Yes to concur Ewan McColl wrote it about the Salford area whiich is a part of Manchester. Though It often amuses me when journeying back home to ireland that most people there believe it's an Irish song about Dublin or Belfast, and indeed here in england many believe the same. A tribute I feel to McColl's skill of writing in the traditional Style
He illustrated this himself on radio in the 80's telling of how he wrote his song The Travelling People, by interviewing and recording Gypsies and Tinkers around the British Isles as research. Then after writing the song and recording it, took the recording around those same communities, and just about all said it was a trad Gypsy song passed down from generation to generation. As true a Folk Song as can be, written with the words of the people so they all felt it was their own