148-460: Greater Manchester is a ceremonial county in North West England . It borders Lancashire to the north, Derbyshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Cheshire to the south, and Merseyside to the west. Its largest settlement is the city of Manchester . The county has an area of 493 sq mi (1,277 km) and is highly urbanised, with a population of 2.9 million. The majority of
296-576: A joint venture composed of an association of 24 colleges in the region. Primary and secondary education within Greater Manchester are the responsibility of the constituent boroughs which form local education authorities and administer schools. The county has several independent schools such as Bolton School , Bury Grammar School , Manchester Grammar School , Oldham Hulme Grammar School , St Bede's College , Stockport Grammar School and Chethams School of Music. Much of Greater Manchester's wealth
444-638: A "stockbroker belt, with well-appointed dwellings in an area of sylvan opulence". Greater Manchester has six universities: the Manchester Metropolitan University , the University of Bolton , the University of Law , the University of Manchester the University of Salford and The University Campus of Football Business . Together with the Royal Northern College of Music they had a combined population of students of 101,165 in 2007 –
592-689: A "wide and varied range" of wildlife and natural habitats. For instance, the wooded valleys of Bolton, Bury and Stockport, the moorlands north and east of Rochdale, Oldham and Stalybridge, and the reed beds between Wigan and Leigh, harbour flora and fauna of national importance. Mature woodland, scrubland, grassland, high moorland, mossland, agricultural land, lakes, wetlands, river valleys, embankments, urban parks and suburban gardens are habitats found in Greater Manchester which further contribute to biodiversity. The Greater Manchester Ecology Unit classifies Sites of Biological Importance . The 21 Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Greater Manchester, and
740-593: A broadly voluntary basis. That eight of the ten borough councils have (for the most part) been Labour -controlled since 1986, has helped maintain this informal co-operation between the districts at a county-level. After the abolition of the county council, the ten authorities of Greater Manchester co-operated voluntarily on policy issues like Local Transport Plans as well as funding the Greater Manchester County Record Office , and local services were administered by statutory joint boards . Now under
888-412: A central economic role nationally, and by the end of the 19th century had become some of the most important and productive cotton-producing towns in the world. However, it was Manchester that was the most populous settlement, a major city, the world's largest marketplace for cotton goods, and the natural centre of its region. By 1835 "Manchester was without challenge the first and greatest industrial city in
1036-631: A constitution to the Department for Communities and Local Government and the Department for Transport and two days later the Communities Secretary John Denham approved the constitution and launched a 15-week public consultation on the draft bill together with the approved constitution. Following requests by the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities, which was superseded by the GMCA,
1184-557: A converted former railway station in Manchester city centre used for cultural events, and GMCC's creation of five new country parks within its boundaries. GMCC was, however, criticised for being too Manchester-centric by representatives from the outer suburbs. A decade after they were established, the mostly Labour -controlled metropolitan county councils and the Greater London Council (GLC) had several high-profile clashes with
1332-489: A county-wide basis. The Association of Greater Manchester Authorities (AGMA) was established to continue much of the county-wide services of the county council . The metropolitan county continues to exist in law, and as a geographic frame of reference, for example as a NUTS 2 administrative division for statistical purposes within the European Union . Although having been a Lieutenancy area since 1974, Greater Manchester
1480-736: A directly elected councillor from one of the ten metropolitan boroughs that comprise Greater Manchester. The authority derives most of its powers from the Local Government Act 2000 and Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009 , and replaced a range of single-purpose joint boards and quangos in 2011, to provide a formal administrative authority for Greater Manchester with powers over public transport, skills, housing, regeneration, waste management, carbon neutrality and planning permission. Functional executive bodies, such as Transport for Greater Manchester , are responsible for delivery of services in these areas. On 3 November 2014,
1628-716: A large Ashkenazi Orthodox synagogue in North Manchester. Greater Manchester is covered by the Roman Catholic Dioceses of Salford and Shrewsbury , and the Archdiocese of Liverpool . Much of Greater Manchester is part of the Anglican Diocese of Manchester , apart from Wigan which lies within the Diocese of Liverpool and parts of Stockport , Tameside and Trafford , which are in the Diocese of Chester . Following
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#17330853084871776-541: A lieutenant with the wider county from which they had been created. London had instead a commission of lieutenancy , headed by the Lord Mayor . The long-standing practice of appointing lieutenants jointly to the wider county and any counties corporate it contained was formalised by the Militia Act 1882. Apart from the inclusion of the counties corporate, the counties for the purposes of lieutenancy generally corresponded to
1924-568: A majority of the county north of the River Irwell to as far as Chorley, Darwen, St Helens and Rossendale form a large part of the historic county of Lancashire including Manchester, Salford, Eccles, Bolton, Bury, Prestwich, Swinton, Pendlebury, Wigan, Leigh, Rochdale, Oldham, Ashton-under-Lyne, Stretford, Urmston, Old Trafford, Chadderton, Middleton, Heywood, Radcliffe, Milnrow, Horwich, Blackrod, Westhoughton, Littleborough, Atherton, Ashton-in-Makerfield and Golborne. The eastern and northeastern parts of
