-sized, illustrated history tour around Salford highlighting places of interest and showing how the town has changed across the centuries.

Salford is often seen as the smaller twin of Manchester, its neighbour across the River Irwell. In fact, Salford was a borough long before Manchester achieved that status, but even in the 1530s John Leland described it as 'a large suburb to Manchester'. However, during the Industrial Revolution, Manchester grew more rapidly than Salford, although together they were the first 'shock city' of the industrial age, described in graphic detail by writers such as de Tocqueville and Engels. While Manchester city centre became the area's commercial heart, Salford was relegated to the periphery. It certainly had its grim areas, described by Ewan McColl: 'I met my love by the gas works wall, dreamed a dream by the old canal/I kissed my girl by the factory wall, dirty old town, dirty old town.' However, today's Salford is an up and- coming area, home to Media City. This book presents a photographic tour through central Salford, ending up on the 'old canal'.

The canal received its Act of Parliament in 1791, and was opened from Bolton and Bury to Salford in 1797. The canal never reached Manchester. It was connected to the River Irwell in 1808 and to the rest of the canal system in 1838. The canal is just over 15 miles long, and has three arms radiating out from Nob End in Little Lever; all seventeen locks are on the Salford arm. The canal principally carried coal, and there were over 6 miles of tramways linked to it. As the collieries closed, the canal followed between 1924 and 1966, though the massive breach near Nob End in 1936 cut off the Bury arm. A canal society was formed in 1987 to restore the canal, and the first length was reopened in Salford in 2008. The society built a unique Meccanostyle bridge at Little Lever in 2012.

Starting with the basic concept of a 'road' in medieval times, and discussing the increasing need to travel, this book explores the evidence from documents and maps that provide clues as to where the roads of medieval Britain led, connecting the study of individual roads together to paint an image of the broader road network.