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Ancoats is an area of
Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...
, England, next to the Northern Quarter, the northern part of
Manchester city centre Manchester city centre is the central business district of Manchester, England, within the confines of Great Ancoats Street, A6042 Trinity Way, and A57(M) Mancunian Way, which collectively form an inner ring road. The City Centre ward had a ...
. Historically in
Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...
, Ancoats became a cradle of the
Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution, sometimes divided into the First Industrial Revolution and Second Industrial Revolution, was a transitional period of the global economy toward more widespread, efficient and stable manufacturing processes, succee ...
and has been called "the world's first
industrial suburb An industrial suburb is a community, near a large city, with an industrial economy. These communities may be established as tax havens or as places where zoning promotes industry, or they may be industrial towns that become suburbs by urban ...
". For many years, from the late 18th century onwards, Ancoats was a thriving industrial district. The area suffered accelerating economic decline from the 1930s and depopulation in the years after the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, particularly during the
slum clearance Slum clearance, slum eviction or slum removal is an urban renewal strategy used to transform low-income settlements with poor reputation into another type of development or housing. This has long been a strategy for redeveloping urban communities; ...
s of the 1960s. Since the 1990s, Ancoats'
industrial heritage Industrial heritage refers to the physical and intangible legacy of industrialisation, including buildings, machinery, workshops, sites, and landscapes of historical and technological significance. Stefan Berger and Steven High define industrial h ...
has been recognised and its proximity to the city centre has led to investment and substantial regeneration. The southern part of the area was branded New Islington by property developers Urban Splash, with redevelopment centred on the Daily Express Building. In 2021, a plaque was put in place acknowledging Ancoats' status as a
Little Italy Little Italy is the catch-all name for an ethnic enclave populated primarily by Italians or people of Italian ancestry, usually in an Urban area, urban neighborhood. The concept of "Little Italy" holds many different aspects of the Italian cul ...
. For the purpose of local government elections, the area is part of the Ancoats and Beswick ward on
Manchester City Council Manchester City Council is the Local government in England, local authority for the City status in the United Kingdom, city of Manchester in Greater Manchester, England. Manchester has had an elected local authority since 1838, which has been re ...
.


History


Medieval

The name Ancoats is likely to have derived from the
Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...
''ana cots'', meaning "lonely cottages". The settlement is first recorded as ''Elnecot'' in 1212. In a survey of 1320, Ancoats was recorded as one of the eight
hamlets A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village. This is often simply an informal description of a smaller settlement or possibly a subdivision or satellite entity to a larger settlement. Sometimes a hamlet is defined f ...
within the
township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...
of Manchester in the ancient parish of Manchester within the hundred of Salford; the hamlet probably consisted of a few cottages and farmhouses centred on what is now Ancoats Lane, Butler Lane and Newton Lane. During the medieval period, Ancoats Hall was built.Miller and Wild (2007), p. 25. Land in Ancoats was bequeathed in the 14th century by Henry de Ancotes. The village covered the area of land that roughly lies between the
River Medlock The River Medlock in Greater Manchester, England rises in east Oldham and flows south and west for to join the River Irwell in Manchester city centre. Sources Rising in the hills that surround Strinesdale just to the eastern side of Oldham M ...
and the
River Irk The River Irk is a river in the historic county of Lancashire in North West England that flows through the northern part of Greater Manchester. It rises to the east of Royton and runs west past Chadderton, Middleton and Blackley before mer ...
.


