1
00:00:07,470 --> 00:00:11,216
The secrets of the past are all
around us, hidden in our streets,

2
00:00:11,241 --> 00:00:13,776
buried under our feet,
and in this series,

3
00:00:13,801 --> 00:00:16,216
I'll be uncovering these secrets

4
00:00:16,241 --> 00:00:19,806
as I explore
Britain's Most Historic Towns.

5
00:00:21,011 --> 00:00:23,886
I'll be deciphering
physical clues...

6
00:00:23,911 --> 00:00:25,575
It's like great early animation.

7
00:00:25,600 --> 00:00:28,736
...and getting to know some
extraordinary characters

8
00:00:28,761 --> 00:00:30,416
who are often overlooked.

9
00:00:30,441 --> 00:00:33,625
His nickname was The Uncrowned King
of Scotland. Really?

10
00:00:33,650 --> 00:00:36,986
With the help of
Ben Robinson's eye in the sky,

11
00:00:37,011 --> 00:00:40,375
I'll discover which towns
across the UK reveal the most

12
00:00:40,400 --> 00:00:45,136
about each period in British history
and find out how those stories

13
00:00:45,161 --> 00:00:47,776
still resonate today.

14
00:00:47,801 --> 00:00:50,736
You could call it the world's
first overdraft authorisation.

15
00:00:50,761 --> 00:00:53,416
SHE GRUNTS
It's quite overwhelming.

16
00:00:53,441 --> 00:00:57,245
From the adventurous Elizabethans,
to the elegant Georgian's,

17
00:00:57,270 --> 00:01:00,216
from medieval knights, through
to the height of empire,

18
00:01:00,241 --> 00:01:04,806
I'll tell the story of an era
through the story of a single town.

19
00:01:07,191 --> 00:01:10,856
Today, I'm going to discover how a
town's success during Britain's

20
00:01:10,881 --> 00:01:15,656
Great Industrial Age created
a workshop of radical ideas

21
00:01:15,681 --> 00:01:18,096
that changed the world...

22
00:01:23,991 --> 00:01:27,096
...where principled, working
people endured great pain

23
00:01:27,121 --> 00:01:30,096
to ensure the liberty of
the enslaved.

24
00:01:30,121 --> 00:01:34,495
Lincoln writes from the White House,
saying how he was truly stunned

25
00:01:34,520 --> 00:01:36,856
that people who were taking
the bread out of their children's

26
00:01:36,881 --> 00:01:41,245
mouths, that nonetheless,
they supported what he had to say.

27
00:01:41,270 --> 00:01:44,166
...where brilliant writers and
relentless campaigners

28
00:01:44,191 --> 00:01:48,066
embodied a never-say-die
spirit that lives on.

29
00:01:48,091 --> 00:01:51,375
We see injustice and we're
prepared to do something about it

30
00:01:51,400 --> 00:01:53,346
because we won't tolerate it.

31
00:01:53,371 --> 00:01:57,216
If you really want to get a taste
of the revolution that happened

32
00:01:57,241 --> 00:01:59,495
during Britain's industrial heyday,

33
00:01:59,520 --> 00:02:02,096
Manchester is the place to come.

34
00:02:20,041 --> 00:02:24,886
Modern Manchester, with a population
of over half a million,

35
00:02:24,911 --> 00:02:29,216
has almost become a byword
for successful regeneration.

36
00:02:33,561 --> 00:02:38,066
World-class sport,
science and education,

37
00:02:38,091 --> 00:02:40,455
a national media hub,

38
00:02:40,480 --> 00:02:43,495
an enviable public transport system

39
00:02:43,520 --> 00:02:45,786
and rampant redevelopment

40
00:02:45,811 --> 00:02:47,176
are leading the way.

41
00:02:49,480 --> 00:02:53,856
The 20th century, when Britain's
industrial base ebbed away,

42
00:02:53,881 --> 00:02:58,606
wasn't kind to Manchester, but now
it's back right where it belongs,

43
00:02:58,631 --> 00:03:03,816
a northern powerhouse pumping
the rich blood of economic vitality

44
00:03:03,841 --> 00:03:07,606
and revolutionary identity
around Britain,

45
00:03:07,631 --> 00:03:10,426
a role it's been
performing for centuries.

46
00:03:12,711 --> 00:03:15,936
Originally a Roman fort,
Manchester's position

47
00:03:15,961 --> 00:03:18,575
on the crossroads of medieval
trade routes,

48
00:03:18,600 --> 00:03:20,896
and its proximity to the Atlantic,

49
00:03:20,921 --> 00:03:23,426
established it as a
key merchant town.

50
00:03:24,681 --> 00:03:27,896
But its golden age arrived as
it became the fulcrum of Britain's

51
00:03:27,921 --> 00:03:31,816
first industrial revolution
from the 1780s onwards.

52
00:03:33,891 --> 00:03:37,736
The harnessing of steam power drove
highly mechanised production

53
00:03:37,761 --> 00:03:39,736
on a vast scale.

54
00:03:39,761 --> 00:03:43,296
It brought great riches
for a privileged few,

55
00:03:43,321 --> 00:03:48,296
but for the factory workers,
it was low wages, cramped housing

56
00:03:48,321 --> 00:03:50,936
and continued disenfranchisement.

57
00:03:53,711 --> 00:03:56,296
But out of these dark,
satanic mills,

58
00:03:56,321 --> 00:03:58,616
would emerge radical new ideas

59
00:03:58,641 --> 00:04:02,575
and a spirit of activism that
would ripple out across Britain

60
00:04:02,600 --> 00:04:07,016
through the 19th, into the
20th century and beyond.

61
00:04:07,041 --> 00:04:11,616
And so many of these
revolutionary ripples started

62
00:04:11,641 --> 00:04:13,255
right here in Manchester.

63
00:04:15,961 --> 00:04:20,616
Back in 1844, a gifted novelist
called Benjamin Disraeli

64
00:04:20,641 --> 00:04:23,686
had one of his characters express a
telling thought

65
00:04:23,711 --> 00:04:26,375
when a friend proposed
a visit to Athens.

66
00:04:27,480 --> 00:04:32,455
"The age of ruins is passed",
he said, "Have you seen Manchester?

67
00:04:32,480 --> 00:04:36,786
"Manchester is as great a human
exploit as Athens."

68
00:04:39,171 --> 00:04:42,736
By the time that Disraeli was prime
minister, some 30 years later,

69
00:04:42,761 --> 00:04:47,335
Manchester was an even more
impressive metropolis,

70
00:04:47,360 --> 00:04:49,696
heaving with factories, with great
civic buildings

71
00:04:49,721 --> 00:04:51,656
and with game-changing thinkers.

72
00:04:51,681 --> 00:04:54,766
It was a city ripe with
possibilities.

73
00:04:54,791 --> 00:04:59,146
And all of this because of a century
of breakneck change which made

74
00:04:59,171 --> 00:05:01,585
Manchester world-famous.

75
00:05:01,610 --> 00:05:03,896
And yet going back to 1775,

76
00:05:03,921 --> 00:05:07,375
there wasn't a single mill
in the city.

77
00:05:07,400 --> 00:05:10,866
So how did Manchester
change so fast?

78
00:05:13,480 --> 00:05:17,766
To find out, I've come to
what became known as Cottonopolis...

79
00:05:19,121 --> 00:05:22,255
...to meet local historian
Jonathan Schofield.

80
00:05:22,280 --> 00:05:24,696
Great to see you. Hello.

81
00:05:24,721 --> 00:05:28,056
Now, Manchester's almost synonymous
with the Industrial Revolution.

82
00:05:28,081 --> 00:05:29,375
So how did it play out here?

83
00:05:29,400 --> 00:05:31,226
What happened in this city?

84
00:05:31,251 --> 00:05:33,585
Well, you have to go before
the Industrial Revolution

85
00:05:33,610 --> 00:05:36,736
to the whole system, which was
called the domestic system,

86
00:05:36,761 --> 00:05:41,146
and that's individuals, individual
families producing cotton cloth.

87
00:05:41,171 --> 00:05:44,375
So this is people spinning
and weaving at home.

88
00:05:44,400 --> 00:05:45,866
Yeah, we've got the example here.

89
00:05:45,891 --> 00:05:49,056
You got one of those many buildings
- which you can still see scattered

90
00:05:49,081 --> 00:05:50,375
across the city centre -

91
00:05:50,400 --> 00:05:51,766
a three-storey building.

92
00:05:51,791 --> 00:05:54,125
On the top story, you've got
this row of windows.

93
00:05:54,150 --> 00:05:56,176
These windows up there.
The windows there.

94
00:05:56,201 --> 00:05:59,096
One long row of windows,
which is a workshop,

95
00:05:59,121 --> 00:06:02,776
which allows the lights to come in
so you can do all the fiddly work

96
00:06:02,801 --> 00:06:04,056
to do with textiles.

97
00:06:04,081 --> 00:06:10,616
So what you get is hand-powered
production in vast quantities

98
00:06:10,641 --> 00:06:15,306
of cotton cloth and cotton becomes
the, well, to use a modern phrase,

99
00:06:15,331 --> 00:06:17,616
cool fabric of the time.

100
00:06:17,641 --> 00:06:20,306
So it becomes a fashion,
it's adopted by everybody,

101
00:06:20,331 --> 00:06:21,946
everyone wants to buy cotton,

102
00:06:21,971 --> 00:06:24,776
Manchester becomes the
epicentre of cotton production.

103
00:06:26,410 --> 00:06:29,976
The lives of Manchester's handloom
weavers and domestic producers

104
00:06:30,001 --> 00:06:33,585
across the country were
about to be revolutionised.

