The Port of Manchester was a port in

Salford Salford () is a city and the largest settlement in the City of Salford metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. In 2011, Salford had a population of 103,886. It is also the second and only other city in the metropolitan county afte ...

, North West England, until its closure in 1982. It was created as a customs port on 1 January 1894, four months before the official opening of the

Manchester Ship Canal The Manchester Ship Canal is a inland waterway in the North West of England linking Manchester to the Irish Sea. Starting at the Mersey Estuary at Eastham, near Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, it generally follows the original routes of the river ...

. It extended along the whole length of the ship canal, from Eastham in the west to Manchester in the east, absorbing the Port of Runcorn, which had been created in 1862. The new port was only from the

Port of Liverpool The Port of Liverpool is the enclosed dock system that runs from Brunswick Dock in Liverpool to Seaforth Dock, Seaforth, on the east side of the River Mersey and the Birkenhead Docks between Birkenhead and Wallasey on the west side of the r ...

's boundary at

Herculaneum Dock Herculaneum Dock was part of the Port of Liverpool in Liverpool, England. It was at the south end of the Liverpool dock system, on the River Mersey. To the north it was connected to Harrington Dock. The dock was named after the Herculaneum P ...

, and from the

Port of Garston The Port of Garston, also known as Garston Docks is an enclosed tidal dock system on the River Mersey at Garston, approx 6 miles from Liverpool City centre Liverpool, England. It is operated by Associated British Ports History Garston Dock w ...

. The ship canal transformed

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...

from a landlocked city into a major sea port, at its height the third-busiest port in the United Kingdom. Once delivered to the port, goods could be transported to other parts of the country such as

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

to the east, and up to south as far as

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

History

On 1 January 1894, a steamer owned by the Cooperative Wholesale Society, the ''Pioneer'', unloaded its cargo of sugar from

Rouen Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine in northern France. It is the prefecture of the region of Normandy and the department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one of the largest and most prosperous cities of medieval Europe, the population o ...

, claiming the honour of being the first merchant vessel to be registered in the Port of Manchester. Initially, the port struggled to compete with the more established ports, partly because of the inertia of the influential shipping conferences (

cartels A cartel is a group of independent market participants who collude with each other in order to improve their profits and dominate the market. Cartels are usually associations in the same sphere of business, and thus an alliance of rivals. Mo ...

). In 1908, although Manchester had about 75 percent of the mule spindles in the United Kingdom, only 14 per cent of the raw material used in cotton spinning passed through the Port of Manchester. Despite the competition, trade grew steadily. Between 1895 and 1896, 121,336 bales of cotton were imported from America, the main source of cotton; this increased to 377,264 bales in 1907–1908.

20th century

The Port of Manchester was not the major destination for American cotton in the early 20th century, but it was for Egyptian cotton. In 1907–1908 about half of the cotton used in Lancashire cotton mills passed through the port, about 216,570 bales. In the early-20th century, the main produce travelling through the port was timber, grain, and cotton. The

grain trade The grain trade refers to the local and international trade in cereals and other food grains such as wheat, barley, maize, and rice. Grain is an important trade item because it is easily stored and transported with limited spoilage, unlike other ...

expanded more than tenfold, increasing from in 1895 to in 1907. Based on value of import and export trade, between 1904 and 1964 the Port of Manchester was in the top five most important custom ports in the UK for 39 out of the 55 years for which figures exist. The peak year for tonnage was 1959, but the port declined in the 1960s because of the increasing size of ocean-going vessels, most of which could not enter the canal.

Manchester Liners

Manchester Liners was established on 3 May 1898, to provide a fortnightly transatlantic service between the Port of Manchester and North America, via the Manchester Ship Canal. Its first purpose-built ship, ''Manchester City'', launched on 27 October 1898, was designed to suit the dimensions of the canal, and was fitted with telescopic masts to allow it to pass under the bridges along the canal. The success of its inaugural trip to

Halifax, Nova Scotia Halifax is the capital and largest municipality of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, and the largest municipality in Atlantic Canada. As of the 2021 Census, the municipal population was 439,819, with 348,634 people in its urban area. The ...

, encouraged Manchester Liners to order seven more ships to the same design. The company continued to operate vessels registered in Manchester for more than 80 years, until 1985.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * * * * * {{refend Geography of Greater Manchester Manchester docks