RBS Final Images-Part 2

As part of my research into the industrial history of Manchester. I visited Deansgate Locks.

In terms of Manchester's industrial heritage, this is a very important site.

In the late sixteenth century (late 1700's), Francis Egerton The 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, a local businessman who who ran many mills was faced with an ever increasing demand for coal to fuel his mills.

He comissioned the Bridgewater Canal in Manchester which was the first of it's type in the country with a famous engineer of the time called James Brindley. 

This pioneered the revolution in coal transport  to industry and thus played a key role in the start of the Industrial Revolution.

It was my intention to photograph the old industrial side of Manchester and the work of James Brindley around Deansgate Locks and to incorporate the largest and most modern building in Manchester, The Beetham Tower into the same image.

This wheel is a surviving relic from the start of the industrial revolution. It was part of a water-wheel system that was used to lift coal from the canal to the factories. 

My intention with this image was to frame the largest and most modern piece of engineering in Manchester(The Beetham Tower) with one of the oldest surviving relics from the industrial revolution.