2072-547: A merging of the essential services of Manchester, Salford, and the surrounding districts constituting Greater Manchester." Proposals were halted by the Second World War , though in the decade after it, the pace of proposals for local government reform for the area quickened. In 1947, Lancashire County Council proposed a three " ridings " system to meet the changing needs of the county of Lancashire, including those for Manchester and surrounding districts. Other proposals included
2220-475: A monk on the estate that he had also established there. Morris asserts that the latter name is that which is preserved in the modern name of Congresbury , Somerset, south of Bristol . The Cadbury-Congresbury fortification is the only major fortification in Wales and "Dumnonia" to have produced reasonable evidence for continuous occupation from the 3rd century to the sixth. In Roman times the settlement at Wanborough
2368-409: A network of ancient peat bog on the fringe of Chat Moss , which in turn, at 10.6 sq mi (27 km) comprises the largest area of prime farmland in Greater Manchester and contains the largest block of semi-natural woodland in the county. The Wigan Flashes, such as those at Pennington Flash Country Park , are the by-product of coal mining, where subsidence has led to waterbodies collecting in
2516-608: A new authority covering the Pennines around Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire, and the Saddleworth White Rose Society erected signs with the wording "The Historic West Riding of Yorkshire". A 2015 petition called for Wigan to apply for independence from Greater Manchester and rejoin Lancashire because of its heritage and location. There was a proposal for Horwich , Atherton , Blackrod and Westhoughton to form either
2664-592: A new county based on the conurbation surrounding and including Manchester, with nine most-purpose boroughs corresponding to the modern Greater Manchester boroughs (excluding Wigan). The review was abolished in favour of the Royal Commission on Local Government before issuing a final report. The Royal Commission's 1969 report, known as the Redcliffe-Maud Report, proposed the removal of much of the then existing system of local government. The commission described
2812-412: A new non-metropolitan county is created the 1997 Act is amended to redefine the existing areas of the lieutenancies in terms of the new areas. No such amendment was made in 1997 when Rutland was made a unitary authority or in 1998 when Herefordshire and Worcestershire were re-established; those three therefore have been given their own lieutenants again since the passing of the 1997 Act. The actual areas of
2960-584: A new part of Greater Manchester or become a separate area back within Lancashire possibly under the Borough of Chorley although this was not pursued. The Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) is the top-tier administrative body for the local governance of Greater Manchester. It was established on 1 April 2011 as a pilot combined authority , unique to local government in the United Kingdom . Upon formation, it consisted of ten indirectly elected members, each
3108-516: A pastoral economy even though some cultivation of cereal crops appears to have occurred in the river valley areas. However, archaeological evidence from the lowland site at Poulton has shown extensive evidence of metal working and ceramics. In particular, a fine example of the ritual deposition of an iron adze in the ditch of a round house, suggests a significant disposable wealth. These aforesaid lowland areas seem to have been populated by rural peasants who were obliged to pay tribute in cattle and grain to
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#17330853084873256-494: A plant with fluffy white plumes native to wet hollows on high moors, was announced as the county flower of Greater Manchester. The house sparrow , starling , and blackbird are among the most populous bird species in Greater Manchester; magpie and feral pigeon are common and breed in habitats across the county. Flocks of feral parakeets can be seen in many of south Manchester's parks, including Birchfields Park, Whitworth Park and Platt Fields Park . The birds' relocation to
3404-508: A radius of eight or nine miles of Manchester". In his 1915 book Cities in Evolution , urban planner Sir Patrick Geddes wrote "far more than Lancashire realises, is growing up another Greater London". The Manchester Evening Chronicle brought to the fore the issue of "regional unity" for the area in April 1935 under the headline "Greater Manchester – The Ratepayers' Salvation". It reported on
3552-538: A report released by the Institute for Public Policy Research 's Centre for Cities proposed the creation of two administrative city regions based on Manchester and Birmingham . The Manchester City Region initially appeared in government documents as one of eight city regions defined in the 2004 strategic document Moving Forward: The Northern Way . In July 2007, The Treasury published its Review of sub-national economic development and regeneration , which stated that
3700-512: A single entity were proposed. Use in a municipal context appeared in a 1914 report submitted in response to what was considered to have been the successful creation of the County of London in 1889. The report suggested that a county should be set up to recognise the "Manchester known in commerce", and referred to the areas that formed "a substantial part of South Lancashire and part of Cheshire, comprising all municipal boroughs and minor authorities within
3848-418: A sparsely populated region. Perhaps the majority of the population lived in timber hut-dwellings without stone foundations, making it more difficult to find archaeological trace. There are, however, impressive standing Roman ruins from Viroconium just outside the modern day village of Wroxeter. By the time the city had become fully established as a civitas capital, Viroconium had seen great expansion, with all
