Composers: Tom Kitching and Robert Klapcic The city starts with the water and builds upwards and outwards, re-arranging itself again and again. When all else has changed out of sight, it is the water that must bear the burden of memory. In 1828, the New Quay Company ceremoniously launched ‘Emma’, their new flagship river flat. Onlookers standing on Bloody Bridge, where the canal meets the Irwell, still set amongst fields awaiting the onrush of railway yards and industrialisation, will have seen the Emma capsize, drowning nearly 50 revellers, many of whom were overcome by the pollution from the nearby gasworks.
