The original Moor was extensive; its dells and hillocks spread from Broughton through to Prestwich. Moor Lane dissected this land by leading to a ford of the River Irwell at Agecroft. It was also believed to be the highest spot in Manchester. These were features which attracted the wealthy, who wanted to get away from the smoke and grime of industrial Manchester and Salford during the Industrial Revolution.
The Industrial Revolution is often romanticised, with its powerful steam engines and its sudden opportunities to make money. The unhappy side to this was felt by the working class. The middle class gathered money from the mechanised cotton manufacturing and built their houses on the high points of the Moor to avoid the pollution.
Vine Street, perched on the slopes of the Moor and looking down to the Irwell, became one of the desirable areas for the wealthy to build their houses. One mansion called 'the Hollies', built in 1861 and now called Lancaster House, is owned by the Government and accommodates the touring judges. It has 16 bedrooms and can be seen if you peep through the big gates.
Another impressive mansion, built in Italian style in 1850, has just recently been converted into luxury flats. There are many more such mansions, now converted into multiple occupation or synagogues and schools.
Whilst these wealthy merchants luxuriated in their excessive wealth, their workers struggled to survive. They lived in grimy hovels and worked long hours in insanitary conditions. They often died young from infections such as typhoid, cholera, TB and other gruesome diseases. No wonder they felt angry and rebellious.
This is where we meet one of 'The Famous'. The owner of a factory in Weaste bought his son over from Germany to work in his mill. This was Friedrich Engels, a playboy who preferred the company of the mill girls, especially one called Mary Burns. She introduced him to the squalid areas where the workers lived. When he wasn't exploring and taking notes with Mary, he was galloping his horse across the Moor, legend has it. In fact, Engels is commemorated for this in a fading stone collage on Prestwich Precinct.
Friedrich despised the wealthy middle class and composed all his observations of the poverty and inequalities in a book called, The Condition of the Working Class in England 1845. His revolutionary outlook sealed his friendship with another radical writer, who was to become even more famous.
Karl Marx, came to visit Friedrich, who provided the finance to keep him going. Together they compiled the Communist Manifesto in 1848. Their theories are based on explanations of communism and socialism, and are often referred to as 'the books that changed the world'. These theories were worked out from a table in the Chethams Library and were the basis of economic socialism which has become the political philosophy of many countries around the world.
The angry working class, meanwhile, formed themselves into trade groups and it was these groups which marched in solidarity to the Chartist meetings of 1838 and 1839 on Kersal Moor. They were the forerunners of trade unions, and Engels and Marx philosophy gave them the fuel to fight for their justice.
So Kersal Moor was, in the 1800s, an area of unrest and political agitation. Extreme injustice and inequality existed side by side with excess wealth and rapid industrial development. So can I invite all the students, about to start courses at uni in Social History, Economics or Sociology, to visit the Moor, take a seat and think of the real background to their learning...
Words by Alice Searle, the author of two books about Kersal Moor - A Celebration of Kersal Moor and More Moor Tales
See previous episodes of the Kersal Moor history...
Why Is The Moor Not A Moor? - click here
Suicide and Ghosts - click here
200 Years of Horse Racing on Kersal Moor - click here
The Chartists and Kersal Moor – click here
Cussons Soap and Kersal Moor – click here
For loads more info on Friedrich Engels in Salford see previous Salford Star Special - click here and follow the links
Main graphic - Friedrich Engels by top Salford artist Matt Carroll
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