Story 1

The Manchester Pusher

Over the past decade,

close to a hundred people have lost their lives in the canal network of one Northern

English city.

In this episode, we examine evidence,

which suggests that a significant number of these deaths were the work of one person, the Manchester Pusher. The

The During the reign of Queen Victoria, the advent of the Industrial Revolution saw a sudden and uncontrollable

increase in the size of Britain's northern towns and settlements. The city of Manchester was a perfect

illustration of this expansion, rapidly evolving from a modest producer of clothing and textiles

into a gigantic industrial powerhouse. As hungry and desperate souls

flocked from all over the region in search of employment, the city's infrastructure had to evolve

in order to accommodate the growing pressures it now faced. In addition to increases in housing,

transport links were also expanded, with miles of new canals carved

into the rolling countryside to supplement the broadening road and railway networks.

At the start of 1761, the 3rd Duke of Bridgewater received permission to construct a lengthy

waterway to transport coal from his mines in Worsley to fuel the city's

perpetually hungry furnaces. This was followed by the creation of two more canals to the east

of Manchester, leading out to Huddersfield and Rochdale, but by far the most ambitious project

was the final addition to the network, the Manchester Ship Canal, a 36-mile run that led out to

the coastal port of Liverpool. Eventually, the four waterways converged at the heart of the city,

creating a complex warren of junctions and tunnels. To this day, there is little consistency

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