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Salford lies at the heart of the City of Salford, a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, in North West England. Salford is located by a meander of the River Irwell, which forms its boundary with the city of Manchester to the east. Together with neighbouring towns to the west, Salford forms the local government district of the City of Salford, which is administered from neighbouring Swinton. The borough of Salford, which spanned Broughton, Pendleton and Kersal, was granted city status in 1926, and today has a total resident population of 72,750 and an area of .
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Encyclopedia
Salford lies at the heart of the City of Salford, a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, in North West England. Salford is located by a meander of the River Irwell, which forms its boundary with the city of Manchester to the east. Together with neighbouring towns to the west, Salford forms the local government district of the City of Salford, which is administered from neighbouring Swinton. The borough of Salford, which spanned Broughton, Pendleton and Kersal, was granted city status in 1926, and today has a total resident population of 72,750 and an area of . The wider City of Salford district has a population of 219,200.
Historically a part of Lancashire, Salford's early history is marked by its status as a Royal caput and the judicial seat of the ancient hundred of Salfordshire, to which it lends its name. It was granted a charter by Ranulf de Blondeville, 6th Earl of Chester, about 1230 which made Salford a free borough. During the early stages of its growth, Salford was of greater cultural and commercial importance than its neighbour Manchester, although most contemporary sources agree that since the Industrial Revolution this position has been reversed.
Salford became a major factory town and inland port during the 18th and 19th centuries. Cotton and silk spinning and weaving in local mills attracted an influx of families and provided Salford with a strong economy. Salford Docks was a principal dockyard of the Manchester Ship Canal. By the end of the 19th century Salford had an enlarged working class community and suffered from chronic overpopulation. Industrial activities declined during the 20th century however, causing a local economic depression. The city subsequently became one of contrasts, with regenerated inner-city areas like Salford Quays next to some of the most socially deprived and violent areas in England.
Salford Cathedral is the centre of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Salford and the city today is a centre of higher education, being the location of the University of Salford. Salford is the home of the world's first unconditionally free public library. It also has the first street in the world to be lit by gas, Chapel Street in 1806. Salford is set to become the headquarters of CBBC and BBC Sport in 2011.
History
Toponymy
The name of Salford derives from the Old English word Sealhford, meaning a ford by the willow trees. It referred to the willows (Latin: salix) or sallows that grew alongside the banks of the River Irwell. The ford was about where Victoria Bridge is today. Willow trees are still found in Lower Broughton. Salford appears in the pipe roll of 1169 as "Sauford" and in the Lancashire Inquisitions of 1226 as "Sainford".
Early history
was a Royal Manor of Anglo-Saxon origin centred on the demesne of Salford.]]
The earliest known evidence of human activity in what is now Salford is attested by the discovery of Neolithic flint arrow-heads and workings on both Kersal Moor and the River Irwell. These imply habitation 7–10,000 years ago. The discovery of ancient archaeological relics during the excavation of the Manchester Ship Canal and in the grounds of Broughton Hall has provided evidence of Bronze Age and Celtic activity.
The Brigantes were the major Celtic tribe in what is now northern England. With a stronghold at the sandstone outcrop on which Manchester Cathedral now stands, opposite Salford's original centre, their territory extended across the fertile lowland by the River Irwell that is now Salford and Stretford. Following the Roman conquest of Britain, General Agricola ordered the construction of a Roman fort named Mamucium to protect the routes to Deva Victrix and Eboracum from the Brigantes. The fort was completed in in AD 79, and for four hundred years the Pax Romana brought peace to the area, but their withdrawal in AD 410 left the Brigantes at the mercy of the Saxons. The Danes later conquered the area and absorbed what was left of the Brigantes.Angles settled in the region during the Early Middle Ages and gave the locality the name Sealhford. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Sealhford was part of the Kingdom of Northumbria until it was conquered by Edward the Elder. After the emergence of the united Kingdom of England, Salford became a caput or central manor within a broad rural area in part held by the Kings of England, including Edward the Confessor. This area, between the rivers Mersey and Ribble, became the Hundred of Salford, a division of land administered from Salford for military and judicial purposes.