105
00:06:35,081 --> 00:06:38,306
An entrepreneur called
Richard Arkwright had shown

106
00:06:38,331 --> 00:06:42,616
what could be achieved in a new
type of workshop called a factory.

107
00:06:43,561 --> 00:06:46,896
Richard Arkwright has a beautiful
mill in the Peak District,

108
00:06:46,921 --> 00:06:49,416
called Cromford Mill,
and that's water-powered.

109
00:06:49,441 --> 00:06:53,976
And he thinks, "Well, where's
the big exchange for cotton?

110
00:06:54,001 --> 00:06:55,536
"It's in Manchester.

111
00:06:55,561 --> 00:06:58,096
"So I've got these
steam engines now".

112
00:06:58,121 --> 00:07:01,135
S0 in the 1780s,
he opens the world's first

113
00:07:01,160 --> 00:07:02,696
steam- powered factory.

114
00:07:04,081 --> 00:07:08,616
The success of Arkwright's methods,
encouraged investors to pour money

115
00:07:08,641 --> 00:07:12,255
into Manchester, with huge
new textile factories

116
00:07:12,280 --> 00:07:14,176
sprouting up like mushrooms.

117
00:07:15,801 --> 00:07:18,176
Of all the factors that
came together,

118
00:07:18,201 --> 00:07:20,616
how did the planets kind
of come into alignment

119
00:07:20,641 --> 00:07:24,455
to create the perfect
situation for Manchester?

120
00:07:24,480 --> 00:07:27,536
I think it's literally all
those factors of an established

121
00:07:27,561 --> 00:07:31,946
textile business, a raw material
coming in, an established workforce

122
00:07:31,971 --> 00:07:35,455
that sort of knew what it was doing,
entrepreneurial spirit,

123
00:07:35,480 --> 00:07:39,335
the raw...the raw materials of
production, ie, coal beneath you.

124
00:07:39,360 --> 00:07:43,215
And absolutely,
that steam-power moment.

125
00:07:43,240 --> 00:07:47,176
These new steam engines
needed a constant supply

126
00:07:47,201 --> 00:07:48,856
of coal delivered to the door.

127
00:07:52,240 --> 00:07:55,666
Ben Robinson has sent his drone
up to take a look at the transport

128
00:07:55,691 --> 00:07:57,976
network that would do the job,

129
00:07:58,001 --> 00:08:01,306
setting the mould for Manchester
and industrial Britain.

130
00:08:04,410 --> 00:08:07,135
The drone's perfectly
positioned now.

131
00:08:07,160 --> 00:08:09,746
I'm looking at the
Bridgewater Canal.

132
00:08:09,771 --> 00:08:13,776
And it gouges a great waterway
through the landscape,

133
00:08:13,801 --> 00:08:16,106
where none existed before.

134
00:08:16,131 --> 00:08:19,496
Now, the whole idea of this was
to get coal from

135
00:08:19,521 --> 00:08:22,306
the Duke of Bridgewater's mines
up in the in the Worsley area

136
00:08:22,331 --> 00:08:26,696
to the north-west of Manchester,
right into where it was needed,

137
00:08:26,721 --> 00:08:29,746
to the steam-powered industry
of the centre of Manchester.

138
00:08:29,771 --> 00:08:32,255
And once it tied in with
the Rochdale Canal,

139
00:08:32,280 --> 00:08:35,746
you're suddenly linked into the
whole of the north of England.

140
00:08:35,771 --> 00:08:39,255
And what I'm looking for here
is the next phase of the work.

141
00:08:39,280 --> 00:08:41,776
I'm just looking
at the junction here.

142
00:08:41,801 --> 00:08:46,135
Yeah, a new branch heading right
round to the south and I can see

143
00:08:46,160 --> 00:08:47,696
it curving away here,

144
00:08:47,721 --> 00:08:51,666
links up to the River Mersey,
it links up to the sea.

145
00:08:51,691 --> 00:08:54,976
This makes Manchester one
of the most connected places

146
00:08:55,001 --> 00:08:57,976
on the planet. And it's all
down to water transport.

147
00:08:58,001 --> 00:09:00,746
Oh, we've actually got canal
boat on it as well.

148
00:09:00,771 --> 00:09:02,186
Fantastic.

149
00:09:02,211 --> 00:09:04,546
It would have been a
whole lot busier

150
00:09:04,571 --> 00:09:06,826
back in
the Duke of Bridgewatefls time.

151
00:09:08,721 --> 00:09:11,335
The Industrial Revolution was
under way,

152
00:09:11,360 --> 00:09:13,826
and as the 19th century began,

153
00:09:13,851 --> 00:09:17,576
it was that famous defeat of
the French and Spanish at sea,

154
00:09:17,601 --> 00:09:21,026
in 1805, that really boosted
Manchester's rise.

155
00:09:23,131 --> 00:09:27,496
The Battle of Trafalgar had cemented
the dominance of the Royal Navy

156
00:09:27,521 --> 00:09:32,135
and the greatest threat to Britain's
expansion and trade overseas

157
00:09:32,160 --> 00:09:33,576
had been removed.

158
00:09:33,601 --> 00:09:37,026
There was a huge global demand
for cotton cloth

159
00:09:37,051 --> 00:09:39,936
and there was plenty of
work in the mills.

160
00:09:41,360 --> 00:09:44,826
This stimulated massive
economic migration.

161
00:09:44,851 --> 00:09:49,906
From around 1790, thousands who'd
struggled from harvest to harvest

162
00:09:49,931 --> 00:09:53,906
in rural communities flocked here
for a steady wage,

163
00:09:53,931 --> 00:09:57,546
crowding into shoddy
rows of basic houses.

164
00:09:58,601 --> 00:10:02,385
These terraces are what
replaced them around 1870.

165
00:10:02,410 --> 00:10:05,546
But to find out what life
here was like before that,

166
00:10:05,571 --> 00:10:09,296
I'm meeting Dr Michaela Hume,
an expert on the history

167
00:10:09,321 --> 00:10:11,265
of this Ancoats area for.

168
00:10:11,290 --> 00:10:13,576
Michaela. Hello.

169
00:10:13,601 --> 00:10:15,576
This looks like a lovely place
to live now,

170
00:10:15,601 --> 00:10:17,465
but I presume it's
completely different

171
00:10:17,490 --> 00:10:19,496
to what it would have been
back in the day.

172
00:10:19,521 --> 00:10:22,135
Yeah. So now this area
is very hip, it's very trendy.

173
00:10:22,160 --> 00:10:24,656
It's the sort of place you
want to live in Manchester.

174
00:10:24,681 --> 00:10:27,656
But if you went back to 1850,
this is hell on Earth.

175
00:10:27,681 --> 00:10:30,746
This is the last place you'd want
to live in the centre of Manchester.

176
00:10:30,771 --> 00:10:34,106
And what was the density
of occupation in houses like this?

177
00:10:34,131 --> 00:10:36,026
Absolutely packed.

178
00:10:36,051 --> 00:10:39,656
So you would have had maybe two
families in the basement,

179
00:10:39,681 --> 00:10:42,656
in a room, maybe ten-by-ten
foot square, no beds.

180
00:10:42,681 --> 00:10:45,856
So everybody would have slept
on the floor, or on just straw.

181
00:10:45,881 --> 00:10:48,906
And if there was a bed, you know,
you would have got maybe six people

182
00:10:48,931 --> 00:10:50,056
in that bed.

183
00:10:50,081 --> 00:10:51,496
No provisions for human waste.

184
00:10:51,521 --> 00:10:53,546
So that is literally in the streets.

185
00:10:53,571 --> 00:10:55,106
There's also animal waste

186
00:10:55,131 --> 00:10:58,186
cos a lot of people did
keep animals, they kept pigs.

187
00:10:58,211 --> 00:11:00,576
So there's dungs on the
corner of the road.

188
00:11:00,601 --> 00:11:04,936
So not only was your house
contaminated with the stench

189
00:11:04,961 --> 00:11:07,265
of everybody, disease was rife,

190
00:11:07,290 --> 00:11:10,546
you also couldn't get away
from it when you stepped outside.

191
00:11:10,571 --> 00:11:11,856
Yeah. Yeah.

192
00:11:11,881 --> 00:11:14,186
Because you couldn't see to
the end of the road

193
00:11:14,211 --> 00:11:15,576
from the smoke of the factories.

194
00:11:17,851 --> 00:11:19,826
And what were the wages like?

195
00:11:19,851 --> 00:11:22,936
Not great. If you wanted to
earn a decent wage,

196
00:11:22,961 --> 00:11:25,936
you needed to be a spinner
or even an overseer.

197
00:11:25,961 --> 00:11:28,265
But if you were, say, a
throwster spinner,

198
00:11:28,290 --> 00:11:29,936
which was the lower end of spinner,

199
00:11:29,961 --> 00:11:34,345
you're earning about between
seven and eight shillings.

200
00:11:34,370 --> 00:11:37,776
Now, if you're trying to rent
a terraced house,

201
00:11:37,801 --> 00:11:40,106
you're looking upwards of six
shillings.

202
00:11:40,131 --> 00:11:41,656
That's all your money.

203
00:11:41,681 --> 00:11:45,546
So for most people, just rent,
you know, would have taken

204
00:11:45,571 --> 00:11:47,546
the bulk of their wage.

205
00:11:47,571 --> 00:11:50,496
And it must have been dangerous
work as well in the mills.

206
00:11:50,521 --> 00:11:53,086
I mean, if you suffered an injury,
presumably, that was it.

207
00:11:53,111 --> 00:11:54,316
Absolutely.

208
00:11:54,341 --> 00:11:56,676
As soon as you were injured,
the guy who ran the factory

209
00:11:56,701 --> 00:11:59,155
didn't want to know,
you were out, you know, out.

