The Manchester Derby

 

The Manchester derby refers to football matches between local rivals Manchester City and Manchester United , first contested in 1881.

Manchester City play at the Etihad Stadium, while Manchester United play at Old Trafford.

As of 26 October 2016, there have been 173 competitive meetings between the teams. United have won 72, City 50 and the remaining 51 games finished as draws.

The biggest victories have been to City who have won 6–1 on two occasions in the official league (both times in the away fixture at Old Trafford) on 23 January 1926 and 23 October 2011.

But on 14 April 1941 during a war league derby match at Maine Road, United beat City 7–1, which remains the biggest victory between the two sides overall, this result has been omitted as the official league was suspended but the derby still continued.

Both teams have won 5–0 once (City in 1955, United in 1994).

The largest attendance for a Manchester derby was 78,000 on 20 September 1947, a time when both clubs were playing at Maine Road, as Old Trafford was being repaired following damage sustained in the Second World War.

A large number of non-competitive Manchester derbies have taken place. The majority of these occurred during the Second World War, when a total of 44 matches were played between the teams.

In recent years, non-competitive matches between the teams have generally been testimonials, such as those for Paul Lake and Denis Irwin.

In 1978, for Colin Bell’s testimonial, players from City and United lined up side by side against a combined Liverpool and Everton team in a Manchester v Merseyside fixture.

Matches between non-first team sides representing the Manchester clubs also have an element of rivalry, with occasions when the reserve teams meet sometimes referred to as “mini-derbies”.

This term is also used in reference to when supporters’ offshoot clubs (Maine Road F.C. and F.C. United of Manchester) meet.

The two clubs have met twice, in the 2006–07 season, with FC United winning the inaugural match 2–1 away at Bower Fold, Stalybridge, in front of 3,181 spectators.

United also won the second game 3–0 at Gigg Lane, Bury in a game watched by 3,605. A friendly in 2009 saw Maine Road win 2–1.

F.C. United’s games against Salford City have also been referred to as a “mini Manchester derby”, especially since Salford’s takeover by the Class of ’92.

Heaton Park

 

Between the mid 17th and the beginning of the 20th century just two families owned the Heaton estate.

It passed down through the Holland family until Elizabeth Holland, the last member of the family line, married Sir John Egerton in 1684.

In 1772 Sir Thomas Egerton built Heaton Hall as a new home for himself designed by James Wyatt. Wyatt also designed some of the other buildings around the park.

Sir Thomas also employed William Eames, to create a landscape to show off his new mansion. This was reworked in the early 19th century by John Webb.

Heaton Park remained in the Egerton family until 1902 when the 5th Earl of Wilton sold it to the Manchester Corporation for £230,000. The Corporation provided many public facilities and it quickly became a popular park.

At the end of the 20th century the park was restored in partnership with the Heritage Lottery Fund who were able to recreate the Eames and Webb landscape around the Hall and to restore four of the Wyatt designed listed buildings.

Heaton Park is listed Grade two on the English Heritage Register of Parks and there are nine listed structures in the park.

Britain’s Leading Women’s Right’s Activist

 

Pankhurst was a leading British women’s rights activist, who led the movement to win the right for women to vote.

Emmeline Goulden was born on 14 July 1858 in Manchester into a family with a tradition of radical politics. In 1879, she married Richard Pankhurst, a lawyer and supporter of the women’s suffrage movement. He was the author of the Married Women’s Property Acts of 1870 and 1882, which allowed women to keep earnings or property acquired before and after marriage. His death in 1898 was a great shock to Emmeline.

In 1889, Emmeline founded the Women’s Franchise League, which fought to allow married women to vote in local elections. In October 1903, she helped found the more militant Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) – an organisation that gained much notoriety for its activities and whose members were the first to be christened ‘suffragettes’. Emmeline’s daughters Christabel and Sylvia were both active in the cause. British politicians, press and public were astonished by the demonstrations, window smashing, arson and hunger strikes of the suffragettes. In 1913, WSPU member Emily Davison was killed when she threw herself under the king’s horse at the Derby as a protest at the government’s continued failure to grant women the right to vote.

Like many suffragettes, Emmeline was arrested on numerous occasions over the next few years and went on hunger strike herself, resulting in violent force-feeding. In 1913, in response to the wave of hunger strikes, the government passed what became known as the ‘Cat and Mouse’ Act. Hunger striking prisoners were released until they grew strong again, and then re-arrested.

This period of militancy was ended abruptly on the outbreak of war in 1914, when Emmeline turned her energies to supporting the war effort. In 1918, the Representation of the People Act gave voting rights to women over 30. Emmeline died on 14 June 1928, shortly after women were granted equal voting rights with men (at 21).

