Goods invoice for cotton yarn transported on the London & North Western Railway through Liverpool Road Station on 16 June 1882.

Liverpool Road Station was the Manchester terminus of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, which opened in 1830. Championed by cotton manufacturers and merchants, the railway was an engineering feat that transformed the textiles trade. From the beginning, cotton was one of the railway’s most important cargos. The first ever wagon load of goods that arrived here in December 1830 held 136 bales of cotton. The railway made it cheaper and faster for merchants and manufacturers to move cotton, yarn and cloth between Manchester’s mills and Liverpool’s port.

This is a receipt for cotton yarn shipped through Liverpool Station in 1886.