3996-403: A strategic authority based in what is now Westminster House off Piccadilly Gardens , comprised 106 members drawn from the ten metropolitan boroughs of Greater Manchester. It was a sub-regional body running regional services such as transport, strategic planning, emergency services and waste disposal. In 1986, along with the five other metropolitan county councils and the Greater London Council ,
4144-432: A system of cross-regional trade. In the 18th century, German traders had coined the name Manchesterthum to cover the region in and around Manchester. Infrastructure such as rows of terraced housing, factories and roads were constructed to house labour, transport goods, and produce cotton goods on an industrial scale for a global market. The townships in and around Manchester began expanding "at an astonishing rate" around
4292-523: A temperate maritime climate , like most of the British Isles , with relatively cool summers and mild winters. The county's average annual rainfall is 806.6 mm (31.76 in) compared to the UK average of 1,125.0 mm (44.29 in), and its mean rain days are 140.4 mm (5.53 in) per annum, compared to the UK average of 154.4 mm (6.08 in). The mean temperature is slightly above average for
4440-616: A variety of types. Manchester city centre is noted for its high-rise apartments, while Salford has some of the tallest and most densely populated tower block estates in Europe. Saddleworth has stone-built properties, including farmhouses and converted weavers' cottages. Throughout Greater Manchester, rows of terraced houses are common, most of them built during the Victorian and Edwardian periods . House prices and labour markets differ in Greater Manchester between north and south, such that in
4588-444: A visual orientation point of reference as a central business district. However, Greater Manchester is also a polycentric county with ten metropolitan districts, each of which has a major town centre – and in some cases more than one – and many smaller settlements. The major towns encircle Manchester city centre, and between them are other outlying towns (such as Denton , Middleton and Failsworth ) which are suburban to both
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4736-448: Is "Greater Mancunian". The Manchester accent and dialect , native to Manchester, is common in the city and adjacent areas, but gives way to "slower, deeper accents" towards Greater Manchester's fringes and suburbs. Greater Manchester is home to a diverse population and is a multicultural agglomeration with an ethnic minority population comprising 8.5% of the total population in 2001. In 2008, there were over 66 refugee nationalities in
4884-419: Is a mix of high density urban areas, suburbs, semi-rural and rural locations in Greater Manchester, but land use is mostly urban. The built environment of Greater Manchester utilises red brick and sandstone prominently as a building material, alongside structures composed of modern materials, high-rise towers, and landmark 19th, 20th and 21st century buildings in the city and town centres. Manchester city centre
5032-467: Is associated with the production, storage and transport of salt . Their sites are identified by construction details of their hillforts and metalwork artefacts. The Cornovii built numerous hill forts, including Titterstone Clee near Bitterley . Old Oswestry hill fort is also thought to have been inhabited by the Cornovii. One of these hill forts is probably that referred to by the historian Tacitus as
5180-400: Is found, albeit indirectly, in a reference by Gildas to Constantine as tyrant whelp of the filthy lioness of Dumnonia i.e. the current areas of Cornwall, Devon and part of Somerset . According to this theory, the principal Cornovian families of Viroconium may have moved to Dumnonia , sometime around 430 AD. Morris goes on to mention one Ducco, who is also known as Congar, (d. 473 AD) as
5328-464: Is not ... One of its main characteristics is the marked individuality of its towns, ... all of which have an industrial and commercial history of more than local significance". The term Selnec (or SELNEC ) was already in use as an abbreviation for south east Lancashire and north east Cheshire; Redcliffe-Maud took this as "the most convenient term available", having modified it to south east Lancashire, north east and central Cheshire. Following
5476-649: Is represented in Parliament by the Labour Party, and is generally considered a Labour stronghold. The results of the 2024 United Kingdom general election in Greater Manchester are as follows: Greater Manchester has a population of 2,867,800 (2021 Census), making it the third most populous county in England after Greater London and the West Midlands and the highest ever for the county. The demonym of Greater Manchester
5624-526: Is suggestive of the Wrekin hillfort , overlooking the site from the east. The Cornovii seem to have had many hillforts, the largest and most populous being that at the Wrekin near the site of the Romano-British tribal capital. The eventual size of Viroconium is inconsistent with the estimated population size, taken from the number of known pre-Roman settlements in the area; the archaeological evidence suggests
5772-472: Is the commercial and geographic heart of Greater Manchester, and with the adjoining parts of Salford and Trafford, is defined as Greater Manchester's "Regional Centre" for purposes of urban planning and public transport. Political and economic ties between the city centre and neighbouring Salford and Trafford have strengthened with the shift from town and district centres to metropolitan-level centres in England, and this area's high-rise landmark buildings provide
5920-770: The Brigantes . Stretford was also part of the land believed to have been occupied by the Celtic Brigantes tribe, and lay on their border with the Cornovii on the southern side of the River Mersey . The remains of 1st-century forts at Castlefield in Manchester, and Castleshaw Roman Fort in Saddleworth , are evidence of Roman occupation . From the River Mersey to River Ribble was recorded as an area surveyed with Cheshire in
