By Brian Groom
Published: February 16 2010 02:00 | Last updated: February 16 2010 02:00
One by one, pillars that defined industrial Britain are crumbling. Last week the partnership between The Guardian and Manchester Evening News , which marked the influence of the world's first industrial city at its zenith, was broken. At the same time the most senior member of the Methodist Church - the nonconformism of which was popular in rising Victorian cities such as Sheffield - signalled it was prepared to be absorbed by the Church of England.
Links between The Guardian and MEN go back to 1868 when the MEN was founded, 47 years after the Manchester Guardian. From 1879 they shared offices and in 1924 the MEN was bought by John Scott, son of Guardian editor C.P. Scott. The MEN expanded in the 1930s under the brilliant managing editorship of William Haley, later director-general of the BBC and editor of The Times. John Scott told him: "You make the money we spend."
But profits have dwindled to nothing. Trinity Mirror, which is buying the MEN, will be better able to benefit from synergies and cost savings. It is nonetheless humbling that MEN staff will have to move from central Manchester to Trinity's site at Oldham.
Methodism brought confidence to the mill towns of Yorkshire and Lancashire, assuring the working classes they were equal to the upper classes in God's eyes (it also nurtured Margaret Thatcher). But numbers are down to 265,000 and the church faces the threat of extinction within a couple of generations.
The past can still spring to life in unexpected ways, however. Manchester United fans have taken to wearing green and gold - the original colours of Newton Heath, the railway workers' club founded in 1878 that became MUFC - in protest against ownership by the Glazer family. "Green and gold till the club is sold," goes the slogan. In the unlikely event of supporters buying the club, perhaps they could revert to the original name. That would certainly confuse the many fans of English premiership football in Asia.
