122-503: Little Lever is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton , Greater Manchester , England. Within the historic county of Lancashire , it is 2 miles (3.2 km) southeast of Bolton , 2 miles (3.2 km) west of Radcliffe and 4 miles (6.4 km) southwest of Bury . In the 19th century, the population was employed in cotton mills, paper mills, bleach works, terracotta works, a rope works and numerous collieries. Lever
244-522: A local board of health until 1894 when Little Lever Urban District was formed. The council consisted of twelve members elected from the four wards, Church, Ladyshore, Stopes and West. In 1974, local government reorganization made Little Lever a part of the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester, and is represented on the borough council by three councilors as part of a ward which also covers Darcy Lever . The population of this ward at
366-439: A specialist language college which now focuses on Business and Enterprise, and there is one special needs school, Ladywood School. Other facilities include pre-school playgroups , nursery schools and a library which was built in 1939. There is a purpose-built leisure centre adjacent to Little Lever School with sports hall, gymnasium, squash courts, all-weather pitch and extensive playing fields. There are also facilities around
488-407: A town council : Westhoughton Town Council, Horwich Town Council and Blackrod Town Council . The rest of the metropolitan borough, covering the town of Bolton itself, Farnworth, Kearsley, Little Lever, and South Turton, have remained unparished areas since 1974. The table below details the population change since 1801, including the percentage change since the last available census data. Although
610-603: A Celtic culture, and had its own Celtic language, Cumbric , spoken predominately in Cumbria until around the 12th century. Parts of the north and east of England were subject to Danish control (the Danelaw ) during the Viking Age , but the northern part of the old Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria remained under Anglo-Saxon control. Under the Vikings, monasteries were largely wiped out, and
732-754: A Knave (1968). There are no recognised minority languages in Northern England, although the Northumbrian Language Society campaigns to have the Northumbrian dialect recognised as a separate language. It is possible that traces of now-extinct Brythonic Celtic languages from the region survive in some rural areas in the Yan Tan Tethera counting systems traditionally used by shepherds. Contact between English and immigrant languages has given rise to new accents and dialects. For instance,
854-728: A Northern dialect area, some correspond the area north of a line that begins at the Humber estuary and runs up the River Wharfe and across to the River Lune in north Lancashire. This area corresponds roughly to the sprachraum of the Old English Northumbrian dialect , although the linguistic elements that defined this area in the past, such as the use of doon instead of down and substitution of an ang sound in words that end - ong ( lang instead of long ), are now prevalent only in
976-631: A UK or Irish identity. 90.5% of the population described themselves as white, compared to an England and Wales average of 85.9%; other ethnicities represented include Pakistani (2.9%), Indian (1.3%), Black (1.3%), Chinese (0.6%) and Bangladeshi (0.5%). The broad averages hide significant variation within the region: Allerdale and Redcar and Cleveland had a greater percentage of the population identifying as White British (97.6% each) than any other district in England and Wales, while Manchester (66.5%), Bradford (67.4%) and Blackburn with Darwen (69.1%) had among
1098-581: A distinctive coarse-grained rock used to make millstones , is widespread in the Pennines, and the variety of other rock types is reflected in the architecture of the region, such as the bright red sandstone seen in buildings in Chester , the cream-buff Yorkstone and the distinctive purple Doddington sandstone. These sandstones also mean that apart from the east coast, most of Northern England has very soft water , and this has influenced not just industry, but even
1220-401: A fee of 6s 8d and 1s for provision of future for the sergeant and foresters, a total of 8 s . Several cases were brought before courts by family members trying to take control of the manor. A settlement in 1331, found in favour of Adam, son of Ellis de Lever and the family line was settled. There are no records about the ownership until 1448, when Henry Lever the elder owed rent of 25s (£1.25p) on
1342-507: A lineage of female realist writers from the North that later included Winifred Holtby , Catherine Cookson , Beryl Bainbridge and Jeanette Winterson . Many of the angry young men of post-war literature were Northern, and working-class life in the face of deindustrialisation is depicted in novels such as Room at the Top (1959), Billy Liar (1959), This Sporting Life (1960) and A Kestrel for
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#17328450490451464-563: A major target for Luftwaffe attacks during the Second World War . The Blitz of 1940–1941 saw major raids on Barrow-in-Furness , Hull , Leeds , Manchester , Merseyside , Newcastle and Sheffield with thousands killed and significant damage done. Liverpool, a vital port for supplies from North America, was especially hard hit – the city was the most bombed in the UK outside London and Hull, with around 4,000 deaths across Merseyside and most of
1586-845: A more modern occupation known as the Creswellian culture around 12,000 years ago. Kirkwell Cave in Lower Allithwaite , Cumbria shows signs of the Federmesser culture of the Paleolithic , and was inhabited some time between 13,400 and 12,800 years ago. Significant settlement appears to have begun in the Mesolithic era, with Star Carr in North Yorkshire generally considered the most significant monument of this era. The Star Carr site includes Britain's oldest known house, from around 9000 BC, and
1708-459: A station at Bradley Fold ) though this was closed in 1970. The nearest railway station is Moses Gate, and Metrolink serves the nearby Radcliffe stop. The village is served by First, Diamond, and Cumfybus buses from Bolton, Bury, Radcliffe, and Farnworth. Little Lever's past is marked by cotton spinning , textile manufacture, paper making and coal mining . In the early days, water was obtained from local sources and some shallow wells driven into
1830-595: Is a metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester , England, named after its largest town, Bolton , but covering a larger area which includes Blackrod , Farnworth , Horwich , Kearsley , Westhoughton , and part of the West Pennine Moors . It had a population of 298,903 in 2022, making it the third-most populous district in Greater Manchester. The borough is in the historic county of Lancashire , and