After the defeat of Edward the Confessor during the Norman conquest of England, William I granted the Hundred of Salford to Roger the Poitevin, and in the Domesday Book of 1086 the Hundred of Salford was recorded as covering an area of with a population of 35,000. Poitevin created the subordinate Manor of Manchester out of the hundred, which has since in local government been separate from Salford. Poitevin forfeited the manor in 1102 when he was defeated in a failed rebellion attempt against Henry I. In around 1115, for their support during the rebellion, Henry I placed the Hundred of Salford under the control of the Earldom of Lancaster, and it is from this exchange that the Hundred of Salford became a Royal Manor. The Lord of the Manor was either the English monarch, or else a great overlord. During the reign of Henry II the Royal Manor of Salford passed to Ranulf de Gernon, 4th Earl of Chester, and in 1228, the caput of Salford was granted the right to hold a market and an annual fair from Henry III. The Earls of Chester aided the development of the caput, and in 1230 Ranulf de Blondeville, 6th Earl of Chester made Salford a burgage, or free borough. The charter gave its burgesses certain commercial rights, privileges and advantages over traders living beyond Salford.
The burgage status of Salford encouraged an influx of distinguished families to the area, and by the Late Middle Ages Salford was "rich in its manor houses", with over 30 within a radius of Ordsall. These included Ordsall Hall (owned by the Radclyffe family) and Broughton Hall, owned by the Earls of Derby.
Information about Salford through the Tudor period and beyond is available from the surviving volumes of the Portmote Records. "1601 Oct 03 - A tusellment made ye 3rd of October betwixt Robert Tetlow and Mr Dainsford man and James Hilton and no blud shed."
During the English Civil War Salford was a Royalist territory. The unsuccessful siege of Roundhead-stronghold Manchester was conducted from the Salford side of the River Irwell. A century later Salford was noted as Jacobite territory; its inhabitants supported Charles Edward Stuart to the Throne of England. In November, during the Second Jacobite Rebellion, Salford hosted Stuart on his ride through the area.
Industrial Revolution
turned Salford into a major inland port along the ocean-going Manchester Ship Canal.]]
Salford has a history of textile processing that pre-dates the Industrial Revolution. Before the introduction of cotton there was a considerable trade in woollen goods and fustians. Other cottage industries prevalent at this time included clogging, cobbling, weaving and brewing. The changes to Textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution had a profound effect on both on population and urbanisation, as well as the socioeconomic and cultural conditions of Salford.
The well-established textile processing and trading infrastructure and the ready supply of water from the River Irwell and its tributaries, attracted entrepreneurs to the region. They built cotton mills along the banks of the river in Pendleton and Ordsall. One of the first factories to be built was Philips and Lee's Salford Twist Mill. This was completed in 1801 and was only the second iron framed multi-story building to be built in Britain. Although Salford followed a similar pattern of industrial development to Manchester, most businesses preferred to build their premises on the Manchester side of the Irwell, and consequently, Salford did not evolve as a commercial centre in the same way as it's neighbour.
Canal building gave a further stimulus to Salford's industrial development. The opening of the Bridgewater Canal in 1761 improved the transport of fuel and raw materials, bringing down the price of coal by approximately fifty percent. The later Manchester, Bolton & Bury Canal (which terminated at Salford) brought more cheap coal from pits at Pendleton and Agecroft Colliery. By 1818 Manchester, Salford and Eccles had about 80 mills, however it was the construction of the Manchester Ship Canal in 1894 which facilitated Salford's development as a major inland port. Salford Docks, a major dockland on the Ship Canal east of the Irish Sea, brought employment to over 3,000 labourers. From these docks, locally-produced goods were shipped all over the world.
With increased competition from the towns of Bolton and Oldham, Salford's cotton spinning industries faltered, and so its economy turned increasingly to other textiles and to the finishing trades, including rexine and silk dyeing, and fulling and bleaching, at a string of works in Salford. For centuries in Salford, textiles and related trades were the main source of employment.
Both Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels spent time in Salford, studying the plight of the British working class. In The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844, Engels described Salford as "really one large working-class quarter ...[a] very unhealthy, dirty and dilapidated district which, while other industries were almost always textile related is situated opposite the 'Old Church' of Manchester".
