Posts filed under 'Local Geography and History'
It’s out. The first issue of the Urbis Research Forum Review is now available to download from the Urbis website. The Review is the online publication of the Urbis Research Forum and this first issue features articles by Julian Holloway and Maureen Ward. The articles are based on presentations given during the “Mancunian Way: The Alchemy of Concrete” panel discussion held on 26 August, 2009.
In the Review Julian and Maureen explore the layered experience of the Mancunian Way – Manchester’s elevated post-war motorway – and its impact on the places and people of the city.
November 3rd, 2009
The archaeological dig in Miller Street is winding up this week. However, there will be a public open day this Saturday, 10th October. Members of the public are invited to visit the site between 10.00 am – 4.00 pm and take a glimpse into what the BBC recently described as Manchester’s Hell. It should be a remarkable insight into early industrial Manchester. The site itself is making way for a new Co-operative Development.
October 6th, 2009
Was Dr. John Dee (1527-1609)a brilliant scientist or misguided mystic? The debate rages on, 400 years after his death in 1609. Earlier this week, scholars met in Cambridge to try an rescue the reputation of the Elizabethian thinker.
Dr. Dee’s career spanned an era when the distinction between modern science and mysticism was not so clear cut. Unlike some of the other big names of that time, John Dee never made a blockbuster scientific discovery. He was an expert on algebra, made contributions to navigation and had the largest private library of his day, but his reputation as a conjurer of spirits and necromancer has stuck. He wasn’t an Isaac Newton (1642-1727)who discovered gravity or introduced a ground-breaking theory of the Universe. Newton, like Dee, wrote exhaustively on alchemy and Biblical codes, but his reputation is preserved because of his scientific discoveries.
It’s interesting that Chetham’s Library (located next to Urbis) has connections to both Newton and Dee, connections that reflect the reputations of both. The library is home to a 1st edition of Isaac Newton’s Principia, a foundational text of western science, while Dee’s connection is much more sinister. According to legend, when Dee was the Warden of Manchester Collegiate Church (1595) he summoned the Devil himself in his office. The scorch mark on the oak table in the audit room remains as reputed evidence of Satan’s hoof print.
September 25th, 2009
Urbis Blogs made a return visit to the Miller Street carpark archaeological dig. Things have moved on since our last view two weeks ago, with the archaeologists now concentrating on the north side of the site. Here the remains of the former St. Michael’s public house are being uncovered, shifting attention to the 1930s when it was last occupied.
It seems quite modern compared to your typical archaeological site, but the items recovered in the corners of the pub cellar have a strong attachment to local history, and particularly local brewing. Bottles from the now defunct Chester’s brewery which was once located near Miller Street have been uncovered as well as a 1920’s bottle of Boddingtons. Gin bottles, still a quarter full, have also been dug up.
Steve Tamburello, our guide around the site, says the dig is attracting more and more attention from passersby – particularly from those who have read The Gangs of Manchester, an account of the late Victorian youth gangs who terrorised the streets. One gang of scuttlers, the ‘Meadow Lads’, considered this area their territory and some members would have been itinerant lodgers of the houses on Charter street.
A public open day of the archaeological site is planned. We will keep you updated.
September 16th, 2009
For the next 7 weeks Miller Street Carpark won’t be your typical carpark – it has become the site of an extensive archaeological dig. Today, Urbis Blogs had a chance to visit the site.
The focus of the dig is on the slum dwellings that once lined the street, leading up to the old Angel Meadow area. Beneath the ripped up tarmac and excavated soil are the ruins of the cellars. These were once houses unto themselves and reports from the 1870s claim that close to 20 adults, with additional children, would be living in a single cellar residence. Steve, a site archaeologist and our guide, had these reports to hand as well as a series of historic street maps and a copy of Engels’ Condition of the Working Class in England. For archaeologists, having this amount of contemporary documentation about a site before you dig is rare. But that’s what makes digging industrial history different – the details are already there, but the dig brings them back to life physically.
The cellars are primitively built and are typically only one brick thick. This is particularly difficult for the archaeologists as when the soil is removed the walls are liable to fall. Bearing in mind that the privy and messy inner courtyard once lied behind the walls, the squalid living conditions for many people in the 19th century is made more vivid. Steve pointed out the routes of various attempts to improve the drainage in the cellars, which must have been a continual problem. He also showed some of the artifacts found on the site including early 19th century beer bottles (complete with marble stop), a doll’s head and, rather bizarrely, a Masonic pipe.
We hope to visit the site again soon and hopefully return with pictures.
September 2nd, 2009
The Mancunian Way. 2 miles of award-winning elevated concrete and a fine example of urban motorway. It exists not only as a functional passage through the city, but also as a classic example of post-war modernist architecture. And everyone seems to be walking it these days. Especially if the question and answer session following Iain Sinclair’s talk at Urbis last month was anything to go by.
The Urbis Research Forum will be holding its next session, “Mancunian Way: The Alchemy of Concrete” at 6.00 pm on August 27th at Urbis. The session will focus on the impact of the Mancunian Way and post-war planning in general on Manchester and its people. The panelists taking part are Dr. Steve Millington (MMU) Dr. Julian Holloway (MMU) and Maureen Ward (Manchester Modernist Society). The forum is free of charge.
For those wanting a closer look at the motorway, a walk precedes the forum. Meet at 3.00 pm at Room E0.05 (ground floor) in the John Dalton Building (Oxford Road).
August 4th, 2009