1952-426: Is almost six times the average population density of England and Wales (2,117/km²). The Census also shows that the population has a population split of almost equal numbers of males and females which is uncommon in the area. The population has changed dramatically since the turn of the 20th century, at that time the majority of the population was employed in the labour-intensive areas of coal mining, canal working and
2074-597: Is an increase from the 14,933,000 (and 6,364,000 households) counted in the 2011 census, and itself a growth of 5.1% from 2001. This means that Northerners comprise 28% of the English population and 24% of the UK population. Taken overall, 8% of the population of Northern England were born overseas (3% from the European Union including Ireland and 5% from elsewhere), substantially less than the England and Wales average of 13%, and 5% define their nationality as something other than
2196-539: Is currently used for the production of building materials and produces lightweight blocks for the construction industry. The manufacture of terracotta in the North of England was pioneered by Colonel John Fletcher at his Ladyshore Terracotta Works. The Ladyshore Coal and Terracotta Company supplied the terracotta used in the building in St Stephen and All Martyrs' Church, Lever Bridge . There were several paper mills situated in
2318-562: Is derived from the Old English laefre , which means place where the rushes grow. The township was recorded as Parua Lefre in 1212, from the Latin, parva meaning little. The name was recorded in several ways, Lethre in 1221, Leuere in 1278, Leuir in 1282, Leuer in 1291 and Leyver in 1550. The manor of Little Lever was part of the barony of Manchester and during the Middle Ages was governed by
2440-611: Is located on the edge of Moses Gate Country Park , a 750-acre (3.0 km) park which spans the valleys of the River Croal and River Irwell . Ringley Chapel was built in the Outwood area of the township of Pilkington in the ancient parish of Prestwich-cum-Oldham which belonged to the Manchester Classis . Kearsley and Little Lever were in the Parish of Deane and therefore in
2562-416: Is often debated, and there has been controversy in defining what geographies or cultures precisely constitute the 'North of England' — if, indeed, it exists as a coherent entity at all. Many Industrial Revolution innovations began in Northern England, and its cities were the crucibles of many of the political changes that accompanied this social upheaval, from trade unionism to Manchester Liberalism . In
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#17328450490452684-597: Is reflected in its literature. On the one hand, the wild moors and lakes have inspired generations of Romantic authors: the poetry of William Wordsworth and the novels of the Brontë sisters are perhaps the most famous examples of writing inspired by these elemental forces. Classics of children's literature such as The Railway Children (1906), The Secret Garden (1911) and Swallows and Amazons (1930) portray these largely untouched landscapes as worlds of adventure and transformation where their protagonists can break free of
2806-625: The Great Depression the outer British unemployment rate was 16.1% and the Southern rate was less than half that at 7.1%. The weakening economy and interwar unemployment caused several episodes of social unrest in the region, including the 1926 general strike and the Jarrow March . The Great Depression highlighted the weakness of Northern England's specialised economy: as world trade declined, demand for ships, steel, coal and textiles all fell. For
2928-685: The Lever Bank Bleach Works , (later becoming Smith, J. Junior & Company). Wilson Edward & Company operated the Prestolee Alkali Works between 1875 and 1884. The largest and longest lasting chemical works in Little Lever was in Church Street, located on land between the canal and Lever Hall Farm. It was established in 1868 by F.W. Graham, but failed and was rescued by a partnership of Crompton and Potter. Edmund Peel Potter became
3050-533: The Norman Conquest , and to put an end to the rebellion, William ordered the Harrying of the North . In the winter of 1069–1070, towns, villages and farms were systematically destroyed across much of Yorkshire as well as northern Lancashire and County Durham. The region was gripped by famine and much of Northern England was deserted. Chroniclers at the time reported a hundred thousand deaths – modern estimates place
3172-606: The North Sea coastline. The geography of the North has been heavily shaped by the ice sheets of the Pleistocene era, which often reached as far south as the Midlands. Glaciers carved deep, craggy valleys in the central uplands, and, when they melted, deposited large quantities of fluvio-glacial material in lowland areas like the Cheshire and Solway Plains . On the eastern side of
3294-619: The Personal Rule period. By the time war broke out in 1642, King Charles had moved his court to York, and Northern England was to become a major base of the Royalist forces until they were routed at the Battle of Marston Moor . At the beginning of the Industrial Revolution , Northern England had plentiful coal and water power while the poor agriculture in the uplands meant that labour in
3416-804: The Survey of English Dialects , VisitBritain and BBC North West ), although it is politically and culturally distinct from England. Some areas of Derbyshire , Lincolnshire , Nottinghamshire and Staffordshire have northern characteristics and include satellites of northern cities. Towns in the High Peak borough of Derbyshire are included in the Greater Manchester Built-Up Area , as villages and hamlets there such as Tintwistle, Crowden and Woodhead were formerly in Cheshire before local government boundary changes in 1974, due to their close proximity to
3538-460: The Wirral Peninsula to Doncaster , taking in the cities of Liverpool , Manchester , Leeds , and Sheffield , with a population of at least 7.6 million. Analysis by The Northern Way in 2006 found that 90% of the population of the North lived in and around: Liverpool , Central Lancashire , Manchester , Sheffield , Leeds , Hull and Humber Ports , Tees Valley and Tyne and Wear . At
3660-440: The ceremonial counties of Cheshire , Cumbria , County Durham , East Riding of Yorkshire , Greater Manchester , Lancashire , Merseyside , Northumberland , North Yorkshire , South Yorkshire , Tyne and Wear and West Yorkshire , plus the unitary authority areas of North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire within the ceremonial county Lincolnshire . Other definitions use historic county boundaries, in which case
3782-665: The historic counties of Cheshire , Cumberland , Durham , Lancashire , Northumberland , Westmorland and Yorkshire . The region also coincides with the medieval era borders of Anglian Northumbria , the Anglo-Scandinavian Kingdom of Jorvik , and the Brythonic Celtic Hen Ogledd kingdoms . The North is a grouping of three statistical regions : the North East , the North West , and Yorkshire and
