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| Soccer fans get ready for today's match and give me a welcome to Manchester |
Many department stores in Australia have a manchester section. This contains cotton goods such as sheets, pillow cases and table cloths. It is called a manchester section after the city of Manchester in England, as Manchester was once the world leader in the manufacture of cotton goods. The city of Manchester owes its prosperity to a period in the 19th century when they were the biggest importer of cotton and supported a large textile manufacturing industry.
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| The bee has been adopted as a symbol of Manchester |
During the Industrial Revolution Manchester became the world largest trading centre for cotton. Many of its large and ornate buildings today began life as cotton warehouses. The buildings are huge and intricate carvings decorate the outside, carvings of ships' prows or symbols of empire. One of these in Portland Street is the huge Britannia Motel, so large you have to ask for a room with a window if you what a room on an outside wall. Other building are reminiscent of Manchester's glory days. The old Railway storage buildings, the Corn Exchange, the Free Trade Hall and the Cotton Trade Centre. The Cotton Trade Hall is now a theatre, The Royal Exchange theatre. It is huge inside and has been refurbished after sustaining damage during bombings in World War II. The theatre part is suspended on huge girders so that it won't fall through the old floor. It is a theatre in the round and looks to hold about 6-700 people for a performance. I went to a production there, The Day We Sang. It was entertaining and funny.
Manchester also has a cathedral. It was built in the Middle Ages and is one of Manchester's oldest buildings. It is renowned for its wooden furnishings and stain glass. It received a lot of damage during World War II and was repaired in 1952. The second Bishop at the cathedral was born in Australia.
Throughout the city there are a number of historical and interesting sites. The National Football museum, libraries built by millionaires' wives and left to the city, a statue of Abraham Lincoln, a statue of Queen Victoria, and a Town Hall, which is key shaped and ornately decorated. There are an amazing number of small pubs. I have always liked the signs which hang out the front of these pubs. There is also the remains of a Roman fort, Mamucium, and a replica of part of this fort, the North Gate. And through the city winds a canal. TheManchester Ship Canal was extended to the sea in 1894 so that Manchester could break the stranglehold Liverpool had on it charging high import taxes on the cotton trade. The canal is 36 miles long and was virtually all dug by hand.
