River Irwell
The River Irwell is a 39-mile long river which flows through the Irwell Valley in North West England. Its source is at Irwell Springs on Deerplay Moor 1.5 miles north of Bacup. It empties into the River Mersey near Irlam. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the Irwell's lower reaches were a trading route that became part of the Mersey and Irwell Navigation. In the 19th century, the river's course downstream of Manchester was permanently altered by the construction of the Manchester Ship Canal which opened in 1896; the canal turned Manchester and Salford into a major inland seaport and led to the development of Trafford Park which became the largest industrial estate in Europe. Further changes were made in the 20th and 21st centuries to prevent flooding in Manchester and Salford, such as the Anaconda Cut in 1970 and the River Irwell Flood Defence Scheme in 2014; the river became polluted by industrial waste in the Industrial Revolution, but in the second half of the 20th century a number of initiatives were implemented to improve water quality, restock it with fish and create a diverse environment for wildlife.
Stretches of the river flowing through Manchester and Salford have attracted large-scale investment in business and residential developments, such as Salford Quays, other parts have become important wildlife havens. The Irwell is used for recreational activities, such as pleasure cruising, rowing and fishing. From its source to the confluence with the River Mersey the Irwell is about 39 miles long. Rising on the moors above Cliviger, it flows south through Bacup, Rawtenstall and Bury before merging with the River Roch near Radcliffe. Turning west, it joins the River Croal near Farnworth before turning southeast through Kearsley and the Agecroft area of Pendlebury, it meanders around Lower Kersal and Lower Broughton. It bisects Salford and Manchester, joining the rivers Irk and Medlock, turns west toward Irlam, as part of the Manchester Ship Canal, its course ends just east of Irlam. Until the early 19th century the Irwell was well stocked with fish and other wildlife, with people living near Manchester Cathedral using its water for drinking and other domestic purposes.
However, during the Industrial Revolution, increasing levels of pollution caused by waste products discharged into the river by local industries proved fatal to wildlife, with fish stocks disappearing by about 1850. This situation abated somewhat during the 20th century, with a slow improvement in water quality leading to fresh populations of roach and chub, sightings of brown trout have become common. Problems with water quality in some of the former Manchester Docks basins became apparent with the redevelopment of Salford Quays. Years of runoff from sewers and roads had accumulated in the slow running waters of this area and decomposition of organic matter was causing oxygen depletion. In 2001, a compressed air injection system was introduced; this raised the oxygen levels in the water by up to 300%, improving the water quality to such an extent that the number of invertebrate species present increased to more than 30, including freshwater shrimp. Spawning and growth rates of fish species such as roach and perch have increased, are now amongst the highest in England.
Two Sites of Special Scientific Interest are located close to the banks of the Irwell, near to its confluence with the River Croal at Moses Gate Country Park near Bolton. The first is at Nob End, an 88 800 m² site, designated because of its biological interest, based on the predominance of flora typical of limestone grassland including some nationally rare herbs and orchids. Nob End is designated as a Local Nature Reserve; the second site is Ashclough, a site of geological interest. These two SSSIs are among the 21 found in Greater Manchester. In Salford the river flows through Clifton Country Park and Kersal Dale Country Park, both of which have been designated as LNRs. Herons, mute swans and many species of geese and ducks are sighted on the river; the Manchester Ship Canal near Salford Quays is one of the top ten sites in Britain for diving ducks, providing a winter home to 3,000 common pochard and 2,000 tufted ducks. The Irwell is all that remains of the shallow seas that covered most of south-east Lancashire in the Late Carboniferous period, when deposits of mud and sand were laid down.