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3904-478: The ice ages , Northern England was buried under ice sheets, and little evidence remains of habitation – either because the climate made the area uninhabitable, or because glaciation destroyed most evidence of human activity. The northernmost cave art in Europe is found at Creswell Crags in northern Derbyshire, near modern-day Sheffield, which shows signs of Neanderthal inhabitation 50 to 60 thousand years ago, and of
4026-779: The local Celtic languages . They are a dialectal continuum , middle areas that have a crossover between varieties spoken, around the North. Traditional dialectal areas are defined by their historic county or combined historic counties; including Cumbrian (Cumberland and Westmorland), Lancastrian (Lancashire), Northumbrian (Northumberland and Durham) and Tyke (Yorkshire). During the Industrial Revolution urban areas gained some or further distinction from traditional dialects; such as areas Mackem (Wearside), Mancunian (Manchester), Pitmatic (Great Northern Coalfield), Geordie (Tyneside), Smoggie (Teesside), Scouse (Liverpool) and around Hull . Linguists have attempted to define
4148-467: The manorial land holder, the Baron of Manchester. Records show that in the time of Henry II , a parcel of land within the manor, consisting of one moiety was rented to Alexander son of Uvieth for a ½ mark and a hawk (12d). In 1212, the village was assessed as four oxgangs of land and was held in moieties, but the name of the tenant is not listed. In 1227 Adam de Radcliffe was called upon by Robert Grelley,
4270-762: The 1640 Treaty of Ripon King Charles I was forced to temporarily cede Northumberland and County Durham to the Scots and pay to keep the Scottish armies there. To raise enough funds and ratify the final peace treaty, Charles had to call what became the Long Parliament , beginning the process that led to the First English Civil War . In 1641, the Long Parliament abolished the Council of the North for perceived abuses during
4392-457: The 1950s reshaped Northern England once more, and there are now significant populations from the Indian subcontinent in towns and cities such as Bradford, Leeds, Preston and Sheffield. Deindustrialisation continued and unemployment gradually increased during the 1970s, but accelerated during the government of Margaret Thatcher , who chose not to encourage growth in the North if it risked growth in
4514-518: The 2001 Census it is listed as having 1,188 acres (481 hectares ). Historically a part of the hundred of Salford in the county of Lancashire , until the 19th century, Little Lever was a township and chapelry in the ecclesiastical parish of Deane , in Lancashire. The Bolton Poor Law Union was established in 1837 under the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 and was administered as
4636-624: The 2011 Census was 12,799. It is represented in the United Kingdom Parliament as part of the Bolton South East constituency. As from the 2019 election, the Member of Parliament for the constituency was Yasmin Qureshi . The last UK Census in 2021, gives the population as 12,525, with a population density of 4,546/km². This figure is significantly higher than Bolton (18.7 per hectare) and
4758-512: The 2011 census, 86% of the Northern population lived in urban areas as defined by the Office for National Statistics , compared to 82% for England as a whole. Due to differing definitions and city limits , the list of largest towns and cities may be misleading. For example while Manchester is ranked fourth as a city, the greater urban area it leads ( Greater Manchester Built-up Area ) is the largest in
4880-596: The 2021 census. The Bolton metropolitan area is served by the following railway stations: In terms of television, the area is served by BBC North West and ITV Granada with television signals received from the Winter Hill TV transmitter near Belmont . Radio stations for the area are: The area is served by these local newspapers: In 2007, Bolton was ranked 69th out of the 149 Local Education Authorities – and sixth out of ten in Greater Manchester – for its National Curriculum assessment performance. Measured on
5002-416: The Baron of Manchester to perform suit every two weeks at his court of Manchester regarding the village of Little Lever. In 1246 the lord of the manor was recorded as Leising de Lever. During the next hundred years, the de Lever family took control of the moieties. In around 1320, the manor was jointly controlled in homage by William de Ratcliffe and William de Lever. This homage each year amounted to 4d and
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5124-651: The Board of Guardians. It took responsibility for the administration and funding of the Poor Law in Little Lever and neighbouring townships and chapelries. The Guardians made use of the workhouses at Fletcher Street in Great Bolton and Goose Cote Hill in Turton until in 1861, when a purpose-built union workhouse was opened at Fishpool in Farnworth . In 1872, the village was governed by
5246-654: The Brigantes made the Romans wary, and they were conquered in a war beginning in the 70s under the governorship of Quintus Petillius Cerialis . The Romans created the province of " Britannia Inferior " (Lower Britain) in the North, and it was ruled from the city of Eboracum (modern York ). Eboracum and Deva Victrix (modern Chester) were the main legionary bases in the region, with other smaller forts including Mamucium (Manchester) and Cataractonium ( Catterick ). Britannia Inferior extended as far north as Hadrian's Wall , which
5368-567: The Bury Classis. For convenience, members of the congregation in Kearsley and Little Lever attended Ringley Chapel. At a meeting at Ringley on 12 July 1649, it was agreed that parishioners who wished to join the Ringley congregation should be allowed to do so and should be released from the Bury Classis accordingly. The religion at that time was Puritan and there was one well known nonconformist divine by
5490-536: The Humber . These had a combined population of 15.5 million at the 2021 census , an area of 37,331 km (14,414 square miles) and 17 cities . Northern England is culturally and economically distinct from both the Midlands and Southern England . The area's northern boundary is the border with Scotland , its western the Irish Sea and a short border with Wales , and its eastern the North Sea . Its southern border
5612-647: The Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses , Mytham Road. There are graveyards at the parish church of St Matthew, the King's Centre and Christ Church. The closed Congregational Church had a graveyard. Thomas Lever , born here in 1521, was an English Protestant reformer and served as the Archdeacon of Coventry from 1561 until his death in 1577. Metropolitan Borough of Bolton The Metropolitan Borough of Bolton ( / ˈ b oʊ l t ən / BOHL -tən )
