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Hanging Bridge

Buildings and structures in ManchesterScheduled monuments in Greater Manchester
Hanging Bridge 1892
Hanging Bridge 1892

The Hanging Bridge is a medieval bridge spanning the Hanging Ditch, which connected the rivers Irk and Irwell in Manchester, England. The first reference to the bridge was in 1343, when it was called Hengand Brigge, but the present structure was built in 1421, replacing an earlier bridge. Material taken from Manchester's Roman fort may have been used in its construction. It has been speculated that the Hanging Ditch may be of Roman origin, part of a defensive circuit between the rivers Irk and Irwell.The name may derive from the Old English hen, meaning wild birds, and the Welsh gan, meaning between two hills. At its Irwell end, the Hanging Ditch was 120 feet (37 m) wide and 40 feet (12 m) deep. A stream flowed through the ditch, from the Irk to the Irwell – possibly the lost River Dene, which gave its name to Deansgate. The bridge has two arches and was built using sandstone from Collyhurst. It is 108 feet (33 m) long and 9 feet (2.7 m) wide. The Hanging Bridge formed part of Manchester's medieval defences, when it was the main route from Manchester to the cathedral, then a parish church. In 1600, the Hanging Ditch was condemned as an insanitary open sewer, and in the following years the ditch was culverted and the bridge buried and built over. A directory published in 1772 recorded that nine houses had been built along the line of the bridge, suggesting that it may have been covered over during the first phase of Manchester's town planning, some time in the 1770s. The bridge was then forgotten, remembered only in the name of the area where it had stood, until its rediscovery and subsequent excavation as a result of demolition work carried out in the 1880s. The bridge was put on display, and in three months had about 32,000 paying visitors. It was once again covered up during the Victorian expansion of Manchester. More than 100 years later it was uncovered again, and following restoration work it went on display in 2002 as a main attraction of Manchester Cathedral's newly built visitor centre. Today the bridge is largely hidden by modern buildings, but it can be seen in the basement of Manchester Cathedral Visitor Centre, where it forms one side of the refectory. The bridge is listed as a Scheduled Ancient Monument.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Hanging Bridge (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Hanging Bridge
Exchange Square, Manchester City Centre

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N 53.484482 ° E -2.243345 °
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Corn Exchange (Triangle)

Exchange Square
M4 3TR Manchester, City Centre
England, United Kingdom
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cornexchangemanchester.co.uk

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Hanging Bridge 1892
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1996 Manchester bombing

The 1996 Manchester bombing was an attack carried out by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) on Saturday, 15 June 1996. The IRA detonated a 1,500-kilogram (3,300 lb) lorry bomb on Corporation Street in the centre of Manchester, England. It was the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain since the Second World War. It targeted the city's infrastructure and economy and caused significant damage, estimated by insurers at £700 million (equivalent to £1.4 billion in 2021), a sum surpassed only by the 1993 Bishopsgate bombing, also by the IRA.At the time, England was hosting the Euro '96 football championships and a Russia vs. Germany match was scheduled to take place in Manchester the following day. The IRA sent telephoned warnings about 90 minutes before the bomb detonated. At least 75,000 people were evacuated, but the bomb squad were unable to defuse the bomb in time. More than 200 people were injured, but there were no fatalities despite the strength of the bomb, which has been largely credited to the rapid response of emergency services in evacuating the city centre.Although Manchester had been targeted by the IRA before, it had not been subjected to an attack on this scale. In February 1996, the IRA had ended its seventeen-month ceasefire with a large truck bomb attack on London's Canary Wharf financial district, though the 3,300-pound bomb of Manchester was three times the size of the Canary Wharf bomb. The Manchester bombing was condemned by the British and Irish governments and U.S. President Bill Clinton. Five days after the blast, the IRA issued a statement from Dublin in which it claimed responsibility, but regretted causing injury to civilians.Several buildings were damaged beyond repair and had to be demolished, while many more were closed for months for structural repairs. Most of the rebuilding work was completed by the end of 1999, at a cost of £1.2 billion, although redevelopment continued until 2005. The perpetrators have not been caught, and although Greater Manchester Police (GMP) had suggested it was unlikely that anyone will be charged in connection with the bombing, a suspect was arrested on 8 September 2022. The bombing has, however, been viewed by some as a "catalyst" for Manchester's mass regeneration, turning it into a modern "powerhouse" city with above-national average economic growth in the 20 years following the bombing.

Chetham's School of Music
Chetham's School of Music

Chetham's School of Music () is an independent co-educational music school in Manchester, England. Chetham's educates students between the ages of 8 and 18, all of whom enter via musical auditions. Students receive a full academic education alongside specialist group and individual music tuition. Chetham's offers a year-round programme of concerts at the school, Manchester Cathedral, the Royal Northern College of Music, Band on the Wall and Bridgewater Hall. Recitals also take place in churches and community spaces, at festivals and internationally. Its senior ensembles, Chetham's Symphony Orchestra and Big Band, alongside many individual students, have won awards for their music, and many alumni have progressed to highly successful careers as professional musicians or in other sectors. The music school was established in 1969 from Chetham's Hospital School, founded as a charity school by Humphrey Chetham in 1653. After becoming a boys' grammar school in 1952, the school turned to music as its speciality, at the same time becoming a private school and accepting its first female students. There are approximately 300 students on roll, including a large sixth form making up around half of the school. Approximately two-thirds of students board on site, with others travelling in as day students from around Greater Manchester. The oldest parts of the school date to the 1420s, when the building was constructed as a residence for priests of the church which is now Manchester Cathedral. These parts are listed buildings housing Chetham's Library, the oldest free public reference library in the English-speaking world. Academic and music teaching moved into a new, purpose-designed building in 2012; this replaced the Victorian Palatine building and allowed easier access for concert visitors. A 482-seat concert hall, Stoller Hall, opened within the New School Building in 2017 as a home for both school and professional music and other genres of performance.