6068-498: The City of Salford , Stockport , Tameside , Trafford and Wigan . These district councils have the greatest powers over public services, and control matters such as council tax , education provision, social housing, libraries and healthcare. Eight of the ten metropolitan boroughs were named after the eight former county boroughs that now compose the largest centres of population and greater historical and political prominence. As an example,
Greater Manchester - Misplaced Pages Continue
6216-589: The Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher , with regards overspending and high rates charging. Government policy on the issue was considered throughout 1982, and the Conservative Party put a "promise to scrap the metropolitan county councils" and the GLC, in their manifesto for the 1983 general election . Greater Manchester County Council was abolished on 31 March 1986 under the Local Government Act 1985 . That
6364-626: The Courts Act 1971 which abolished the quarter sessions and assizes . Sheriffs continued to be appointed for each county despite the loss of the judicial functions. Certain towns and cities were counties corporate appointing their own sheriffs. The counties corporate were all included in a wider county for lieutenancy purposes, except the City of London which had its own lieutenants. The geographical counties were relatively stable between 1889 and 1965. There were occasional boundary changes, notably following
6512-548: The Devolution to the Greater Manchester Combined Authority agreement was signed to pass further powers and responsibilities, as well as the establishment of an elected Mayor of Greater Manchester. From April 2016, Greater Manchester became the first area of England to "get full control of its health spending" with a devolution deal which unites the region's health and social care systems under one budget under
6660-490: The Domesday Book of 1086; it is thought that the area was partially surveyed. Between Lancashire 's creation to the 18th century an ancient division of the shire, with a similar but smaller area to the current county, was known as Salfordshire . The division (a wapentake which later became a hundred) had several parishes, townships and market towns. Other areas of what would become the county centuries later, to south of
6808-742: The Duchy of Lancaster – extending the duchy to include areas which are historically in the counties of Cheshire and the West Riding of Yorkshire. Until 31 March 2005, Greater Manchester's Keeper of the Rolls was appointed by the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster ; they are now appointed by the Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain . The first Lord Lieutenant of Greater Manchester was Sir William Downward who held
6956-569: The Lieutenancies Act 1997 . When Herefordshire, Rutland and Worcestershire were re-established as local government counties in 1997 and 1998 no amendment was made to the 1997 Act regarding them, allowing them to also serve as their own lieutenancy areas. The lieutenancy counties have not changed in area since 1998, although the definitions of which local government counties are included in each lieutenancy have been amended to reflect new unitary authorities being created since 1997. In legislation
7104-613: The Local Government Act 1894 which said that parishes and districts were no longer allowed to straddle county boundaries. After that most boundary changes were primarily to accommodate urban areas which were growing across county boundaries, such as when Caversham was transferred from Oxfordshire to Berkshire as a result of being absorbed into the County Borough of Reading in 1911. The lieutenancies and judicial / shrieval counties were defined as groups of administrative counties and county boroughs, and so were automatically adjusted if
7252-518: The Manchester Airport Group which controls Manchester Airport and three other UK airports. Other services are directly funded and managed by the local councils. Greater Manchester is a ceremonial county with its own Lord-Lieutenant who is the personal representative of the monarch. The Local Government Act 1972 provided that the whole of the area to be covered by the new metropolitan county of Greater Manchester would also be included in
7400-896: The Pennines : the West Pennine Moors in the northwest, the South Pennines in the northeast and the Peak District in the east. Most of the county's rivers rise in the Pennines and are tributaries of the Mersey and Irwell , the latter of which is itself a tributary of the Mersey. The county is connected to the Mersey Estuary by the Manchester Ship Canal , which for its entire length within Greater Manchester consists of canalised sections of
7548-659: The Transport Act 1968 , in 1969 the SELNEC Passenger Transport Executive (an authority to co-ordinate and operate public transport in the region) was set up, covering an area smaller than the proposed Selnec, and different again to the eventual Greater Manchester. Compared with the Redcliffe-Maud area, it excluded Macclesfield, Warrington, and Knutsford but included Glossop in Derbyshire and Saddleworth in
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#17330853084877696-628: The West Riding of Yorkshire . It excluded Wigan, which was both in the Redcliffe-Maud area and in the eventual Greater Manchester (but had not been part of the 1958 act's review area). Redcliffe-Maud's recommendations were accepted by the Labour-controlled government in February 1970. Although the Redcliffe-Maud Report was rejected by the Conservative government after the 1970 general election , there
7844-453: The boroughs of High Peak , Warrington and the former boroughs of Congleton , Macclesfield and Vale Royal . In January 2008, AGMA suggested that a formal government structure be created to cover Greater Manchester. The issue resurfaced in June 2008 with regards to proposed congestion charging in Greater Manchester ; Sir Richard Leese (leader of Manchester City Council ) said "I've come to
