Making Making Manchester was a lot of fun, and I want to say a big thank you to everyone who helped in any way with the series. ALL FM 96.9 is a great community radio station and it was a privilege to work with them. The Institution of Civil Engineers is a fantastic organisation and I feel proud to have been in a position to tell some of the stories of the amazing things its members have done and are doing in and around Manchester – things which have literally helped shape the life of the city from the onset of the industrial revolution, and continue to make life better in various ways today. And huge thanks to all the people in all the organisations, from the Canal & River Trust to Manchester Airports Group, from Network Rail and HS2 Ltd to Manchester City Council and Manchester City FC, who contributed to the programmes.

Thanks to the Manchester Evening News for working with us and publishing the various tie-in articles, and thanks to everyone who contributed to that series, from the Museum of Science and Industry to United Utilities and Transport for Greater Manchester, and from ICE President Sir John Armitt to sports architecture historian Simon Inglis.

Most of all, thanks to everyone for listening, and for the overwhelmingly positive feedback. Hundreds of people have used the listen-again function on Mixcloud, thousands have watched the videos, and all of these will remain available for the foreseeable future.

Since the programmes were broadcast, some of the places featured in them have been in the news. Manchester Victoria Station’s refurbishment went on to win ICE North West’s Large Project of the Year award, and of course Metrolink has continued to grow and prosper. Manchester’s inland canals have become the oldest civil engineering landmark to sign up to ICE’s public awareness campaign #ThisIsCivilEngineering, and several historic engineering works featured in the series have been nominated for the North West Civil Engineering Heritage Award, including the Thirlmere Aqueduct. Also on the heritage front, the Peel Group very fittingly minted a special medal to mark the 300th anniversary of the birth of James Brindley – the man who engineered the Bridgewater Canal – and I felt deeply honoured to receive one on behalf of the Institution of Civil Engineers North West.

The Institution of Civil Engineers will be celebrating its 200th anniversary in 2018, and some of the stories it will tell as part of that celebration will again feature Manchester, a city with a truly pioneering heritage, and doubtless a great engineering future.