SALFORD DOCKS - 1979
I shot, developed and printed my first roll of black and white film back in 1979 as part of a geography A-Level task. My dad worked as a transport manager in Trafford Park where I had a Saturday job cleaning articulated trailers. After work I persuaded my dad to shuttle me around the industrial estate and nearby Salford Docks on a photography excursion.
I re-discovered and digitalised the negatives around ten years ago, revealing an interesting snapshot of an area of the city in commercial and economic decline. Very few ships were travelling up the Ship Canal at this time and what was once Europe’s largest and busiest industrial estate was by then a shadow of it’s former self
A view of what is now the Lowry and MediaCity as seen from Trafford Wharf Road
A younger 17 year old me… trailer cleaner
The Dock gates
Container lifting cranes at cargo shipping company, Manchester Liners
Manchester Liners
Shipping container straddle carriers and Trafford Park railway
Barton Swing Aqueduct: which carries the Bridgewater Canal across the Manchester Ship Canal
The sheer size of Trafford Park meant that the Estates Company commissioned a tramway to carry both people and freight
Barton Swing Aqueduct
Cargo storage: Trafford Wharf
Salford drydock - The Isle of Man Car Ferry, ‘The Manx Maid’
Heavy industry: Trafford Park
Only four years later in 1983, the docks were acquired by Salford City Council and three years on from this, the redevelopment work had started on the business, residential, retail and leisure phenomenon we now know as Salford Quays and Media City.
As a foot note… I managed a grade B in my Geography!
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