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Manchester Free Library
The Manchester Free Library opened on 5 September 1852 in Manchester, England. It was the first public library in England to be set up under the provisions of the Public Libraries Act 1850, which allowed local authorities to impose a local tax of one penny to pay for the service. The terms of the act required that a poll of ratepayers had to be held before the local authority was allowed to spend money on public libraries, and at least two-thirds had to vote in favour. In Manchester's case only 40 of the more than 4000 eligible voters opposed. The project was the initiative of John Potter, first Mayor of Manchester, and fellow members of the Portico Library The Portico Library, The Portico or Portico Library and Gallery on Mosley Street, Manchester, is an independent subscription library designed in the Greek Revival style by Thomas Harrison of Chester and built between 1802 and 1806. It is recor ..., who started a fund to raise money for the purchase of books and a suitable ...
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Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The two cities and the surrounding towns form one of the United Kingdom's most populous conurbations, the Greater Manchester Built-up Area, which has a population of 2.87 million. The history of Manchester began with the civilian settlement associated with the Roman fort ('' castra'') of ''Mamucium'' or ''Mancunium'', established in about AD 79 on a sandstone bluff near the confluence of the rivers Medlock and Irwell. Historically part of Lancashire, areas of Cheshire south of the River Mersey were incorporated into Manchester in the 20th century, including Wythenshawe in 1931. Throughout the Middle Ages Manchester remained a manorial township, but began to expand "at an astonishing rate" around the turn of the 19th century. Manchest ...
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Public Libraries Act 1850
The Public Libraries Act 1850 (13 & 14 Vict c.65) was an Act of the United Kingdom Parliament which first gave local boroughs the power to establish free public libraries. The Act was the first legislative step in the creation of an enduring national institution that provides universal free access to information and literature, and was indicative of the moral, social and educative concerns of the time. The legacy of the Act can be followed through subsequent legislation that built on and expanded the powers granted in 1850 and the 4,145 public libraries that exist in the United Kingdom in the 21st century can trace their origins back to this Act. Historical background In the 1830s, at the height of the Chartist movement, there was a general tendency towards reformism in the United Kingdom. This prompted much new legislation to be passed, such as the Parliamentary Reform Act 1832, the Factory Act 1833, the first instance of a government grant for education in the same year and the ...
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Salford Museum And Art Gallery
Salford Museum and Art Gallery, in Peel Park, Salford, Greater Manchester, opened to the public in November 1850 as the Royal Museum and Public Library. The gallery and museum are devoted to the history of Salford and Victorian art and architecture. Foundation Along with Queens Park and Phillips Park in Manchester, the Lark Hill estate and mansion were purchased by public subscription and opened to the public as Peel Park and Royal Museum and Public Library, in November 1850. In 1874 Edward Langworthy, former Mayor of Salford and early supporter of the museum, left a £10,000 bequest to the museum which was used to build the west wing, named the Langworthy Wing, connecting the north and south wings. This wing was constructed over three storeys and "was built of brick with stone dressing with a glass and Welch-slate roof, with a pediment gable";Architectural History Practice Ltd, (2008), “Salford Museum & Art Gallery, Conservation Management Plan today it serves as the publ ...
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Rates (tax)
Rates are a type of property tax system in the United Kingdom, and in places with systems deriving from the British one, the proceeds of which are used to fund local government. Some other countries have taxes with a more or less comparable role, like France's . Rates by country Australia Local government authorities levy annual taxes, which are called council rates or shire rates. The basis on which these charges can be calculated varies from state to state, but is usually based in some way on the value of property. Even within states, individual local government authorities can often choose the specific basis of rates – for example, it may be on the rental value of houses (as in Western Australia) or on the unimproved land value (as in New South Wales). These rateable valuations are usually determined by a statutory authority, and are subject to periodic revision. Canada Rates are referred to as property taxes in Canada. These taxes are collected primarily by municipal gove ...
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Penny (British Pre-decimal Coin)
The British pre-decimal penny was a denomination of sterling coinage worth of one pound or of one shilling. Its symbol was ''d'', from the Roman denarius. It was a continuation of the earlier English penny, and in Scotland it had the same monetary value as one pre-1707 Scottish shilling. The penny was originally minted in silver, but from the late 18th century it was minted in copper, and then after 1860 in bronze. The plural of "penny" is "pence" when referring to an amount of money, and "pennies" when referring to a number of coins. Thus 8''d'' is eight pence, but "eight pennies" means specifically eight individual penny coins. Before Decimal Day in 1971, sterling used the Carolingian monetary system (£sd), under which the largest unit was a pound (£) divisible into 20 shillings (s), each of 12 pence (d). The penny was withdrawn in 1971 due to decimalisation, and replaced (in effect) by the decimal half new penny, with p being worth 1.2''d''. History The kingdoms o ...