5734-427: The Lake District receive over 3,200 mm (130 in). Lowland regions in the more southern parts of Northern England (such as Cheshire and South Yorkshire) are the warmest with average maximum July temperatures of over 21 °C (70 °F): the highest points in the Pennines and Lake District reach only 17 °C (63 °F). The North has a reputation for cloud and fog – with the west's high average rainfall and
5856-451: The Metropolitan Borough of Bolton has only existed since 1974, figures have been generated by combining data from the towns, villages, and civil parishes that would later be constituent parts of the borough. According to the 2021 census, of the 295,963 people living in Bolton Metropolitan Borough, the following list shows the population of Bolton by ethnicity: The following table shows the religious identity of people residing in Bolton at
5978-492: The North East and Cumbria, excluding the entirety, or at least the majority, of Lancashire and Yorkshire. Some settlements, including Sheffield, located in the far south of what would typically be defined as "the North", have been referred to as being in the " North Midlands " as opposed to "the North". Personal definitions of the North vary greatly. When asked to draw a dividing line between North and South, Southerners tend to draw this line further south than Northerners do. From
6100-480: The North East) or yous (common in areas with historical Irish communities). Many dialects use me as a possessive ("me car") and some treat us likewise ("us cars") or use the alternative wor ("wor cars"). Possessive pronouns are also used to mark the names of relatives in speech (for example, a relative called Joan would be referred to as "our Joan" in conversation). With urbanisation, distinctive urban accents have arisen which often differ greatly from
6222-437: The North emigrated, chiefly to the US, Canada, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. The First World War was the turning point for the economy of Northern England. In the interwar years , the Northern economy began to be eclipsed by the South – in 1913–1914, unemployment in "outer Britain" (the North, plus Scotland and Wales) was 2.6% while the rate in Southern England was more than double that at 5.5%, but in 1937 during
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#17328450490456344-488: The North is generally taken to comprise Cumberland , Northumberland, Westmorland , County Durham, Lancashire and Yorkshire , often supplemented by Cheshire. The boundary is sometimes drawn without reference to human borders, using geographic features such as the River Mersey (the line between the Humber and Mersey estuaries being a common boundary) and River Trent . The Isle of Man is occasionally included in broad geographical definitions of "the North" (for example, by
6466-433: The North starts somewhere in North Yorkshire around the River Tees – the Yorkshire poet Simon Armitage suggests Thirsk , Northallerton or Richmond – and does not include cities like Manchester and Leeds , nor the majority of Yorkshire. Northern England is not a homogeneous unit, and some have entirely rejected the idea that the North exists as a coherent entity, claiming that considerable cultural differences across
6588-406: The North. The Lake District includes England's highest peak, Scafell Pike , which rises to 978 m (3,209 ft), its largest lake, Windermere , and its deepest lake, Wastwater . Northern England is one of the most treeless areas in Europe, and to combat this the government plans to plant over 50 million trees in a new Northern Forest . Uniquely for such a large urban belt in Europe,
6710-405: The North–South divide strengthened the distinct Northern English identity, which, despite regeneration in some of the major cities, remains to this day. The region saw several IRA attacks during the Troubles , including the M62 coach bombing , the Warrington bomb attacks and the 1992 and 1996 Manchester bombings . The latter was the largest bomb detonation in Great Britain since the end of
6832-404: The Norwegian king Harald Hardrada by the Anglo-Saxon Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Stamford Bridge near York marked the beginning of the end of Viking rule in England, and the almost immediate defeat of Godwinson at the hands of the Norman William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings was in turn the overthrow of the Anglo-Saxon order. The Northumbrian and Danish aristocracy resisted
6954-436: The Pennines, a former glacial lake forms the Humberhead Levels : a large area of fenland which drains into the Humber and which is very fertile and productive farmland. Much of the mountainous upland remains undeveloped, and of the ten national parks in England , five – the Peak District, the Lake District, the North York Moors, the Yorkshire Dales , and Northumberland National Park – are located partly or entirely in
7076-419: The Romans as Brigantia . Other tribes mentioned in ancient histories, which may have been part of the Brigantes or separate nations, are the Carvetii of modern-day Cumbria and the Parisi of east Yorkshire. The Brigantes allied with the Roman Empire during the Roman conquest of Britain : Tacitus records that they handed the resistance leader Caratacus over to the Empire in 51. Power struggles within
7198-430: The Roses , including the decisive Battle of Wakefield , although the modern-day conception of the war as a conflict between Lancashire and Yorkshire is anachronistic – Lancastrians recruited from across Northern England, including Yorkshire, even requiring mercenaries from Scotland and France , while the Yorkists drew most of their power from Southern England, Wales and Ireland. The Anglo-Scottish Wars also touched
7320-419: The Second World War, and damaged or destroyed much of central Manchester. The attack led to Manchester's ageing infrastructure being rebuilt and modernised, sparking the regeneration of the city and making it a leading example of post-industrial redevelopment followed by other cities in the region and beyond. At the 2021 census , Northern England had a population of 15,550,000, in 6,659,700 households. This
7442-403: The South. The era saw the 1984–85 miners' strike , which brought hardship for many Northern mining towns. Northern metropolitan county councils, which were Labour strongholds often with very left-wing leadership (such as Militant-dominated Liverpool and the so-called " People's Republic of South Yorkshire "), had high-profile conflicts with the national government. The increasing awareness of
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#17328450490457564-419: The Southern perspective, Northern England is sometimes defined jokingly as the area north of the Watford Gap between Northampton and Leicester – a definition which would include much of the Midlands . Various cities and towns have been described as or promoted themselves as the "gateway to the North", including Crewe , Stoke-on-Trent , and Sheffield . For some in the northernmost reaches of England,
