The Mancunian Way: Windrush 75

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Here's the Mancunian Way for today:

Hello,

Today marks 75 years since HMT Empire Windrush arrived in the UK carrying Caribbean-born UK residents. Encouraged to migrate by the British government, those who arrived in the post-war years made huge contributions to the country through the NHS, music, sports and politics.

In today’s newsletter we’ll be taking a closer look at their vast contributions to Manchester and, five years on, we’ll look at the scars left by a government scandal that devastated so many. Let’s begin.

Arriving in the UK was an adventure for nine-year-old Pauline Sergeant. Her parents - part of the Windrush generation - were already living in London and sent for Pauline, who arrived in 1959 to a very different climate to the one she had left behind in Jamaica.

“My grandma was so lovely and she took care of all of us, so I know I would have been missing her. But I was looking forward to coming,” she says now.

“In Jamaica you had wide open space, the seaside, greenery, fresh fruit, and sunshine. I came over and I remember thinking ‘oh my god, are these factories?’ when I saw all the English houses.

“It was quite grey, I think I arrived in October. And you felt the cold. My fingers and toes - I couldn’t feel them. I remember being in school around 1962 when we had smog and you couldn’t see your toes. But by that time I had been here a while and was used to the climate.”

Many families settled in larger towns and cities, like London, Liverpool and Manchester. But life wasn’t always straightforward and the