May 21, 2013

This day in history:
The Manchester Ship Canal was opened on the 21st May 1894 by Queen Victoria. During the early part of the nineteenth century Manchester a was booming city, a world leader in the industrial revolution and growing in size and prosperity. But in the latter half of the century it started to struggle. In 1882 a group of industrialists and businessmen formed the Manchester Ship Canal Company with the intention to build a canal large enough to let ocean going liners sail directly into Manchester from Liverpool. It was 1885 and after bitter opposition from Liverpool Dock Board and the Railway Companies before Parliament gave it's approval to the Bill yet it was still another 2 years before enough finance was raised and work started. With costs that had soared from £5.25million to £15million and an army of 16,000 navvies the canal was finally opened. read more