Star date: 3rd June 2018

FROM WARD AND GOLDSTONE TO LATEROOMS.COM

A new book, Salford At Work, by former Salford Advertiser and MEN journalist Peter Harris, takes a look at 'People and Industries Through The Years', and features everything from the early mills to engineering, textiles, beer and Burton suits.

It traces a delicatessen of the city's stuff, from the 13th Century to the Industrial Revolution to the post Industrial Revolution and the dot.com digital revolution. It's the rise and fall and possible rise again of Salford, with loads of photos on the side.

Full details here...

Salford At Work is one of those books that you dig into and go 'I didn't know that'... like the cast iron columns in Islington Mill influencing the design of New York's first skyscrapers...Or that Laterooms.com started on Chapel Street in 1999...

Neatly divided into sections with not too many words and loads of photos, the book starts with Mills, Machines and Markets – cue Ordsall Dye Works, Monton Mill and Pendleton's Acme Mill, made famous in the Lowry painting.

Then it goes on to Engineering, with all manner of mad things made in Salford and sold throughout the world...turnstiles, 'double-acting condensers'...and who could forget the picnic motor tray and the 'celluloid skin, fully wigged' Sleepy Eyes doll?

The docks and the meat markets are both in there too, together with a whole section on Salford's Industrial Giants – bring on GEC, Ward and Goldstone, Mather and Platt, Salford Van Hire, Pilkington's, Cussons, Vimto...and BetFred?

Brewing also gets its own section, with honourable mentions to all companies, from Groves and Whitnall (founded Salford Lads Club) to Threlfall's to the Seven Bro7hers.

The second half of the book centres on the new media and digital industries centred around Salford Quays and MediaCityUK, also referencing  Mettler-Toledo Safeline (metal detectors), In The Style (online clothing), Laterooms.com and Salford University's Salsa Sound (enhanced sports broadcasting audio).

Joule is in the book, with Nasmyth, Mayo and Engels, while a nod is also given to Salford's part in the founding the TUC at the Three Crowns pub, as the Congress celebrates its 150th anniversary this week.

All in all, Salford At Work doesn't try to be anything fancy or over clever – it's just a very concise easy-to-read history of the city's people and industries, crammed into 95 pages, with photos and old ads decorating every single page.

The book is ideal for anyone who ever worked in one of these places, or anyone who needs to know where Salford's coming from and where it's going to...

Salford At Work: People and Industries Through The Years
By Peter Harris
Published by Amberley £14.99
Available in print, or on Kindle, Kobo and iBook

For further details see www.amberley-books.com