7992-531: The financial crisis of 2007–2008 , it was announced in the 2009 United Kingdom Budget that Greater Manchester and the Leeds City Region would be awarded Statutory City Region Pilot status, allowing (if they desired) for their constituent district councils to pool resources and become statutory Combined Authorities with powers comparable to the Greater London Authority. The stated aim of the pilot
8140-445: The militia , overseen by a sheriff . From Tudor times onwards a lord-lieutenant was appointed to oversee the militia, taking some of the sheriff's functions. Certain towns and cities were counties corporate , which gave them the right to appoint their own sheriffs and hold their own courts. Whilst in theory the counties corporate could have had separate lieutenants appointed for them, in practice all of them except London shared
8288-587: The monarch 's representative in an area. Shrieval counties have the same boundaries and serve a similar purpose, being the areas to which high sheriffs are appointed. High sheriffs are the monarch's judicial representative in an area. The ceremonial counties are defined in the Lieutenancies Act 1997 , and the shrieval counties in the Sheriffs Act 1887 . Both are defined as groups of local government counties. The historic counties of England were originally used as areas for administering justice and organising
8436-494: The parish councils , which cover the various civil parishes in Greater Manchester , and have limited powers over upkeep, maintenance and small grants. For the first 12 years after the county was created in 1974, Greater Manchester had a two-tier system of local government, and the metropolitan borough councils shared power with the Greater Manchester County Council . The Greater Manchester County Council,
8584-415: The second most populous built-up area in the UK , and occupied an area of 630.3 km (243.4 sq mi) at the time of the 2011 census. The European Union designate the conurbation as a single homogeneous urban city region . The Built-up Area includes most of Greater Manchester, omitting areas of countryside and small villages, as well as noncontiguous urban towns such as Wigan and Marple . Outside
8732-409: The "increasing demands for the exploration of the possibilities of a greater merger of public services throughout Manchester and the surrounding municipalities". The issue was frequently discussed by civic leaders in the area at that time, particularly those from Manchester and Salford . The Mayor of Salford pledged his support to the idea, stating that he looked forward to the day when "there would be
8880-684: The 12.1 sq mi (31 km) of common land in Greater Manchester are of particular interest to organisations such as the Greater Manchester Local Record Centre, the Greater Manchester Biodiversity Project and the Manchester Field Club, which are dedicated to wildlife conservation and the preservation of the region's natural history . Among the SSSIs are Astley and Bedford Mosses which form
9028-466: The 18th and 19th centuries: a phenomenal rise in population, the appearance of the specialist industrial town, a transport revolution, and weak local lordship". Much of the county was at the forefront of textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution and into the early-20th century; Peter Smith, Baron Smith of Leigh , chair of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority said "clearly, all of
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#17330853084879176-475: The 2000s, the Housing Market Renewal Initiative identified Manchester , Salford, Rochdale and Oldham as areas with terraced housing unsuited to modern needs. In contrast, towns and villages in southern Greater Manchester, from Bramhall through Woodford to Altrincham constitute an arc of wealthy commuter towns . Altrincham in particular, with its neighbours Bowdon and Hale , forms
9324-401: The 20th century. Ceremonial county Ceremonial counties , formally known as counties for the purposes of the lieutenancies , are areas of England to which lord-lieutenants are appointed. They are one of the two main legal definitions of the counties of England in modern usage, the other being the counties for the purposes of local government legislation. A lord-lieutenant is
9472-450: The 4th century the area was already starting to decline. Viroconium Cornoviorum and Calleva Atrebatum ( Silchester ) seem to be the only major Roman settlements in Britain that, subsequently, did not grow into larger towns or cities in the post-Roman period. This may have been due to the foundation of Shrewsbury (probably in the 9th century) nearby, which was more easily defended, although
9620-653: The City of London, which has two sheriffs ). The Lieutenancies Act 1997 defines counties for the purposes of lieutenancies in terms of metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties (created by the Local Government Act 1972 , as amended) as well as Greater London and the Isles of Scilly (which lie outside the 1972 Act's system). Although the term is not used in the act, these counties are sometimes known as "ceremonial counties". The counties are defined in Schedule 1, paragraphs 2–5 as amended (in 2009, 2019 and 2023). Generally, each time
9768-408: The East, the Dobunni to the South, and the Deceangli and Ordovices to the West. The people who inhabited the very north of the British mainland (modern Caithness ), and Cornwall were also known by the same name, but according to mainstream or academic opinion were quite separate and unrelated peoples. (see list of ancient Celtic peoples and tribes ). The first mention of the tribe occurs in
9916-428: The Greater Manchester County Council was abolished, and most of its powers were devolved to the boroughs. Between 1986 and 2011, the boroughs were effectively unitary authority areas , but opted to co-operate voluntarily under the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities (AGMA), which served to create a co-ordinated county-wide approach to issues of common interest to Greater Manchester, such as public transport and