Salford developed several civic institutions; in 1806, Chapel Street became the first street in the world to be lit by gas (supplied by Phillips and Lee's cotton mill). In 1850, under the terms of the Museums Act 1845, the municipal borough council established the The Royal Museum & Public Library, said to have been the first unconditional free public library in England, preceding the Public Libraries Act 1850.
The effect on Salford of the Industrial Revolution has been described as "phenomenal". The area expanded from a small market town into a major industrial metropolis; factories replaced cottage industries, and the population of rose from 12,000 in 1812 to 70,244 within 30 years. By the end of the 19th century it had increased to 220,000. Large-scale building of low quality Victorian terraced housing did not stop overcrowding, which itself lead to chronic social deprivation. The density of housing was as high as 80 homes per acre.
Post-industrial decline
s in the city replacing many of Salford's former Victorian slums.]]
has identified Salford as having areas with terraced housing unsuited to modern needs.]]
During the early 20th century, improvements in regional transport infrastructure precipitated the decline of Salford's existing industries, including those at the Salford Docks. Increased foreign competition began to undermine the competitiveness of local textile processing businesses. Rising unemployment during the Great Depression of the 1920s and 30s, and a significant economic decline in the decades following the Second World War contributed toward a fall in Salford's population. By 1939 local coal mining had almost stopped, and cotton spinning had by 1971 ceased completely. Each of the post war decades witnessed population decline of over 10%, far greater than the rate of decline within the whole of North West England.
A survey in 1931 concluded that parts of Salford were amongst the worst slums in the country. Many houses were infested by rats and lacked elementary amenities. Inspectors found that of 950 houses surveyed, 257 were in a state of bad repair with leaking roofs, broken flooring and rotten woodwork. The inspectors were "struck by the courage and perseverance with which the greater number of tenants kept their houses clean and respectable under most adverse conditions". By 1933 slum clearance projects were under way, and by the end of 1956 over a thousand families had been rehoused in overspill estates at Little Hulton. These clearances have, for some, changed the character of the area to such an extent that "observers in search of the typical Salford may have to look in Eccles and Swinton, for much of the community and townscape ... has gone from Salford, replaced by tall blocks of flats". Large areas of the city were re-developed in the 1960s and 1970s, with Victorian era terraced housing estates that inspired painter L. S. Lowry and soap opera Coronation Street giving way to concrete tower blocks and austere architecture.
Despite extensive redevelopment, throughout the 1980s and 1990s the area experienced chronic poverty, deprivation and unemployment. This social deprivation lead to increased levels of gang crime linked to illegal narcotics, firearms, and robberies. Organised crime in Salford, particularly in Ordsall and Pendleton, "began to have a disturbing effect on grass roots democracy. Both the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives announced they would not contest certain Salford wards" because they regarded them as "unsafe" and would put their "party workers at risk". Salford's social amenities and the night-time economy folded amid criminal "intimidation", "drug use, fights and demands for money". In early 2005, the Government of Latvia appealed to the European Union to advise people against travelling to Salford after a Latvian man was stabbed in the head in Lower Broughton. However, a crackdown by Greater Manchester Police coupled with investment in, and structural changes to the housing stock, began the change in Salford's fortunes; population decline has slowed, and Salford's city councillors have insisted it is a safe place to visit. In August 2005, a survey by Channel 4 television rated the city as the 9th worst place to live in the United Kingdom, based on criteria of crime, education, environment, lifestyle and employment.
Regeneration
's forthcoming mediacity:uk. Urban renewal in Salford has been focussed around Salford Quays.]]
Salford has had high-levels of unemployment, housing and social problems since around the 1960s, though there are regeneration schemes to reverse its fortunes. Many of the high-rise housing blocks from the 1960s and 1970s were demolished during the 1990s, "a sign that the great social engineering schemes [from that period] had failed". However, the high-rises that remain are a striking feature of Salford's landscape. Work was scheduled to begin on the £180 million redevelopment of the Greengate area of Salford in January 2007. The plans include the construction of what will be the two tallest tower blocks in Salford. Plans also include a five-star hotel, a new public square and park, restaurants, cafes and 403 apartments. Work is ongoing to regenerate the area known as Middlewood Locks, with the restored Salford end of the Manchester, Bolton & Bury Canal forming the centrepiece of a brand new residential development.
