Lives in Cricket No 3 - George Duckworth

scornfully as ‘period pap’. It is not a matter of lingering long over the medieval windows or re-fighting the siege that occupied the township during the English Civil War. Better rather to cut to the invigorating mustard of the industrial revolution, the single most influential ingredient in the tasty dish of modern Warrington. Yes, Warrington, a valued staging-post part way between Manchester and Liverpool, strategically situated on the River Mersey, was already on the map – but industrialism conspired to add rich pigmentation to a previously fairly undistinguished spot in the atlas. In 1801 the population was something over 10,000. In 1901, the year when George Duckworth added himself to that total, it was 64,000. As early as 1831 the town had rail links with Manchester and Liverpool, and Warrington was proudly incorporated as a borough in 1847. It adopted a more modern administrative structure under the terms of the Municipal Incorporation Act 1835. The new council, conscious of the need to keep the urban roadways clear for the secure and rapid transit of commerce, inaugurated lighting, scavenging, street improvement, watering, sewerage, cleansing and, by law, policing schemes. Warrington thrived as an industrial centre and, usefully, it avoided the solitary staple of the coal-mining or cotton-spinning town. With its placement on the Mersey and on the pioneer and long-established Bridgewater Canal, serving the two great Lancashire cities, and looking in a northwest to northeast fan towards the county’s cluster of bustling manufacturing towns, Warrington was enabled to adopt a more healthy diversity. The opening in 1894 of the Manchester Ship Canal, flowing slap-bang through Warrington, considerably enhanced this flourishing spread of business. There were textiles, mainly sailcloth, fustian and linen, and, as elsewhere in the Mersey valley, there were chemical manufactures, particularly soap. Crucially, there was the sort of engineering work that supported other industries, especially the massive textile concerns. From 1884 aluminium products were an important feature, whilst the making of pins, nails and files also contributed to the town’s economy. Most typically, there was a blossoming wire industry, significant enough to provide the famous rugby league team (so heartily supported by George Duckworth) with its ‘Wires’ nickname and Arthur Duckworth with his exacting trade as a wiredrawer. 16 The Background