Liverpool vs Manchester ... the greatest rivalry

As rivalries go there is nothing quite like the passion that exists between the cities of Liverpool and Manchester.

Only 30 miles apart, but a fierce rivalry that has existed for over 100 years.

To understand where this originates from we have to take a look back to the history books of 1890’s when the world was a very different place.

Liverpool was a thriving international port, the UK’s gateway to the world and the major hub for imports and exports.

In Manchester, the “Cottonopolis” boom was in full flow as the cotton mills of Lancashire were known as the workshop of the world.

Cotton was imported from the USA and the West Indies through the port of Liverpool and transported to Manchester via the Bridgewater Canal, manufactured into goods and exported back out through the same route.

The process worked but there were tensions building under the surface as the mill owners of Manchester felt that the wealthy port owners of Liverpool were charging ever increasing duty charges that were becoming unworkable.

The mill owners decided that they needed to take things into their own hands and become effectively masters of their own destiny.

Born was the audacious plan to build the Manchester Ship Canal. This would enable Manchester to become a major international port in its own right and to bypass the port of Liverpool.

Construction began in 1887; it took six years and cost ￡15 million (equivalent to about ￡2 billion today). When the ship canal opened in January 1894 it was the largest river navigation canal in the world, and enabled the newly created Port of Manchester to become Britain's third busiest port despite the city being about 40 miles inland.

“The rivalry was born”……

1894 Golf Team Cup ... Coming September 2018. WHO WILL YOU BE PLAYING FOR?