The worker bee is one of the best-known symbols of Manchester. Unique to the city, it has been an iconic part of Manchester’s coat of arms since the 1800s.
Manchester’s main symbol, evident throughout the city, was adopted in 1842 by the newly-created council. The Manchester bee is the worker bee, for this is a city that grew on the notion of hard work. An often-repeated phrase is that “everyone in Manchester is as busy as bees.”
Manchester was the first city to pioneer a new type of work – mass production. Tens of thousands of workers were striving like bees in the creation of the world’s first industrial city. At the same time, Manchester City Council unveiled its Latin motto: Concilio et Labore, “With diligence and hard work”, a phrase derived from the Biblical book of Ecclesiasticus.
There are many examples of bees adorning some of Manchester’s finest buildings. The city’s coat of arms can be seen all over the city, featuring a globe coated with bees. In the Town Hall, the platform outside the Great Hall is called The Bees and is decorated appropriately. At Manchester Art Gallery the most famous and admired painting is Work by Ford Madox Brown.
107 pages. Softcover. NOT ex-library.