Salford was identified in 2002 as one of nine areas in specific need of investment for new homes. Between 2003 and 2006, Salford received £115M, £44M of which was invested in central Salford. Rows of terraces in neighbourhoods such as Seedley and Langworthy—once used for the title sequence of Coronation Street—are being compulsorily purchased, demolished and replaced by "modern sustainable accommodation". Other schemes such as the Charlestown and Lower Kersal New deal for Communities, have concentrated on renovating existing terraced housing stock by block improvement and alleygating, as well as demolishing unsuitable properties and building new facilities, in consultation with the local community.
Salford now has many tourist attractions, such as Ordsall Hall, the Bridgewater Canal and the Lowry Centre, an award-winning theatre and art gallery complex, consisting of two theatres and three art galleries. The centre is named after the artist L. S. Lowry, who attended Salford School of Art and lived in Pendlebury for 40 years. Many of his paintings of Salford and Manchester mill scenes, populated with small matchstick-like figures, are on display.
Governance
Salford was anciently part of the Manchester parish of the Salford Hundred, an area much larger than the present-day city of Salford, within the historic county boundaries of Lancashire. A stroke of a Norman baron's pen is said to have divorced Manchester and Salford, though it was not Salford that became separated from Manchester, it was Manchester, with its humbler line of lords, that was separated from Salford. Salford received its town charter from Ranulf de Blondeville, 6th Earl of Chester, then Lord of the Manor, in 1230. It was not recognised as a borough in the Municipal Corporations Act 1835, but was granted borough status in 1844; the new Salford borough was made up of the township of Salford and part of Broughton. The remainder of Broughton, and a part of Pendlebury, were added in 1853. In 1841, Salford was partly governed by a reeve and two constables, appointed at the hundred courts leet; mention occurs of the boroughreeve in a charter granted to the burgesses in 1231, by the Earl of Chester. These officers, conjointly with certain inhabitants, were empowered by an act passed 1792, to govern and regulate the town; this act, as amended 1830, authorised the reeve, constables, and 120 persons elected by the rate-payers in eight police districts, to govern Salford with the purpose of civic improvement.
When the administrative county of Lancashire was created by the Local Government Act 1888, Salford was elevated to become the County Borough of Salford and was effectively a unitary authority area exempt from the administration of Lancashire County Council. Following a campaign supported by William Joynson-Hicks, Home Secretary and MP for a neighbouring constituency of Manchester, city status was granted to the county borough by letters patent dated 21 April 1926. This was in spite of the opposition of civil servants in the Home Office who dismissed the borough as "merely a scratch collection of 240,000 people cut off from Manchester by the river". In 1961 a small part of the Municipal Borough of Eccles was added to the city, and in 1966, Salford was twinned with Clermont-Ferrand in France.
In 1974 the City and County Borough of Salford was abolished under the Local Government Act 1972, and was replaced by the metropolitan borough of City of Salford, a local government district of the new metropolitan county of Greater Manchester, with triple the territory of the former City of Salford, taking in neighbouring Worsley, Eccles, Swinton and Irlam. Both Salford and the wider City of Salford are unparished areas.
Parliamentary representation
Salford was enfranchised as a parliamentary borough returning a single Member of Parliament (MP) by the Great Reform Act of 1832. From 1868 it returned two MPs to the House of Commons until the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885, when the contituency was split into three single-member divisions: Salford North, Salford South and Salford West. Boundaries changed again under the provisions of the Representation of the People Act 1948 when the constituencies were reorganised into Salford East and Salford West. Since 1997, Salford has lain within the reconstitued Salford parliamentary constituency. Hazel Blears—a member of the Labour Party—has been the MP for the constituency since 1997. For the next United Kingdom general election Salford will be part of the new Salford and Eccles constituency.
