North West Geography

Volume 18, 2018

Mapping the Rise and Fall of Ancoats Hall

Brian Robson
School of Environment, Education & Development, University of Manchester.

Abstract
A sequence of maps focused on Ancoats Hall is used to chart the fluctuating fortunes of the hall. It had been a 17th century building built by the Mosley family, sited in a rural setting facing the River Medlock. Replaced with a new building in the early 1820s by the textile magnate George Murray, the hall was rapidly engulfed by the industrial expansion of Ancoats leaving it hemmed into grim industrial surroundings. In the 20th century, the local philanthropist Thomas Horsfall used it as an art museum which aimed to enrich the lives of the poor, and it was joined by the first university settlement outside London which used both the hall and the nearby Round House to provide accommodation for activities that brought together local residents with university staff and students. Both buildings have now been demolished. Their legacy is the array of maps and plans that plot the hall’s history.

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Radiocarbon constraints on historical peat accumulation rates and atmospheric deposition of heavy metals at Holcroft Moss, Warrington

William J. Fletcher and Peter A. Ryan
Department of Geography, School of Environment, Education and Development,
The University of Manchester

Abstract
Peat bog records of environmental change from the industrial heartland of NW England are rare, precisely because industrial activity and urbanisation have often destroyed or truncated the stratigraphical record of recent times. Here, we present new stratigraphical, radiocarbon and heavy metal (Pb and Cu) data for the near-surface peat layers of Holcroft Moss, a lowland raised bog located near Warrington, Cheshire. Based on the radiocarbon data and informed by down-core changes in bulk density, we derive an age-depth model for peat accumulation during the last ca. 700 years and use the resulting accumulation rates to derive estimates of historical Pb and Cu deposition at the site. The study reveals the legacy of the Industrial Revolution in terms of peat stratigraphy, peat accumulation rates and heavy metal deposition. Deposition of Pb and Cu peaked in the late 19th to early 20th century, reaching 122 and 50 mg m-2 yr-1 respectively, and the timing and magnitude of flux changes can be linked to developmental stages in the industrialisation of the Mersey basin and urban expansion of Liverpool and Manchester. The study confirms the high value of the site as an archive of regional environmental change through the Industrial Revolution.

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Obituary

KEITH SUTTON 1943 -2018

Ian Douglas
School of Environment, Education & Development, University of Manchester.

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Urban agriculture: evaluating informal and formal practices

Michael Hardman
School of Environment and Life Sciences, University of Salford.
Rebecca St. Clair
Faculty of Business and Law, Manchester Metropolitan University.
David Adams
School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham.
Richard Armitage
School of Environment and Life Sciences, University of Salford.
Veronica Barry
School of Engineering and the Built Environment, Birmingham City University,
Peter Larkham
School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham.
Graeme Sherriff
School of Environment and Life Sciences, University of Salford.

Abstract
Urban agriculture (UA) is a fast-increasing element in many settlements in the Global North. This paper reviews the diversity of UA activity, ranging from legal to illegal, formal to informal. Focusing particularly on current research on UA projects in England, including small-scale guerrilla gardening and large community projects supported by community and government funding, we look at the realities of UA. We suggest that it is under-theorised as previous research has focused on practicalities and activism. In particular, we highlight the problematic contribution of UA to food production, the wider value in terms of community development, health and wellbeing, and warn of the danger of the ‘local trap’.

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‘Working from home’: academics and Airbnb, an autoethnographic account

Dr Samantha Wilkinson
School of Science and the Environment, Manchester Metropolitan University.
Dr Catherine Wilkinson
Faculty of Health and Social Care, Edge Hill University.

Abstract
This paper offers an autoethnographic account of the impact Airbnb has on ourselves, as hosts, in our own homes in Greater Manchester. The paper is theoretically framed by Goffman’s (1959:79) notion of “theatrical performance”. This framework is pertinent to our positions as Airbnb hosts, since performance is key to the way in which we present our homes and ourselves to guests. The paper provides insight into our findings, surrounding three key themes: spatial management; dirty work; and tensions between guests and hosts.

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Volume 24, Number 2, 2024

Jonathan Dale, Laura Conway, Michael P Kennedy, Tom Sizmur
The influence of grazing on comparisons between pre-existing and restored saltmarshes.