Industrial Revolution


Cotton

Survey work for the
Rochdale Canal The Rochdale Canal is in Northern England, between Manchester and Sowerby Bridge, part of the connected system of the canals of Great Britain. Its name refers to the town of Rochdale through which it passes. The Rochdale is a broad canal be ...
was carried out by James Brindley in 1765. The knowledge that its construction would make the transport of raw materials and finished goods more convenient gave industrialists the confidence to build their cotton mills. The first mills were built in Ancoats as early as 1790. In 1792 commissioners were established for the improvement of the township of Manchester, which included Ancoats. Towards the end of the 18th century steam power was first used to power the
cotton mill A cotton mill is a building that houses spinning or weaving machinery for the production of yarn or cloth from cotton, an important product during the Industrial Revolution in the development of the factory system. Although some were driven ...
s. Some of the earliest mills of this period were Murray's Mills, which were established next to the Rochdale Canal on Union Street (now Redhill Street) off Great Ancoats Street, by Adam and George Murray in 1798. Later, they became known as Ancoats Mills when they were operated by McConnel & Company Ltd. The streets of Ancoats were also laid out during the latter part of the 18th century, with little development taking place other than small houses and shops along Great Ancoats Street and Oldham Road ( A62 road). From the opening of the Rochdale Canal in 1804 the development of mills continued on a much larger scale. Mills in Ancoats included Victoria Mills, Wellington Mill, Brunswick Mill, India Mills, Dolton Mills, Lonsdale Mills, Phoenix Mill, Lloydsfield Mill, Sedgewick Mill, Decker Mill (owned by the Murray brothers), New Mill, Beehive Mill, Little Mill, Paragon Mill,
Royal Mill Royal Mill, which is located on the corner of Redhill Street and Henry Street, Ancoats, in Manchester, England, is an early-20th-century cotton mill, one of the last of "an internationally important group of cotton-spinning mills" sited in East ...
and Pin Mill. Ancoats grew rapidly to become an important industrial centre and as a result it also became a densely populated area. By 1815 Ancoats was the most populous district in Manchester. Streets of back-to-back houses and court dwellings were rapidly built. For the poorest members of the community, houses were split and cellars let separately. Public health was a concern; a survey motivated by the fear of a
cholera Cholera () is an infection of the small intestine by some Strain (biology), strains of the Bacteria, bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea last ...
outbreak showed that over half of homes in Ancoats had no private plumbing, and over half of streets were not cleaned. By the middle of the 19th century Ancoats was densely developed. In 1851 Ancoats' total population was 53,737, larger than towns such as Bury and
Blackburn Blackburn () is an industrial town and the administrative centre of the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The town is north of the West Pennine Moors on the southern edge of the River Ribble, Ribble Valley, east of Preston ...
. However, despite this large population, Ancoats lacked public buildings and spaces. There were no parks and the only public buildings were a few churches and a dispensary. As late as 1821 there had been no churches.


Foundries

Cotton was not the only industry in the locality, as foundries and engineering factories were required to produce the machinery needed by the mills. The largest of these were those operated by the brothers John Muir Hetherington and Thomas Ridley Hetherington, which were established in 1830. Eventually the company became known as John Hetherington and Sons Ltd and the principal factory was at Vulcan Works on Pollard Street. The company was also the proprietor of Curtis, Sons & Company, which was established in 1804 at the Phoenix Works, which were on both sides of Chapel Street (now Chapeltown Street). On one side of the street there was a brass and iron works and on the other side there was a machinery factory. Hetherington's produced a huge range of machinery for the textile industry that included machinery for opening, preparing, spinning and doubling cotton, cotton waste, wool and worsted. Their speciality was a machine called a Combined Opener and Scutcher that was very effective in the cleaning of most types of cotton without damaging the staple or losing serviceable fibre.


Glass works

Possibly the least known, but vitally important, industry in Ancoats was the manufacture of flint glass. More than 25 glassworks have been identified in Manchester, all built during the 19th century, and many of these were in Ancoats. Thomas Percival and William Yates established one of these on Union Street (now Redhill Street) in 1844. The works was equipped with two furnaces (later three), an annealing house, workshops, a warehouse and offices. In 1852, Thomas Vickers joined the company and William Yates left in 1862. After this, the company became known as Percival Vickers British and Foreign Flint Glass Works. It made a large range of glassware that included tumblers, wine glasses, decanters, vases, celery vases, salts and cake stands. One of the buildings in Ancoats, the Flint Glass Works, still exists today and has been converted into serviced offices.


Other industries

At the top of Stony Brow (later Junction Street and now Jutland Street) there was the multi-storey drysalters factory of Thomas Hassall. It was said that this was the only drysalters in England and it supplied rock salt, moss litter and all kinds of other things. There were also chemical works (especially alum), floor-cloth works and finishing and calendering works that rolled cloth to smooth or glaze it.