During the Permian and Triassic periods, red sandstones were deposited under arid, desert conditions and these became compressed into beds of shales, New Red Sandstone and Manchester marls, alternating with layers of gritstone. The glaciers of the Pleistocene period radically re-shaped the landscape and retreated, leaving behind deposits of sand and boulder clay that formed the fluvioglacial ridges of the lower Irwell Valley. Ashclough, a 50 800 m² site which comprises the steep banks of the river between Prestolee and Little Lever, has been designated an SSSI because of its geological interest because it is the best site in the area displaying the Ashclough marine band and its associated strata. Ashclough is a site of national importance for interpreting the coal measure palaeogeography of Great Britain; the River Irwell catchment area extends from the moors above Bacup to the Manchester Ship Canal. The climate of the catchment area is wetter than the UK average, with rainfall of 1,456 millimetres per annum compared to 1,231 millimetres per annum, the rivers respond to rainfall.
The topography varies with the upper reaches dominated by the Pennine moors at an altitude of bet
Manchester city centre
Manchester city centre is the central business district of Manchester, within the boundaries of Trinity Way, Great Ancoats Street and Whitworth Street. The City Centre ward had a population of 17,861 at the 2011 census. Manchester city centre evolved from the civilian vicus of the Roman fort of Mamucium, on a sandstone bluff near the confluence of the rivers Medlock and Irwell; this became the township of Manchester during the Middle Ages, was the site of the Peterloo Massacre of 1819. Manchester was granted city status in 1853, after the Industrial Revolution, from which the city centre emerged as the global centre of the cotton trade which encouraged its "splendidly imposing commercial architecture" during the Victorian era, such as the Royal Exchange, the Corn Exchange, the Free Trade Hall, the Great Northern Warehouse. After the decline of the cotton trade and the Manchester Blitz, the city centre suffered economic decline during the mid-20th century, but the CIS Tower ranked as the tallest building in the UK when completed in 1962.
The city centre acts as the transport interchange for Greater Manchester and over 7 million people live within an hour's drive of it. The 1996 Manchester bombing provided the impetus for the redevelopment of the city centre and an upturn in retail, leisure and urban living; the economy of the city centre is built on retail and services, accounting for nearly 40% of Grade A city centre office space outside London. Manchester evolved from the civilian vicus associated with the Roman fort of Mamucium, established c. AD 79 on a sandstone bluff near the confluence of the rivers Medlock and Irwell, in a position defensible from the Brigantes. Once the Romans had abandoned Britain, the focus of settlement shifted to the confluence of the rivers Irwell and Irk. During the Dark Ages which followed – and persisted until the Norman Conquest – the settlement was in the territory of several different petty kingdoms. In the Middle Ages, what is now the city centre was the township of Manchester. Manchester Castle – a medieval fortification taking the form of a ringwork – was located on a bluff where the rivers Irk and Irwell meet.
The castle was first mentioned in 1184 and recorded in 1215 as belonging to the barons of Manchester, the Grelley family. It has been described as "of no political or military importance"; the Grelleys replaced the castle with a fortified manor house, which in turn was replaced by a college of priests. In 1547 the college was dissolved and the property acquired by the Earl of Derby and early in the reign of King Charles II it was sold to the governors, appointed in the will of Humphrey Chetham. By royal charter in 1665 Chetham's Hospital was established and this became Chetham's School of Music. Manchester city centre is the commercial and cultural hub for 2.8 million people in the Greater Manchester region and new developments are forthcoming. NOMA – The Co-op has embarked on one of its most challenging projects to date, as it aims to transform a 20-acre section of Manchester into a new retail and residential quarter, where its own new headquarters will be housed; the site will be branded "NOMA 53" in reference to "NOrth MAnchester" and the locations co-ordinates.
