About the author
Ash Cox (they/them) is an artivist (artist + activist), creative access producer, consultant, and facilitator from Salford, focusing on work that reflects their lived experience being a disabled, queer, working-class arts and science nerd.
In this exclusive blog for our Salford Voices project, Ash reflects on being a born and bred Salfordian, local pride, and the way in which old names and borders impact our understanding of place.
Follow them on Instagram at @ash_tronomy_
Find out more about them at www.ashtronomy.co.uk
On the day of my birth, the ambulance arrived and started driving towards Crumpsall Hospital, where my mum was registered. She’d had to move out of Salford because the only council flats available were in Manchester.
She wasn’t having any of it. “Take me to Hope, I want my baby born in Salford!”
The staff argued and eventually gave in.
When my mum reached Hope Hospital (now known as Salford Royal), she was put into an observation room, and the nurse told her to wait.
As the nurse was leaving the room, my mum said: “Excuse me, I think something’s happening!”
She pushed 3 times, and out I came! One of my arms had become trapped around my head during labour, and so when I emerged, my arm flung in the air. My mum has always described it as a “ta daaa, I’m here!” moment. I jazz hands-ed out of the womb and into the world.
I was raised in Manchester, but the pride of being born in Salford is deep.
I’ve spent my whole life telling people my birth story and correcting people that Salford is not Manchester, but a city in its own right – which is what we’re celebrating this year!
Before we were The City of Salford, we were a subdivision of Lancashire: Salfordshire, or the Salford Hundred.
In 1974, we officially became part of Greater Manchester, and the title and boundaries of Salfordshire disappeared, but the memory didn’t.
Through my research, I discovered that this is called an “administrative ghost”. It refers to how old names and borders haunt modern maps.
This ghost haunts many Salfordians, including me.
It’s always made me dead mad when I hear on the telly, “Media City UK, Manchester”.
“Media City is Salford Docks, mate, me Grandad Rabbit was a docker!”
They called him Rabbit because he talked a lot.
In the early 2000’s, I went on a school trip to the Lowry, and when I told Grandad Rabbit, he said: “I built all of that”.
He was also the star of Coronation Street Episode 2972 (1989). Him and his JCB knocked down the factory, Vera Duckworth was fuming! You can’t really see him, but Grandad was well chuffed. He not only built the real Salford, but the fictional one too.
My Grandad Pops is a second-generation immigrant, he toured all over Europe as a jazz musician. His dad, my Great-Grandad, came to Manchester from Ghana in the 1950s and opened up a shop off Oxford Road.
So, as a fourth-generation immigrant with Salfordian, Mancunian, Ghanaian and Irish heritage, writing this blog in the divisive world we are living in right now has made me wonder if the “administrative ghost” of Salford’s past is causing me more harm than good.
Don’t get me wrong, I am buzzin’ to celebrate Salford 100 this year. I’m dead proud and have been telling everyone about it – and my involvement in it.
But is my resistance to being called a “Manc” and my annoyance at Salford being called Greater Manchester holding me back?
Us Salfordian’s are renowned for saying it like it is, looking after one another and having a lot of pride and spirit. Mancunians too.
Nature and nurture have made me creative, strong-willed and a grafter. I grew up a young carer and I was a proper little activist as a kid. Back then, I wasn’t aware that I could make a career at the intersection of human rights and creativity. Care, access and inclusion have always been central to everything I’ve done.
Since being freelance, I’ve spent more time in Manchester, Wigan, Oldham, Rochdale, Trafford, and other northern towns and cities. I’ve also had the opportunity to remotely work with activists and artists from South Africa and Palestine.
I’ve recently started working with GM Arts on a project called ‘Arts In-Access’, where a load of people – from freelancers to local authority staff are working together to develop a framework for access, inclusivity and collaboration across all 10 districts of Greater Manchester.
You know what I’ve discovered? Decent humans, saying it like it is, looking after one another and having a lot of pride and spirit. Sounds familiar, dunnit?
Salford has always been othered, “The other city”. We know how it feels to be overlooked, dismissed and undervalued, “Media City UK, Manchester” as a prime example.
But just ‘cause we’ve been othered, doesn’t mean we should other.
I’ve spent a lot of time in our community recently. At events, watching films, listening to Podcasts, looking at photographs, following #Salford100 on social media and beaming with pride.
I’ve also cried a lot. I’m dead sensitive, under this tough northern, working-class exterior.
I cry every time I experience THE SALFORD WAY, a poem by Salford-based poets Matt Concannon and Jody Findley, commissioned by Art with Heart and filmed by Brave Day Productions.
Me and me mum were invited to be part of the community film, and I’m dead proud – especially of me mum.
It’s upsetting to know that there are no babies being born in Salford during our centenary year. That at some point, there might be no more Salfordians, and our city status might also become an “administrative ghost” one day.
But it’s not about admin, titles or borders, it’s about people, innit?
We’ve got our stories and our memories.
We’ve got incredible organisations, like Art with Heart, capturing our spirit, supporting our community and celebrating our diversity.
Look at us.
Listen to us.
See us.
As the poem goes, “Voices ring in pride that unite in our diversity”
Salford, no matter what happens in the next 100 years, we mustn’t forget that.
I believe I jazz hands-ed out of the womb and into the world to use my gob and my grit for good.
So whether you were born here, moved here, visit here, work here, play here – I wholeheartedly believe that Salford is all of us.
With love, pride and solidarity.
Ash
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