Later Victorian period


Immigration

During the 19th century, due to political and economic circumstances, many
Italians Italians (, ) are a European peoples, European ethnic group native to the Italian geographical region. Italians share a common Italian culture, culture, History of Italy, history, Cultural heritage, ancestry and Italian language, language. ...
left Italy for a more secure life. Most of the Italians who arrived in Ancoats were from
Liguria Liguria (; ; , ) is a Regions of Italy, region of north-western Italy; its Capital city, capital is Genoa. Its territory is crossed by the Alps and the Apennine Mountains, Apennines Mountain chain, mountain range and is roughly coextensive with ...
, in northwest Italy, and Frosinone and
Gaeta Gaeta (; ; Southern Latian dialect, Southern Laziale: ''Gaieta'') is a seaside resort in the province of Latina in Lazio, Italy. Set on a promontory stretching towards the Gulf of Gaeta, it is from Rome and from Naples. The city has played ...
, southeast of Rome. Over the next hundred years they created what became known as Ancoats Little Italy. Large numbers of Irish also settled in Ancoats. According to the 1851 census almost half of the men living in Ancoats had been born in Ireland.Miller and Wild (2007), p.  25 - 32


Religion and poor relief

The Methodists were very active in Ancoats at the end of the 19th century – they ran both a men's workhouse and women's night shelter (with coffee tavern). There were dozens of pubs, however, of which only five buildings remain and only two of these are still open. The
Salvation Army The Salvation Army (TSA) is a Protestantism, Protestant Christian church and an international charitable organisation headquartered in London, England. It is aligned with the Wesleyan-Holiness movement. The organisation reports a worldwide m ...
had a presence in Ancoats, with the Star Hall and Crossley Hospital in Pollard Street. Crossley Court, flats belonging to the Salvation Army Housing Association, now stands on the site. Ancoats Hospital was located on Old Mill Street, adjacent to the
Ashton Canal The Ashton Canal is a canal in Greater Manchester, England, linking Manchester with Ashton-under-Lyne in Tameside. Route The Ashton leaves the Rochdale Canal at Ducie St. Junction in central Manchester, and climbs for through 18  locks, ...
. This has been closed to patients for some time, and is currently under residential development. Thomas Horsfall opened the Manchester Art Museum, a free art gallery, in Ancoats in 1886. His aim was to create a morally elevating alternative to pubs.Wilson, Shelagh, "The Highest Art for the lowest People: The Whitechapel and Other Philanthropic Art Galleries, 1877-1901", ''Governing Cultures'', Ashgate, 2000, pp. 172-86. Given the historically high levels of Irish and Italian immigration, a large proportion of Ancoats' population has been Roman Catholic. Ancoats had a colony of Italians from 1835 and many of them became successful in business; e.g. the Ronchetti family were opticians, instrument makers and also waterproof manufacturers; J. L. Casartelli was an optician, instrument maker and manufacturing chemist.


Early 20th century

Aircraft were manufactured in Ancoats and this factory was at Brownsfield Mill, which was on the corner of Great Ancoats Street and Binns Place at the point where the Rochdale Canal passes below Great Ancoats Street. Here,
Avro Avro (an initialism of the founder's name) was a British aircraft manufacturer. Its designs include the Avro 504, used as a trainer in the First World War, the Avro Lancaster, one of the pre-eminent bombers of the Second World War, and the d ...
established a factory in 1910. Men from Ancoats serving in the Army in France during the
First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
were aware that aeroplanes they saw in action above them had been made in Ancoats. In 1939, the ''Daily Express'' newspaper company opened new premises, which were built in the "functional" style, using new curtain-wall technology identical to that on the company's Daily Express Building in
Fleet Street Fleet Street is a street in Central London, England. It runs west to east from Temple Bar, London, Temple Bar at the boundary of the City of London, Cities of London and City of Westminster, Westminster to Ludgate Circus at the site of the Lo ...
, London and in
Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...
.


