In 1793, Manchester was going through great social and economic change. Although little more than a market town in the Middle Ages, it was to be awarded city status in 1853, becoming Britain's cotton capital and the world's first truly industrial city. This topographical plan of Manchester and Salford, printed by Charles Laurent in 1793, captures the town in the midst of this transformation. As well as pinpointing the churches, theatres, hospitals, docks and post offices frequented by Manchester's eighteenth-century inhabitants, it gives a detailed survey of local land ownership and the mills and factories that were key to the town's development. In contemporary colour, this attractive depiction of a modern city in its infancy is an invaluable tool for local historians and genealogists.
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