210
00:11:59,180 --> 00:12:00,566
There was no welfare. No.

211
00:12:00,591 --> 00:12:02,596
Let's get somebody
else able-bodied in.

212
00:12:02,621 --> 00:12:06,126
Yeah, I think when you stand
back and look at it,

213
00:12:06,151 --> 00:12:08,485
you look at the Industrial
Revolution

214
00:12:08,510 --> 00:12:12,155
and do a couple of centuries
later, it looks like progress.

215
00:12:12,180 --> 00:12:15,126
But to the people going through it,
it must have felt like anything but.

216
00:12:15,151 --> 00:12:18,235
Yeah, especially for
working-class people.

217
00:12:18,260 --> 00:12:20,756
Some would have benefited
probably more than others.

218
00:12:20,781 --> 00:12:23,206
But for your labouring class
and your lower working-class,

219
00:12:23,231 --> 00:12:26,796
those that were handloom weavers
before, they particularly struggled.

220
00:12:29,671 --> 00:12:33,596
Hardship for the British working
poor was about to get much worse.

221
00:12:33,621 --> 00:12:36,756
As the efficiency
of machinery increased,

222
00:12:36,781 --> 00:12:38,516
less human labour was needed.

223
00:12:38,541 --> 00:12:42,396
Workers were laid off and
the gap between the haves

224
00:12:42,421 --> 00:12:44,086
and the have-nots widened.

225
00:12:46,781 --> 00:12:50,676
To add to the darkening, febrile
mood in Britain,

226
00:12:50,701 --> 00:12:54,756
revolution was sweeping through
Europe like a contagion -

227
00:12:54,781 --> 00:12:58,086
guillotines slicing
down on aristocratic necks,

228
00:12:58,111 --> 00:13:01,446
cutting down
centuries of oppression,

229
00:13:01,471 --> 00:13:05,956
emboldening previously
unheard radical voices.

230
00:13:05,981 --> 00:13:10,956
And here, in Britain, it was
in Manchester that those voices

231
00:13:10,981 --> 00:13:12,285
were heard the loudest.

232
00:13:23,270 --> 00:13:26,686
I'm in Manchester to find out
how the most successful

233
00:13:26,711 --> 00:13:29,016
Industrial Revolution town

234
00:13:29,041 --> 00:13:32,476
became a radical, potent
force for political

235
00:13:32,501 --> 00:13:35,045
and social change in
19th century Britain.

236
00:13:36,501 --> 00:13:40,165
I've had a taste of how tough life
was for the working poor here -

237
00:13:40,190 --> 00:13:44,686
slum housing, brutally long
hours and declining wages.

238
00:13:46,400 --> 00:13:50,245
So with all that suffering,
surely something has to be done.

239
00:13:50,270 --> 00:13:52,556
I mean, Britain is a democracy.

240
00:13:52,581 --> 00:13:55,556
There would be MPs
in Parliament representing

241
00:13:55,581 --> 00:13:57,486
these people's interests.

242
00:13:57,511 --> 00:14:00,446
Well, not so much in the 1800s.

243
00:14:01,940 --> 00:14:05,375
Incredibly, after
the general election of 1818,

244
00:14:05,400 --> 00:14:07,446
sparsely-populated Cornwall

245
00:14:07,471 --> 00:14:11,806
sent 40 MPs to parliament,
while densely-packed Manchester

246
00:14:11,831 --> 00:14:14,196
sent precisely none.

247
00:14:14,221 --> 00:14:16,846
To find out how this
city led the drive

248
00:14:16,871 --> 00:14:19,446
to overhaul Britain's political map,

249
00:14:19,471 --> 00:14:22,556
I've come to meet historian
Dr Janette Martin.

250
00:14:22,581 --> 00:14:24,886
Janette, hello. Hello.

251
00:14:24,911 --> 00:14:27,556
What was essentially wrong
with British democracy

252
00:14:27,581 --> 00:14:29,406
in the early 1800?

253
00:14:29,431 --> 00:14:32,806
Well, the problem was it
just wasn't very democratic

254
00:14:32,831 --> 00:14:35,486
because places like
Manchester, Bradford,

255
00:14:35,511 --> 00:14:37,556
Leeds, Newcastle, Birmingham,

256
00:14:37,581 --> 00:14:41,606
they were driving the prosperity of
the country at that point in time.

257
00:14:41,631 --> 00:14:44,125
And yet, they had
no voice at Westminster.

258
00:14:44,150 --> 00:14:46,966
Yeah. So how do they
start fighting for that?

259
00:14:46,991 --> 00:14:49,356
Most important of all,
they used print,

260
00:14:49,381 --> 00:14:51,766
so they used things like newspapers.

261
00:14:51,791 --> 00:14:55,806
And a really important newspaper
was The Manchester Observer.

262
00:14:55,831 --> 00:14:59,526
So London had radical papers,
but the Manchester Observer

263
00:14:59,551 --> 00:15:03,486
was unique in that its focus
was on the industrialising north.

264
00:15:03,511 --> 00:15:05,915
So what kinds of things are
bring covered in the newspaper?

265
00:15:05,940 --> 00:15:09,636
The Observer was incredibly
provocative and scurrilous,

266
00:15:09,661 --> 00:15:11,995
so it used to poke fun
at the government.

267
00:15:12,020 --> 00:15:15,276
It was very direct in
the kind of demands it wanted.

268
00:15:15,301 --> 00:15:18,606
And as well as arguing
for political reform,

269
00:15:18,631 --> 00:15:21,456
were they going as far as
to organise protests?

270
00:15:21,481 --> 00:15:25,206
One of the sort of ways
in which they built a mass movement

271
00:15:25,231 --> 00:15:30,096
for parliamentary reform, was to
hold meetings and invite gifted,

272
00:15:30,121 --> 00:15:32,636
charismatic speakers
to explain, you know,

273
00:15:32,661 --> 00:15:35,606
what would it mean if you had
universal suffrage.

274
00:15:35,631 --> 00:15:40,276
So there's one particular meeting
then that that goes down in history.

275
00:15:40,301 --> 00:15:45,636
Yes. So the meeting happens
on August 16th, 1819.

276
00:15:45,661 --> 00:15:49,326
Henry Hunt had been invited
to speak in Manchester

277
00:15:49,351 --> 00:15:52,716
by the editor of
The Manchester Observer, James Wroe.

278
00:15:52,741 --> 00:15:56,316
And the ordinary people were really,
really interested in this

279
00:15:56,341 --> 00:15:59,366
celebrity speaker who, despite
being a gentlemanly leader,

280
00:15:59,391 --> 00:16:04,676
was really interested in helping
ordinary people get the vote.

281
00:16:04,701 --> 00:16:08,286
That meeting took place at
a field called St Peter's,

282
00:16:08,311 --> 00:16:12,646
the scene of the infamous
crushing of a peaceful protest,

283
00:16:12,671 --> 00:16:15,036
that came to be called Peterloo.

284
00:16:15,061 --> 00:16:20,205
That wall, over there, is the last
remaining structure of the area

285
00:16:20,230 --> 00:16:22,005
that was St Peter's field.

286
00:16:22,030 --> 00:16:25,926
And so Henry Hunt and the other
speakers were on the hustings.

287
00:16:25,951 --> 00:16:27,926
They were on a raised platform.

288
00:16:27,951 --> 00:16:30,246
They were there to address...

289
00:16:30,271 --> 00:16:32,776
Roughly 50-60,000 people
were estimated

290
00:16:32,801 --> 00:16:35,205
to have come to Manchester that day.

291
00:16:35,230 --> 00:16:37,566
It's a huge number.
It's a vast number.

292
00:16:37,591 --> 00:16:39,965
And that's why the
authorities were so scared.

293
00:16:39,990 --> 00:16:43,036
It was the largest meeting
that had ever really been held.

294
00:16:43,061 --> 00:16:45,776
Yeah. So what happened that clay?

295
00:16:45,801 --> 00:16:48,885
So just as Henry Hunt
was starting to speak,

296
00:16:48,910 --> 00:16:52,526
the magistrates, who were in
a room overlooking the field,

297
00:16:52,551 --> 00:16:57,396
sent word to the Manchester Yeomanry
to go in and arrest the speakers.

298
00:16:57,421 --> 00:16:59,755
The Manchester Yeomanry
were on horseback.

299
00:16:59,780 --> 00:17:01,286
They had sabres.

300
00:17:01,311 --> 00:17:04,085
They cut their way
through to the hustings

301
00:17:04,110 --> 00:17:05,856
and they arrested the speakers.

302
00:17:05,881 --> 00:17:10,215
But can you imagine, mounted
soldiers going into a packed field,

303
00:17:10,240 --> 00:17:12,085
the panic that ensued?

304
00:17:12,110 --> 00:17:15,965
So at the end of that
afternoon, 15 people were dead.

305
00:17:15,990 --> 00:17:19,005
Three more would later die
of their injuries,

306
00:17:19,030 --> 00:17:21,576
and up to 700 people were injured.

307
00:17:21,601 --> 00:17:23,885
And was this written
about in the newspapers?

308
00:17:23,910 --> 00:17:25,366
It certainly was.

309
00:17:25,391 --> 00:17:28,885
So The Manchester Observer
was the first to come

310
00:17:28,910 --> 00:17:30,856
up with the phrase Peterloo,

311
00:17:30,881 --> 00:17:34,056
and it was coined by
James Wroe, the editor.

312
00:17:34,081 --> 00:17:36,526
And it was a very
deliberate, satirical pun

313
00:17:36,551 --> 00:17:38,286
on the Battle of Waterloo... Yeah.

