SALFORD HUNDRED 



MANCHESTER 



Thomas del Booth of Barton left money for this 

 bridge." Another, over the Irk, is named in I38i. 16 

 These rivers were noted for their floods, often very 

 destructive. 17 



About 1536 Leland thus described the place: 

 4 Manchester, on the south side of the Irwell River, 

 standeth in Salfordshire, and is the fairest, best builded, 

 quickest, and most populous town of all Lancashire ; 

 yet is in it [but] one parish church, but is a college, 

 and almost throughout double-aisled ex quadrato lapide 

 durissimo, whereof a goodly quarry is hard by the 

 town. There be divers stone bridges in the town, 

 but the best, of three arches, is over Irwell. This 

 bridge divideth Manchester from Salford, the which is 

 a large suburb to Manchester. On this bridge is a 

 pretty little chapel. . . . And almost two flight shots 



without the town, beneath on the same side of Irwell, 

 yet be seen the dykes and foundations of Old Man- 

 castel in a ground now inclosed. The stones of the 

 ruins of this castle were translated towards making of 

 bridges for the town.' 18 The quarry named was that 

 at Collyhurst. 19 



The privilege of sanctuary which had been allowed 

 to the town* was in 1541 transferred to Chester, 

 having proved injurious to good order. 21 



The prosperity of the place was uninterrupted 

 during the religious changes of the i6th century." The 

 endowments of the parish church were confiscated by 

 Edward VI, but restored in great measure by Mary. 

 No resistance was openly offered to any of the changes. 

 The two great families of the parish the Byrons of 

 Clayton and Radcliffes of Ordsall though at first 



'\ /-\ R u KHOCMC V../ jfle 



^** - ' 



16 His will is printed in Baines's Lanes. 

 (1868), i, 283. 



16 Hunt D. no. 52 (Dods. MSS. cxlii, 

 fol. 169) ; see also Mamecestre (Chet. 

 Soc.), iii, 506. 



17 In 1480, in the testimony of the bur- 

 gesses respecting the highway between 

 Manchester and Collyhurst occurs the 

 statement that 'the water of Irk had 

 worn out ' the said highway ; Hulme D. 

 no. 22. In 1787 part of Salford Bridge 

 was carried away by a flood of the Ir- 

 well. 



18 Leland, Itin. v, 94. 



11 Mane A. Court Lett Rec. iv, 107. 



20 The Act of 32 Hen. VIII, cap. 12 

 (1540), abolishing the right of sanctuary, 

 excepted parish and other churches, also 

 Westminster, Manchester, Lancaster, and 

 some other places. It is not quite clear 

 from this that Manchester's privilege of 

 sanctuary was new, but this is shown by 

 the subsequent Act. See also Lanes, and 

 Chet. Antiq. Soc. xvii, 64. 



a 33 Hen. VIII, cap. 15. The par- 

 ticular reason alleged for revoking the 

 priyilege was that the ' linen yarn must 

 lie without as well in the night as in the 

 day continually for the space of one half 

 year to be whited, before it can be made 



175 



cloth ; and the woollen cloth there made 

 must hang upon the tainter to be dried 

 before it could be dressed up.' Hence 

 only honest and industrious persons were 

 welcome. 



w The Act last quoted describes Man- 

 chester as 'a town well inhabited,' with 

 manufactures of linen and woollen, where- 

 by the inhabitants had ' come unto riches 

 and wealthy livings,' and thus kept at 

 work 'many artificers and poor folk.' 

 Acts for regulating the size and weight of 

 'Manchester cottons' were passed in 

 1552, 1558, and 1566 (the Aulnager* 

 Act). 



