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industrial revolution

Ancoats in Manchester city centre was recently dubbed one of the hippest places in the world to live, but it hasn’t always been that way. Here, curator Katie Belshaw looks at the area’s industrial past; you know, before it was cool…

If you’ve read any of our Rocket blogs, you’ll already know that Rocket was designed by Robert Stephenson, son of engineer George Stephenson. But who exactly were they? What made them tick, and how did they rise to the heights that they did?

We asked historian Shirin Hirsch from our neighbours, People’s History Museum, to explain the politics of the time around 1830 and why the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway turned out to be such a rebellious and highly charged day.