314
00:17:38,311 --> 00:17:42,686
...a heroic event that happened
only four years earlier.

315
00:17:42,711 --> 00:17:46,166
And ironically, one of the people
killed on the fields

316
00:17:46,191 --> 00:17:50,726
of St Peter's field was someone
who'd fought at Waterloo.

317
00:17:50,751 --> 00:17:55,116
Yeah, very, very much framing
it as a battle. Absolutely.

318
00:17:55,141 --> 00:17:57,526
While the authorities
tried to cover up

319
00:17:57,551 --> 00:18:00,366
the unprovoked brutality
with fake news,

320
00:18:00,391 --> 00:18:04,965
sympathetic Britons sought to help
those suffering in the aftermath.

321
00:18:06,751 --> 00:18:10,116
This is Manchester's John Ryland's
Library, where I've been given

322
00:18:10,141 --> 00:18:14,606
special access to an extraordinary
record of the money granted

323
00:18:14,631 --> 00:18:18,246
by the Peterloo Relief Fund,
a nationwide subscription

324
00:18:18,271 --> 00:18:22,215
set up to support the families
of the injured and killed.

325
00:18:25,110 --> 00:18:26,856
So here's John Rhodes.

326
00:18:26,881 --> 00:18:31,366
We've got a very detailed record
of the injuries that he sustained.

327
00:18:31,391 --> 00:18:37,806
"John Rhodes, sabre cut on the head,
by which he lost much blood

328
00:18:37,831 --> 00:18:43,446
"A woman saw him wandering about,
bloody, and took him into her house,

329
00:18:43,471 --> 00:18:47,406
"shaved off the hair
and put on a plaster.

330
00:18:47,431 --> 00:18:50,166
"He was dreadfully
bruised internally,

331
00:18:50,191 --> 00:18:53,526
"so he's not since
held up his head.

332
00:18:53,551 --> 00:18:57,046
"And he died about
the 18th of November."

333
00:18:58,431 --> 00:19:01,046
And the reason he's
recorded here, in this book,

334
00:19:01,071 --> 00:19:04,936
which is about
providing poor relief,

335
00:19:04,961 --> 00:19:08,806
is that his father
received some funds.

336
00:19:09,910 --> 00:19:14,296
This is really important,
because at the time,

337
00:19:14,321 --> 00:19:19,246
there's this alternative version
of events emerging,

338
00:19:19,271 --> 00:19:23,246
where this is a violent
riot that's being put down

339
00:19:23,271 --> 00:19:25,606
and we know that that
wasn't the case.

340
00:19:25,631 --> 00:19:31,126
We know that this is a peaceful
protest and that this is the brutal

341
00:19:31,151 --> 00:19:33,885
repression of that peaceful protest.

342
00:19:35,990 --> 00:19:39,126
13 years after
the terror of Peterloo,

343
00:19:39,151 --> 00:19:43,526
the Great Reform Act of 1832
was passed by Parliament.

344
00:19:43,551 --> 00:19:49,656
67 new constituencies with MPs
were created, including Manchester.

345
00:19:49,681 --> 00:19:53,166
But the hand that giveth
also taketh away.

346
00:19:54,681 --> 00:19:58,606
More men now had the vote,
but only the wealthy ones -

347
00:19:58,631 --> 00:20:01,686
the factory workers certainly
weren't going to the polls,

348
00:20:01,711 --> 00:20:04,656
and although women
had never had the vote,

349
00:20:04,681 --> 00:20:08,095
now, they're specifically
excluded in law

350
00:20:08,120 --> 00:20:10,486
and it would take another 90 years

351
00:20:10,511 --> 00:20:13,656
to overturn that piece
of legislation.

352
00:20:15,471 --> 00:20:19,046
Meanwhile, a lack of democratic
representation wasn't the only

353
00:20:19,071 --> 00:20:21,326
concern for Britain's
impoverished workers.

354
00:20:23,151 --> 00:20:26,246
This is Manchester's
Free Trade Hall.

355
00:20:26,271 --> 00:20:29,736
In 1976, The Sex Pistols
played a legendary gig here,

356
00:20:29,761 --> 00:20:33,326
which launched
the punk rock scene in the UK.

357
00:20:33,351 --> 00:20:35,885
But this building
was originally designed

358
00:20:35,910 --> 00:20:37,845
to honour the legacy of a man

359
00:20:37,870 --> 00:20:40,765
with even more
anti-establishment leanings.

360
00:20:40,790 --> 00:20:43,095
His name was Richard Cobden,

361
00:20:43,120 --> 00:20:48,095
and he didn't want anarchy
in the UK, he wanted reform.

362
00:20:49,631 --> 00:20:53,965
Already a successful manufacturer
of printed textiles in Manchester,

363
00:20:53,990 --> 00:20:55,606
in the late 1830s,

364
00:20:55,631 --> 00:21:00,015
Cobden focused his energy
on the hated Corn Laws.

365
00:21:00,040 --> 00:21:05,015
For years, these laws had levied
tariffs on imported cereals

366
00:21:05,040 --> 00:21:07,376
so the great landowners could
charge the Earth

367
00:21:07,401 --> 00:21:10,606
for their domestic products, helping
keep them rich

368
00:21:10,631 --> 00:21:13,885
and the working poor
half-starved and destitute.

369
00:21:15,071 --> 00:21:18,046
To learn more about
the Anti-Corn Law League

370
00:21:18,071 --> 00:21:22,456
that Cobden spearheaded, I'm
meeting historian Dr Simon Morgan.

371
00:21:22,481 --> 00:21:23,765
Hi, Alice. Hi.

372
00:21:23,790 --> 00:21:26,486
So, that's Cobden.
It is, the man himself.

373
00:21:26,511 --> 00:21:28,965
Why did he become so
politically engaged?

374
00:21:28,990 --> 00:21:34,046
Well, he's very much concerned
that the economic ills

375
00:21:34,071 --> 00:21:37,765
of the 1830s and '40s, there's a
huge sort of downturn that begins

376
00:21:37,790 --> 00:21:39,816
in the late 1830s.

377
00:21:39,841 --> 00:21:44,206
The Corn Laws are making these
worse, not just by increasing

378
00:21:44,231 --> 00:21:47,686
food prices, but also by
depriving people of employment

379
00:21:47,711 --> 00:21:50,296
because he believes that
other countries are retaliating

380
00:21:50,321 --> 00:21:52,126
against Britain's tariffs
on grain

381
00:21:52,151 --> 00:21:54,926
by introducing tariffs
on British goods.

382
00:21:54,951 --> 00:21:57,566
So if you get rid of the Corn
Laws, it's a virtuous circle.

383
00:21:57,591 --> 00:22:02,376
Not only does bread become
cheaper, you've also got more trade

384
00:22:02,401 --> 00:22:05,606
with the likes of the United States
and Russia and elsewhere

385
00:22:05,631 --> 00:22:07,926
buying goods from Lancashire.

386
00:22:07,951 --> 00:22:11,816
So people can afford to
employ more hands in the factories.

387
00:22:11,841 --> 00:22:15,686
And of course, eventually, we do
have the repeal of the Corn Laws.

388
00:22:15,711 --> 00:22:17,686
Peel repeals the Corn Laws.

389
00:22:17,711 --> 00:22:19,456
Does he do that because of Cobden?

390
00:22:19,481 --> 00:22:21,816
Is Cobden really
instrumental in that?

391
00:22:21,841 --> 00:22:24,326
There has been some controversy
over this because Peel himself

392
00:22:24,351 --> 00:22:28,256
was moving to a free trade
position even before 1846.

393
00:22:28,281 --> 00:22:31,006
But Cobden had kind
of planted the seeds.

394
00:22:31,031 --> 00:22:32,406
Yes, I think that's true.

395
00:22:32,431 --> 00:22:35,126
He keeps it really high
on the political agenda.

396
00:22:35,151 --> 00:22:37,645
What does Cobden do then -
hang up his boots?

397
00:22:37,670 --> 00:22:39,965
Well, it doesn't bear
fruit immediately.

398
00:22:39,990 --> 00:22:41,845
But in 1860, he goes over to Paris

399
00:22:41,870 --> 00:22:46,206
and he negotiates a commercial
treaty with the French,

400
00:22:46,231 --> 00:22:48,686
which becomes the basis of a network

401
00:22:48,711 --> 00:22:51,456
of treaties across Europe
over the next ten years.

402
00:22:51,481 --> 00:22:53,406
And that has been seen
as a forerunner

403
00:22:53,431 --> 00:22:55,736
of the European Common Market.

404
00:22:55,761 --> 00:22:57,736
Cobden is an idealist.

405
00:22:57,761 --> 00:23:00,645
He believes that the more
countries trade with one another,

406
00:23:00,670 --> 00:23:03,566
the less likely they are to want
to go to war with one another,

407
00:23:03,591 --> 00:23:07,126
and that you can actually promote
universal peace and harmony

408
00:23:07,151 --> 00:23:08,765
by freeing up trade.

409
00:23:08,790 --> 00:23:11,286
I like him. He does sound
like a bit of a hero.

410
00:23:16,711 --> 00:23:21,095
Men like Cobden sympathised
with the working poor,

411
00:23:21,120 --> 00:23:22,845
but away from
the industrial heartlands,

412
00:23:22,870 --> 00:23:25,926
the increasingly influential
middle classes of the South

413
00:23:25,951 --> 00:23:29,845
had no idea how harsh
factory life still was.

414
00:23:31,231 --> 00:23:35,126
But in an age of
improving transport and literacy,

415
00:23:35,151 --> 00:23:39,895
a quieter type of radical would
bear witness and spread the word.