Volume 24, Number 1, 2024

Rebecca Holland and Patrick Byrne,
Spatial and temporal variability of road-deposited sediment (RDS) within the Greater Manchester urban conurbation, UK.

Kimberley Peters,
Geography H2O: Compounding Water Studies.

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Volume 23, Number 1, 2023

James Watts,
“Carrying with her a most influential and intelligent audience.” Women Lecturers, the British Empire, and the Manchester Geographical Society, 1884-1920.

Rachael Jones,
The changing face of Whalley Nab, Lancashire: A naturalistic and cultural landscape.

Ian Douglas
Obituary: Nigel Lawson 1941-1922.

Steve Rigby
Book Review ‘Are mathematicians human?’ Alan Turing’s Manchester. By Jonathan Swinton

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Volume 22, Number 2, 2022

Jonathan G.A. Lageard and Eleanor A. Robinson,
An investigation of subfossil Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) from Curlew Lane, Lancashire.

Volume 22, Number 1, 2022

Andrew Taylor,
Mapping the city: One man’s contribution to city centre maps.

Dr Samantha Wilkinson and Dr Catherine Wilkinson,
Not a hair out of place? Embracing messy positionality when researching the geographies of hair in Greater Manchester.

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Volume 21, Number 1, 2021

Haseeb Mahmood and Robert Sparkes,
Spatio-temporal analysis of the potential toxicological burden of pollutants in a fluvial system, the River Irwell, Manchester, through anthropogenic activities (present and historical) and natural mechanisms.

Rachael Jones,
Reconstructing the late-nineteenth century landscape and natural habitats of south west Accrington using the artwork of Thomas Frederick Worrall (1872–1957).

Osborne, A.W., Keightley, A.T., Ingleby, E.R., Longden, M.T., Rogers, A.V., Steel, D. and Davies, M.C.,
From bare peat desert to nature reserve within ten years: a review of restoration practice on Little Woolden Moss, Manchester, UK.

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Volume 20, Number 1, 2020

Thomas A.G. Smyth, Ella Thorpe and Paul Rooney,
Blowout Evolution Between 1999 and 2015 in Ainsdale Sand Dunes National Nature Reserve, England.

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Volume 19, Number 2, 2019

Rory Scott and Neil Entwistle,
Toward a protocol for UAV surveying in Environmental Sciences.

Philip D. Hughes, Matt D. Tomkins and Andrew G. Stimson,
Glaciation of the English Lake District during the Late-glacial: a new analysis using 10Be and Schmidt hammer exposure dating.

Volume 19, Number 1, 2019

P J Murphy,
The Vaccary Walls of Wycoller, Pennine East Lancashire – a geologist’s view.

Paul Hindle,
Book Review. Manchester – Mapping the City, T. Wyke, B. Robson & M. Dodge.

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Volume 18, Number 2, 2018

Brian Robson,
Mapping the Rise and Fall of Ancoats Hall.

William J. Fletcher and Peter A. Ryan,
Radiocarbon constraints on historical peat accumulation rates and atmospheric deposition of heavy metals at Holcroft Moss, Warrington.

Ian Douglas
Obituary: Kieth Sutton 1943-1918

Volume 18, Number 1, 2018

Michael Hardman, Rebecca St. Clair, Richard Armitage, Veronica Barry, Peter Larkham and Graeme Sherriff,
Urban agriculture: evaluating informal and formal practices.

Samantha Wilkinson and Catherine Wilkinson,
‘Working from home’: academics and Airbnb, an autoethnographic account.

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Volume 17, Number 2, 2017

K. R. Butt and P. D. Putwain,
Earthworm community development in organic matter-amended plots on reclaimed colliery spoil.

Jonathan Lageard, Lizzie Bonnar, Thomas Briggs, Simon Caporn, Emma Clarke, Chris Field, Callum Hayles, Anna Keightley, Graham Smith, Lydia McCool, Peter Ryan and Tor Yip,
Educational potential of peatlands and prehistoric bog oaks in Lancashire and adjoining region.

Brian Robson and Nick Scarle,
Bury in 1831: a newly-discovered early plan of the town.

Jennifer O’Brien,
A–Level Geography Workshop — a funding report.

Volume 17, Number 1, 2017

Richard Payne
Fieldwork is good – but why?

Kathy Burrell,
Stories from “The World in One City”: Migrant Lives in Liverpool.