Geography
At (53.483°, -2.2931°), and northwest of central London, Salford stands about above sea level, on relatively flat ground to the west of a meander of the River Irwell – the city's main topographical feature. In 1904 Salford was recorded as "within a great loop of the River Irwell ... roughly three quarters of a mile from north to south and one mile from east to west". Salford is contiguous with Manchester, and has been described "in participation of its trade, and for all other practical purposes, an integral part of it; presents a near resemblance to it in streets and edifices; contains several public buildings and a great public park, which belong fully more to Manchester than to itself". Greengate, the original centre of Salford, is located at a fording point on the river opposite Manchester Cathedral. In 1969 Nikolaus Pevsner wrote:
The Irwell, sourced at Cliviger in Lancashire, flows from the north and for a distance forms the statutory boundary between Salford and Manchester. Flooding has historically been a problem and the Irwell has seen much modification along its course in Salford with some bends being removed, channelisation, and the construction of levees and bank reinforcements. Salford has expanded along the river valley to the north and south and on to higher ground on the valley sides at Irlams o' th' Height and Higher Broughton.
Salford's built environment is made up of a range of building stock. Some inner-city areas are noted for chronic urban decay. Salford's housing stock is characterised by an oversupply of older, smaller terraced housing, and flatted accommodation that declined in value during the late-20th century. As demand fell, it left many owners in negative equity and often without the means to
maintain their homes in reasonable condition. As a result, much of the built environment is poor.
The land use in Salford is overwhelmingly urban, with a number of green spaces. The largest of these is Kersal Dale Country Park, which covers approximately . Others include Kersal Moor in Higher Kersal, The Meadow, Peel Park and the adjacent David Lewis Recreation Ground close to the University of Salford and Albert Park and Clowes park in Broughton. The territory of Salford is contiguous with other towns on all sides, and for purposes of the Office for National Statistics, forms the sixth largest settlement of the Greater Manchester Urban Area, the United Kingdom's third largest conurbation. The M602 motorway enters Salford from Eccles to the west. The A580 "East Lancs" road terminates at Salford, entering the area from Swinton. Heavy rail lines pass through Salford.
Salford has no central business district. Kersal is the location of Salford's highest point above sea level.
Demography
| Salford Compared |
|---|
| 2001 UK census | Salford | City of Salford | England | | Total population | 72,750 | 210,145 | 49,138,831 | | White | 93.9% | 96.1% | 91% | | Asian | 1.9% | 1.4% | 4.6% | | Black | 1.2% | 1.2% | 2.3% |
As of the 2001 UK census, Salford had a population of 72,750. The 2001 population density was 9,151 per mi² (3,533 per km²), with a 100 to 98.4 female-to-male ratio. Of those over 16 years age, 44.0% were single (never married) and 36.7% married. Salford's 32,576 households included 44.1% one-person, 22.0% married couples living together, 7.6% were co-habiting couples, and 13.3% single parents with their children. Of those aged 16–74, 37.3% had no academic qualifications, similar to that of 35.5% in all of the City of Salford but significantly higher than 28.9% in all of England. 15.9% of Salford's residents aged 16–74 had an educational qualification such as first degree, higher degree, qualified teacher status, qualified medical doctor, qualified dentist, qualified nurse, midwife, health visitor, etc. compared to 20% nationwide.
As a result of 19th-century industrialisation, Salford has had "a special place in the history of the British working class"; together with Manchester it had the world's "first fully formed industrial working class". The social class of Salford's population has broadly remained as such since this period, although gentrification in the areas immediately adjacent to Manchester city centre and Salford Quays has attracted affluent persons.
Salford has not, in general, attracted the same minority ethnic and cosmopolitan communities as in other parts of Greater Manchester. Salford did attract significant numbers of Irish people in the mid-19th century however. Many migrated to Salford because of The Great Hunger in Ireland combined with Salford's reputation as a hub for employment in its factories and docks. In 1848, Salford Roman Catholic Cathedral opened, reflecting the large Irish-born community in Salford at that time.
In the decades following the Second World War Salford experienced significant population decline. Residents have followed employment opportunities to other locations in Greater Manchester, taking advantage of a greater choice in the type and location of housing.
| Year | 1901 | 1911 | 1921 | 1931 | 1939 | 1951 | 1961 | 1971 | 1981 | 1991 | 2001 |
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| Population | 162,452 | 172,998 | 234,045 | 223,438 | 166,386 | 178,194 | 155,090 | 131,006 | 98,343 | 79,755 | 72,750 |
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County Borough 1901-1971
Urban Subdivision 1981-2001 |
Economy
For decades Salford's economy was heavily dependent on manufacturing industry, especially textiles and engineering. Since World War II however, Salford has experienced decades of growing unemployment as these sectors diminished and new sectors chose to locate in out of town locations with better transport links. Between 1965 and 1991 the City lost over 49,000 jobs, or more than 32% of its employment base. Several factors contributed to this decline, not least changes in the national and international economies, the introduction of new technology and the concentration of investment in London and South East England. The biggest job losses were experienced in Salford's traditional industries and although the service sector expended during this period, it was unable to compensate for the decline in manufacturing.