416
00:23:39,920 --> 00:23:44,256
And so it, would be great
writing that would keep

417
00:23:44,281 --> 00:23:46,645
the Manchester revolution rolling.

418
00:23:56,111 --> 00:23:59,886
I've come to Manchester,
the original Northern Powerhouse,

419
00:23:59,911 --> 00:24:02,525
to trace its role
as the driving force

420
00:24:02,550 --> 00:24:07,975
behind industrial and political
change in 19th century Britain.

421
00:24:08,000 --> 00:24:10,936
Protests against stark inequalities

422
00:24:10,961 --> 00:24:13,975
had led to a somewhat
fairer democracy.

423
00:24:14,000 --> 00:24:16,296
But it was the
democratisation of travel

424
00:24:16,321 --> 00:24:18,696
that really got things moving.

425
00:24:18,721 --> 00:24:22,366
By the 1840s, there were
train tracks across Britain,

426
00:24:22,391 --> 00:24:25,006
but one of the earliest
and most important

427
00:24:25,031 --> 00:24:28,531
was built right here in Manchester.

428
00:24:28,556 --> 00:24:31,961
Ben is taking a look at the
extraordinary feats of engineering

429
00:24:31,986 --> 00:24:34,371
required to get the world's first

430
00:24:34,396 --> 00:24:37,291
public intercity
railway up and running.

431
00:24:42,635 --> 00:24:47,011
I'm looking at the railway from
Liverpool up there to Manchester.

432
00:24:47,036 --> 00:24:49,810
It was the first to use
just steam locomotives,

433
00:24:49,835 --> 00:24:53,321
no horse drawn carriages like
they were on earlier railways,

434
00:24:53,346 --> 00:24:56,971
and the first used double
track all the way through.

435
00:24:56,996 --> 00:25:00,041
But as George Stephenson
came towards Manchester,

436
00:25:00,066 --> 00:25:01,531
he hit a problem.

437
00:25:01,556 --> 00:25:03,091
And the problem was this,

438
00:25:03,116 --> 00:25:05,531
the Sankey Valley running
through the middle.

439
00:25:05,556 --> 00:25:08,680
And there was also a
canal, the Sankey Canal.

440
00:25:08,705 --> 00:25:09,680
What to do?

441
00:25:11,426 --> 00:25:17,841
This, the Sankey Viaduct, never
been done before on this scale.

442
00:25:17,866 --> 00:25:21,451
It's an amazingly
impressive structure.

443
00:25:21,476 --> 00:25:23,761
I can see one,
two, three, four, five...

444
00:25:23,786 --> 00:25:25,011
...nine arches here,

445
00:25:25,036 --> 00:25:28,091
and it's called the
Nine Arches locally.

446
00:25:28,116 --> 00:25:30,401
Because the canal was still in use,

447
00:25:30,426 --> 00:25:34,121
the masts of the barges had
to be able to pass underneath.

448
00:25:34,146 --> 00:25:37,171
So the canal company actually
insisted that the arches

449
00:25:37,196 --> 00:25:40,940
were a minimum of
60 feet high or so.

450
00:25:40,965 --> 00:25:43,610
Now, there may have been
bigger railway viaducts

451
00:25:43,635 --> 00:25:45,560
built in the world after this,

452
00:25:45,585 --> 00:25:48,401
but this was the one
that proved the concept.

453
00:25:48,426 --> 00:25:51,251
This was the one
that said, "We can do it."

454
00:25:58,356 --> 00:26:00,940
Transport links were opening
up right across Europe,

455
00:26:00,965 --> 00:26:06,371
and in 1842, a 22-year-old
German arrived in Salford

456
00:26:06,396 --> 00:26:10,051
to get some work experience at
his father's cotton factory.

457
00:26:10,076 --> 00:26:12,301
His name was Friedrich Engels.

458
00:26:14,585 --> 00:26:17,171
I'm meeting up with
Jonathan Schofield again

459
00:26:17,196 --> 00:26:20,921
outside the oldest public library
in the English speaking world

460
00:26:20,946 --> 00:26:25,281
to find out why this young
man's observations of Manchester

461
00:26:25,306 --> 00:26:27,371
had such an impact.

462
00:26:27,396 --> 00:26:29,761
This is amazing. This is
the famous Chetham's Library.

463
00:26:29,786 --> 00:26:30,841
It is very famous,

464
00:26:30,866 --> 00:26:33,201
it's the oldest complete
structure in Manchester,

465
00:26:33,226 --> 00:26:36,371
filled with the
atmosphere of a myriad

466
00:26:36,396 --> 00:26:38,730
of very important
people who came here.

467
00:26:38,755 --> 00:26:41,690
The dismounts are just
filled with Dickens, and Disraeli

468
00:26:41,715 --> 00:26:45,251
and Benjamin Franklin, and
of course, Marx and Engels.

469
00:26:45,276 --> 00:26:47,610
So, how did Engels end up here?

470
00:26:47,635 --> 00:26:50,281
Because, I mean, he comes
from modern day Germany.

471
00:26:50,306 --> 00:26:53,251
He does, he's a German. He ends
up here because, basically,

472
00:26:53,276 --> 00:26:55,610
his dad wants to get
him out of Germany.

473
00:26:55,635 --> 00:26:59,251
He's been called the scabby sheep
of the family by his father.

474
00:26:59,276 --> 00:27:00,480
Really? Yeah.

475
00:27:00,505 --> 00:27:03,371
And his father doesn't like all
these progressive radical ideas

476
00:27:03,396 --> 00:27:05,331
he's taken on board
in Germany. So he says,

477
00:27:05,356 --> 00:27:08,921
"Hie thee hence to Manchester
where I part-own a factory."

478
00:27:08,946 --> 00:27:13,331
So his father sends him
here to help manage his mill,

479
00:27:13,356 --> 00:27:15,690
but, actually, Engels ends
up being much more interested

480
00:27:15,715 --> 00:27:17,641
in the condition of the
people working there.

481
00:27:17,666 --> 00:27:19,480
Well, Manchester is
as big as Berlin.

482
00:27:19,505 --> 00:27:22,451
There's no German city as big
as Manchester, aside from Berlin.

483
00:27:22,476 --> 00:27:24,891
And it's...oof! Absolutely
heaving with people,

484
00:27:24,916 --> 00:27:27,690
and heaving with people who
had a fairly miserable life.

485
00:27:27,715 --> 00:27:29,331
Well, yes and no.

486
00:27:29,356 --> 00:27:31,690
I mean, of course, there was
the middle class doing very well

487
00:27:31,715 --> 00:27:33,641
in the periphery, but
he immediately sees that,

488
00:27:33,666 --> 00:27:35,641
that in the breezy
heights of Cheetham Hill,

489
00:27:35,666 --> 00:27:37,171
you've got the big mansions,

490
00:27:37,196 --> 00:27:41,171
and then in the middle, you've
got this foetid mess of humanity.

491
00:27:41,196 --> 00:27:43,810
So, presumably, he's seeing
the workers in the mill,

492
00:27:43,835 --> 00:27:46,411
but does he actually go
to where they live as well?

493
00:27:46,436 --> 00:27:48,251
Well, this is the
remarkable thing about Engels,

494
00:27:48,276 --> 00:27:49,810
he's a young man in a hurry,

495
00:27:49,835 --> 00:27:53,531
and he wants to really get
to see the nitty gritty

496
00:27:53,556 --> 00:27:55,001
of the life of the workers.

497
00:27:55,026 --> 00:27:57,381
Now, we don't really know
where he meets this young woman,

498
00:27:57,406 --> 00:27:58,841
but he meets a young
woman called Mary Burns,

499
00:27:58,866 --> 00:28:00,531
who's from an Irish background,

500
00:28:00,556 --> 00:28:03,971
living in a hellhole of a
place called the 13th District.

501
00:28:03,996 --> 00:28:06,690
And he would not be
able to walk amongst

502
00:28:06,715 --> 00:28:09,531
the very poor quarters
of the city of Manchester

503
00:28:09,556 --> 00:28:11,411
unless she was with him,

504
00:28:11,436 --> 00:28:13,851
because otherwise he
loved his clothes, Engels.

505
00:28:13,876 --> 00:28:15,771
He was a smart looking gentleman.

506
00:28:15,796 --> 00:28:17,360
He would've been
robbed immediately.

507
00:28:17,385 --> 00:28:20,490
So she really showed him the people.

508
00:28:20,515 --> 00:28:22,171
So she's really
important to the story.

509
00:28:22,196 --> 00:28:23,690
Oh, key to it!

510
00:28:23,715 --> 00:28:25,131
She is his passport.

511
00:28:26,556 --> 00:28:29,921
Mary Burns had kept Engel's
out of trouble in Manchester,

512
00:28:29,946 --> 00:28:33,360
but it was his meeting in
Paris with a fellow radical

513
00:28:33,385 --> 00:28:36,211
that would change the
course of political history.

514
00:28:36,236 --> 00:28:40,021
That radical's name was Karl Marx.

515
00:28:40,046 --> 00:28:42,351
And where does Marx come from?
Well, he's German as well.

516
00:28:42,376 --> 00:28:43,630
Karl Marx is German, of course,

517
00:28:43,655 --> 00:28:45,991
and so they meet in Paris,

518
00:28:46,016 --> 00:28:49,510
and they just sit down and talk
for hours, and hours and hours.

519
00:28:49,535 --> 00:28:53,551
And then that cements
the closest, most important

520
00:28:53,576 --> 00:28:55,911
political friendship
in world history.

521
00:28:55,936 --> 00:28:57,911
So they've met up, they're
aware of each other's work,

522
00:28:57,936 --> 00:28:59,710
they've had this
meeting of minds in Paris,

523
00:28:59,735 --> 00:29:01,351
and then they end up
here in Manchester.

