Ancoats

Infobox UK place
country = England
map_type= Greater Manchester
official_name= Ancoats
latitude= 53.483333
longitude= -2.229722
population=
metropolitan_borough= City of Manchester
metropolitan_county= Greater Manchester
region = North West England
constituency_westminster=
post_town= MANCHESTER
postcode_area= M
postcode_district= M4
dial_code= 0161
os_grid_reference= SJ847985
static_

static_image_caption=Ancoats is a former industrial district being gentrified as a residential area

Ancoats is an inner city area of Manchester, in North West England. It is situated adjacent to the Northern Quarter and the northern part of Manchester's commercial centre.

Historically a part of Lancashire, Ancoats became one of the cradles of the Industrial Revolution, and has been called "the world's first industrial suburb". [cite web |title=Explore Manchester |publisher=Pevsner Architectural Guides |url=http://www.lookingatbuildings.org.uk/default.asp?document=3.T |accessdate=2007-05-22] 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, particularly during the slum clearances of the 1960s.

Since the 1990s Ancoats' industrial heritage has been recognised and this, along with its proximity to the city centre, has led to investment and the development of substantial regeneration plans. It is being branded as New Islington.

For the purpose of local government elections the area is part of the Ancoats and Clayton ward of the city of Manchester.

History

Medieval

The name Ancoats is likely to have derived from the Old English "ana cots", meaning lonely cottages. The settlement is first recorded as "Elnecot" in 1212. [Harvnb|Cooper|2007|p=13.] In a survey of 1320, Ancoats was recorded as one of the eight hamlets within the township of Manchester in the ancient parish of Manchester within the hundred of Salford; the hamlet probably consisted of a few cottages and farmhouses centred around 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 and the River Irk.

Industrial Revolution

Cotton

, 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.

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 and Sedgewick Mill, Decker Mill (owned by the Murray brothers), New Mill, Beehive Mill, Little Mill, Paragon Mill, Royal Mill and Pin Mill.

Ancoats grew rapidly to become an important industrial centre and as a result of this 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 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 nineteenth century Ancoats was densley developed. In 1851 Ancoats' total population was 53,737, larger than towns such as Bury and Blackburn. 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. Even 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 was 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 and this was at the Phoenix Works, which was 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. [ [http://www.flintglassworks.co.uk The Flint Glass Works Website] ]

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. Ancoats was once the home of the Rolderdotton's Home Brewing Kit Company.

Later Victorian period

Immigration

During the 19th century, due to political and economic circumstances, many Italians left Italy for a more secure life. Most of the Italians who arrived in Ancoats were from Liguria, in northwest Italy, and Caserta, southeast of Rome. [cite web |title=I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream! |work=Legacies: UK Local History to You |publisher=BBC |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/legacies/immig_emig/england/manchester/?link=%2523&image.x=12&image.y=7 |accessdate=2008-02-09] Over the next hundred years they created what became known as ‘"Ancoats Little Italy"’. They boosted the local economy, pioneered the British ice cream industry, joined in the annual Catholic Whit Walks and survived the difficulties of the Second World War. 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 tens of pubs, however, of which only five buildings remain and only two of these are still open. The Salvation Army 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. This has been closed to patients for some time, and is currently under residential development.

As can be expected in areas with high levels of Irish and Italian immigration, a large proportion of Ancoats' population is Roman Catholic.

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, A V Roe (Avro) established his factory shortly before 1915. Men from Ancoats serving in the Army in France during the Great War 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 buildings in Fleet Street and Glasgow.

Postwar 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, 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 turned the land bounded by Great Ancoats Street, Oldham Road, Kemp Street, Wadeford Close, Jersey Street and the Rochdale Canal into a conservation area. Additionally, a number of buildings were listed. Whilst this move protected a number of historically signficant buildings, it made regneration more difficult. In 1990 the Eastside Regeneration was formed, the first organisation specifically created to regenerate the are. 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 nineties. 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. [Citation
title = Ancoats Urban Village Annual Report 2006/07
date = September 2007
url = http://www.nwda.co.uk/pdf/AncoatsAnnualReport07.pdf
accessdate =2008-08-24
publisher = [North West Development Agency ]

In 2000 the government accepted the £250m New Islington Project to redevelop a convert|0.125|km2|acre section of land between the Rochdale and Ashton Canal. In order to assist regeneration by stopping 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 c.1820 and 1824. Grade II*
*Brownsfield Mill, Great Ancoats Street. Built c.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 late 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 c.1800. Grade II.
*Paragon Mill, Jersey Street. Built c.1912. Grade II*.
*Royal Mill, Henry Street. Built c.1912. Grade II*.
*Sedgwick Mill, Redhill Street. Probably designed by Sir William Fairbairn, 1818. Grade II.
*Sedgwick New Mill, Redhill Street. Built c.1858. Grade II.
*Victoria Square, Oldham Road. Designed by Spalding & Cross, 1889-1894. Grade II.

Culture

*The Band on the Wall music venue is located on Swan Street, Ancoats.
*The Frog and Bucket comedy club is located at the junction of Oldham Street and Great Ancoats 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".

Musically, Ancoats is mentioned in the lyrics of Brian and Michael'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, also included on their album "The Queen Is Dead".

Notable people

Amongst the entertainers linked to Ancoats are controversial stand-up comedian Bernard Manning and the actor John Henshaw. Bernard Manning was born in Ancoats, in 1930. John Henshaw, who played Ken, the pub landlord in the TV series "Early Doors", amongst many other roles, was brought up in Ancoats, in Little Italy.

References

Notes

Bibliography

*citation |last=Cooper |first=Glynis |title=The Illustrated History of Manchester's Suburbs |date=2007| publisher=The Breedon Books Publishing Company |location=Derby |isbn=978-1-85983-592-0
*citation |last=Miller |first=Ian |coauthors=Wild, Chris |title=A & G Murray and the Cotton Mills of Ancoats |publisher=Oxford Archaeology North |date=2007 |isbn=978-0-904220-46-9

External links

* [http://www.ancoatslittleitaly.com/ History of the Italian community in Ancoats]
* [http://www.auvc.co.uk/ Ancoats Urban Village Company]
* [http://www.ancoatsbpt.co.uk/ The Ancoats Building Preservation Trust]
* [http://www.ancoats.net/ Ancoats Commumity Web Site]