Manchester Arena

 

The arena was constructed as part of the city’s unsuccessful bid for the 2000 Summer Olympics . Construction cost £52 million of which £35.5m was provided by government grants and £2.5m from the European Regional Development Fund. Although built as an American style sports arena it has been more successful hosting large music events.

The arena opened in July 1995, sponsored by NYNEX CableComms as the NYNEX Arena, and was renamed the Manchester Evening News Arena in July 1998. In December 2011, the Manchester Evening News ended its thirteen-year sponsorship, and the arena was renamed the Manchester Arena in January 2012. In July 2013, in a multi-million-pound sponsorship deal by mobile phone company Phones 4u, the arena was renamed to the Phones 4u Arena,but this deal ended when Phones 4u closed, renaming the arena back to Manchester Arena, effective 14 January 2015.

On the opening night, 15,000 spectators watched Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean perform; the crowd was a record for an ice event. Attendance records were set in 1997 when 17,425 people watched Manchester Storm play Sheffield Steelers, a record for an ice hockey match in Europe. When 14,151 people watched Manchester Giants play London Leopards, it set a British record for attendance at a basketball match.

The venue attracts over a million customers each year for concerts and family shows, making it one of the world’s busiest indoor arenas, and was named “International Venue Of The Year” in 2002 in the ‘Pollstar’ awards, and was nominated in the same category in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009. The arena was named “Busiest Arena Venue In The World”, based on ticket sales for concerts in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007 ahead of other indoor arenas including the Madison Sq Garden and Wembley Arena.

The arena was the ‘World’s Busiest Arena’ from 2001 until 2007 based on ticket sales for concerts, attracting five and a half million customers. It was voted ‘Europe’s Favourite Arena’ at the TPi Awards in 2008 by the touring companies that bring the shows to the venue.

What was your very first show or event you attended?

The Salford Club

 

Salford Lads Club is a recreational club in the Ordsall area of Salford . The club, on the corner of St. Ignatius Walk and Coronation Street, was established in 1903 as a boys’ club but today welcomes both boys and girls and organises activities including football, snooker, table tennis , boxing training, dance, community meetings, exhibitions, kickboxing.

The club was opened on 30 January 1904 by Robert Baden Powell, who later founded the scout movement. Former members include actor Albert Finney, footballers Steve Fleet , Eddie Colman and Brian Doyle, Allan Clarke , lead singer of 1960s pop group The Hollies, and Gaham Nash, guitarist, songwriter and singer with The Hollies who went on to form Crosby Stills and Nash.

The building gained listed status in 2003 as its tiled interior is virtually unchanged with original fittings and includes a boxing ring, snooker rooms and a gym with a viewing balcony. English heritage said: “The building is thought to be the most complete example of this rare form of social provision to survive in England.” In 2007, the Manchester Evening News reported that the building, which was used for the sleeve of The Smiths? album The Queen Is dead, came third in a nationwide hunt to find the most iconic buildings in the country.

Hands up who’s had a pic outside the famous Salford Lads Club

The Enigma Code Breaker

 

This statue of Alan Turing was unveiled on 23 June 2001 in Sackville Park close to the University of Manchester building on Whitworth Street and Canal Street.

Turing was a mathematician who worked at Bletchley Park during World War II with the code breakers who deciphered German naval codes including uncovering the settings for the Enigma machine. He is regarded as the father of modern computer science and it was at Manchester University in 1948 that he worked on the Manchester Mark 1, one of the world’s earliest true computers.

Turing was gay in a time when homosexuality was regarded as a criminal offence. Despite his outstanding war record and his academic achievements he was outed as a homosexual and subsequently arrested and prosecuted. This ended his career and soon after in 1954 he was found dead by his cleaner. The statue depicts Turing holding an apple because it is thought that he committed suicide by lacing an apple with cyanide.

After his death, Turing finally received the recognition he deserved. In Manchester a road was named the Alan Turing Way and a bridge on that road called the Alan Turing Bridge. In addition to this statue the new physics building at the University of Manchester has been named the Alan Turing Building.

The First City of the Industrial Revolution

 

Manchester invented the modern world, for this was the first city of the industrial revolution and its inhabitants have given society some of its greatest creations.

Listed below are just a few things Manchester is famous for and made history…

Britain’s 1st Canal – The Bridgewater 1761

Atomic Theory – 1803

Vegetarianism – 1809

First passenger railway – 1830

First submarine – 1878

Competitive Football – 1888

Rolls Royce – 1904

Splitting of the atom – 1917

First programmable computer – 1948

Graphene – 2004

Have we missed anything significant out? Please comment below or tweet us!