The UNESCO UK Industrial Trail brings together 22 UNESCO designations in celebration of the United Kingdom’s internationally significant industrial heritage to form a trail for enthusiasts to explore.

You may choose to explore the whole trail that crosses 3 countries (Wales, England and Scotland) or those closest to home, either way we welcome you to these UNESCO sites and cities to understand our shared history and pass down to future generations.

Manchester is famously the UK’s first industrial city and as a result the industrial revolution is heavily reflected in our identity a radical, hard-working place and industry is inextricably interwoven with our status as a UNESCO City of Literature.

Writer’s such as Elizabeth Gaskell wrote in the backdrop of the industrial revolution, and still today there are writers in the city who frequently draw from our industrial history. Elizabeth describes the city in her novel, North and South, “Here and there a great oblong many-windowed factory stood up, like a hen among her chickens, puffing out black ‘unparliamentary’ smoke.”

Manchester’s industrial and radical past

• In 1781 Richard Arkwright opened the world’s first steam-driven textile mill in Manchester. The arrival of steam power was the beginning of the mechanisation that enhanced textile industries in Manchester into the world’s first centre of mass production.
• As manufacture switched from the home to factories, Manchester became the most productive cotton spinning centre in the world and by 1871, 32% of global cotton production took place here. The commercial centre of ‘Cottonopolis’ was the Cotton Exchange’s trading hall, which now
  houses the Royal Exchange Theatre.
• To facilitate this industrial boom, Manchester became an important transport hub. The Bridgewater Canal made it possible to transport goods in bulk to its terminus in Castlefield. Raw cotton came through the port of Liverpool from the West Indies, southern states of America and
  Britain’s biggest colony the Indian subcontinent (after supply from US states stopped due to civil war).
• The world’s first intercity railway between Manchester and Liverpool opened in 1830. Growth meant the city boasted an enormous working-class population, one who bravely demanded the vote in 1819. After the Peterloo Massacre sent shockwaves around the world in reaction to the brutality against peaceful workers living in terrible conditions, the Manchester Guardian was founded by a group of merchants and manufacturers.
• Industrial workers applied principles of protest to unfair taxes, child labour and social reform and so the injustices of slavery resonated with them. Manchester soon became a powerful force in mobilising mass protest against slavery. 11,000 Mancunians signed the 1787 petition in support of abolition.
• Abolition expedited the case for emancipation for the workers, and was pivotal in winning the Second Reform Act of 1867 which allowed thousands of working men to vote for the first time; almost doubling the electorate. Cottonopolis continued to thrive until WWII made cheaper fabrics more accessible. Cotton and social reform are inextricably threaded together in Manchester.

We’d recommend visits to the Science and Industry Museum, Castlefield Viaduct and The Portico Library to learn more.

This project is all thanks to funding from the United Kingdom National Commission for UNESCO Local to Global project and made possible with the National Lottery Heritage Fund.