Port of Manchester

The Port of Manchester was a port in North West England, until its closure in 1982. It was created as a customs port on 1 January 1894, four months before the official opening of the Manchester Ship Canal. It extended along the whole 36-mile (58 km) length of the ship canal, from Eastham in the west to Manchester in the east, absorbing the Port of Runcorn, which had been created in 1862. The creation of the new port moved the Port of Liverpool's boundary 11 miles (18 km) to the west. The ship canal transformed Manchester from a landlocked city into a major sea port, at its height the third-busiest port in the United Kingdom. Once delivered to the port goods could be transported to other parts of the country such as Leeds to the east, and up to 100 miles (160 km) south as far as Birmingham.

On 1 January 1894, a steamer owned by the Cooperative Wholesale Society, the Pioneer, unloaded its cargo of sugar from Rouen, claiming the honour of being the first merchant vessel to be registered in the Port of Manchester. Initially, the port struggled to compete with the more established ports, partly because of the inertia of the influential shipping conferences (cartels). In 1908, although Manchester had about 75 percent of the mule spindles in the United Kingdom, only 14 per cent of the raw material used in cotton spinning passed through the Port of Manchester. Despite the competition, trade grew steadily. Between 1895 and 1896, 121,336 bales of cotton were imported from America, the main source of cotton; this increased to 377,264 bales in 1907–1908. The Port of Manchester was not the major destination for American cotton in the early 20th century, but it was for Egyptian cotton. In 1907–1908 about half of the cotton used in Lancashire cotton mills passed through the port, about 216,570 bales. In the early-20th century, the main produce travelling through the port was timber, grain, and cotton. The grain trade expanded more than tenfold, increasing from 35,000 long tons (35,562 t) in 1895 to 406,000 long tons (412,515 t) in 1907.

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