Snaps of Manchester Number 3, on the Manchester Ship Canal

We are on the Manchester Ship Canal sometime in the 1920s and this is one of those wonderful photographs from the collection of Sandra Hapgood.

And like the others it is a snap rather than a carefully worked out photograph, and for me that gives it something extra.

Snaps are not always carefully framed and often a bit of the detail is lost but they are real history.

I say that because snaps are what you and I would take.  They are instant, often on the spur of the moment and capture scenes that many a profession would think unworthy.

So here we are looking down on this busy waterway when it really was a modern wonder of the world.

The canal  was begun in 1887, took six years to build and cost £15 million and was one of those bold commercial ventures which ranks with the building of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway fifty years earlier.*

I remember the noise from the ships’ sirens welcoming in the New Year,  failed to notice the canal’s decline and have watched as the Salford end reinvented itself with an art gallery, theatre, war museum and Media City.**

But for thousands of people in the twin cities the canal and the docks were a source of livelihood and for many a reminder of the big world which existed beyond the waterway.

And that takes me back to the picture with the cargo ship making its way to the swing bridge, passing the cranes and warehouses with the city away in the distance.

Back then cargoes were still unloaded by hand and the crews of the ship had shore leave in the heart of Manchester and Salford, a far cry from the container led industry of today.

I hope the picture will generate some memories and perhaps even the odd story along with a correction to the date of the photograph.

Like all snaps Sandra’s relative felt no need to add any detail other than the title.

After all it was a picture destined for a photograph album which would regularly be brought out showed around and spark family discussion.

But all that said I like the way the image captures the slow progress of the ship and wake from its propellers stretching out behind.

*Opened in 1830, and was instantly a success.

**In 1958 38 million tons of freight came through the Canal which had fallen to 7.8 million tons by 2001.

Picture; from the collection of Sandra Hapgood.