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John Potter (Liberal Politician)
Sir John Potter (10 April 1815 – 25 October 1858) was a Liberal Party politician in the United Kingdom. Early life John was born in April 1815 at Polefield near Prestwich, Lancashire. He was the elder son of Sir Thomas Potter and his second wife, Esther née Bayley. His father was involved in business and politics in the rapidly developing town of Manchester, and was named as the borough's first mayor when it was granted a charter of incorporation. John grew up on the family estate at Buile Hill, Pendleton after its completion in 1827. He was educated at the University of Edinburgh. Political career Potter took no part in public life until the death of his father in March 1845. He was given his father's aldermanic seat on Manchester Town Council and made a justice of the peace for the borough. He elected to serve as Mayor of Manchester in 1848, serving three terms until 1851. During the visit of Queen Victoria to Manchester he was invested as a knight bachelor on 10 Octobe ...
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The Portico Library
The Portico Library, The Portico or Portico Library and Gallery on Mosley Street, Manchester, is an independent subscription library designed in the Greek Revival style by Thomas Harrison of Chester and built between 1802 and 1806. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a Grade II* listed building, having been designated on 25 February 1952, and has been described as "the most refined little building in Manchester". The library was established as a result of a meeting of Manchester businessmen in 1802 which resolved to found an ''"institute uniting the advantages of a newsroom and a library"''. A visit by four of the men to the Athenaeum in Liverpool inspired them to achieve a similar institution in Manchester. Money was raised through 400 subscriptions from Manchester men and the library opened in 1806. The library, mainly focused on 19th-century literature, was designed by Thomas Harrison, architect of Liverpool's Lyceum and built by one of th ...
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Museum Of Science And Industry (Manchester)
The Science and Industry Museum in Manchester, England, traces the development of science, technology and industry with emphasis on the city's achievements in these fields. The museum is part of the Science Museum Group, a non-departmental public body of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, having merged with the Science Museum (London), National Science Museum in 2012. There are extensive displays on the theme of transport (cars, railway locomotives and rolling stock), power (water power, water, electricity, steam engine, steam and gas engines), Manchester's sanitary sewer, sewerage and sanitation, textiles, communications and computing. The museum is an Anchor Point of the European Route of Industrial Heritage and is on the site of the world's first passenger railway station – Manchester Liverpool Road railway station, Manchester Liverpool Road – which opened as part of the Liverpool & Manchester Railway in 1830. The railway station frontage and 1830 war ...
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Edward Edwards (librarian)
Edward Edwards (1812–1886) was a British librarian, library historian, and biographer. He was an important figure in the establishment of free libraries in the United Kingdom. He died and is buried in Niton on the Isle of Wight. Early life and work Edwards was born in Stepney (London) on 14 December 1812. His father, Anthony Turner Edwards, was a builder and apprenticed his son to this trade at the age of fourteen. There is no record of Edwards' education and early employments. However, it is known that he attended the King's Weigh House chapel, where he was influenced by Rev. Thomas Binney. Also, Edwards received private lessons from Edwin Abbott and was--as was his teacher--a member of a German reading circle of the Marylebone Literary and Scientific Institution. In the 1830s, Edwards developed interests in education, library science, and industrial art. The wide range of these pursuits may be traced to the frequency of Edwards's presence at functions of the Society of ...
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Public Libraries In Greater Manchester
In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkeit'' or public sphere. The concept of a public has also been defined in political science, psychology, marketing, and advertising. In public relations and communication science, it is one of the more ambiguous concepts in the field. Although it has definitions in the theory of the field that have been formulated from the early 20th century onwards, and suffered more recent years from being blurred, as a result of conflation of the idea of a public with the notions of audience, market segment, community, constituency, and stakeholder. Etymology and definitions The name "public" originates with the Latin ''publicus'' (also '' poplicus''), from ''populus'', to the English word 'populace', and in general denotes some mass population ("the ...
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