Salford
A Brief History
Salford is a city in Lancashire in
the North West of England which can trace its beginnings back to the Domesday Book
of 1086 and before. In the Domesday Survey of 1080-1086 the Manor
of Salford embraced an area of 350 sq miles with an estimated population of
35280. Only a small portion of this vast area was cultivated, the remainder was
covered by great stretches of forest, pasture land and dreary uncultivated
wastes such as the moors and hill country. Salford itself was Royal Demesne as
was the sub-manor of Radcliffe and there were 21 sub-manors in thanage.
Domesday is the great source of English historical knowledge, a document that
has no parallel elsewhere. It was ordered by the Norman King William 1 and
commissioners were sent into each county in England, juries summoned in every
hundred and a detailed record made of the land and its ownership. Of the six
hundred into which this territory was divided at the time of the survey, Salford
is the only one which retains its ancient area unchanged
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It would seem that the site of what we now call Salford was once occupied by the Iberian colonists of the new Stone Age who left their homes on the Mediterranean coast and came North to unknown lands released from the grip of the ice age. From about 400 BC a continuous wave of Celtic invaders came from the East bringing with them a higher mental superiority and a wider culture marking the first stirrings of historic life. The Brigantes were the most powerful of the Brythonic nations and they had one of their strongholds on the banks of the 'Irguile' - the winding torrent. Such was the first rude beginnings of Salford as an active civic unit in the days when Boadicea, in the east of Britain, was harrying the Roman invaders. 125 years after the hurried arrival in Britain of Julius Caesar, Salford felt the first attacks of the Romans when in 71 AD Petilius Cerealis was sent to subdue the troublesome Brigantes. He left the natives to carry on a guerilla warfare for seven years until the arrival of the great Agricola |
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The great Roman Agricola erected a fort at Castlefield which was given the name of ' Mancunium' - the camp or station by the mother town ( the mother town being Salford). The conquered Britons accepted the rule of Rome and the heightened civilisation that was brought in its train. For three centuries the Celtic city was transformed. Old dwellings gave way to Roman villas and trackways were made into roads although little survives today except the Centurion's Ring found in Murray Street and the Old Roman road. Many lie beneath the surface still awaiting discovery. From the camp at Castlefield the Romans drove a road along the site of our present Regent Road. This divided into two forks near Cross Lane and passed on either side of Buile Hill which provided a useful outlook station (in the very early years, before the Romans, our ancestors assembled on Buile Hill twice a year, when a great fire would be lit and sacrifices made to appease the spirits so that a bountiful harvest would be produced). On the opposite bank of the river from the castrum (camp) was a great natural cave and it was here that the First Frisian Cohort, which formed the Roman garrison, set up their altar to Fortuna Maxima. The Roman occupation laid the foundations but the real formative influences of our national life came from the settlement of the Saxons in the land |
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It seems that the name of Salford was derived from two Anglo-Saxon words "soel" (the hall) and "ord" (the prince) and also seems possible that the first Saxon King to establish himself here could have been Aethelfrith, shortly after the Battle of Chester in 613. It is said that he would have built a Royal Hall possibly on the banks of the Irwell which gave an uninterrupted view to the distant Winter Hill and southwards over the Cheshire Plain. In 872 the whole of the district of Salford fell into the hands of the Danes, who divided the lands amongst their followers. In 923, Edward the Elder, the son of Alfred the Great, reconquered South East England from the Danes, uniting Wessex and Mercia. He then set himself to subjugate Northumbria and Cumbria, and having taken Salford, sought to strengthen his hold on the town by sending soldiers to rebuild the old Roman Fort across the river. Edward founded the first English navy and put a legal code into operation. He encouraged the translation of works from Latin and promoted the development of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, comprising of seven different manuscripts and forming a unique history of England from the Roman invasion to the 11th century. |
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When William 1 (c1027-1087) conquered England he declared forfeit the estates of all who had opposed him and secured possession of the whole of England. A Royal Manor no longer had the significance of Saxon times and Salford, along with other extensive grants, passed into the hands of Roger de Poictou who divided the Hundred of Salford amongst a select number of 'Barones comitatus' but retained Salford itself in demesne and so it has remained. Salford never owed obedience to a superior beneath the rank of an earl and since Henry of Lancaster became King Henry 1V, the King of England has continuously been the Lord of Salford. When Roger de Poictou was banished from the kingdom in 1102 after he had joined the rebellion of his brother, his estates reverted to the Crown and the town and wapentake of Salford passed to William Peverel, Lord of Nottingham, the illegitimate son of William. After the Battle of Lincoln, William Peverel fell into the hands of Ranulph Gernons, Fourth Earl of Chester, and he then assumed the Lordship of Salford. Ranulph died on December 16th 1153 and when the reign of Stephen came to an end and Henry 11 became King, Salford received a new lord, Hugh Kelvilioe, the fifth Earl of Chester |
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On June 4th 1228, King Henry 111 granted a weekly market day on Wednesdays at his manor of Salford. This stimulated the growth of the town as a trading place and was greatly assisted by the Charter two years later by Ranulph de Blundeville, sixth Earl of Chester and Lord of Salford, which made the town a Free Borough. It is said that Ranulph had a deep affection for the town of Salford and wanted to confer on it the jurisdiction and privileges of a Free Borough removed entirely from the interference of any who might succeed him to the shrievalty. Through the Charter Salford became a borough or mutually pledged town in which every inhabitant was to be sworn and enrolled as in pledge or bail, for his neighbour. The townspeople were given a "Portmancote" or Court of the Portmen, giving them independent jurisdiction over all civil and criminal matters concerning the town and its people. They were given the power of choosing their own Reeve, would possess burgages of their own with power of sale or gift, were allowed to develop, unhindered, industrial arts and commercial pursuits and had the opportunity of serving the needs of the State in a wider form. The Charter is said to be one of the most precious historical documents in the country and the original document is in a locked chest in the Town Hall. A copy, with a translation, hangs in the Royal Museum at Peel Park. Witnesses to this great document and to Ranulph's signature were nobles of high rank including William de Vernon, Simon de Montfort, Hugo de Biron and Galfride de Bury. Soon after signing the Charter, Ranulph was called away to join the standard of the king in France. He died in 1233 and his estates passed to his four sisters, of whom Agnes, wife of William, Earl of Ferrars, inherited Salford. |
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Incorporation |
On April 16th 1844, when by Royal Charter the Borough was incorporated, the people of Salford elected their first Town Council. The Charter of Incorporation provided " that the inhabitants of the Borough of Salford and their successors shall be for ever hereafter one body politic and corporate, in deed, fact and name, and that the said body corporate shall be called the Mayor, Aldermen and Burgesses of the Borough of Salford. The powers and duties of the corporate body were defined and a description given of the boundaries of the four wards into which the town was to be divided - Blackfriars, Crescent, St Stephen's and Trinity, and each ward was to return six councillors. The Act of 1853 fixed the number of members of the Council at 64. The Town Hall was taken over to provide accommodation for municipal administration and halls for the Broughton and Pendleton districts were provided in 1854 and 1867. In accordance with the provisions of the Local Government Act of 1888, Salford was created a County Borough in April 1889. The Charter of Incorporation established a Court of Record in which debts up to twenty pounds were recoverable. A separate Commission of the Peace was granted the Borough in 1870 and renewed in 1886 and Quarter Sessions were established in 1899. In 1926, His Majesty King George the Fifth, duke of Lancaster and Lord of the Manor of Salford issued a Royal Edict elevating the Royal and Ancient Borough of Salford to all the rights and dignities of a city. |