Post-war decline

The substantial economic activity generated by such a concentration of mills was halted by the slump in the cotton industry in the 1930s. Thereafter, the prosperity of the mills declined steadily, and the only new industry to establish itself in Ancoats was newspaper printing. Ancoats, like neighbouring Miles Platting and Collyhurst, became very run down and notorious for deprivation and crime. Cotton spinning ceased in Manchester and other textile-related uses were found for the mills: clothes manufacture, machinery repairs and warehouses for imported goods' rag trade. The 1960s witnessed further decline as, during the mass clearance of the area's terraced homes, the population was re-housed in the north and east of the city. The mills, attracting decreasing rents, fell into disrepair. Despite the clearance of Victorian terraces during the early 1960s and the relocation of most households to overspill estates like Hattersley and Gamesley, many new houses and flats were built in Ancoats by the local council. Inevitably, the local area's population was lower by 1970 than it had been a decade earlier, as the new housing developments were more spaced out, and some former residential areas had been redeveloped for commercial and industrial use. Newspaper printing, one of Ancoats' 20th century industries, fell victim to changes in technology, with the ''Daily Express'' ceasing to be published from its famous black glass building in 1989. The closure of Express Printers was also the start of Ancoats' renewal, as the impact of low investment and increasing unemployment became recognised.Miller and Wild (2007), p.  3 - 5


Regeneration

In June 1989, Manchester City Council designated land bounded by Great Ancoats Street, Oldham Road, Kemp Street, Wadeford Close, Jersey Street and the Rochdale Canal into a conservation area where a number of buildings were listed. While it protected a number of historically significant buildings, it made regeneration more difficult. In 1990, the Eastside Regeneration was formed, the first organisation created to regenerate the area. The Eastside Regeneration in turn spawned the formation of the Ancoats Build Preservation Trust in 1995 and the Ancoats Urban Village Company in 1996. Unfortunately, Manchester's bids for the 1996 and 2000 Olympics caused speculative buying of property in Ancoats in the early 1990s. When the bids failed the buildings were abandoned and decay accelerated. By 1998 it was estimated that 80% of business floor space in Ancoats was vacant. In 2000, the government accepted the £250m New Islington Project to redevelop a section of land between the
Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a town in Greater Manchester, England, and the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. In the United Kingdom 2021 Census, 2021 Census, the town had a population of 111,261, compared to 223,773 for the wid ...
and
Ashton Canal The Ashton Canal is a canal in Greater Manchester, England, linking Manchester with Ashton-under-Lyne in Tameside. Route The Ashton leaves the Rochdale Canal at Ducie St. Junction in central Manchester, and climbs for through 18  locks, ...
s. To assist regeneration by preventing speculative purchase of land the North West Development Agency made a compulsory purchase order of land in the area. A target population of 15,000 by 2010 was set for the Ancoats area.


Landmarks

The following Listed buildings are in the Ancoats conservation area: * Beehive Mill, Jersey Street. Built between 1820-24. Grade II*. *Brownsfield Mill, Great Ancoats Street. Built ca. 1825. Grade II*. *Church of St. Peter, Blossom Street. Designed by Isaac Holden & Son, 1859–60. Grade C. * Crown and Kettle public house, Oldham Road. Built early 19th century. Grade II. * Daily Express Building, Great Ancoats Street. Designed by Sir Owen Williams, 1939. Grade II. *Jersey Mill, Jersey Street. Built in 1804. Grade II*. *Mill to north-west corner of the junction Redhill Street/Bengal Street. Built early 19th century and 1842. Grade II*. * Murray's Mill (main block), Redhill Street. Built 1798. Grade II*. *Murray's Mill, Murray Street. Built ca. 1800. Grade II. *Paragon Mill, Jersey Street. Built ca. 1912. Grade II*. *
Royal Mill Royal Mill, which is located on the corner of Redhill Street and Henry Street, Ancoats, in Manchester, England, is an early-20th-century cotton mill, one of the last of "an internationally important group of cotton-spinning mills" sited in East ...
, Henry Street. Built ca. 1912. Grade II*. *Sedgwick Mill, Redhill Street. Probably designed by Sir William Fairbairn, 1818. Grade II. *Sedgwick New Mill, Redhill Street. Built ca. 1858. Grade II. *Victoria Square, Oldham Road. Designed by Spalding & Cross, 1889–1894. Grade II. *St Michael's RC church, ca. 1869.


Culture

* Hallé St Peter's is a rehearsal and education venue for the Hallé Orchestra, based on the grade II listed former St Peter's Church, Blossom Street. * Sankeys nightclub was in Beehive Mill on Radium Street. It closed officially in 2018. * Hallé St Michael's, a community space for the Hallé's artistic and educational activities, is on George Leigh Street.