7686-457: The Tees, Deira corresponded roughly to the eastern half of modern-day Yorkshire, Rheged to Cumbria, and Elmet to the western-half of Yorkshire. Bernicia and Deira were first united as Northumbria by Aethelfrith , a king of Bernicia who conquered Deira around the year 604. Northumbria then saw a Golden Age in cultural, scholarly and monastic activity, centred on Lindisfarne and aided by Irish monks. The north-west of England retains vestiges of
7808-527: The UK's potash . Northern England has a cool, wet oceanic climate with small areas of subpolar oceanic climate in the uplands. Averaged across the entire region, Northern England temperature range and sunshine duration is similar to the UK average and it sees substantially less rainfall than Scotland or Wales. It is cooler, wetter and cloudier than England as a whole, containing both England's coldest ( Cross Fell ) and rainiest point ( Seathwaite Fell ). These averages disguise considerable variation across
7930-413: The United Reformed Church. There are several other churches representing different denominations in Little Lever: King's Church Little Lever (non denominational) in Market Street was founded in 1982, Christ Church joint Methodist and United Reformed Church in Mytham Road formed in 2000 (from constituent chapels founded before 1892), St Teresa's Roman Catholic Church in Redcar Road, opened in 1975, and
8052-422: The Yorkshire-based Pilgrimage of Grace , all against Henry VIII . His daughter Elizabeth I faced another Catholic rebellion, the Rising of the North . The region would become the centre of recusancy as prominent Catholic families in Cumbria, Lancashire and Yorkshire refused to convert to Protestantism. Royal power over the region was exercised through the Council of the North at King's Manor , York, which
8174-650: The absence of the FOOT – STRUT split (so put and putt are homophones ), the reduction of the definite article the to a glottal stop (usually represented in writing as t ' or occasionally th ' , although it is often not pronounced as a /t/ sound) or its total elision , and the T-to-R rule that leads to the pronunciation of t as a rhotic consonant in phrases like get up ( [ɡɛɹ ʊp] ). The pronouns thou and thee survive in some Northern English dialects, although these are dying out outside very rural areas, and many dialects have an informal second-person plural pronoun: either ye (common in
8296-420: The area overwhelm any similarities. The Pennines , an upland range sometimes referred to as "the backbone of England" run through most of the area defined as northern England, which stretches from the Tyne Gap to the Peak District . Other uplands in the North include the Lake District with England's highest mountains, the Cheviot Hills adjoining the border with Scotland, and the North York Moors near
8418-484: The area was cheap. Mining and milling, which had been practised on a small scale in the area for generations, began to grow and centralise. The boom in industrial textile manufacture is sometimes attributed to the damp climate and soft water making it easier to wash and work fibres, although the success of Northern fabric mills has no single clear source. Readily available coal and the discovery of large iron deposits in Cumbria and Cleveland allowed ironmaking and, with
8540-434: The area, two in Little Lever. Creams Mill, founded by James Crompton 1677 and Grundy's Mill, founded by James Grundy in 1760. The name Creams was given by Adam Crompton II who said it described the paper being made. The three arms of the Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal meet at Nob End which is approximately 0.5 miles (0.8 km), southwest of the village, making Little Lever a convenient place for lodging and refreshment in
8662-409: The blends of tea enjoyed in the region. Rich deposits of iron ore are found in Cumbria and the North East, and fluorspar and baryte are also plentiful in northern parts of the Pennines. Salt mining in Cheshire has a long history, and both remaining rock salt mines in Great Britain are in the North: Winsford Mine in Cheshire and Boulby Mine in North Yorkshire, which also produces half of
8784-540: The booming industrial cities, some were escaping poverty, some were servants or slaves, some were sailors who chose to settle in the port towns, some were Jews fleeing pogroms on the continent, and some were migrants originally stranded at Liverpool after attempting to catch an onwards ship to the United States or to colonies of the British Empire . At the same time, hundreds of thousands from depressed rural areas of
8906-522: The cities in this region are all as recent as the Industrial Revolution – most of them previously scattered villages. Vast urban areas have emerged along the coasts and rivers, and they run almost contiguously into each other in places. Near the east coast, trade fuelled the growth of major ports and settlements ( Kingston upon Hull , Newcastle upon Tyne , , Middlesbrough and Sunderland ) to create multiple urban areas. Inland needs of trade and industry produced an almost continuous urbanisation from
9028-418: The city centre destroyed. Hull, the worst bombed city outside of London suffered damage to 98% of all buildings, the highest percentage of any town or city. The rebuilding that followed, and the simultaneous slum clearance that saw whole neighbourhoods demolished and rebuilt, transformed the faces of Northern cities. Immigration from the " New Commonwealth ", especially Pakistan and Bangladesh , starting in
9150-1151: The city of Manchester , and before this the borough was considered to be part of the Greater Manchester Statutory City Region . More recently, the Chesterfield , North East Derbyshire , Bolsover , and Derbyshire Dales districts have joined with districts of South Yorkshire to form the Sheffield City Region , along with the Bassetlaw District of Nottinghamshire, although for all other purposes these districts still remain in their respective East Midlands counties. Some parts of northern Derbyshire (including High Peak), Shropshire and Staffordshire are served by BBC North West . Some areas of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire are served by BBC Yorkshire (formerly BBC North), whilst eastern Yorkshire shares its BBC region with Lincolnshire and small parts of Nottinghamshire and north west Norfolk . The historic part of Lincolnshire known as Lindsey (in essence
9272-632: The combined authority has been led by the directly-elected Mayor of Greater Manchester . The Metropolitan Borough of Bolton has two twin towns, one in France and another in Germany. The following people and military units have received the Freedom of the Borough . Northern England Northern England , or the North of England , is a region that forms the northern part of England and mainly corresponds to