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Volume 16, Number 1, 2016

Cathy Delaney and Oliver Sikora,
Evidence for Paleolake Rawtenstall around Stacksteads, Upper Irwell Valley, Rossendale, U.K.

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Volume 15, Number 2, 2015

Rodolfo Alves da Luz, Nigel Lawson, Ian Douglas and Cleide Rodrigues,
Historical sources and meandering river systems in urban sites: the case of Manchester, UK.

Volume 15, Number 1, 2015

Irene Delgado-Fernandez, Matthew McBride, Rachel Platt and Mark Cameron,
Sefton Coast’s vulnerability to coastal flooding using DEM data.

Simon J. Cook, Toby N. Tonkin, Nicholas G. Midgley and Anya Wicikowski,
Analysis of ‘hummocky moraine’ using Structure-from-Motion photogrammetry

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Volume 14, Number 1, 2014

Peter Wilson and Tom Lord,
Towards a robust deglacial chronology for the northwest England sector of the last British-Irish Ice Sheet.

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Volume 13, Number 2, 2013

Brian Robsom,
John Wood’s town plans and the evolving urban hierarchy of Cumbria.

Volume 13, Number 1, 2013

Peter Wilson,
Did a glacier exist in the valley of Bleatarn Gill, central Lake District, during the Loch Lomond Stade?

Mark Toogood and Hannah Neate,
Preston Bus Station: Heritage, Regeneration, and Resistance

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Volume 12, Number 1, 2012

Claire Smith and Nigel Lawson,
Exceeding climate thresholds: Extreme weather impacts on the environment and population of Greater Manchester.

Philip D. Hughes, Roger J. Braithwaite, Cassandra R. Fenton and Christoph Schnabel,
Two Younger Dryas glacier phases in the English Lake District: geomorphological evidence and preliminary 10Be exposure ages.

Jonathan Darling, Ruth L Healey and Lauren Healey,
Seeing the City anew: Asylum Seeker perspectives of ‘belonging’ in Greater Manchester.

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Volume 11, Number 2, 2011

Peter Wilson,
Re-interpretation of the ‘relict protalus rock glacier’ at Grasmoor End, northwest Lake District.

Volume 11, Number 1, 2011

Ramirez, F. A., Armitage, R. P., Danson, F. M., and Bandugula, V.,
Characterising phenological changes in North West forests using terrestrial laser scanning: some preliminary results.

Peter Wilson,
The last glacier in Dovedale, Lake District.

Colin Richards,
Thomas Jeffery’s Map of “The County of Westmoreland” (1770): an evaluation of its contribution to understanding late eighteenth century landscape.

Richard J. Payne,
Meteors and perceptions of environmental change in the annus mirabilis AD1783-4.

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Volume 10, Number 2, 2010

Richard J. Payne,
The ‘Meteorological Imaginations and Conjectures’ of Benjamin Franklin.

M Cross,
The use of a field open-sided direct shear box for the determination of the shear strength of shallow residual and colluvial soils on hillslopes in the south Pennines, Derbyshire.

Paul Hindle,
Continuing change: Manchester Geographical Society, 1998-2010.

Paul Hindle,
Book reviews.

Volume 10, Number 1, 2010

C. A. Delaney, E. J. Rhodes, R. G. Crofts, and C. D. Jones,
Evidence for former glacial lakes in the High Peak and Rossendale Plateau areas, north west England.

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Volume 9, Number 2, 2009

Gary Warnaby,
Changing Representation of the Industrial Town: an analysis of official guides in Bury from 1925.

Derek Antrobus,
Three Stories of Salford: transformation, identity and metropolitan peripheries.

Volume 9, Number 1, 2009

Chris Perkins,
Placing golf.

Ian Whyte,
The Impact of Parliamentary Enclosure on a Cumbrian Community: Watermillock, c. 1780-1840.

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Volume 8, Number 2, 2008

Charles Rawding,
Changing Land Use in North East Lancashire during the Second World War.

Volume 8, Number 1, 2008

Mervyn Busteed,
Celebrating St. Patrick’s Day in Irish Manchester, 1825-1922.

Nigel Lawson and Sarah Lindley,
A deeper understanding of climate induced risk to urban infrastructure: case studies of past events in Greater Manchester.

Chris Perkins and Martin Dodge,
The potential of user-generated cartography: a case study of the OpenStreetMap project and Mapchester mapping party.

