More Than A ‘Foul Drain’: A Walking Tour of Manchester’s Water History

Manchester is shaped by water. Its rivers powered mills and its humidity kept cotton pliable during spinning. But the environmental history of Manchester goes beyond this. The material properties of water—its silt and pollution, its volume and velocity—have also shaped the city.

Our walking tour focuses on Manchester in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the time when humans began to put water to work on a large scale. We will take participants along the Irwell River and Rochdale Canal to tell stories of Manchester’s efforts and failures to make its waterways work for transportation and industry, prevent flooding, and provide safe drinking water and sanitation. In these efforts and failures, Manchester has grappled with the boundaries between wet and dry.

The soft edges of riverbanks and marshes have been replaced with hard walls of brick and concrete. These measures have not fully controlled the city’s water and in the age of global climate change, this control may unravel further. Our tour will provide participants with material evidence of how the relationships between water, humans and industry have shaped the city, and encourage reflection on how our relationship with water may change in the future.

Meet 'The Applied Historian', Charlotte Coull, outside the main entrance to Manchester Central Library in St Peter's Square.

Access

We endeavour to ensure that Festival events are accessible to all and welcome you to contact us regarding any specific requirements you may have before the event: info@manchesterhistories.co.uk or 0161 306 1982.

Manchester Central Library is fully accessible and there will be a BSL (British Sign Language) signer present at the venue.

Donate

The event is free of charge but as a small charity we welcome your donations as your help will enable us to continue our work. Suggested donations from £3.00 - £10.00. All donations gratefully received.

By donating to Manchester Histories you can help us fulfil our mission to shape our future by exploring our past. We’re looking towards the future, to our next fabulous festival in 2024, and to the new and creative projects that will make your stories heard.

Thank you.

Thanks to our funders.

Enormous thanks go out to all our festival supporters, partners, and funders. Without their contributions, the festival would not take place. It is a  FREE festival, with only a few paid for events. Making it as accessible to as many people as possible. It costs in the region of 100K to put on the festival and the following partners and funders have all contributed to make this festival happen. Thank you.

Data Gathering

When registering for this event we will ask you some questions about your age, gender, ethnicity, disability and postcode. Gathering this information helps us to report back to our funders and enables us to better understand our audiences so we can ensure we reach as many people as possible now and in the future. The information is given anonymously.