Manchester

Manchester. A city in northwestern England (2019 pop 552,858). In the 1920s and 1930s it was home to 15 or 20 Ukrainian families that had remained there while en route to Canada. The community was centered largely around the Ukrainian Social Club. During the Second World War many Ukrainians in Canadian army units stayed in the city and the surrounding area. On 7 January 1943 a local chapter of the Ukrainian Canadian Servicemen's Association was founded, and by midyear it had over 1,000 members. After the war an influx of people from the displaced persons camps in Germany and of prisoner of war camps from Italy made it one of the largest Ukrainian communities in Great Britain, with nearly 900 people. A chapter of the Association of Ukrainians in Great Britain, the Federation of Ukrainians in Great Britain, and a number of other Ukrainian community and cultural groups (including the Homin choir and the Orlyk dance ensemble) were established. Both the Ukrainian Orthodox church and the Ukrainian Catholic church have their own churches and parishes in the area. The community club, Bukovyna, is also active. The larger concentrations of Ukrainians in the surrounding area in the 1990s included those in Bolton (500), Bury (300), Oldham (800), and Rochdale (600), which together with those in the city proper make up a community of approximately 3,000.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 3 (1993).]