Manchester PUB Sign THE Ducie Bridge

THE DUCIE BRIDGE **** 152 Corporation Street City Centre, Manchester M4 4DU

There is a Ducie Street on the other side of the city centre from the pub’s Millgate / Corporation Street / Miller Street location, close to Piccadilly train station.  This gives an idea of the extent of the Gloucestershire based Ducie family’s financial power and clout in the city, as they owned land and real estate all over Manchester, including the land on which Piccadilly railway station now stands.

Their interest in the city nicknamed Cottonopolis was entirety mercenary. They rarely set foot near Manchester. Their hold over the city meant many resented them deeply.

The Ducie Bridge was actually one of their costliest and least popular ventures, a bridge over the Irk, by the mills of Ancoats & Angel Meadow. Building work was slow, and foundations were laid so badly as to need demolishing and restarting. They seemed to employ the first true Cowboy builders in the region. Detritus and rubbish was casually thrown into nearby millponds and canals causing enough problems for the courts to intervene and order a clean up operation.

The pub name commemorates the bridge as if it was finally to become a work to be proud of for all, though the sign depicts a pre-bridge pastoral view of the Irk river valley.

Arthur Chappell