Being here, on the boundary between the cities of Manchester and its ‘lesser’ neighbour, Salford, made me think of the folk song, Dirty Old Town.

I met my love by the gas works wall
Dreamed a dream by the old canal
Kissed my girl by the factory wall

Folk song: Dirty Old Town

James Henry Miller, the writer of the song, is better known to us as the folk singer Ewan MacColl; his stage name.

I’m gonna makes me a good sharp axe

He was born in England to Scottish parents, and rose to fame as one of the leading lights of the 1960s folk revival. He was also an active defender of workers’ rights and a collector of history songs, in order to preserve them.

Ewan MacColl died in October 1989, age 74.

His two most famous works were the already mentioned ‘Dirty Old Town’ and ‘The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face‘. MacColl was a lifelong friend of Peggy Seeger, with whom he had a creative partnership in expanding the appeal of folk music over many decades.

Shining steel tempered in the fire

He wrote ‘Dirty Old Town’ to describe his feelings about Salford – his home for many years. After the glory years of the Manchester Ship Canal, which ended (commercially speaking) at Salford’s docks, the city of Salford was seen, increasingly, as the poor relation to its neighbour, central Manchester.

It was left to fester as a grimy and smelly inland port, with terrible housing problems and short life expectancy. Alcoholism was rife…

I remember that Salford from visits in my childhood. It was a grim place. It’s ironic that, 35 years later, we were to set up our software company on the rejuvenated docks there – newly and ambitiously named Salford Quays.

We were among the first of the companies to move there. In those days the only social facilities, outside of the grim old pubs (in which you were not safe) was a floating wine bar. It served us well, and corporate visitors such as Barclays Bank IT specialists, who would travel up from Poole, were impressed.

The Dutch barge wine bar, was burned down by local thugs when the owner refused to pay protection money…

Salford Quays has changed a lot over the years. We saw it all happen outside our windows.

The landscape was already changed when the Quays development began to succeed, but the years to come would see the arrival of Media City and other spectacular urban transformations. We were proud to be part of it, even in a small way.

It was our company home for over 20 years. It’s good to go back and see how the old place is doing…

I’ll chop you down like an old dead tree

What a contrast Ewan MacColl would find, now, as the photos show. The dirty old town was indeed chopped down…and a fine new one rose in its place.

It was fun to return. We were in Manchester with friends to see Ian McKellen in the special version of Henry IV parts one and two on the same evening; demanding on both the players and the audience inside the very warm auditorium, but a wonderful production.

Both Manchester and Salford have seen dramatic redevelopment. There is a surging positive energy about their future. We can only wonder what the next fifty years will bring…

They move together because they are co-located, but their essential natures are different, and Greater Manchester is the stronger because of it.

©Stephen Tanham 2024

All photos taken and processed on an iPhone 12 ProMax.

Stephen Tanham is a writer-photographer and mystical teacher. He is the founding Director of the Silent Eye, which offers an exciting journey of the soul guided by lessons, inner experience and outer companionship.

There are two blog streams:

http://www.thesilenteye.co.uk

(mystically-oriented writing)

and

http://www.suningemini.blog

(general interest, poetry, humour and travel)