The Links - Manchester Picadilly - Not a hotspot but a top spot

As my Brummie friend now raises objection to the links posted on this page I find it a pretty desperate and contradictory act to immediately post an outdated 2005 link which places Manchester Picadilly 21st on a list of pollution hotspots.
To update to the present levels I have posted the current official data detailing urban pollution levels and surprise surprise, of the six monitored areas, 3 in Birmingham and 3 in Manchester, Birmingham has the three highest ozone levels of the two cities. Mancester Picadilly interstingly enough, has by far, the lowest level of all six monitoring points. I shall be updating this at regular intervals and I suggest our Brummie friend contacts the pollution criminals in his area if he wishes to better the environmental efforts of Manchester.
As stated in my previous blog, I am happy to remove links before an agreed date and await a response on this before our Brummie friend posts some Brummie inspired anti-Manc article from an 1850 edition of the Erdington Post.

Manchester - Reigning City

The creative heartbeat of an area has everything to do with it's inhabitants and the people born there.
I chose Carol Anne Duffy because she resides and works in Manchester, I chose Elisabeth Gaskell not because she actually spent much of her childhood in Knutsford and not in her Chelsea birthplace but because she chose Manchester as her home. a place she loved and worked tirelessly in to assist the less fortunate and a place so close to her heart that she wrote the Classic 'Mary Barton' novel and forgive me for not previously affording the book it's full title - 'Mary Barton - A Manchester Tale'.
Should my colleague prefer I am more than happy to limit my future postings only to those born within Greater Manchester boundaries and will happily afford him a similar luxury for Birmingham if he so wishes. This would then render his Lunar Society blog a little ludicrous just as it would his extolling the virtues of Birmingham's car manufacturing magnates, the vast majority of whom were born and lived outside of Birmingham. Lunar Society members for instance, visited Birmingham only once a month when the full moon was apparent and no doubt when Brummie mobs, eager to rid themselves of unwanted intelligencia, were fast asleep.

I'm grateful that you decided, as I thought you might, to refer to our wet weather reputation for not one but two reasons. Firstly it is a myth, no doubt conjured up by Brummies unhappy at our greater popularity, that Manchester is the rainiest city in the UK and I challenge my resourcful friend to show us the proof. Secondly his rather desperate wet weather references served only to remind me that yet another innovator who provided many Brummies shelter from the rain, Charles Mackintosh, forged out a very successful living up here in the "rainy city".

Moving on to Salford's inclusion here, as pointed out in my previous blog 'Noddy's ours - You can keep Neville' and being a Salfordian by birth, I can confidently state that Salfordians as with all neighbouring boroughs that make up our great city, are proud to call themselves Mancunians and unlike Birmingham's neighbouring towns such as Sutton Colfield, you will no doubt, should you ever wish to visit the bastion of northern pride, hear Salfordians, Stopfordians and all those born within the boundaries, refer to Manchester City Centre as 'Town' an affectionate colloquialism that describes Manchester City Centre as the hub and heart of their area.
In fact Salfordians visiting Salford Centre refer to it as 'the Precinct' and acknowledge 'Town' as being the more important centre of the area. Salfordians are indeed proud of their city just as people from Bury, Oldham, Stockport, Rochdale, Wigan, Tameside and Trafford are but they do have an acknowledgement and fierce loyalty to being proud Mancunians.

I do think it fair and honourable that we decide on equal size and population numbers but I am also happy to alter the criteria and base the debate on Manchester and it's suburbs should my friend wish yet he must in return concede that area size no longer be used as a factor to determine our Second City, given the obvious difference. I am also happy for him to incorporate examples born within the greater populaton of Birmingham City should he choose to. Please enlighten me in your next blog and be sure to include who we up here consider to be your greatest Brummie export - Duncan Edwards.


For the record, I am happy to include only links that were written after an agreed date. If January 2008 is acceptable then please confirm.
To update, I have added recent links that shore up the case for Manchester and do little to aid Birmingham's cause.

Vote Manc.

The Links

Before we go further, I feel I should address the links that my Manchester friend has been posting. These are for the most part wildly misleading and should be taken with a pinch of salt. Readers can be assured that any links I post will at least be up to date, from a reputable source and relevant. The worst examples I list below.

