EVEN a modest student of history can point to the powerhouses of the industrial revolution, Pressed, they will also be able to point to the importance of the connectivity between these great Victorian cities through railways and barges which contributed to their growth: it’s no accident that George Stephenson build the world’s first public railway line carrying passengers and freight in 1830 between Liverpool and Manchester – it was these cities that had the trade and the brains. London was only connected to Birmingham some years later.

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