An eighteenth-century revolution? Investigating urban growth in north-west England, 1664–1801

The briefest inspection of the English urban hierarchy during the long eighteenth century reveals this as a period of immense change. However, regional analysis of the temporal and spatial patterns of these pre-census developments relies on using a variety of non-demographic sources to produce a series of urban demographic ‘snap-shots’ of the urban population. Employing this ‘demographic photography’ in early modern northwest England allows detailed investigation of the dynamics of the entire urban system. This reveals the deep roots of urban development in the region and points to an eighteenth-century urban revolution. Towns grew faster than the overall population, but this growth was unevenly distributed; both large and small towns exhibited strong and weak growth, making changes in the urban hierarchy inevitable and far-reaching. The most notable trend was the changing geography of the system: Cheshire towns grew far less rapidly than their increasingly industrial neighbours in Lancashire and the urban locus underwent a definite shift northwards. The fact that the urban patterns of growth appear to have preceded the period of maximum industrial growth by some forty to fifty years forces us to rethink the relationship between industrial and urban development.