9394-569: The conquest, which likely populated much of the desolated regions of Cumbria, and which was persistent enough that the town of Beverley in the East Riding of Yorkshire still had an ethnic enclave called Flemingate in the thirteenth century. During the Anarchy , Scotland invaded Northern England and took much of the land north of the Tees . In the 1139 peace treaty that followed, Prince Henry of Scotland
9516-459: The days when the canal was in operation. The proximity of the canal and the coal industry led to the establishment of a small boatbuilding industry for coal transportation. In part 2 of his book, Waterson (the last of 5 generations of boat builders) describes working on the canal. There was a small chemical works on the outskirts of the village and major chemical works along the canal at Nob End, Farnworth. Bridson, Thomas Ridgeway & Sons, operated
9638-718: The desert". Monastic orders such as the Cistercians became significant players in the economy of Northern England – the Cistercian Fountains Abbey in North Yorkshire became the largest and richest of the Northern abbeys, and would remain so until the Dissolution of the Monasteries . Other Cistercian abbeys are at Rievaulx , Kirkstall and Byland . The 7th-century Whitby Abbey was Benedictine and Bolton Abbey , Augustinian . A significant Flemish immigration followed
9760-491: The discovery of grave goods in Northern churchyards suggests that Norse funeral rites replaced Christian ones for a time. Viking control of certain areas, particularly around Yorkshire, is recalled in the etymology of many place names : the thorpe in town names such as Cleethorpes and Scunthorpe , the kirk in Kirklees and Ormskirk and the by of Whitby and Grimsby all have Norse roots. The 1066 defeat of
9882-686: The earliest evidence of carpentry in the form of a carved tree trunk from 11000 BC. The Lincolnshire and Yorkshire Wolds around the Humber Estuary were settled and farmed in the Bronze Age , and the Ferriby Boats – one of the best-preserved finds of the era – were discovered near Hull in 1937. In the more mountainous regions of the Peak District, hillforts were the main Bronze Age settlement and
10004-472: The east coast experiences a distinctive sea fret . Smog in urban areas was prevalent from the beginning of the Industrial Revolution; sunshine duration has increased in urban areas in recent years with the Clean Air Act 1956 and the area's heavy industry in decline. The English spoken today in the North has been shaped by the area's history, and some dialects retain features inherited from Old Norse and
10126-524: The extent of the historical Northumbria , which excludes Cheshire and northern Lincolnshire, though the latter formed the Kingdom of Lindsey, which was periodically under Northumbrian rule. The Redcliffe-Maud Report (1969) proposed that southern Cheshire be grouped with north Staffordshire as part of a West Midlands province as opposed to a North West England one. Occasionally, "Northern England" may be used to describe England's northernmost reaches only, broadly
10248-504: The figures for Bolton and England. The village lay at the junction of three roads, the road between Farnworth and the adjoining hamlet of Nob End which continued to Radcliffe (A6053) and the road to Bolton (B6209) now replaced by the (A665) as the main route out of Little Lever. Later the Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal provided direct links to Manchester, Bolton and Bury. There was a railway line from Bury to Bolton via Little Lever (with
10370-412: The historical accents of the surrounding rural areas and sometimes share features with Southern English accents. Northern English dialects remain an important part of the culture of the region, and the desire of speakers to assert their local identity has led to accents such as Scouse and Geordie becoming more distinctive and spreading into surrounding areas. The contrasting geography of Northern England
10492-518: The invention of the Bessemer process , steelmaking to take root in the region. High quality steel in turn fed the shipyards that opened along the coasts, especially on Tyneside and at Barrow-in-Furness . The Great Famine in Ireland of the 1840s drove migrants across the Irish Sea , and many settled in the industrial cities of the North, especially Manchester and Liverpool – at the 1851 census , 13% of
10614-491: The late 19th and early 20th centuries, the economy of the North was dominated by heavy industry . Centuries of immigration, invasion, and labour have shaped Northern England's culture, and it has retained countless distinctive accents and dialects , music, arts, and cuisine. Industrial decline in the second half of the 20th century damaged the North, leading to greater deprivation than in the South. Although urban renewal projects and
10736-502: The locals were most likely pastoralists raising livestock. Roman histories name the Celtic tribe that occupied the majority of Northern England as the Brigantes , likely meaning "Highlanders". Whether the Brigantes were a unified group or a looser federation of tribes around the Pennines is debated, but the name appears to have been adopted by the inhabitants of the region, which was known by
10858-692: The more northern parts of the region. As speech has changed, there is little consensus on what defines a "Northern" accent or dialect. Northern English accents have not undergone the TRAP – BATH split , and a common shibboleth to distinguish them from Southern ones is the Northern use of the short a (the near-open front unrounded vowel ) in words such as bath and castle . On the opposite border, most Northern English accents can be distinguished from Scottish accents because they are non-rhotic , although some Lancashire and Northumberland accents remain rhotic. Other features common to many Northern English accents are
10980-428: The most part, Northern factories were still using nineteenth-century technology, and were not able to keep up with advances in industries such as motors, chemicals and electricals, while the expansion of the electric grid removed the North's advantages in terms of power generation and meant it was now more economic to build new factories in the Midlands or South. The industrial concentration in Northern England made it
11102-643: The name of Oliver Heywood who preached to the wealthy families of the area such as Captain Peter Seddon. In 1667, he wrote and distributed copies of his book 'Heart treasure'. The first church built in Little Lever was St Matthew's in 1791. The Congregational Church in Market Street was founded in 1857. In 1972, the Congregational Church closed, when it joined the Presbyterian Church to become