524
00:29:01,376 --> 00:29:03,661
Well, Engels comes back to Britain,

525
00:29:03,686 --> 00:29:05,630
and he brings Marx
with him and says,

526
00:29:05,655 --> 00:29:08,021
"See for yourself. Come along."

527
00:29:08,046 --> 00:29:09,791
Marx is very willing to do that.

528
00:29:09,816 --> 00:29:11,510
So they come here to Chetham's,

529
00:29:11,535 --> 00:29:16,510
where they sit at this desk
and chat and get books out.

530
00:29:16,535 --> 00:29:18,380
Not the most interesting
books, one has to say,

531
00:29:18,405 --> 00:29:22,380
but if you're trying to base
your theories on political economy,

532
00:29:22,405 --> 00:29:24,201
they're fantastically
interesting for them.

533
00:29:24,226 --> 00:29:25,871
It's about fishery revenues,

534
00:29:25,896 --> 00:29:28,510
and public revenues
coming through the kingdom

535
00:29:28,535 --> 00:29:31,021
and to do with the cotton trade
and the cotton industry as well,

536
00:29:31,046 --> 00:29:34,021
which is the prime example
of this industrial growth.

537
00:29:38,096 --> 00:29:41,871
Inside the library, I'm heading
for the desk where Marx and Engels

538
00:29:41,896 --> 00:29:45,510
actually sat and collaborated.

539
00:29:45,535 --> 00:29:48,151
Three years of research and study

540
00:29:48,176 --> 00:29:51,630
eventually led to
the publication in 1848

541
00:29:51,655 --> 00:29:55,510
of a slim but extremely
heavyweight pamphlet.

542
00:29:58,126 --> 00:29:59,840
It was this.

543
00:29:59,865 --> 00:30:05,710
This is a copy of the original

544
00:30:05,735 --> 00:30:09,151
Manifest cler Kommunistischen Partei.

545
00:30:09,176 --> 00:30:11,380
It's the Communist Manifesto.

546
00:30:12,586 --> 00:30:14,271
There it is in German.

547
00:30:14,296 --> 00:30:17,071
My German's really poor,
so I'm going to cheat...

548
00:30:18,176 --> 00:30:21,151
...and read it in the
English translation.

549
00:30:21,176 --> 00:30:22,710
I'm not going to
read all of it to you.

550
00:30:22,735 --> 00:30:25,380
I'm going to give you
a very neat precis.

551
00:30:25,405 --> 00:30:26,561
Here's the beginning.

552
00:30:26,586 --> 00:30:31,431
"A spectre is haunting Europe,
the spectre of communism."

553
00:30:31,456 --> 00:30:33,741
And then if I skip to the very end,

554
00:30:33,766 --> 00:30:38,071
which doesn't take long, it's
only about 50 pages in total.

555
00:30:39,586 --> 00:30:43,431
"Let the ruling classes tremble
at a communistic revolution,

556
00:30:43,456 --> 00:30:46,630
"the proletarians have nothing
to lose but their chains.

557
00:30:46,655 --> 00:30:48,991
"They have a world to win.

558
00:30:49,016 --> 00:30:52,590
"Working men of
all countries unite."

559
00:30:56,535 --> 00:30:59,590
Isn't it amazing
that such a small book

560
00:30:59,615 --> 00:31:03,231
had such a huge
impact in 20th century?

561
00:31:04,665 --> 00:31:09,390
This vivid call to arms would become
arguably the single most influential

562
00:31:09,415 --> 00:31:13,071
political publication of all time,

563
00:31:13,096 --> 00:31:17,460
its theories underpinning the
Russian Revolution of 1979

564
00:31:17,485 --> 00:31:20,101
and the creation of
the Soviet Union.

565
00:31:20,126 --> 00:31:24,460
At the time, however,
its impact was limited.

566
00:31:24,485 --> 00:31:27,311
Now, amongst the wealthy,

567
00:31:27,336 --> 00:31:28,921
well-educated middle classes,

568
00:31:28,946 --> 00:31:32,561
there may have been an
abstract recognition

569
00:31:32,586 --> 00:31:35,751
of a need for social change.

570
00:31:35,776 --> 00:31:39,151
But at the same time, it
was difficult to imagine

571
00:31:39,176 --> 00:31:45,181
just how dire life could be for
working class men and women.

572
00:31:45,206 --> 00:31:48,590
And then it's impossible
to empathise with them.

573
00:31:49,976 --> 00:31:53,151
It would be a Manchester
housewife with a talent for writing

574
00:31:53,176 --> 00:31:56,111
great stories that
would help change this.

575
00:31:57,485 --> 00:32:02,281
I've come to the house of Elizabeth
Gaskell, and it's in Victoria Park,

576
00:32:02,306 --> 00:32:06,751
which was a very smart suburb
just to the south of Manchester's

577
00:32:06,776 --> 00:32:10,001
19th century industrial centre.

578
00:32:10,026 --> 00:32:12,561
Dr Fariha Shaikh is going
to help me understand

579
00:32:12,586 --> 00:32:16,231
why it was the writing of
Gaskell and not Friedrich Engels

580
00:32:16,256 --> 00:32:18,590
that opened the eyes
of the middle classes

581
00:32:18,615 --> 00:32:21,111
to the plight of
Britain's working poor.

582
00:32:21,136 --> 00:32:22,751
Fariha, hi. Hi.

583
00:32:22,776 --> 00:32:25,671
This is Elizabeth Gaskell's
house, it's lovely. It is.

584
00:32:25,696 --> 00:32:28,071
And this is a museum now?
It is a museum now.

585
00:32:28,096 --> 00:32:30,751
Why is Elizabeth
Gaskell so important?

586
00:32:30,776 --> 00:32:34,751
Because of the way in which she
portrays working life in Manchester.

587
00:32:34,776 --> 00:32:39,361
Her novels, Mary Barton, then
North and South are the novels,

588
00:32:39,386 --> 00:32:42,281
if you like, that
depict the condition

589
00:32:42,306 --> 00:32:44,590
of the working classes in England,

590
00:32:44,615 --> 00:32:47,201
and specifically
within Manchester as well.

591
00:32:47,226 --> 00:32:50,201
It seems like quite a strange
subject to be writing about.

592
00:32:50,226 --> 00:32:52,051
I mean, she's a
quite...l mean, obviously,

593
00:32:52,076 --> 00:32:54,410
very comfortably
well-off middle class woman.

594
00:32:54,435 --> 00:32:57,410
I would almost have expected
her to be writing romantic novels

595
00:32:57,435 --> 00:33:00,331
rather than something
as gritty as that.

596
00:33:00,356 --> 00:33:02,211
Yeah, I can see where
that's coming from.

597
00:33:02,236 --> 00:33:04,740
Her novels do have a romantic plot,

598
00:33:04,765 --> 00:33:08,101
so her female heroines do
end up getting married.

599
00:33:08,126 --> 00:33:10,691
But within that, she's also
really, really interested

600
00:33:10,716 --> 00:33:13,561
in using her fiction
and using her novels

601
00:33:13,586 --> 00:33:16,021
to bring the plight
of the working classes

602
00:33:16,046 --> 00:33:18,051
to her middle class readership.

603
00:33:18,076 --> 00:33:22,461
So she sees her fiction
as a means of opening windows

604
00:33:22,486 --> 00:33:26,461
into what the life of a male
factory worker would look like.

605
00:33:26,486 --> 00:33:29,740
Was there quite a kind of moral
impetus behind what she was doing,

606
00:33:29,765 --> 00:33:33,381
or was she effectively just
exploiting that kind of

607
00:33:33,406 --> 00:33:34,821
gritty lifestyle?

608
00:33:34,846 --> 00:33:37,211
I think there's a very, very
keen social consciousness

609
00:33:37,236 --> 00:33:38,280
at work in her novel.

610
00:33:38,305 --> 00:33:42,821
So she's really interested
in the idea that her fiction

611
00:33:42,846 --> 00:33:45,610
can bring the plight
of the working classes

612
00:33:45,635 --> 00:33:47,971
to her middle class readership

613
00:33:47,996 --> 00:33:51,331
for the express purposes
of changing the way

614
00:33:51,356 --> 00:33:53,251
in which they think
about their factories,

615
00:33:53,276 --> 00:33:56,021
the way in which they think about
the conditions of their employees.

616
00:33:56,046 --> 00:33:59,610
So, it really brings her
readership to a new awareness

617
00:33:59,635 --> 00:34:03,931
of what capitalism is doing,
what industrialisation is doing.

618
00:34:05,956 --> 00:34:07,771
The interior of Gaskell's house

619
00:34:07,796 --> 00:34:12,821
records the domestic side
of 19th century middle class life.

620
00:34:12,846 --> 00:34:15,691
But I'm on the hunt for evidence
of the powerful impression

621
00:34:15,716 --> 00:34:21,021
Gaskell's first novel had on
Britain's most popular ever author.

622
00:34:22,156 --> 00:34:24,211
Oh, this is incredibly special.

623
00:34:24,236 --> 00:34:26,571
I'm sitting in Elizabeth Gaskell
house,

624
00:34:26,596 --> 00:34:32,931
looking at the original letter
that Charles Dickens sent her.

625
00:34:33,916 --> 00:34:35,821
Isn't that wonderful?

626
00:34:35,846 --> 00:34:38,131
31st of January, 1850.

627
00:34:38,156 --> 00:34:43,051
Just imagine her, perhaps sitting
right here, opening this letter.

628
00:34:43,076 --> 00:34:45,771
"Dear Mrs Gaskell..." he says,
"You might have seen that

629
00:34:45,796 --> 00:34:48,331
"l'm starting a new weekly journal."

