Salford

Historically in Lancashire, Salford was the judicial seat of the ancient hundred of Salfordshire. It was granted a charter by Ranulf de Blondeville, 6th Earl of Chester, in about 1230, making Salford a free borough of greater cultural and commercial importance than its neighbour Manchester, although since the Industrial Revolution of the late 18th and early 19th centuries that position has been reversed. Salford became a major cotton and silk spinning and weaving factory town in the 18th and 19th centuries and then an important inland port on the Manchester Ship Canal from 1894. Industries declined in the 20th century, causing economic depression, and Salford became a place of contrasts, with regenerated inner-city areas like Salford Quays next to some of the most socially deprived and violent areas in England.