S. Watkins and I. Whyte,
Extreme flood events in upland catchments in cumbria since 1600: the evidence of historical records.

Andrew M. Folkard,
Temperature structure and turbulent mixing processes in Cumbrian lakes.

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Volume 7, Number 2, 2007

Richard D. Knowles and Adwoa A. Ametepe,
Bus Patronage, Bus Deregulation and Ten Year Transport Plan Targets in Gateway Cities: the case of Greater Manchester and Merseyside.

Volume 7, Number 1, 2007

Kevin R. Butt and Emma J. Chamberlain,
Distribution of earthworms across the Sefton Coast sand dune ecosystem.

Peter Wilson,
Kirkby Fell rock slope failure.

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Volume 6, Number 1, 2006

Charles Rawding,
East Lancashire housing markets.

Fabienne Carraz, Kevin G. Taylor, Stefan Stainsby and Davina Robertson,
Contaminated urban road deposited sediment (RDS), Greater Manchester, UK: a spatial assessment of potential surface water impacts.

Human or Physical? People and Places of Edge Hill,
New Book.

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Volume 5, Number 1, 2005

David W. Shimwell,
Evidence for the vegetation and habitat of the reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) in the Loch Lomond stadial of north-west England.

Paul Hindle,
The tram roads of the Manchester Bolton & Bury canal

Chris Perkins and Anna Z.Thomson,
Mapping for health: cycling and walking maps of the city.

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Volume 4, Number 1, 2004

Paul Hindle,
Large scale plans of Manchester.

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Volume 3, Number 2, 2003

Richard D. Knowles and Adwoa A. Kevin R. Butt, Christopher N. Lowe and Tim Walmsley,
Monitoring earthworm communities in translocated grasslands affected by the construction of Runway 2 at Manchester Airport.

Volume 3, Number 1, 2003

Charles Rawding,
Agricultural practices and state intervention during the Second World War: a case study of South West Lancashire.

Dawn Nicholson,
Breakdown mechanisms and morphology for man-made rockslopes in North West England.

Catherine Delaney,
The last glacial stage (the Devensian) in North West England.

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Volume 2, Number 2, 2002

Ian Whyte,
Whose Lake District? Contested landscapes and changing sense of place.

Chris Perkins,
Tactile mapping quality: the Manchester experience.

Paul Hindle,
Ordnance Survey 25 inch Maps of Lancashire.

Chris Perkins,
Stockport Green A-Z, Section 1: Brinnington, Reddish and the Heatons.

Volume 2, Number 1, 2002

Richard Phillips,
Exploring an imperial region: North West England.

A. D. Thomas, A. J. Dougill, K. Berry and J. A. Byrne,
Soil crusts in the Molopo Basin, Southern Africa.

M. E. J. Cutler, J. McMorrow and M. Evans,
Remote sensing of upland peat erosion in the southern Pennines.

Paul Hindle,
The North West in Maps: Thomas Donald’s map of Cumberland, 1774.

Wilfred H. Theakstone,
‘Manchester’ by Clare Hartwell.

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Volume 1, Number 2, 2001

G. L. Heritage, A. Chappell and A. D. Thomas,
A field-based approach to integrating catchment and river channel processes.

Catherine Delaney,
Esker formation and the nature of deglaciation: the Ballymahon Esker, Central Ireland.

Mervyn Busteed,
Research report on Irish Nationalist Processions in late nineteenth and early twentieth century Manchester.

Paul Hindle,
The North West in Maps: Ordnance Survey 25 inch maps – Rochdale (South), 1908.

Volume 1, Number 1, 2001

Mark Banks,
Representing regional life: the place discourses of Granada Tonight.

Andrew J. Dougill and Matt Stroh,
Recreational users of Lake District bridleways: conflict or camaraderie?

Mervyn Busteed,
”I shall never return to Hibernia’s bowers“ Irish migrant identities in early Victorian Manchester.

Laura Shotbolt, Andrew D. Thomas, Simon M. Hutchinson and Andrew J. Dougill,
Reconstructing the history of heavy metal pollution in the southern Pennines from the sedimentary record of reservoirs: methods and preliminary results.

Paul Hindle,
The influence of the Gay Village on migration to central Manchester.

Paul Hindle,
The North West in Maps: Ordnance Survey One Inch Maps – Rossendale 1895.

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