630
00:34:48,356 --> 00:34:51,651
And he says to her that he
doesn't know what she's up to.

631
00:34:51,676 --> 00:34:55,021
"But I do honestly know

632
00:34:55,046 --> 00:34:57,931
"that there is no living
English writer whose aid

633
00:34:57,956 --> 00:34:59,821
"l would desire to enlist

634
00:34:59,846 --> 00:35:03,771
"in preference to the
authoress of Mary Barton,

635
00:35:03,796 --> 00:35:09,021
"a book that most profoundly
affected and impressed me."

636
00:35:09,046 --> 00:35:13,410
I mean, somebody the stature
of Dickens writing to you,

637
00:35:13,435 --> 00:35:15,771
it's like having
just published something

638
00:35:15,796 --> 00:35:21,181
and JK Rowling writes to you to say
how much she appreciates your work.

639
00:35:21,206 --> 00:35:23,571
And it's just, oh, it's amazing.

640
00:35:23,596 --> 00:35:27,011
She must have been so excited
to open this letter, right here.

641
00:35:31,515 --> 00:35:35,410
The plight of Britain's industrial
workers may have been so severe

642
00:35:35,435 --> 00:35:39,931
that it compelled authors like
Elizabeth Gaskell to write about it.

643
00:35:39,956 --> 00:35:44,410
Across the Atlantic, enslaved
people on the plantations

644
00:35:44,435 --> 00:35:47,740
faced an even greater struggle.

645
00:35:47,765 --> 00:35:49,051
And once again,

646
00:35:49,076 --> 00:35:53,011
the people of Manchester
would take up the fight.

647
00:36:05,286 --> 00:36:08,861
I've been exploring Manchester,
the best place to see

648
00:36:08,886 --> 00:36:11,221
how the harshness of life
during Britain's

649
00:36:11,246 --> 00:36:14,931
early industrial era
sparked a revolutionary spirit

650
00:36:14,956 --> 00:36:17,811
that would change Britain
and the world.

651
00:36:20,275 --> 00:36:22,581
At the heart of Manchester
in the industrial age

652
00:36:22,606 --> 00:36:24,250
were the cotton mills,

653
00:36:24,275 --> 00:36:29,091
employing thousands of workers
and dominating the local economy.

654
00:36:29,116 --> 00:36:34,861
But the mills were completely
dependent on a supply of raw cotton

655
00:36:34,886 --> 00:36:38,581
coming in from
the Deep South of America.

656
00:36:42,006 --> 00:36:45,500
Of course, that cotton
was picked by vast armies

657
00:36:45,525 --> 00:36:47,731
of enslaved African-Americans.

658
00:36:49,006 --> 00:36:52,250
In 1861, civil war broke out
in America,

659
00:36:52,275 --> 00:36:55,061
with slavery the major flash point.

660
00:36:56,966 --> 00:37:00,091
Abraham Lincoln's government
supported abolition,

661
00:37:00,116 --> 00:37:03,651
whilst the southern states,
dependent on slave labour,

662
00:37:03,676 --> 00:37:05,891
found such a policy abhorrent.

663
00:37:07,836 --> 00:37:10,581
It may have all been happening
thousands of miles away

664
00:37:10,606 --> 00:37:15,250
from Manchester, but the ripples
of war would be keenly felt here.

665
00:37:18,686 --> 00:37:21,451
To learn more, I'm meeting
Dr Natalie Zacek

666
00:37:21,476 --> 00:37:23,891
from the University of Manchester.

667
00:37:25,246 --> 00:37:28,061
Natalie, what was happening
in the American Civil War

668
00:37:28,086 --> 00:37:30,981
that had such an impact
on Manchester?

669
00:37:31,006 --> 00:37:33,420
Basically, an economic meltdown.

670
00:37:33,445 --> 00:37:37,021
During the Civil War,
the Union Navy blockaded

671
00:37:37,046 --> 00:37:39,420
all the major southern ports,
so the cotton wasn't getting

672
00:37:39,445 --> 00:37:42,370
out of the south, it wasn't coming
to the Manchester area.

673
00:37:42,395 --> 00:37:45,731
So therefore, there was no
work for the cotton workers

674
00:37:45,756 --> 00:37:48,971
and they were mostly thrown
out of work and had only

675
00:37:48,996 --> 00:37:52,170
really private and religious charity
to rely on to support themselves

676
00:37:52,195 --> 00:37:53,611
and their families.

677
00:37:53,636 --> 00:37:56,300
And what was the reaction
to that amongst the workers

678
00:37:56,325 --> 00:37:59,021
in terms of what they thought
was going on in America?

679
00:37:59,046 --> 00:38:02,581
They felt quite strongly
that the struggle against slavery

680
00:38:02,606 --> 00:38:06,250
was a noble one and that even though
it was directly harming them

681
00:38:06,275 --> 00:38:08,781
and their families, that it was
something that they thought

682
00:38:08,806 --> 00:38:11,300
was right and they
greatly supported it.

683
00:38:11,325 --> 00:38:14,500
And how did they express
their support for the Union?

684
00:38:14,525 --> 00:38:17,701
They held a big meeting of working
people at the Free Trade Hall

685
00:38:17,726 --> 00:38:22,061
on New Year's Eve, 1862,
where they put together a letter,

686
00:38:22,086 --> 00:38:23,701
which they sent to Abraham Lincoln,

687
00:38:23,726 --> 00:38:28,250
in which they expressed their hatred
of slavery and their support of his

688
00:38:28,275 --> 00:38:31,300
and the Union Army's attempts
to eradicate it.

689
00:38:31,325 --> 00:38:33,221
And how did... Did Lincoln
respond to them?

690
00:38:33,246 --> 00:38:34,531
He did.

691
00:38:34,556 --> 00:38:36,941
And not only did he respond,
but very quickly,

692
00:38:36,966 --> 00:38:40,531
considering that he was probably
rather busy at the time. Yeah.

693
00:38:40,556 --> 00:38:43,891
Lincoln writes them a letter
from the White House,

694
00:38:43,916 --> 00:38:47,300
saying how moved
he was to receive their letter

695
00:38:47,325 --> 00:38:49,611
and that he was truly stunned

696
00:38:49,636 --> 00:38:52,941
that people who were losing
everything, taking the bread

697
00:38:52,966 --> 00:38:56,170
out of their children's mouths,
that nonetheless they supported

698
00:38:56,195 --> 00:38:57,861
what he had to say.

699
00:38:57,886 --> 00:39:03,500
At this point, is it possible
to say where Manchester was with,

700
00:39:03,525 --> 00:39:05,941
I suppose,
the anti-slavery movement,

701
00:39:05,966 --> 00:39:07,811
as regards the rest of the UK?

702
00:39:07,836 --> 00:39:11,250
Manchester was really the heart
of the anti-slavery movement.

703
00:39:11,275 --> 00:39:13,661
Many famous white
and black abolitionists,

704
00:39:13,686 --> 00:39:16,250
including people such
as Frederick Douglass,

705
00:39:16,275 --> 00:39:19,531
came through Manchester
to raise funds and awareness.

706
00:39:19,556 --> 00:39:22,380
Frederick Douglass himself
was a freed slave.

707
00:39:22,405 --> 00:39:25,101
Well, actually,
when he came to Britain,

708
00:39:25,126 --> 00:39:27,101
he was only a runaway slave, um,

709
00:39:27,126 --> 00:39:30,061
and eventually a number of wealthy
abolitionists contributed funds

710
00:39:30,086 --> 00:39:32,971
to buy him out of slavery,
so that he would not risk

711
00:39:32,996 --> 00:39:36,661
being arrested and returned back
to his master's plantation.

712
00:39:36,686 --> 00:39:39,221
You know, he was really quite
fascinated by Manchester,

713
00:39:39,246 --> 00:39:42,071
not just that it was such
a strong city for abolitionists,

714
00:39:42,096 --> 00:39:45,331
but that it was full of radical
political and social movements.

715
00:39:47,636 --> 00:39:52,741
From the fight against slavery
to campaigning for affordable food,

716
00:39:52,766 --> 00:39:55,971
from marching and dying
for a voice in parliament

717
00:39:55,996 --> 00:39:57,741
to the call for class war...

718
00:39:59,166 --> 00:40:03,180
...19th-century Manchester
is like a greatest hits of radical

719
00:40:03,205 --> 00:40:05,941
movements and iconic change makers.

720
00:40:05,966 --> 00:40:09,891
And we haven't even yet mentioned
the town's most famous daughter.

721
00:40:12,606 --> 00:40:16,971
Time magazine included her in
the list of the 20th century's most

722
00:40:16,996 --> 00:40:20,141
influential people, she was someone
that went toe to toe

723
00:40:20,166 --> 00:40:24,531
with the establishment, who suffered
enormous personal hardship,

724
00:40:24,556 --> 00:40:29,331
fighting
for a fairer society for equality.

725
00:40:29,356 --> 00:40:34,971
She was the firebrand women's rights
activist, Emmeline Pankhurst.

726
00:40:37,046 --> 00:40:39,821
Born in Manchester in 1858,

727
00:40:39,846 --> 00:40:42,461
Emmeline grew up in a family steeped

728
00:40:42,486 --> 00:40:47,050
in radical politics, but it was
in the first decade of the 1900s

729
00:40:47,075 --> 00:40:49,971
that she really made her mark.

730
00:40:49,996 --> 00:40:53,861
I've come to the People's History
Museum to get a sneak preview

731
00:40:53,886 --> 00:40:57,611
of a remarkable antique
textile that was paraded

732
00:40:57,636 --> 00:41:02,541
at the great suffragette march
in London's Hyde Park in 1908.