The inner city's main shopping area is Salford Shopping City, Pendleton – colloquially referred to as 'the Precinct' – close to the University of Salford. However this area suffers from extreme deprivation and is dominated by the central business district that is Manchester city centre. This is planned to change in the next few years with the implementation of the Pendleton Area Action Plan and the development of the pedestrianised and boulevarded A6 Corridor. Salford Quays has been shortlisted as the new possible city centre by 2020.
The city has seen a rise in major construction projects especially at Salford Quays and along the banks of the River Irwell that are shared with Manchester city centre. Residential and office tower blocks have been common.
Salford has regional offices and headquarters for the major corporations of IBM, McDonald's, BUPA and Citifinancial. Lowry Hotel is a five star hotel by the Salford side of the River Irwell.
Salford is credited as the birthplace of the Bush Roller Chain. Hans Renold, a Swiss-born engineer, came to Salford in the late 19th century. In 1879 he purchased a small textile-chain making business in Ordsall from James Slater and founded the Hans Renold Company, what is now Renold, a firm which still produces chains. Renold invented the bush roller chain shortly after and began producing it. It is the type of chain most commonly used for transmission of mechanical power on bicycles, motorcycles, to industrial and agricultural machinery to uses as varied as rollercoasters and escalators.
Landmarks
The public buildings in Salford are "not distinguished for architectural beauty". Salford Old Town Hall, situated in Bexley Square off Chapel Street, is a "neat building of stone", and was designed by Richard Lane.
Ordsall Hall is a historic house and a former stately home in Ordsall. It dates back over 800 years, although the oldest surviving parts of the hall were built in the 15th century. The hall has been put to many uses – a family home, working men's club and school for clergy amongst them – and was opened to the public in 1972, as a period house and local history museum. The hall is a Grade I listed building.
Salford Lads Club is a recreational club established in 1903 and located in Ordsall. It is a listed building and gained international fame in 1986 when the pop band The Smiths posed in front of it for the inside cover of their album The Queen Is Dead. A report by English Heritage said "The building is thought to be the most complete example of this rare form of social provision to survive in
England." In 2007, the Manchester Evening News reported that the club was third in a nationwide hunt to find the most iconic buildings in the country.
Transport
Public transport in Salford is co-ordinated by the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive (GMPTE), a county-wide public body with direct operational responsibilities such as supporting (and in some cases running) local bus services, and managing integrated ticketing in Greater Manchester. Salford City Council is responsible for the administration and maintenance of public roads and footpaths throughout the city.
In 1824 John Greenwood started the first bus operation from Pendleton to Market Street, Manchester.
Salford is served by two railway stations, Salford Central and Salford Crescent. Pendleton railway station was closed in 1998 after suffering fire damage and a loss of patronage in favour of nearby Salford Crescent, opened a few years earlier. Most train services are provided by Northern Rail, although Salford Crescent is also served by First TransPennine Express as part of its TransPennine North West network.
The Eccles line of the Manchester Metrolink runs through Salford, with stations at Exchange Quay, Salford Quays, Anchorage, Harbour City, Broadway, Langworthy, and Weaste. The line was opened in two stages, in 1999 and 2000, as Phase 2 of the system's development.
There is a bus station at Pendleton. Buses run to destinations throughout Salford, the City of Salford, across Greater Manchester and further afield: Pendleton is served by a route to Preston.
Education
is one of four universities in Greater Manchester. It has approximately 19,000 students.]]
During the Industrial Revolution, education in Salford was "inadequate to the wants of the population", and for those children who did get schooling "order and cleanliness were little regarded, ... [they] were for the most part crowded in close and dirty rooms".
