21 Feb 21 fun facts about Manchester

Here at Kayton’s we’re passionate about Manchester (after all, it is the best city in the world!) With that in mind, we thought we’d share 21 interesting facts about Manchester and we promise you won’t be disappointed…

1. Manchester is the only place in the world where you can study Mummy Studies. The University of Manchester even has its very own Mummy Tissue Bank!

2. Coronation Street is the world’s longest-running TV soap opera having started on December 9th, 1960.

3. The first passenger railway was opened by The Duke of Wellington in 1830. The success of this Manchester to Liverpool railway started the railway revolution.

4. Salford was the birthplace of vegetarianism over 200 years ago. Reverend William Cowherd preached about the moral virtues of a vegetarian diet in a small chapel and his followers went on to form the Vegetarian Society.

5. Manchester was originally called Mamucium which is thought to come from the Celtic name, meaning “breast-shaped hill”.

6. The World Pie Eating Championships are held in Wigan every year and contestants from all over compete to eat a meat and potato pie in the fastest possible time. The current record is 38 seconds.

7. Rolls-Royce Limited was created over a lunch in Manchester in 1904. Car salesman Charles Rolls met engineer Henry Royce at The Midland Hotel and the rest they say is history…

8. The first M&S store was opened here. Although the brand was originally started on a market stall in Leeds, the first shop opened on Stretford Road in 1894.

9. Manchester’s famous curry mile isn’t actually 1 mile long. Instead, it’s just over half a mile.

10. The University of Manchester boasts 25 Nobel Prize winners – the third highest after Oxford and Cambridge.

11. The Manchester Bee symbolises the industrious nature of the city and its people and was adopted in the 19th century.

12. Manchester was the first city in the world to commemorate its LGBT history by asking a local artist to set rainbow tiles into flagstones across the city.

13. Emmeline Pankhurst founded the Women’s Social and Political Union, later known as the Suffragettes in Manchester in 1903.

14. In 1948 Manchester University professors developed the first computer to have a stored programme and memory. They even nicknamed it ‘baby’.

15. It’s thought that there are around 200 languages spoken in Manchester – but how many do you know?

16. Since 1938, the Kellogg’s factory in Manchester has been making the cereals, like Crunchy Nut, Coco Pops, Rice Krispies, and Corn Flakes.

17. Manchester boasts the first free public library. Housed in a building built in 1421, Chetham’s library is the oldest public library in the English-speaking world.

18. The Manchester viaduct uses 11 million bricks – which if laid out straight would stretch to Madrid and back.

19. Greater Manchester wasn’t added as a Royal Mail postal county until 1996 – which is why so many people still use Cheshire/Lancashire in their addresses.
20. There are 98 train stations in Greater Manchester.

21. It doesn’t actually rain all of the time. Manchester’s annual rainfall average is 806.6mm compared to the UK’s 1,125mm.

If you are looking for a property in Manchester or have a home to sell, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.