10064-464: The Greater Manchester County Council. The plan set out objectives for the forthcoming metropolitan county. The highest priority was to increase the quality of life for its inhabitants by improving the county's physical environment and cultural facilities which had suffered following deindustrialisation – much of Greater Manchester's basic infrastructure dated from its 19th-century growth, and was unsuited to modern lifestyles. Other objectives were to reverse
10212-459: The Greater Manchester area was once at the heart of a very vibrant [textiles] industry", represented by former textile mills found throughout the county. The territory that makes up Greater Manchester experienced a rapid decline of these traditional sectors, partly during the Lancashire Cotton famine brought on by the American Civil War , but mainly as part of the post-war economic depression and deindustrialization of Britain that occurred during
10360-542: The Mersey and Tame , were governed under Cheshire while the Saddleworth area and a small part of Mossley are historically part of Yorkshire . In the late 18th to early 19th century, the Industrial Revolution transformed the local domestic system; mechanisation enabled the industrialisation of the region's textile trade, triggering rapid growth in the cotton industry and expansion in ancillary trades. The area became central to England's woollen trade with domestic flannel and fustian cloth production, which encouraged
10508-519: The Mersey and Irwell. What is now Greater Manchester was a largely rural area until the Industrial Revolution , when the region rapidly industrialised. The area's towns and cities became major centres for the manufacture of cotton textiles , aided by the exploitation of the Lancashire coalfield . The region was also an engineering and scientific centre, leading to achievements such as the first inter-city railway and Ernest Rutherford 's pioneering work on nuclear fission . Since deindustrialisation in
10656-725: The Metropolitan Borough of Stockport is centred on the town of Stockport , a former county borough, but includes other smaller settlements, such as Cheadle , Gatley , and Bramhall . The names of two of the metropolitan boroughs were given a neutral name because, at the time they were created, there was no agreement on the town to be put forward as the administrative centre and neither had a county borough . These boroughs are Tameside and Trafford , centred on Ashton-under-Lyne and Stretford , respectively, and are named with reference to geographical and historical origins. The lowest formal tier of local government in Greater Manchester are
10804-518: The Regional Centre and the major town centres. Combined, these factors make Greater Manchester the most complex "polycentric functional urban region" in the UK outside London. The Greater Manchester Built-up Area is the conurbation or continuous urban area based around Greater Manchester, as defined by the Office for National Statistics . In 2011, it had an estimated population of 2,553,379, making it
10952-645: The Roman city of Viroconium Cornoviorum is known in Old Welsh as Caer Guricon . As Caer Guricon it may have served as capital of the Kingdom of Powys during the sub-Roman period until Anglo-Saxon pressures in the form of Mercian encroachment forced the British to relocate to Mathrafal castle sometime before 717 AD. Pengwern and Powys themselves may have been later divisions of the pre-Roman Cornovii tribal territory whose civitas
11100-569: The UK has made them the country's "only naturalised parrot and the most northerly breeding parrot in the world". The South Pennines also support internationally important numbers of golden plover , curlew , merlin and twite . A number of Red Eared Terrapins , a species of small turtle, are known to inhabit the lake in Alexandra Park . Greater Manchester is formed of parts of Cheshire, Lancashire and parts of West Riding of Yorkshire. The historic boundary between Cheshire and Lancashire begins from
11248-434: The United Kingdom. Greater Manchester has a relatively high humidity level, which lent itself to the optimised and breakage-free textile manufacturing process that took place around the county. Snowfall is not common in the built up areas because of the urban warming effect but the West Pennine Moors in the northwest, South Pennines in the northeast and Peak District in the east receive more snow, and roads leading out of
11396-549: The Welsh counties of Flintshire , Powys and Wrexham . Their capital in pre-Roman times was probably a hillfort on the Wrekin . Ptolemy 's 2nd-century Geography names two of their towns: Deva Victrix ( Chester ) and Viroconium Cornoviorum ( Wroxeter ), which became their capital under Roman rule. Their territory was bordered by the Brigantes to the North, the Corieltauvi to
11544-518: The Wrekin hillfort near Wellington , Caynham Camp near Poughnhill and Old Oswestry . All of these camps are in the county of Shropshire but there was another significant settlement at the Breiddin hillfort in Powys . Some suggest that a lack of metal and fine pottery finds may be indicative that the Cornovii were not a particularly wealthy or sophisticated British tribe and that they depended mostly on
11692-523: The approval of the Combined Authority. On 3 November 2014, George Osborne , the Chancellor of the Exchequer , announced that there would be an eleventh member of the GMCA – a directly elected Mayor of Greater Manchester , with "powers over transport, housing, planning and policing" from 2017. Greater Manchester is a landlocked county spanning 493 sq mi (1,277 km). The Pennines rise to
11840-553: The artificial limits of boundaries" in return for greater autonomy from the central government of the UK . A referendum on the Greater Manchester Transport Innovation Fund was held in December 2008, in which voters "overwhelmingly rejected" plans for public transport improvements linked to a peak-time weekday-only congestion charge. Following a bid from AGMA highlighting the potential benefits in combatting