The University of Salford, a plate glass university, is one of four universities in Greater Manchester and was ranked 81st by The Times. It has over 19,000 students and a 69.7% level of student satisfaction. In 2007, the university received nearly 17,000 applications for 3,660 places. The University of Salford has its origins in the former Royal Technical College. The Royal Technical College was granted the status of a College of Advanced Technology (CAT), on 2 November 1956. In November 1963 the Robbins Report recommended that the CATs should become technological universities; and on 4 April 1967 a Charter was established creating the University of Salford. The university is undergoing £150M of redevelopment through investment in new facilities, including a £10M law school and a £22M building for health and social care which were opened in 2006. In 2007, the drop out rate from the university was 25%. Of the students graduating, 50% gained first class or 2:1 degrees, below the national average of about 55%.
Salford has the Pendleton College, which in September 2007 added a state of the art £10 million building, with media recording studios, LRC and 280-seat "Eccleston" theatre, named after the Salford actor Christopher Eccleston; Eccles College; and Salford College, which has two main campuses, Worsley Campus and City Campus located in Salford.
Religion
is a Grade II* listed building.]]
The oldest place of worship in Salford is the Church of the Sacred Trinity, founded as Trinity Chapel in 1635 by Humphrey Booth, a wealthy merchant from the area. It was rebuilt in 1752 but retains the original 1635 tower. It is a Grade II* listed building.
Salford Cathedral is one of the larger Catholic cathedrals in northern England. It was built between 1844 and 1848, and was listed as a Grade II* building in 1980.
Sports
Salford City Reds is a professional rugby league club based in Salford. They play in the engage Super League. Their moniker is the "Reds" since 1996, however their original nickname is "The Red Devils", (given by French media in the 1930s) a name later copied by Manchester United F.C. who, based at nearby Old Trafford, are the geographically nearest professional sporting team to the Reds.
Salford is one of the largest settlements in the UK without a professional football team; in the formative years of the sport the region's football heartland was east Manchester and the towns that today make up Tameside, with few teams to the west of Manchester. Non-league Salford City of the Northern Premier League are the city's only representatives in the football pyramid.
Junior rugby league is also played within the city's boundaries, with clubs such as Eccles & Salford Juniors, Folly Lane, Cadishead Rhinos and Langworthy Reds providing playing personnel to the senior club.
Since Manchester hosted the Commonwealth Games of 2002, Salford Quays has developed into a major international triathlon site.
Speedway racing was staged in the pioneer days of the sport, late 1920s / very early 1930s, at Albion Stadium.
Salford had a venue for horse racing since the 17th century. The earliest record of horse-racing at Kersal Moor is contained in the following notice in the London Gazette of 2–5 May 1687:
In 1847 the racecourse at Castle Irwell was opened just across the River Irwell from Kersal and the races were held there. In 1867 they were moved to New Barnes, Weaste but the site had to be vacated in 1901 when Salford Docks expanded and built its Dock 9. Castle Irwell later staged a Classic – the 1941 St. Leger Stakes, and was most famous as home of the Lancashire Oaks (nowadays run at Haydock Park Racecourse) and the November Handicap, which was traditionally the last major race of the UK flat season. Through the late 1950s and early 1960s the track saw legendary jockeys Scobie Breasley and Lester Piggott annually battle out the closing acts of the jockey's title until racing ceased on 7 November 1963. The intention was to sell the land, apart from 4.5 acres, to a property development company. Both the City Council and the Royal Technical College objected and their objections were upheld at a Public Enquiry two years later. The main stand at Castle Irwell was designed by local architect Ernst Atherton and was the first stand at any sports venue in the UK to include private boxes, the idea having later been copied by Manchester United and then made commonplace throughout the country. The structure still survives as a Students Union building; and in the early 1970s the majority of the site was used to build a student village for the University of Salford; the first student houses opening in October 1972. Both the Castle Irwell and New Barnes sites were named "The Manchester Racecourse" even though they were entirely within the borders of Salford.
Culture
Salford Museum and Art Gallery opened in November 1850 as the Royal Museum and Public Library. It was built on the site of Lark Hill estate and Mansion, which was purchased by public subscription. The park was named Peel Park after Robert Peel who contributed to the subscription fund. The library was the first unconditionally free public library in the country.