The City Building will become the luxurious Hotel Indigo, which will include a Marco Pierre White restaurant and is set to open in autumn 2012. Two buildings on the corner of Corporation Street and Balloon Street to be converted into 106,000 sq ft of grade A office accommodation. Completion by second half of 2013; as of 2013, there are proposals to develop and extend the city centre northwards in an arc between Victoria and Piccadilly stations. Manchester city centre is part of the Manchester Central constituency, represented by Labour Co-op MP Lucy Powell; the City Centre ward was divided in 2018 between two new wards and Piccadilly. The city centre has variously been defined as those parts of the city within the Manchester Inner Ring Road, or else the entire area within Manchester's Inner Ring Road, thereby encompassing a part of the administratively separate City of Salford, an area of Oxford Road to the south. Political and economic ties between the city centre and neighbouring Salford and Trafford have strengthened with the shift from town and district centres to metropolitan-level centres in England.
Manchester city centre is the commercial heart of Greater Manchester and with adjoining parts of Salford and Trafford is defined as its Regional Centre for urban planning and public transport purposes. There is little order due to the manner in which the city developed during the Industrial Revolution nor much agreement on the differing areas in Manchester city centre; however many areas and streets in the city centre have a distinctive character with identifiable clusters of industrial warehouses, civic buildings and modern developments. Many of these distinctive areas are covered in 14 city centre conservation areas which are defined by Manchester City Council; these are essential ingredients to the City's sense of place, providing aesthetic quality and strong references to the City's past, which will always be a central part of Manchester's character. Development which fails to respond to the opportunities that this context affords should not be supported. Recent development, including Urbis and the Courts of Justice, has demonstrated how modern architecture of the highest standard can succeed alongside the established built fabric of the City Centre.
Castlefield is an area in the extreme southwest between Deansgate and the River Irwell with the sites of the Roman fort and Liverpool Road Railway Station. It retains much of its industrial character and is the only Urban Heritage Park in the United Kingdom, and is marked by its mercantile 19t
Stucco
Stucco or render is a material made of aggregates, a binder, water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a dense solid, it is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, as a sculptural and artistic material in architecture. Stucco may be used to cover less visually appealing construction materials, such as metal, cinder block, or clay brick and adobe. In English, "stucco" refers to a coating for the outside of a building and "plaster" to a coating for interiors. However, other European languages, notably including Italian, do not have the same distinction; this has led to English using "stucco" for interior decorative plasterwork in relief. The difference in nomenclature between stucco and mortar is based more on use than composition; until the latter part of the nineteenth century, it was common that plaster, used inside a building, stucco, used outside, would consist of the same primary materials: lime and sand. Animal or plant fibers were added for additional strength. In the latter nineteenth century, Portland cement was added with increasing frequency in an attempt to improve the durability of stucco.
At the same time, traditional lime plasters were being replaced by gypsum plaster. Traditional stucco is made of lime and water. Modern stucco is made of Portland cement and water. Lime is added to increase the workability of modern stucco. Sometimes additives such as acrylics and glass fibers are added to improve the structural properties of the stucco; this is done with what is considered a one-coat stucco system, as opposed to the traditional three-coat method. Lime stucco is a hard material that can be broken or chipped by hand without too much difficulty; the lime itself is white. Lime stucco has the property of being self-healing to a limited degree because of the slight water solubility of lime. Portland cement stucco is hard and brittle and can crack if the base on which it is applied is not stable, its color was gray, from the innate color of most Portland cement, but white Portland cement is used. Today's stucco manufacturers offer a wide range of colors that can be mixed integrally in the finish coat.
Other materials such as stone and glass chips are sometimes "dashed" onto the finish coat before drying, with the finished product known as "rock dash", "pebble dash", or as roughcast if the stones are incorporated directly into the stucco, used from the early 20th through the early 21st Century. As a building material, stucco is a durable and weather-resistant wall covering, it was traditionally used as both an interior and exterior finish applied in one or two thin layers directly over a solid masonry, brick, or stone surface. The finish coat contained an integral color and was textured for appearance. With the introduction and development of heavy timber and light wood-framed construction methods, stucco was adapted for this new use by adding a reinforcement lattice, or lath, attached to and spanning between the structural supports and by increasing the thickness and number of layers of the total system; the lath added support for the wet tensile strength to the brittle, cured stucco. The traditional application of stucco and lath occurs in three coats — the scratch coat, the brown coat and the finish coat.