11988-451: The boundaries of those administrative areas changed. There were two exceptions to this rule (one only briefly). The county borough of Great Yarmouth straddled Norfolk and Suffolk for judicial and lieutenancy purposes until 1891 when it was placed entirely in Norfolk for those purposes. The county borough of Stockport straddled Cheshire and Lancashire for judicial and lieutenancy purposes - it
12136-503: The boundary of Greater Manchester it includes several adjacent areas of settlement and a few outliers connected to the conurbation by ribbon development, such as Wilmslow and Alderley Edge in Cheshire, Glossop and Hadfield in Derbyshire, and Whitworth in Lancashire. This conurbation forms part of a megalopolis of 9.4 million across northern England . Greater Manchester experiences
12284-454: The buildings fell into disrepair. However, between 530 and 570 there was a substantial rebuilding programme in timber with most of the old basilica being demolished and replaced with new buildings. These probably included a very large two-storey timber-framed building and a number of storage buildings and houses. In all, 33 new buildings were constructed. The archaeologists responsible for the most recent excavations comment that "their construction
12432-433: The ceremonial counties have not changed since 1998. These are the 48 counties for the purposes of the lieutenancies in England, as currently defined: After the creation of county councils in 1889, there were counties for judicial and shrieval purposes, counties for lieutenancy purposes, and administrative counties and county boroughs for the purposes of local government. The 1888 Act used the term 'entire county' to refer to
12580-453: The communities of town and village, each of which was the embodiment of the character of this region". The name Greater Manchester was adopted, having been favoured over Selnec following public consultation, despite opposition claiming that "Greater Manchester [...] is a myth. An abomination. A travesty.". By January 1974, a joint working party representing Greater Manchester had drawn up its county Structure Plan , ready for implementation by
12728-422: The conclusion that [a referendum on congestion charging should be held] because we don't have an indirectly or directly elected body for Greater Manchester that has the power to make this decision". On 14 July 2008 the ten local authorities in Greater Manchester agreed to a strategic and integrated cross-county Multi-Area Agreement ; a voluntary initiative aimed at making district councils "work together to challenge
12876-400: The control of local leaders, including Greater Manchester's new directly elected mayor. On 4 May 2017, Labour politician Andy Burnham was elected as the inaugural mayor , joining the GMCA as its eleventh member and serving as its leader. Beneath the GMCA are the ten councils of Greater Manchester's ten districts , which are Bolton , Bury , the City of Manchester , Oldham , Rochdale ,
13024-562: The councils of which collaborate through Greater Manchester Combined Authority . The county was created on 1 April 1974 from parts of north-east Cheshire, south-east Lancashire, and a small part of the West Riding of Yorkshire . The centre and south-west of Greater Manchester are lowlands, similar to the West Lancashire Coastal Plain to the north-west and the Cheshire Plain to the south-west. The north and east are part of
13172-640: The county can be closed due to heavy snowfall. They include the A62 road via Standedge , the Pennine section of the M62 and the A57 , Snake Pass , towards Sheffield . At the most southern point of Greater Manchester, Woodford's Met Office weather station recorded a temperature of −17.6 °C (0.3 °F) on 8 January 2010 . Contrary to its reputation for urban sprawl, Greater Manchester has green belt constraining urban drift , and
13320-478: The county councils. In counties where the quarter sessions had been held separately for different parts of the county, such as the Parts of Lincolnshire , each part was given its own county council. The area administered by a county council was called an administrative county . As such, some of the judicial or lieutenancy counties comprised several administrative counties and county boroughs. The Ordnance Survey adopted
13468-467: The county which include Saddleworth and parts of Rochdale form part of the historic county of West Riding of Yorkshire. Since the formation of Greater Manchester, residents have debated their identities in the metropolitan and historic counties through heritage, culture and governance. Residents in Saddleworth in the Borough of Oldham have called for independence from Greater Manchester and Oldham Council and
13616-576: The county's settlements are part of the Greater Manchester Built-up Area , which extends into Cheshire and Merseyside and is the second most populous urban area in the UK . The city of Manchester is the largest settlement. Other large settlements are Altrincham , Bolton , Rochdale , Sale , Salford , Stockport and Wigan . Greater Manchester contains ten metropolitan boroughs : Manchester, Salford , Bolton , Bury , Oldham , Rochdale , Stockport , Tameside , Trafford and Wigan ,
13764-505: The county. At the 2001 UK census, 74.2% of Greater Manchester's residents were Christian, 5.0% Muslim, 0.9% Jewish, 0.7% Hindu, 0.2% Buddhist, and 0.1% Sikh. 11.4% had no religion, 0.2% had an alternative religion and 7.4% did not state their religion. This is similar to the rest of the country, although the proportions of Muslims and Jews are nearly twice the national average. It contains the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation ,
13912-452: The creation of a Manchester County Council, a directly elected regional body. In 1951, the census in the UK began reporting on South East Lancashire as a homogeneous conurbation. The Local Government Act 1958 designated the south east Lancashire area (which, despite its name, included part of north east Cheshire), a Special Review Area. The Local Government Commission for England presented draft recommendations, in December 1965, proposing