Manchester University most popular in UK – Link dated 2006 The links to the 2010 University ranking are now widely available but my friend has chosen not to post these. I wonder why not. Never mind, I have them and shall be referring to them in depth later.
Birmingham - Voted UK's Rudest City – Out of date link date - 2005
Manchester - Most creative city – Out of date link - 2003
Manchester - Best for business – Out of date link - 2007
Birmingham - Ugliest city in the UK – Wildly out of date link, the building listed as the most ugly doesn’t even exist any more, I shall be referring to this in a later post.
Birmingham - Worst for Credit card fraud – out of date link - 2007
Birmingham - Worst for pollution – Out of date link - 2007 and wildly inaccurate. The Link refers to the world-wide effects of Global warming and speculates that central areas using Birmingham as an example, will be worst affected. Nothing whatsoever to do with Birmingham itself.

Birmingham - Epoch making History

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?

Manchester - Everything Birmingham aspires to become

Before I begin and for the record please note the following:
Herbert Austin born Buckinghamshire
William Morris born in Worcester
John Boyd Dunlop born in Ayshire
Edward Vickers born in Sheffield
Sir Alec Issigonis born in Smyrna ( Izmir ) in Turkey
Of the aforementioned luminaries, (forgive the pun), only Joseph Lucas of car headlamp fame, was born in Birmingham.
It's also interesting to note that one of the founding fathers of the 'Lunar Society', held up as an example of Birmingham's contribution to the world, was hounded out of the city after rioters burned his house down. Joseph Prietley, had to flee to America afer a mob of Brummies decided his radical thinking and teachings were not in line with thier regional aspirations, i.e to remain an isolated backwater as referred to in the Domesday Book. Poor old Joe didn't even have the luxury of returning to his beloved hometown of Batley in Yorkshire, such was the resolve of the baying Brummie mob who put paid to any of that intellectual forward thinking nonsense in Brum.
Let's also examine in a little more depth the 'Lunar Society' who formed it's base in Birmingham's Soho district. It was indeed a society of intellectual thinkers and was worthy of comparison to Manchester's Literary and Philosophical Society, whose members included John Dalton, James Joule and boasted a greater number celebrated members than it's Birmingham counterparts.
Josiah Wedgewood, whose undoubted skills and crafsmanship still render his work of the highest value was a member of both Societies yet first entered the world in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire a town almost equidistant between Birmingham and Manchester. Also let's note that Benjamin Franklin, James Watt, Erasmus Darwin and poor old Joseph Priestley were also members of a Society unashamed to include in it's title the city of it's origin.
Members of the Lunar Society included James Watt, a Scotsman born in Greenock, Erasmus Darwin a Lichfieldian, William Small another Scot, Thomas Day born in Middlesex, the poet Anna Seward yes - another non-Brummie born in Eyam, Derbyshire. The only participating Lunar Brummie worthy of note in this gathering of intellectuals was a Matthew Boulton, who, concerned about the level of crime in his native city, complained, "The streets are infested from Noon Day to midnight with prostitutes." In an era prior to the establishment of the police, Boulton served on a committee to organise volunteers to patrol the streets at night and reduce crime and chose Staffordshire, his county of residence. If my Brummie friend didn't digest that last sentence I suggest he read it again and note that Matt Boulton felt a little safer 33 miles closer to Manchester.

Now then let's draw further comparison with actual sons and daughters of Manchester whose number include, James Joule so celebrated they named a unit of energy after him, William Crabtree, the father of astronomy and John Dalton who although born in Cumbria, lived and worked in the city he called his home, Manchester evidently provided a place of safety in which he was able to further his ambitions.

Substance of the creative and intellectual repute of an area lies in those who were born, raised and worked there and this is an associated fact far more evident with Manchester than Birmingham. One only has to be aware of modern Mancunian contributions to sport, two clubs whose achievements render Birmingham and Aston Villa mere minnows in comparison. Literature and the arts, The world reknowned artist LS Lowry, the film director Mike Leigh, the next Poet Laureate perhaps? John Coopper Clarke, the current Poet Laureate Carole Ann Duffy, Elizabeth Gaskell writer of masterpieces 'Mary Barton' and 'North and South', Walter Greenwood author of the classic 'Love on the Dole' Shelagh Delaney's 'Taste of Honey' The list goes on my friend and our city is, I would argue, without artistic compare outside of London.