The two base coats of plaster are either hand-applied or machine sprayed. The finish coat can be floated to a sand finish or sprayed; the lath material was strips of wood installed horizontally on the wall, with spaces between, that would support the wet plaster until it cured. This lath and plaster technique became used. In exterior wall applications, the lath is installed over a weather-resistant asphalt-impregnated felt or paper sheet that protects the framing from the moisture that can pass through the porous stucco. Following World War II, the introduction of metal wire mesh, or netting, replaced the use of wood lath. Galvanizing the wire made it corrosion resistant and suitable for exterior wall applications. At the beginning of the 21st century, this "traditional" method of wire mesh lath and three coats of exterior plaster is still used. In some parts of the United States, stucco is the predominant exterior for both residential and commercial construction. Stucco has been used as a sculptural and artistic material.
Stucco relief was used in the architectural decoration schemes of many ancient cultures. Examples of Egyptian and Etruscan stucco reliefs remain extant. In the art of Mesopotamia and ancient Persian art there was a widespread tradition of figurative and ornamental internal stucco reliefs, which continued into Islamic art, for example in Abbasid Samarra, now using geometrical and plant-based ornament; as the arabesque reached its full maturity, carved stucco remained a common medium for decoration and calligraphic inscriptions. Indian architecture used stucco as a material for sculpture in an architectural context, it is rare in the countryside. In Roman art of the late Republic and early Empire, stucco was used extensively for the decoration of vaults. Though marble was the preferred sculptural medium in most regards, stucco was better for use in vaults because it was lighter and better suited to adapt to the curvature of the ceiling
First class travel
First class is the most luxurious travel class of seats and service on a train, passenger ship, bus, or other system of transport. It is more expensive than business class and economy class, offers the best service and luxurious accommodation; the first-class section of a fixed-wing jet airliner is toward the front of the aircraft. Many airlines have removed first class altogether from their international flights, offering business class as their highest level of international service. First class passengers are allowed into lounges at airports while they wait for their flights. Australia has internal rail operations in each of its states, excluding Tasmania run by the State Government but in some cases is run by private operators. In each state, first class travel differs. NSW TrainLink First-class travel on TrainLink comes in two forms. On Xplorer and XPT trains, first-class seating is offered which include an increased legroom and seating recline over economy-class seating. On some XPT trains, first-class sleeping compartments can be found.
On day services these accommodate three people per compartment, by night they carry two people with bunk-style accommodation. Queensland Rail Queensland Rail offer first-class travel on many of their Traveltrain services, along with business class on their Tilt Train Services. Queensland Rail Traveltrain first class carriages provided private cabins in either roomette or twinette cabins. V/Line First-class accommodation on V/Line is a 2x2 seating arrangement, with extra legroom and recline, only available on certain locomotive-hauled services. Great Southern Rail This railway operates the tourist-oriented The Overland, Indian Pacific, The Ghan services; the first class travel on these trains are branded as Platinum Service with roomette and deluxe cabins. The Canadian train, operated by Via Rail, offers a Prestige class, comparable to first class, it includes room service, in-room entertainment, a private washroom with shower. The Québec City–Windsor corridor operated by Via Rail, offers a business class.
The various private and state-owned railways in Germany featured first-class, second-class and third-class amenities from the start. Beginning in Prussia in 1852 austere fourth-class coaches were introduced. After nationalization and consolidation, the fourth class was abandoned in 1928 in order to generate more revenue by forcing passengers to pay the higher prices for third-class tickets; as those of most of the rest of Europe, the railways of East as well as West Germany moved to a two-class system in 1956. To this end, the first class was abandoned and the former second and third classes redesignated as the new first and second classes. Except for some regional and commuter train services, which are second-class only, this distinction exists to this day; the difference in amenities between the first and second class varies between train operators and lines. It translates to more legroom, tables and/or three-abreast instead of four-abreast seating for first-class passengers. On Deutsche Bahn's international and Sprinter ICE services, first-class passengers, unlike second-class passengers, receive a complimentary meal.
