World Cotton Day Heritage City Trail: Grass Routes Movement CIC x Rooted Liberation

In celebration of UN World Cotton Day, the Scott Trust Legacies of Enslavement programme presents this guided heritage city trail.

This route was part of a commission by Legacies of Enslavement Programme and GM Moving called the Heritage in Action Routes. 

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The Legacies of Enslavement programme understands restorative justice as a process of dialogue and collaboration aimed at repair and healing between The Guardian – an institution that benefited from transatlantic enslavement – and descendants of the enslaved. Manchester was the first industrial city in the world. This was built on the cotton trade. This is a shared history.

This decolonial guided route speaks to Manchester’s waterways, railways and connection to the transatlantic slave trade. Inspired by Robert Macfarlane’s exploration of rivers as ‘beings’ rather than ‘resources’, the walk holds together innovation and injustice, and asks how cities might repair their relationship with the ripple effect of this history.

The group will meet outside the Barbirolli Square (near the Bridgewater Hall).

We have included a short interactive activity at the Science Industry Museum which should last approximately 30 minutes.

Routes may be subject to ad hoc adjustments due to construction work.

ACCESS INFO: The majority of this route has step-free access. Where this is not the case alternative vantage points for stops have been identified. At points we may come across cobbled areas but will strive to avoid them. The walk involves walking along a canal which has gaps in the railings. There is at one rest point with the provision of accessible toilets.

This walk is supported by the Canal and River Trust

Participants will have the option of using headphones during the journey which have been donated to us by Breaking Barriers Rochdale.

All tour scripts were supported by academic advisor, Moleka Newman, and the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Centre.

Image credit: Ella Mayamothi