Turning again to your blog - 'World Changing Birmingham', one can forgive the aged musings of a great former Prime Minister way past his prime and a man who had long lost the ears of a nation but can we really forget that a serving prime minister may well have had us all kissin Jerry's ass to this day? I don't think so and to draw comparison with Lloyd George's gaffe is, I suggest, monumental naivete on the part of my Brummie Colleague however, like him I agree that to continue down this avenue would serve only to sidetrack the real debate.
As it appears that car manufacture forms the backbone of my friends current argument in defence of the third city, we can all agree that without an engine a car is no longer a car yet to compare early engines to their modern counterparts pretty much sums up the case I make for Manchester.
We have here a thriving modern city, the fastest growing economic engine in the UK whose drive forward renders it too busy to sit and gloat about our glorious history whereas in Birmingham you have a city wholly reliant on using past citeria of little worth to put forward their case - an early engine that ran out of petrol or should I say steam.
Our status it seems, was recognised at an early stage when Manchester was granted city status in 1853, thirty six years ahead of Birmingham.
I can only concede on one point when comparing the two cities, yet greater size never proved an effective weapon in historical terms nor should it enter this equation and it's time that the Goliath of Birmingham conceded to the David 70 miles north.
Friends, Scousers, Cockneys and countrymen I urge you - vote Manc.

The Lunar Society

In the late 18th century, with the ascendant British Empire centred on London, a small group of friends met at a house on the crossroads outside Birmingham and applied their minds to the problems of the age. Between them they managed to launch the Industrial Revolution, discover oxygen, harness the power of steam and pioneer the theory of evolution. They were the Lunar Society, a gathering of free and fertile minds centred on the remarkable quartet of Matthew Boulton, James Watt, Joseph Priestly and Erasmus Darwin. The potter Josiah Wedgwood, another member, summed up the ethos of this group when he said that they were ‘living in an age of miracles in which anything could be achieved’.

But how did the Lunar Society operate? What was the blend of religious dissent, entrepreneurial spirit and intellectual adventure that proved so fertile and how did their discoveries permanently change the shape and character of this country?
- Melvin Bragg

Readers will I hope, forgive my posting on the single subject of the Lunar Society because of its profound effect not only on the development of Birmingham or even The United Kingdom but the entire world.
The society was a loose and informal group of entrepreneurs, scientists, doctors, philosophers and thinkers who would meet and discuss scientific issues of the day at one of the founding member’s houses in the Birmingham area from the mid 18th century up until the beginning of the 19th century.
They were variously described as the Birmingham Philosophers, The Lunar Circle, The Lunar Society, fellow schemers, the beginning of provincial enlightenment, both challenging and undermining the (often corrupt) establishment in London and in a paper read at the science museum in London “of all the provincial philosophical societies it was the most important, perhaps because it was not merely provincial. All the world came to Soho (an area in Birmingham) to meet Boulton, Watt or Small, who were acquainted with the leading men of Science throughout Europe and America. Its essential sociability meant that any might be invited to attend its meetings”

Historians disagree on the definitive list of founding members but it’s generally agreed that they included Matthew Boulton (founder, with James Watt of the Soho manufactory) Erasmus Darwin (grandfather of Charles Darwin), Thomas Day(ardent abolitionist), Richard Lovell Edgeworth, Samuel Galton Jr. James Keir, Joseph Priestley, William Small, Jonathan Stokes, James Watt, Josiah Wedgwood, John Whitehurst and William Withering.

Their sphere of influence was wide reaching across the whole of Europe and America and included two US founding fathers; Benjamin Franklin, who attended meetings of the Lunar Society and Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President of The United States who was tutored by William Small, one of the founders of the Lunar Society.
Joseph Priestley’s accomplishments included the discovery of Oxygen, the discovery of Photosynthesis and the discovery of Nitrogen.

The group’s range of interests included Chemistry, Physics, Geology – establishing that the world was indeed millions of years old rather than six thousand as the bible suggests. Education and child-raising, pioneering modern learning methods including learning by play, one member even wrote a best-selling children’s book.

Today, the Lunar Society is still going strong, in Birmingham and on the 12th December they held their annual dinner at Birmingham's Council House, hosted by the Lord Mayor. The after dinner speech was given by Ed Miliband MP, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change.