With some, primary local, services operated both by DB and other companies, there is no difference in seating between classes, with exception to the presence of armrests and tables in first class. The rationale for providing first-class spaces on these services is that due to the higher price, there are seats left in first class when all second-class seats are taken; as such, the justification of purchasing First Class on regional services for the average traveller, is more so dictated as offering a "better-odds" gamble of finding vacant seating availability on certain trains rather than the availability of tangible frills in contrast to second class. First-Class compartments are available on trains serving the MTR East Rail Line after the line was electrified and modernized in the early 1980s; as of 2013 it is the only railway line in the country to offer a first-class service. Instead of stainless steel benches offered to standard-class passengers, comfier individual seating is provided in first-class compartments.
Passengers are required to pay an extra "first class premium" on top of the standard fare, first-class compartments are patrolled by ticket inspectors. The term "First Class" was abolished on Japanese National Railways in May 1969, was replaced by "Green cars". Green cars are identifiable by the green four-leaf clover logo at the doorways, they are in 1-2 configuration, with 2-2 configuration for Shinkansen trains, although more exclusive accommodations have been introduced. In recent years, there has been a gradual trend to restore Green cars to longer-distance commuter lines in the Tokyo area, complete with "Green Attendants" who provide an at-seat refreshment service as well as checking tickets
Broad Green railway station
Broad Green railway station is a railway station serving the Broadgreen district of Liverpool, England. It is situated 3 1⁄2 miles east of Liverpool Lime Street. Electrically powered trains have been operating through station since March 2015, using Class 319 EMUs.. The oldest passenger station in the world was Crown Street railway station on the Liverpool and Manchester passenger railway opening on 17 September 1830; the trains set out on the first day at the Liverpool end. The second station on the line was the original Edge Hill railway station, the third was Broad Green station. In 1836 Crown Street station was demolished and Edge Hill decommissioned. A new Edge Hill station opened to the north of the original station in the grounds of the Edge Hill junction; this leaves Broad Green station as the oldest used railway station in the world. The current station buildings are not original dating from 1972. About 110 yards to the east of the station the abandoned North Liverpool Extension Line passes under the lines, part of the Trans Pennine Trail.
The ticket office is located on the Liverpool-bound platform and like most Merseytravel-sponsored stations is manned throughout the hours of service, seven days per week. A waiting shelter is provided on platform 2 and there are digital display screens and customer help points provided on both sides; the platforms are linked by a subway with steps, but level access is available to both sides via nearby streets. Merseytravel announced in April 2019 that they had been successful in a bid for funding lifts being installed at the station under the Department for Transport's ‘Access for All’ programme; the lifts are expected to be installed at some point over the following five years. The station is located close to junction 4 of the M62 motorway however it is not a'parkway' or an'interchange' station, it has introduced a'Park and Ride' scheme, with a large car park situated on the south side of the station. Broadgreen Hospital is a little under half a mile away; the station is operated by Northern, being served by trains from Liverpool Lime Street to Wigan North Western, Manchester Victoria and Warrington Bank Quay.
Trains to and from Liverpool Lime Street are every 15 minutes through most of the day. The normal eastbound off-peak service is of two trains per hour to Wigan North Western, one to Manchester Piccadilly and hence to Crewe and one to Warrington Bank Quay. Westbound, there are four trains per hour to Liverpool Lime Street. A more frequent service operate at peak times, including a few trains to and from Manchester Victoria. Services run from Liverpool Lime Street to Blackpool North via Preston. In addition services run from Lime Street to Wilmslow via Manchester Piccadilly and the Airport calling at all stations en route to Piccadilly. There is no service to Warrington Bank Quay on a Sunday. Train times and station information for Broad Green railway station from National Rail
