The Manchester Zedders are a couple of intrepid individuals who have undertaken to explore the whole of Manchester on-foot. Armed with a copy of the A-Z, they tick off which squares they’ve walked and what they’ve found. Psychogeography or something, they call it (well, they don’t like to call it that). But their work is an invaluable modern historical record. A snapshot in time of wherever they’ve walked.

And in May 2008, they tackled our very own Ancoats:

Marie’s historical research has brought up loads of stuff about Ancoats. This is an area on the outskirts of the city centre which has seen heavy industry, slums, run-down estates and now a big regeneration project. It was apparently ‘the world’s first industrial suburb’. So we thought we’d go take a look.

[vodpod id=Video.4416400&w=425&h=350&fv=offsite%3Dtrue%26amp%3Blang%3Den-us%26amp%3Bflickr_notracking%3Dtrue%26amp%3Bflickr_target%3D_self%26amp%3Bnsid%3D%26amp%3BtextV%3D66488%26amp%3Bispro%3D0%26amp%3B%26amp%3Bset_id%3D72157604896257168%26amp%3Bpage_show_back_url%3D%2Fphotos%2Fms_lilith%2Fsets%2F72157604896257168%2F%26amp%3Bpage_show_url%3D%2Fphotos%2Fms_lilith%2Fsets%2F72157604896257168%2Fshow%2F%26amp%3BminH%3D100%26amp%3BminW%3D100]

Check out their incredibly comprehensive walk around some of Ancoats main streets, including photos of the regeneration as it stood at the time.

Special thanks for licensing their set of Creative Commons licensed images, a few of which we’re using for our header image.