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Saturday, 13th March 2004

Then and Now: Salford Quays

IMPRESSIVE: The Lowry and War Museum

STANDING like guardians of a lost era, two blue cranes remain at the entrance of Salford's docklands.

Beyond them and the Ontario Basin they tower above is Salford Quays - an amazing piece of regeneration.

The Lowry, Imperial War Museum North, hotels and spectacular apartments have risen from a polluted urban wasteland left when the docks closed in 1982.

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But in their heyday, the docks employed 3,000 people, as ocean-going ships delivered cargo from around the world, including grain from America and timber from Canada. It was tough, mainly unskilled work, but the dockers were at the heart of the north west's industrial strength.

The 35-mile long Manchester Ship Canal opened in 1894, allowing vessels of up to 12,500 tons to get close to Manchester city centre.

INDUSTRIAL HEARTLAND: The docks in their heyday

Two years later, Trafford Park industrial estate was opened for the manufacture and export of textile machinery; and the Ordsall district boomed despite appalling poverty.

Between 1952 and 1974, 5,000 ships entered the Ship Canal each year.

Manchester Port - which included Salford Docks, Cadishead and Irlam where coal was delivered, and other operations at the Ellesmere Port end of the canal - was the third-biggest in the UK after London and Liverpool.

The thriving community of Trafford Road around the docks became known as The Barbary Coast, a cosmopolitan mix of locals and seamen.

They were served by rough pubs and a tattooist known as Professor Cash, who had a parlour at 101 Trafford Road.

BUSY: Dockers at work in 1920s

The foremen ruled when it came to deciding who should get work at the docks and they were influenced by donations to their beer money.

Ken Craven, a research officer for Salford council's Heritage Service, said: "The docks were very much a family thing. Sons followed their fathers and uncles into the job. The docks were vitally important to the north west.

"The popular myth is that the docks closed because the dockers and seamen were always on strike. But the root of the decline was containerisation and ships got too big for the canal.

"Another reason was the spread of motorways and the UK joining the EEC. That meant Britain had to buy grain from Europe, whereas before it came to the docks from North America."