Links:
In Our Time
Revolutionary Players
The Lunar Society

World Changing Birmingham

I’ve noted that my friend has mentioned the Birmingham relief road and humorously suggests that Manchester has no need of a by-pass. But isn’t this exactly what the M62 is? A road that links those two great northern cities of Leeds and Liverpool and in the process by-passes Manchester. When John Lennon was asked if Ringo was the best drummer in the world, he famously replied “He’s not even the best drummer in the Beatles” and so it is with Manchester; Is Manchester the second city in England? It’s not even the second city in the North.
I feel at this point I should perhaps address some of the points my colleague raised about Neville Chamberlain. It’s certainly true to say that The Munich Agreement overshadows any other issue when considering the achievements of the man which included during his time in office in Birmingham, establishing the world-renowned CBSO, establishing the hugely successful Birmingham Municipal Bank, stock-piling coal for distribution to the poor and even with some considerable foresight, establishing creches for workers. It is also worth noting that during his time in office at National Government level, he was responsible for the Widows, Orphans and Old Age Pensions Act, 1925. Subsequent examination of documents now released under the thirty year rule at least provide us with some counter-balancing arguments regarding Chamberlain’s reputation in the aftermath of the Munich agreement but to examine these in detail would be to side-track the main debate.
However any personal failings in Chamberlain regarding this matter pale into insignificance when one considers the monumental naivete of Manchester’s own Lloyd-George who following his trip to Berchtesgaden in March 1936 where he met with Adolf Hitler, subsequently made the surprising public comments describing Hitler as "the greatest living German", "the George Washington of Germany"
It’s a shame that our Manchester friend has to use such examples of ‘Manchester firsts’ as the first mill to use steam power on Miller Street. Overlooking the fact the powers that be in Manchester have chosen to tarmac over this important heritage site and turn it into a car park, there’s a little more to the history of Arkwright’s mill than first imagined. Arkwright initially chose to power the Mill with a Newcomen engine which unfortunately failed and resulted in the construction of a water wheel to power the mill. This sorry state of affairs was fortunately rescued by Messrs Boulton and Watt of Birmingham who supplied the mill with a 6 horsepower double-acting sun and planet engine which thankfully managed to power the mill machinery directly and very successfully. Boulton as we know is one of the founding fathers of the industrial revolution and established the first modern factory in the world - The Soho foundry, situated in Birmingham. So it can be truly said that here in Birmingham was the beginning of the modern world.
As for my friends claim that Manchester University was the home for the world’s first computer, well let’s just say that’s a contentious claim and entirely depends on how one defines a computer. There are many other claims for the development of the first computer, Babbage of course and the Z1 developed by Conrad Zeus in Germany. I would certainly not wish to challenge the towering achievements of Alan Turing but I would dispute his claim that Turing was a son of Manchester. He was in fact born in Maida Vale, London. He worked and studied in various places throughout his career, latterly at Manchester University. He was however arrested, charged and convicted of homosexuality in Manchester, offered Chemical castration as an alternative to imprisonment and later committed suicide in Manchester.
But perhaps the most risible of my friends claims is that Manchester has any kind of history in motor manufacture. Can a natter over a cup of tea and cucumber sandwich in a Manchester Hotel really be compared with the enormity of motor manufacturing history in Birmingham:
Lucus Industries – Manufacturing a variety of car parts, notably Headlights.
Dunlop – The first pneumatic tyre factory – situated in Birmingham
Herbert Austin – Founder of the mighty Austin Empire and manufacturer of the Austin 7
William Morris – founder of the Morris Motor Company.
Wolsey – Started life in Washwood Heath, Birmingham
Vickers – situated in Castle Bromwich made aero engines, buses and cars. (They also made the Vickers Vimy, the aircraft that took Alcock and Brown across the Atlantic and now claimed by my colleague as credit to Manchester)
Sir Alec Issigonis – designer of the Morris Minor and of course The Mini.
I have already mentioned the Lanchester Brothers and their contributions to the Motor Industry and there are many more examples.
There is a great deal more evidence that I shall be detailing here in forthcoming posts but I’m sure that even by now, readers will be coming to the only sensible conclusion. That there simply is no comparison between the two cities. Birmingham is a large city, a city with a profound industrial heritage, one that transformed the whole world, not just some vacuous and ephemeral concept of ‘cool’. From that first modern-style factory in Birmingham we saw the rise of the modern-style city, indeed is can be rightly said that Manchester owes it’s very existence to those pioneering folk of Birmingham.