Cultural references
Life in the early-19th century in a number of towns, including Manchester and Salford, were described by Engels in 1845. Similarly, life in Salford in the early-20th century was described by Robert Roberts, in his study The Classic Slum.
Salford has been the location for several films, including BAFTA award winner East is East, set in 1970s Salford, and A Taste of Honey, whose final scene features the Barton-upon-Irwell swing bridge. The 2003 TV serial The Second Coming was filmed in parts of Manchester and Salford. Walter Greenwood's 1933 novel Love on the Dole was set in a fictional area known as Hanky Park, said in the novel to be near Salford, but in reality based on Salford itself. A more modern fictional setting based on Salford is Coronation Streets Weatherfield. Harold Brighouse's play Hobson's Choice is set in 19th-century Salford; and the 1954 film version was filmed in parts of Salford. The sitcom Ideal, starring Johnny Vegas, is set in Salford.
Salford is the subject of the folk songs "Dirty Old Town" written by native Ewan MacColl, and "Matchstalk Men & Matchstalk Cats & Dogs", a tribute to local artist L S Lowry. MacColl's song is the origin of Salford's nickname. Local band Doves released a song on their 2005 album Some Cities called "Shadows of Salford". One of the most famous photographs of band The Smiths shows them standing outside the Salford Lads Club, and featured in the artwork for their album The Queen Is Dead. None of the longstanding members of the group were actually from Salford, although second guitarist Craig Gannon – not shown on the photo – was a Salfordian who joined the group for a brief period.
In the first chapter of J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, there is an old man wandering around looking for someone who had been to Salford. He finds another man who spent "from Saturday to Monday" there.
The videos for the Timbaland song "The Way I Are", and the Justin Timberlake song "Lovestoned" were shot in Salford, and it is mentioned several times in the video game GTA:San Andreas, as well as by The Smiths. Salford was featured in the second series of the Channel 4 programme The Secret Millionaire, screened in 2007.
Public services
Under the requirements of the Municipal Corporations Act, the County Borough of Salford had to appoint a watch committee to establish a police force and appoint a chief constable. On 1 June 1968 the Manchester and Salford city constabularies formed the Manchester and Salford Police. Since 1974, Home Office policing in Salford has been provided by the Greater Manchester Police. The force's "(F) Division" has its headquarters for policing the City of Salford at Swinton, with further police stations in Little Hulton, Higher Broughton, and Salford. Public transport is co-ordinated by the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive. Statutory emergency fire and rescue service is provided by the Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service, whose headquarters are at nearby Swinton.
Salford Royal Hospital dated back to 1830 and was extended in 1911. It was closed and converted into apartments. The modern Salford Royal, at Claremont near the boundary with Eccles, was opened in 1882 as the Salford Union Infirmary. Later renamed Hope Hospital and then again as Salford Royal, it is a large NHS hospital administrated by Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust. In a 2006/07 review of all 394 NHS Trusts in England by the Healthcare Commission, Salford Royal was one of 19 to be rated excellent in its quality of services and its use of resources. The North West Ambulance Service provides emergency patient transport. Other forms of health care are provided for locally by several small clinics and surgeries.
Waste management is co-ordinated by the local authority via the Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority. Salford's Distribution Network Operator for electricity is United Utilities; there are no power stations in the city. United Utilities also manages Salford's drinking and waste water.
Notable people
People from Salford are called Salfordians. The city has been the birthplace and home to notable people, of national and international acclaim. Amongst the most notable persons of historic significance with a connection to Salford are: the scientist James Prescott Joule, Emmeline Pankhurst, who was one of the founders of the British suffragette movement and lived in Salford. Bernard Sumner and Peter Hook, who were members of Joy Division (which later reformed as New Order) are musicians from Salford. Notable sportsmen from Salford include former England football international and current Manchester United F.C. midfielder Paul Scholes. Karl Marx, philosopher, political economist, and revolutionary, was a short term resident of Salford in the 1840s.
Composer Sir Peter Maxwell Davies was born in Salford. He is the current Master of the Queen's Music and was appointed in 2004.
Bibliography
External links
- , Salford City Council
- , Visit Salford
- , Salford Advertiser
- , Salford City Reds
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