Cultural references

Ancoats has been the setting for several novels by Howard Spring, including '' Fame is the Spur''. It was also the setting for Isabella Banks' novel '' The Manchester Man''. Ancoats was mentioned in the lyrics of
Brian and Michael Brian and Michael were a British music duo best known for their 1978 UK number one hit single, " Matchstalk Men and Matchstalk Cats and Dogs". Without further chart entries, they remain one-hit wonders in the UK. They comprised two members: M ...
's 1978 UK number one hit, " Matchstalk Men and Matchstalk Cats and Dogs", a tribute to L. S. Lowry. A fictional singer, Ann Coates, is credited with backing vocals on the 1986 single " Bigmouth Strikes Again" by
the Smiths The Smiths were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Manchester in 1982, composed of Morrissey (vocals), Johnny Marr (guitar), Andy Rourke (bass) and Mike Joyce (musician), Mike Joyce (drums). Morrissey and Marr formed the band's songwrit ...
. The British trip-hop band The Baby Namboos released a song and album titled ''Ancoats 2 Zambia'' in 1999. The single was remixed by drum and bass producer Dillinja. The track "Ancodia" by
808 State 808 State are an English electronic music group formed in 1987 in Manchester by Graham Massey, Martin Price and Gerald Simpson. Taking their name from the Roland TR-808 drum machine and the "state of mind" the members shared, they released ...
was named after the area, where two of the band members lived at the time.


Notable people

* Hugh Oldham (1452–1519), Bishop of Exeter from 1505 to his death in 1519. He was born to a family of minor
gentry Gentry (from Old French , from ) are "well-born, genteel and well-bred people" of high social class, especially in the past. ''Gentry'', in its widest connotation, refers to people of good social position connected to Landed property, landed es ...
who lived in Ancoats. Bishop Oldham was a patron of education who founded
Manchester Grammar School The Manchester Grammar School (MGS) is a highly Selective school, selective Private_schools_in_the_United_Kingdom, private day school for boys aged 7-18 in Manchester, England, which was founded in 1515 by Hugh Oldham (then Bishop of Exeter). ...
and was a major benefactor of
Corpus Christi College, Oxford Corpus Christi College (formally, Corpus Christi College in the University of Oxford; informally abbreviated as Corpus or CCC) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1517 by Richard Fo ...
. * Richard Buxton (1786–1865), an impoverished shoemaker from Ancoats. He published a botanical guide to the plants to be found around Manchester in 1849. * William Hepworth Dixon (1821–1879), the historian and travel writer, born in Great Ancoats * John Sibbit (1895–1950), British track cyclist who won a silver medal at the
1928 Summer Olympics The 1928 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the IX Olympiad (), was an international multi-sport event that was celebrated from 28 July to 12 August 1928 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The city of Amsterdam had previously bid for ...
*
Bernard Manning Bernard John Manning (13 August 1930 – 18 June 2007) was an English comedian and nightclub owner. He gained a high profile on British television during the 1970s, appearing on shows such as '' The Comedians'' and '' The Wheeltappers and Shun ...
(1930–2007), stand-up comedian * Foo Foo Lammar (1937–2003), drag queen. She was born in Ancoats and later lived in the area's Piccadilly Village apartments."Frank Pearson - Obituary." ''The'' ''Times'' ''(London, England)'', November 18, 2003: 37. '' NewsBank: Access Global NewsBank''. https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?p=AWGLNB&docref=news/0FEEBEB43628E919. * John Henshaw (born 1951), actor. Notable for playing Ken, the pub landlord in the TV series '' Early Doors''. *Lesley Ann Downey, the youngest victim of the
Moors murders The Moors murders were a serial killer, series of child murder, child killings committed by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley in and around Manchester, England, between July 1963 and October 1965. The victims were five children—Pauline Reade, John Ki ...
, was from Ancoats. The fourth of the five Moors Murders victims, she lived in a council maisonette in Charnley Close with her family.


See also

* Listed buildings in Manchester-M4


References


Notes


Bibliography

* *


Further reading

*


External links


Ancoats Manchester Archives+History of the Italian community in AncoatsAncoats Urban Village CompanyThe Ancoats Building Preservation TrustAncoats community websiteSt Anne's RC church historyManchester City Council's Regeneration Team
{{Manchester Areas of Manchester Irish diaspora in England Italian diaspora in the United Kingdom