Second City

I must confess I did laugh out loud at my Manchester friend’s description of his small town as having a ‘Continental feel’ For any reader deluded enough into being tempted to visit Manchester and enjoy it’s pavement café society, may I offer this small piece of advice:

Take a mac.

Those dark satanic mills weren’t situated in Manchester without good reason, they were put there because of the favourable atmospheric conditions. This can be summed up in one word:

Drizzle.


I’m indebted to my Mancunian friend for informing me of the Manchester's Literary and Philosophical Society. I confess that until now, I hadn’t heard of it. Wikipedia provided some brief details and thankfully, their own site also provided me with some information.
They are indeed an impressive society and according to the website, consider themselves to be one of the oldest, establishing themselves in 1781, sixteen years later than the more illustrious Lunar Society but nevertheless, well done. There website also lists some impressive achievements: Portable metal buildings and the ‘penny in the slot’ gas meter. So again, jolly well done!
They also list some impressive members:
John Dalton, James Joule, Peter mark Roget, Ernest Rutherford, Joseph Whitworth, Tom Kilburn, Thomas Worthington. William Fairbairn, Henry Roscoe, Joseph Whitworth

Keen eyed Salfordians will no doubt notice that James Joule and Thomas Worthington are from Salford and of course Rutherford was from New Zealand, Roget from London, Kilburn from Dewsbury, Fairburn from Kelso, Henry Roscoe from London, Joseph Whitworth from Stockport and as my friend already points out, Dalton was from Cumbria. My friend also points out that this doesn’t matter as it is the location they chose to work that is important as is also the case with those members of the Lunar Society who all chose to travel, to live and to work in the Birmingham area where they contributed to a society founded in Birmingham.
Why? Because they knew that Birmingham was truly a place where world-changing events were taking place, where new idea were being formulated, where the old order of things was being shaken and irrevocably changed. My Manc friend points out that there were riots. Of course there were riots! We’re taking about enlightenment thinking here, revolution was in the air, new concepts of republicanism, theism, determinism, naturalism, challenges to church orthodoxy. This was the birth of the Industrial revolution, the beginning of the modern world. These sorts of epoch-making changes are a little more difficult to establish than the penny in the slot gas meter.


Now at this point I confess to being a little confused. In this first instance my friend goes to great lengths to research and inform me of all the names of individuals who played a key role in Birmingham’s Car manufacturing history but weren’t born in Birmingham, though frankly I don’t see of what relevance this is. Then he tells me about the Manchester Philosophical Society, none of whose famous members actually seem to come from Manchester, then he tells me it doesn’t matter where they were born, it’s where they chose to work and live. Then he wishes (I quote) to draw further comparison with actual sons and daughters of Manchester, then he gives me a list of spurious names of individuals, hardly any of which seem to come from Manchester!
Elizabeth Gaskell was born in Chelsea and spent much of her childhood in Cheshire, not settling in Manchester until she married.
Carole Ann Duffy is an avowed Scot! Born in Glasgow, she just happens to hold the poetry professorship at Manchester Met.
Leigh,Greenwood and Delaney are all from Salford.

Now on the subject of Salford, I know my Manc friend has lumped it in with Manchester to prop up his case but are Salfordians happy with this?
I know they are a distinct metropolitan borough with their own City Council, their own University, Cathedral, Mayor and a somewhat older history. Isn’t this just an instance of my Manc friend being prepared to do anything to support his failing case?