11224-499: The non-metropolitan district of Chorley in Lancashire to the north and north-west. Bolton Metropolitan Borough was formed on 1 April 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972 , covering the combined areas of seven former local government districts and part of an eighth, which were all abolished at the same time: As a county borough , the old borough of Bolton had been administratively independent from any county council, but
11346-583: The northern half of the county) is considered by many to be northern, or at least a larger part of Lincolnshire than merely the north and northeast Lincolnshire districts. The geographer Danny Dorling includes most of the West Midlands and part of the East Midlands in his definition of the North, claiming that "ideas of a midlands region add more confusion than light". Conversely, more restrictive definitions of Northern England also exist. Some are based on
11468-425: The other mill/factory industries. Today the population is more sedentary, employed in other sectors, as Little Lever has little left in the way of industry. Many people today commute out of Little Lever to nearby Bolton, Radcliffe, and Manchester to carry on employment. The main employer within the village is the wholesale/retail sector. The 2001 census shows approximately 8,000 persons have employment (the majority of
11590-414: The others are children or retired persons), it shows how the main areas of employment break down in terms of socio/economic grouping and employment sector (three top groups only shown). Over the past 40 years, the population has undergone changes and now reflects a more diverse ethnic makeup. The following table compiled from the 2021 Census shows the ethnic makeup and how the ethnic population compares with
11712-514: The percentage of pupils attaining at least 5 A*–C grades at GCSE including maths and English, the Bolton LEA was 111th out of 149: 40.1% of pupils achieved this objective, against a national average of 46.7%. Unauthorised absence from Bolton's secondary schools in the 2006/2007 academic year was 1.4%, in line with the national average, and authorised absence was 6.0% against the national average of 6.4%. At GCSE level, Bolton School (Girls' Division)
11834-744: The population of Manchester and Salford were Irish-born, and in Liverpool the figure was 22%. In response there was a wave of anti-Catholic riots and Protestant Orange Orders proliferated across Northern England, chiefly in Lancashire, but also elsewhere in the North. By 1881 there were 374 Orange organisations in Lancashire, 71 in the North East, and 42 in Yorkshire. From further afield, Northern England saw immigration from European countries such as Germany, Italy, Poland, Russia and Scandinavia. Some immigrants were well-to-do industrialists seeking to do business in
11956-496: The region and larger than Leeds's urban area ( West Yorkshire Built-up Area ) despite Leeds being the largest as a sole city. The table below shows the urban areas in the region with a population of at least 250,000. Peat is found in thick, plentiful layers across the Pennines and Scottish Borders, and there are many large coalfields, including the Great Northern , Lancashire and South Yorkshire Coalfields . Millstone grit ,
12078-608: The region, and in just 400 years, Berwick-upon-Tweed – now the northernmost town in England – changed hands more than a dozen times. The wars also saw thousands of Scots settle south of the border, chiefly in the border counties and Yorkshire. After the English Reformation , the North saw several Catholic uprisings, including the Lincolnshire Rising , Bigod's Rebellion in Cumberland and Westmorland, and largest of all,
12200-626: The region, due chiefly to the upland regions and adjacent seas. The prevailing winds across the British Isles are westerlies bringing moisture from the Atlantic; this means that the west coast frequently receives strong winds and heavy rainfall while the east coast lies in a rain shadow behind the Pennines. As a result the coast north of the Humber are the driest parts of the North, the Tees basin has 600 mm (24 in) of rain per year while parts of
12322-471: The restrictions of society. Modern poets such as the Poets Laureate Ted Hughes and Simon Armitage have found inspiration in the Northern countryside, producing works that take advantage of the sounds and rhythms of Northern English dialects. Meanwhile, the industrialising and urbanising cities of the North gave rise to many masterpieces of social realism . Elizabeth Gaskell was the first in
12444-570: The sole owner and expanded the business, manufacturing acid and alkali for the cloth bleaching industry. However, it was the production of sodium and potassium bichromate that made Potter's a world leader and by about 1900 the firm had become a limited company. In 1951 Potter's amalgamated with the Eaglescliffe Chemical Company. The company closed in 1969 when it was owned by Albright & Wilson. Until closure Potter family members remained in senior management positions. Edmund Peel Potter
12566-486: The total somewhere in the tens of thousands, out of a population of two million. When the Domesday Book was compiled in 1086, much of Northern England was still recorded as wasteland, although this may have been in part because the chroniclers, more interested in manorial farmland, paid little attention to pastoral areas. Following Norman subjugation, monasteries returned to the North as missionaries sought to "settle
12688-483: The transition to a service economy have resulted in strong economic growth in parts of the North, the North–South divide remains in both the economy and culture of England. For government and statistical purposes, Northern England is defined as the area covered by the three northernmost statistical regions of England: North East England , North West England and Yorkshire and the Humber . This area consists of
12810-591: The underlying sandstone. As the industry took a hold, more water and from a reliable source was required. In 1872, the Bury Improvement Act allowed the Bury Improvement Commissioners to take over Bury, Radcliffe, (who supplied Little Lever), Haslingden and Rawtenstall Waterworks Companies, in 1876, the Commissioners were replaced by Bury Borough Council. Bury and District Joint Water Board
12932-480: The variety of English spoken by Poles in Manchester is distinct both from typical Polish-accented English and from Mancunian. At a local level, the diversity of immigrant communities means that some languages that are extremely rare in the country as a whole have strongholds in Northern towns: Bradford for instance has the largest proportion of Pashto speakers, while Manchester has most Cantonese speakers. During
13054-488: The village for football , rounders , bowls and cricket . Little Lever Cricket Club is a long established facility which includes a social club and bar. The cricket team play in the Bolton Cricket League . There are also a number of youth organizations, a youth club, an old age pensioners' club, and a Women's Institute branch. There are several public houses and political, sports and social clubs. Little Lever