733
00:41:06,275 --> 00:41:08,050
Oh, my goodness, it's huge.

734
00:41:09,126 --> 00:41:10,151
And beautiful.

735
00:41:12,436 --> 00:41:16,331
That's so impressive.
The colours are so vivid.

736
00:41:17,566 --> 00:41:20,941
Look at that, Manchester,
first in the fight.

737
00:41:20,966 --> 00:41:23,541
This is where the suffragette
movement started.

738
00:41:23,566 --> 00:41:26,461
"Founded by Mrs Pankhurst, 1903."

739
00:41:26,486 --> 00:41:32,221
That's when she found the women's
social and political union.

740
00:41:32,246 --> 00:41:37,021
This is the fight for votes
for women, for equality.

741
00:41:37,046 --> 00:41:41,411
It's an important moment
in Manchester's history.

742
00:41:41,436 --> 00:41:44,380
It's a massively important
moment in British history.

743
00:41:46,075 --> 00:41:50,021
This delicate banner is
a rare survivor from the era

744
00:41:50,046 --> 00:41:53,300
and was only
recently brought to the museum

745
00:41:53,325 --> 00:41:55,260
by curator Jenny Mabbott.

746
00:41:55,285 --> 00:41:56,380
Hello. Hello.

747
00:41:56,405 --> 00:41:58,941
Jenny, I'm so excited about
this banner.

748
00:41:58,966 --> 00:42:02,021
How did you come to acquire
it at the museum?

749
00:42:02,046 --> 00:42:04,461
Well, we saw an auction
listing for the banner

750
00:42:04,486 --> 00:42:05,981
and we went and saw the banner

751
00:42:06,006 --> 00:42:07,741
and realised it was authentic.

752
00:42:07,766 --> 00:42:09,691
Where had it been all these
years, though?

753
00:42:09,716 --> 00:42:11,741
It had been with a small charity

754
00:42:11,766 --> 00:42:13,771
in a filing cabinet,
would you believe?

755
00:42:13,796 --> 00:42:16,231
And then they decided
to put it up for auction.

756
00:42:16,256 --> 00:42:18,541
We bid and were outbid by a dealer,

757
00:42:18,566 --> 00:42:20,901
but then we made contact
with the dealer,

758
00:42:20,926 --> 00:42:23,300
had a crowdfunding campaign,
got lots of public support,

759
00:42:23,325 --> 00:42:26,130
and then we were able
to acquire the banner and

760
00:42:26,155 --> 00:42:27,461
bring it home to Manchester.

761
00:42:27,486 --> 00:42:29,771
That's just perfect as well,
that it was crowdfunding

762
00:42:29,796 --> 00:42:30,771
that brought it back here.

763
00:42:30,796 --> 00:42:32,231
Yeah. Yeah.

764
00:42:33,686 --> 00:42:38,050
Emmeline Pankhurst's campaign
achieved its aim just a few weeks

765
00:42:38,075 --> 00:42:41,871
after her death, when all
adult women were finally given

766
00:42:41,896 --> 00:42:44,101
the vote in 1928.

767
00:42:45,366 --> 00:42:49,691
But her cause is still
very much alive and kicking.

768
00:42:49,716 --> 00:42:51,981
I'm meeting Caroline Pankhurst.

769
00:42:52,006 --> 00:42:53,180
She's no relation,

770
00:42:53,205 --> 00:42:57,741
but chose to change her name
in honour of her heroine.

771
00:42:57,766 --> 00:43:01,541
Caroline, tell me about
the legacy of Emmeline Pankhurst

772
00:43:01,566 --> 00:43:03,101
and how she's influenced you.

773
00:43:03,126 --> 00:43:06,541
I first came to hear about
Emmeline Pankhurst at a play

774
00:43:06,566 --> 00:43:08,021
at the National Theatre,

775
00:43:08,046 --> 00:43:10,380
and it had a massive
impact realising

776
00:43:10,405 --> 00:43:12,851
what struggle women had gone
through to get women the vote.

777
00:43:12,876 --> 00:43:14,130
Yeah.

778
00:43:14,155 --> 00:43:16,701
And then it was a real eye-opener
for me personally

779
00:43:16,726 --> 00:43:18,591
to have an opportunity
to then look at,

780
00:43:18,616 --> 00:43:20,180
where are we still today?

781
00:43:21,486 --> 00:43:24,180
Do you think Emmeline Pankhurst
would be pleasantly surprised

782
00:43:24,205 --> 00:43:26,491
or slightly disappointed by

783
00:43:26,516 --> 00:43:29,491
where we've got to now
with equality?

784
00:43:29,516 --> 00:43:32,130
I don't think that she would
be surprised

785
00:43:32,155 --> 00:43:34,591
and I think she would
be quite horrified

786
00:43:34,616 --> 00:43:37,771
at how social media
has added another

787
00:43:37,796 --> 00:43:40,951
way of silencing
and oppressing women.

788
00:43:40,976 --> 00:43:44,341
So I think there are a lot of things
that have changed in society

789
00:43:44,366 --> 00:43:47,851
now that she would probably
recognise need addressing.

790
00:43:47,876 --> 00:43:50,180
The things that she fought for,

791
00:43:50,205 --> 00:43:52,741
while she was
very single-minded at the time

792
00:43:52,766 --> 00:43:55,341
in terms of wanting
to get women the vote,

793
00:43:55,366 --> 00:43:58,380
so that we were able
to participate in decision making,

794
00:43:58,405 --> 00:44:00,741
what that ultimately
was about striving towards,

795
00:44:00,766 --> 00:44:02,021
we're still nowhere near.

796
00:44:02,046 --> 00:44:04,310
So her legacy has to live on,

797
00:44:04,335 --> 00:44:06,621
which is why it's so important

798
00:44:06,646 --> 00:44:09,741
that Manchester has
this statue here now.

799
00:44:09,766 --> 00:44:14,380
And is it unusual in Manchester
to have a statue of a woman?

800
00:44:14,405 --> 00:44:17,741
So, would you believe it
if I told you she's the first,

801
00:44:17,766 --> 00:44:19,781
apart from a royal statue?

802
00:44:19,806 --> 00:44:21,821
And that's...that's not
good enough, is it?

803
00:44:21,846 --> 00:44:25,341
She...she exists here
and she inspires

804
00:44:25,366 --> 00:44:27,621
the future generations.

805
00:44:27,646 --> 00:44:30,060
And we need to see more role models.

806
00:44:30,085 --> 00:44:32,781
We need to see more of these
amazing women in history

807
00:44:32,806 --> 00:44:35,140
peppered around our cities
in the same way

808
00:44:35,165 --> 00:44:38,764
that we've got these remarkable men
from history peppered around them.

809
00:44:38,789 --> 00:44:40,654
So many of these radical movements

810
00:44:40,679 --> 00:44:42,964
seem to have started
right here in Manchester.

811
00:44:42,989 --> 00:44:44,604
What is it about Manchester?

812
00:44:44,629 --> 00:44:48,324
I don't know.
I think it's the northern grit.

813
00:44:48,349 --> 00:44:52,884
I think it's that we...we keep
going and we see injustice

814
00:44:52,909 --> 00:44:55,884
and we're prepared to do something
about it because we won't tolerate

815
00:44:55,909 --> 00:44:57,554
it and we want change.

816
00:44:57,579 --> 00:45:00,654
We are a city of change
makers, and I, for one, <i>am</i>

817
00:45:00,679 --> 00:45:02,484
very proud of that.

818
00:45:07,629 --> 00:45:10,163
It's great to see that tradition
of protests thriving

819
00:45:10,188 --> 00:45:11,324
in this century.

820
00:45:12,579 --> 00:45:14,243
But Emmeline Pankhurst's
achievements

821
00:45:14,268 --> 00:45:15,884
would be a rare high point

822
00:45:15,909 --> 00:45:19,804
for Manchester throughout
much of the 20th century.

823
00:45:19,829 --> 00:45:22,123
The textile industry was decimated,

824
00:45:22,148 --> 00:45:25,964
the engineering jobs
that were created to replace it

825
00:45:25,989 --> 00:45:27,444
had also dried up,

826
00:45:27,469 --> 00:45:31,094
the turbulent,
buoyant years of the 19th century

827
00:45:31,119 --> 00:45:34,014
were consigned to history,

828
00:45:34,039 --> 00:45:38,324
but they left an indelible
imprint underneath it all.

829
00:45:41,349 --> 00:45:45,734
Typified by the spirit of renewal
transforming the city today,

830
00:45:45,759 --> 00:45:48,684
19th-century Manchester
and its people had refused

831
00:45:48,709 --> 00:45:50,204
to suffer in silence.

832
00:45:52,679 --> 00:45:55,684
Instead, this town
collectively rose up,

833
00:45:55,709 --> 00:45:58,404
becoming a powerhouse
of progression,

834
00:45:58,429 --> 00:46:01,484
reshaping Britain
and the world far beyond.

835
00:46:04,789 --> 00:46:09,404
I can't think of a more fitting way
to end my time in Manchester

836
00:46:09,429 --> 00:46:12,373
than to pay tribute
to Emmeline Pankhurst

837
00:46:12,398 --> 00:46:15,484
and to all the Manchester radicals,

838
00:46:15,509 --> 00:46:20,734
those brave men and women
who called out inequality

839
00:46:20,759 --> 00:46:23,094
and injustice wherever they saw it,

840
00:46:23,119 --> 00:46:27,764
who fought for the greater
good, for what was right.

841
00:46:27,789 --> 00:46:29,993
And their work goes on.

842
00:46:35,869 --> 00:46:38,844
Subtitles by Red Bee Media