As Britain suffers from railway strikes, collapsing franchises, and unreliable trains, Japan celebrates the sixtieth anniversary of their much beloved Shinkansen. October has been a month of wild fanfare honouring the service of the bullet train. Emotional commercials and commemorative merchandise are abundant. For Japan, the Shinkansen is more than just an engineering marvel. The Continue Reading
It’s 1758, the Duke of Bridgewater is having drainage problems with his coal mines in Worsley. The duke remains disgruntled by the inefficiency of turnpike roads, packhorse routes and the Mersey Irwell navigation to get his coal into Manchester. His response is to take inspiration from the Canal du Midi and Sankey Canal, carving an Continue Reading
Today, Southall is emblematic of the virtues of multicultural Britain, with its lively intermingling of different cultures and traditions which help to promote intercultural and interfaith harmony. With its predominant South Asian community, it has often been dubbed the ‘mini-Punjab,’ in addition to the local train station displaying key information in Punjabi. However, this was Continue Reading
This edition is published in collaboration with students at Cedar Mount Academy (CMA) in Gorton. Brought together through Dr Kerry Pimblott’s AHRC-funded project, ‘Grassroots Struggles, Global Visions: British Black Power, 1964-1985’, we have been working with these students to think about ‘hidden histories’ of Manchester. Following talks and workshops, the students at CMA have produced Continue Reading
In 1968 there were 55,000 men employed at Ford Motor Company’s Dagenham Factory and only 187 women. These female machinists were informed that their job had been degraded to ‘unskilled’ work resulting in reduced pay. Consequently, the women went out on strike demanding, quite rightly, their grading be changed, and that they be given the appropriate pay.
