The wider City of Salford local government district is administered from Swinton. The former County Borough of Salford , which also included Broughton , Pendleton and Kersal , was granted city status in In , Salford had a population of ,, [1] and the City of Salford , Historically in Lancashire , Salford was the judicial seat of the ancient hundred of Salfordshire.
It was granted a charter by Ranulf de Blondeville, 6th Earl of Chester , in about , making Salford a free borough of greater cultural and commercial importance than its neighbour Manchester, [3] although since the Industrial Revolution of the late 18th and early 19th centuries that position has been reversed. Salford became a major cotton and silk spinning and weaving factory town in the 18th and 19th centuries and important inland port on the Manchester Ship Canal from Industries declined in the 20th century, causing economic depression, and Salford became a place of contrasts, with regenerated inner-city areas like Salford Quays next to some of the most socially deprived and violent areas in England.
Salford is home to the University of Salford , and has seen several firsts, including the world's first free public library , [7] and the first street to be lit by gas. The name of Salford derives from the Old English word Sealhford , meaning a ford by the willow trees. It referred to the willows Latin : salix or sallows that grew alongside the banks of the River Irwell.
The earliest known evidence of human activity in what is now Salford is provided by the Neolithic flint arrow-heads and workings discovered on Kersal Moor and the River Irwell , suggesting that the area was inhabited 7β10, years ago. The raw material for such tools was scarce and unsuitable for working, and as a result they are not of the quality found elsewhere. Other finds include a neolithic axe-hammer found near Mode Wheel, during the excavation of the Manchester Ship Canal in , and a Bronze Age cremation urn during the construction of a road on the Broughton Hall estate in The Brigantes were the major Celtic tribe in what is now Northern England.
With a stronghold at the sandstone outcrop on which Manchester Cathedral now stands, opposite Salford's original centre, their territory extended across the fertile lowland by the River Irwell that is now Salford and Stretford. Both the main Roman road to the north, from Mamucium to Ribchester , and a second road to the west, ran through what is now Salford, but few Roman artefacts have been found in the area. The Danes later conquered the area and absorbed what was left of the Brigantes.
