The History Of Salford...

The name of Salford derives from the Anglo-Saxon Sealhford = "sallow-tree ford", in reference to the sallows or willow (Latin salix) trees that grow 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".

The earliest known evidence of a human presence in what is now Salford is attested by the discovery of Neolithic flint arrow-heads and workings found on Kersal Moor and by the River Irwell, implying habitation 7–10,000 years ago. Evidence of later Bronze age and Celtic activity is confirmed by an ancient archaeological relics found during the excavation of the Manchester Ship Canal and in the grounds of the Old Broughton Hall. The Salford area is likely to have been chosen for habitation due to its fertile land and ready supply of water and fish from the Irwell.

The Brigantes were the major Celtic tribe of what is now Northern England whom had a stronghold in the locality at a sandstone outcrop on which Manchester Cathedral now stands, opposite Salford's original centre. Their territory extended across the fertile lowland of what is now Salford and Stretford. Following the Roman conquest of Britain in the 1st century, General Agricola ordered the construction of a Roman fort in the year 79 named Mamucium to ensure Roman interests with Deva Victrix (Chester) and Eboracum (York) were protected from the Brigantes.

According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle of 919, Salford during the Heptarchy had been part of the Kingdom of Northumbria, until conquered by Edward the Elder, King of the West Saxons. The Manor (or Hundred) of Salford comprised all the lands between the rivers Ribble and Mersey, contained nine large parishes, and came under the Diocese of Lichfield in matters ecclesiastical.

After the Norman Conquest, William I had granted Salford to Roger the Poitevin. In the Doomsday Book of 1086 the Manor of Salford was recorded as covering an area of 350 square miles (906 km²) with a population of 35,000. Roger de Poitou created the subordinate Manor (or Parish) of Manchester which has ever since been separate in matters of local government from Salford. Poitou forfeited the manor when in 1102 he was defeated in a failed rebellion attempt against William's son, Henry I. Salford then passed into the hands of the 2nd Earl of Chester, Ranulph Gernons.

In 1228, the town of Salford received from King Henry III the right to hold a market and an annual fair. During the years of 1230 - 1232, Ranulf de Blundeville, Earl of Chester, granted the charter by which the town became a free borough, a charter by which Salford was governed until the Manchester and Salford Police Act 1791. There are references in official records to the Manor of Salford being one of the possessions of the Duchy of Lancaster. Since Henry IV's accession in 1399, the Duchy has been held by The Crown, and the Sovereign has thereby always been the Lord of the Manor of Salford.

Notes about Salford through the Tudor period and beyond are to be gleaned from the surviving volumes of the Portmote Records. The most famous family was the Radclyffes of Ordsall Hall and their exploits feature frequently in local history of the period. Humphrey Booth, a scion of the Dunham Massey family, founded Trinity Church in 1635 and his descendants, the Gore-Booths, are still patrons of the living, In the English Civil War between King Charles I and parliament, Salford was Royalist, and the unsuccessful siege of Manchester, which was Parliamentarian, was conducted from its side of the River Irwell. A century later Salford was also noted as Jacobite territory; its inhabitants supported Charles Edward Stuart to the Throne of England. In November of the Second Jacobite Rebellion, Salford hosted Stuart on his ride through the area.

The first horse-drawn bus service ran between Pendleton and Manchester in 1824, and some of the world's first municipal parks are in Salford. Salford has a history of textile processing that pre-dates the Industrial Revolution. It had a cloth hall at Greengate and a considerable trade in the production and finishing of woollen goods and fustians before the dominance of cotton. There were other cottage industries, including clogging, cobbling, weaving and brewing during this time. It was textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution that had a profound effect on the population, urbanisation as well as socioeconomic and cultural conditions of Salford however.

It was the River Irwell and its tributaries that attracted the entrepreneurs to establish cotton mills during the first phase of the Industrial Revolution. The first mills were constructed at Pendleton and Ordsall along the river banks. One of the first factories was the Salford Twist Mill. Although Salford followed a similar pattern of industrial development to Manchester, most firms preferred to locate their warehouses and offices on the Manchester side of the Irwell. Subsequently, Salford did not evolve as a commercial centre in the same way.

Canal building gave a further stimulus to Salford's industrial development. The Bridgewater Canal increased supply of fuel and raw cotton, whilst the Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal (which terminated at Salford) brought coal from pits at Pendleton and Agecroft Colliery, By 1818 Manchester, Salford and Eccles was noted to have had 80 mills, but it was the Manchester Ship Canal, a major ocean-going waterway completed in 1894, that facilitated Salford's development as a major inland port, Salford Docks brought employment for almost eighty years. From these docks, locally-produced goods were shipped all over the world.

Suggested that because of increased competition from the nearby towns of Bolton and Oldham, Salford did not endure as a centre for cotton spinning, as so its businessmen turned increasingly to other textiles and the finishing trades. Specialised rexine and silk dyeing, fulling and bleaching were carried out at a string of works in Salford, Textiles was the overwhelming sector of employment in Salford for centuries, whilst its other industries were almost always textile related.

In 1806, Chapel Street in Salford became the first street in the world to be lit by gas, which was supplied by Phillips and Lee's cotton mill. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels spent some time in Salford, analysing the plight of the British working class, particularly in The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844, In 1849 the municipal borough council was the first in England to establish a public library, museum and art gallery, preceding the Public Libraries Act of 1850.

The effect of the 19th-century Industrial Revolution on Salford has been described as "phenomenal",  Salford expanded from a small market town into a major industrial metropolis; factories replaced home working, and the population, 12,000 in 1812, rose in 30 years to 70,244. By the end of the 19th century it stood at 220,000, The rapid increase to overpopulation, hardly exceeded anywhere in the country, was reflected in the vast areas of poor quality squalid terraced housing that were built throughout the Victorian era when overcrowding lead to chronic social deprivation, Houses were crowded together at as many as 80 to the acre.

At the start of the 20th century, changes in regional transport infrastructure, including new major inter-urban roads, began to supplant Salford's old industries, including those activities performed at the Salford Docks. Increased competition from outside of the UK began to undermine the competitiveness of local textile processing businesses. In the decades following the Second World War there was a significant economic and population decline in Salford. Thousands were unemployed during the Great Depression. By 1939 coal mining had finished and cotton spinning had ceased by 1971. Each of the post war decades witnessed population decline in Salford of over 10%, far greater than the rate of decline within North West England as a whole. People have followed employment opportunities to other locations in Greater Manchester, taking advantage of a greater choice in the type and location of housing. It is only since the early 1990s that this decline has slowed.

A survey in 1931 concluded that parts of Salford were amongst the worst slums in the country. Many of its 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, though were "struck by the courage and perseverance with which the greater number of tenants kept their houses clean and respectable under most adverse conditions".

Vast areas of the city were re-developed in the 1960s and 1970s, with Victorian era terraced housing giving way to concrete tower blocks and austere architecture. Salford Docks declined during the same period. In early 2005, Riga 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, city councillors have insisted that Salford 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 UK (based on criteria of crime, education, environment, lifestyle and employment).

Salford has had high-levels of unemployment, housing and social problems since around the 1960s, though there are regeneration schemes to reverse its fortunes. The many high-rise blocks that remain are a striking feature of the city. 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 and Bury Canal forming the centrepiece of a brand new residential development.

Salford now has many tourist attractions, such as Ordsall Hall, the Bridgewater Canal and the Lowry Centre, an award winning art gallery comprising 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 there.