13176-487: The village, where two basins were used to load coal from the Ladyshore Colliery (originally named, Back o' th' Barn, opened 1830). The pit closed in 1949 and the colliery offices (now a house) and the stables survive. Bricks and tiles were made along Stopes Road. The industry today is much smaller but Tarmac Topblock still run Crowthers Brickworks. Originally the site of a much larger traditional clay brick works, it
13298-456: The village. In 1623 the Bubonic Plague killed a third of the village population. By 1666, the village had sixty hearths liable to tax . Records show the land used for agriculture and the main landowner was John Andrews, who had the only large house in the village which contained 9 hearths. The manor house, Little Lever Hall, built of wood and plaster was destroyed in the 18th century. It
13420-474: The whole was replaced by the North West Water Authority . There are seven schools in Little Lever, controlled by Bolton Metropolitan Borough education department: There are five primary schools, Bowness Community Primary, Masefield Community Primary, Mytham Community Primary, St Matthew's C of E Primary and St Teresa's RC Primary. There is only one secondary school, Little Lever School , formerly
13542-613: Was a seat of the Levers in 1567 and after that the Andrews who inherited the Lever's estate in Rivington . There is a record of a coal pit in 1320. Records show there were fulling-mills in Little Lever before 1559. The holding of Adam Byrom of Salford who died in 1559 was described as "an estate of eight messuages , a moiety of two fulling-mills etc., in Little Lever", his three-year-old grandson Ralph,
13664-586: Was abolished in 1986, after which Bolton became a unitary authority , providing all local government services. Bolton Council unsuccessfully petitioned Elizabeth II for the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton to be granted city status in 1992 (the Queen's 40th year as monarch), in 2000 (for the Millennium celebrations), in 2002 (Queen's Golden Jubilee), and 2012 (Queen's Diamond Jubilee). Horwich, Westhoughton and Blackrod are now constituted as civil parishes , each having
13786-479: Was created in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972 , covering the area of seven former local government districts and part of an eighth; being seven urban districts from the administrative county of Lancashire , and the County Borough of Bolton . The metropolitan districts of Bury , Salford and Wigan lie to the east, south and west respectively; and the unitary authority of Blackburn with Darwen and
13908-464: Was deemed part of Lancashire for ceremonial purposes. The other seven districts had all been part of the administrative county of Lancashire prior to 1974, with Lancashire County Council serving as their upper tier authority. When the metropolitan borough of Bolton was created in 1974 it was transferred to the new metropolitan county of Greater Manchester, with Greater Manchester Council providing county-level services. The Greater Manchester Council
14030-638: Was founded in 1484 by Richard III. The Council existed intermittently for the next two centuries – its final incarnation was created in the aftermath of the Pilgrimage of Grace and was chiefly an institution for providing order and dispensing justice. Northern England was a focal point for fighting during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms . The border counties were invaded by Scotland in the Second Bishops' War , and at
14152-693: Was his heir. Adam's great-grandson Ralph Byrom, died in 1599 without issue, leaving his fourteen-year-old brother Adam as heir to twelve messuages, half a water-mill and fulling-mill in Little Lever (or possibly Darcy Lever). In the 1800s the coal mining industry was spread throughout the area including Kearsley , Outwood, Radcliffe and Little Lever. In 1880 there were ten working pits listed for Little Lever: Bally, Harpurfold, Middle Bents and Stopes, owned by Thomas Fletcher and Sons, Ladyshore, Owl Hole and Victoria owned by John Fletcher and Dingle, Farnworth Bridge and New Rivin, owned by Andrew Knowles and Sons . The Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal passed alongside
14274-452: Was made Earl of Northumberland and kept the counties of Cumberland, Westmorland and Northumbria, as well as part of Lancashire. These reverted to English control in 1157, establishing for the most part the modern England–Scotland border. The region also saw violence during The Great Raid of 1322 when Robert the Bruce invaded and raided the whole of Northern England. There was also the Wars of
14396-628: Was prominent in the local community and endowed a hospital on Chorley New Road, Bolton in pre-NHS years. His son Colonel Colin Kynaston Potter served with distinction in the Boer and First World Wars .(Ref.Papers in Little Lever library reference section) Little Lever was a hamlet , bounded on three sides, by the water courses, the River Irwell , the River Croal and Blackbrook. In 1901 it covered 808 acres (3.27 km) including 37 of inland waterway. In
14518-504: Was recorded as 74.4%. It is one of Britain's newest universities, having been given this status in 2005. The local authority is Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council, which styles itself " Bolton Council ". Since 2011 it has been a constituent member of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority , providing strategic co-ordination of local government across the ten metropolitan boroughs of Greater Manchester. Since 2017
14640-542: Was set up in 1900 with responsibility for Bury County Borough, the municipal boroughs of Haslingden, Radcliffe and Rawtenstall and the urban districts of Kearsley , Little Lever, Ramsbottom and Tottington ). The name was changed in 1935 to the Irwell Valley Water Board and then in 1962, under the Bolton Water Order 1962, was replaced by Bolton Borough Council. In 1974 with the changes in local government,
14762-538: Was the most successful of Bolton's 21 secondary schools, with 99% of pupils achieving at least 5 A*–C grades at including maths and English. The University of Bolton is one of Greater Manchester's four universities. In 2008, The Times Good University Guide ranked it 111th of 113 institutions in Britain. There are 4,440 students (83% undergraduate, 17% postgraduate); 2.6% come from outside Britain. In 2007 there were 8.8 applications for every place, and student satisfaction
14884-595: Was the northernmost border of the Roman Empire . Although the Romans invaded modern-day Northumberland and part of Scotland beyond it, they never succeeded in conquering the reaches of Britain beyond the River Tyne . After the end of Roman rule in Britain and the arrival of the Angles , Yr Hen Ogledd (the "Old North") was divided into rival kingdoms, Bernicia , Deira , Rheged and Elmet . Bernicia covered lands north of
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