14060-512: The creation of the Lord Lieutenant of Greater London and of the Lord Lieutenant of Huntingdon and Peterborough . Cornovii (Midlands) The Cornovīī ( Common Brittonic : * Cornowī ) were a Celtic people of the Iron Age and Roman Britain , who lived principally in the modern English counties of Cheshire , Shropshire , north Staffordshire , north Herefordshire and eastern parts of
14208-546: The day the Local Government Act came into effect noted that the "new arrangement is a compromise which seeks to reconcile familiar geography which commands a certain amount of affection and loyalty, with the scale of operations on which modern planning methods can work effectively". Frangopulo noted that the creation of Greater Manchester "was the official unifying of a region which, through history and tradition, had forged for itself over many centuries bonds ... between
14356-477: The deindustrialisation of Greater Manchester in the mid-20th century, there was a significant economic and population decline in the region, particularly in Manchester and Salford. Vast areas of low-quality squalid terraced housing that were built throughout the Victorian era were found to be in a poor state of repair and unsuited to modern needs; many inner-city districts suffered from chronic social deprivation and high levels of unemployment. Slum clearance and
14504-595: The direction of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, these joint boards are Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) which is responsible for planning and co-ordinating public transport across the county; the Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service , who are administered by a joint Fire and Rescue Authority; and the Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority . These joint boards are made up of councillors appointed from each of
14652-463: The government would allow those city regions that wished to work together to form a statutory framework for city regional activity, including powers over transport, skills, planning and economic development. The Manchester City Region encompassed fifteen local government districts: the cities of Manchester and Salford plus the metropolitan boroughs of Stockport , Tameside , Trafford , Bolton , Bury , Oldham , Rochdale and Wigan , together with
14800-432: The group of administrative counties and county boroughs created within each judicial county. The Ordnance Survey used the term 'geographical county' to refer to this wider definition of the county. Yorkshire had three lieutenancies, one for each riding, but was a single judicial county with one sheriff, and was counted as one geographical county by Ordnance Survey. The counties lost their judicial functions in 1972 under
14948-508: The increased building of social housing overspill estates by Salford and Manchester City Councils lead to a decrease in population in central Greater Manchester. During the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, the population of Greater Manchester declined by over 8,000 inhabitants a year. While Manchester's population shrank by about 40% during this time (from 766,311 in 1931 to 452,000 in 2006), the total population of Greater Manchester decreased by only 8%. Greater Manchester's housing stock comprises
15096-435: The judicial counties. The exception was Yorkshire, which was one judicial county, having a single Sheriff of Yorkshire , but from 1660 onwards each of Yorkshire's three ridings had its own lieutenant. In 1889 elected county councils were established under the Local Government Act 1888 , taking over the administrative functions of the quarter sessions . Certain towns and cities were made county boroughs , independent from
15244-540: The lands of the Cornovii became a centre of military and economic operations. Viroconium Cornoviorum became one of the most important cities in Roman Britain, where Legio XIV Gemina was garrisoned for some time. The Romans also exploited metals such as copper, lead and silver in the area. Some Romanised Cornovii are known to have served as Roman legionaries. The 5th century saw continued town life in Viroconium but many of
15392-454: The last refuge of the resistance led by Caratacus in 50 AD. The tombstone of a thirty-year-old woman of the Cornovii called Vedica was found at Ilkley in Yorkshire outside known Cornovii territory. This is the only epigraphic evidence of civilian occupation at Ilkley (Roman Verbeia ). Vedica may possibly have been the daughter of a chieftain "Viroco" of the Cornovii, who was killed during
15540-474: The lieutenancy areas are described as 'counties for the purposes of the lieutenancies'; the informal term 'ceremonial county' has come into usage for such areas, appearing in parliamentary debates as early as 1996. The shrieval counties are defined by the Sheriffs Act 1887 as amended, in a similar way to the lieutenancies defined by the Lieutenancies Act 1997. Each has a high sheriff appointed (except
15688-403: The lieutenants were appointed to the new versions of the counties. The counties of Avon , Cleveland and Humberside , each of which had only been created in 1974, were all abolished in 1996. They were divided into unitary authorities ; legally these are also non-metropolitan counties. As part of these reforms, it was decided to define counties for the purposes of lieutenancy differently from
15836-517: The local chieftains resident in the hillforts. The tribal civitas capital was Viroconium Cornoviorum (or simply "Viroconium"), the fourth largest town in Roman Britain. It started life as a legionary fortress in the mid-1st century, possibly garrisoned by the XIV Legion then the XX Legion . The main section of Watling Street runs from Dubrium (Dover) to Viroconium (Wroxeter). The place-name itself
15984-533: The local government counties in some cases, effectively reverting to the pre-1974 arrangements for lieutenancies. Whereas the lieutenancies had been defined slightly differently from the shrieval counties prior to 1974, it was decided in 1996 that the high sheriffs and lieutenants should be appointed to the same areas. Regulations amending the Sheriffs Act 1887 and specifying the areas for the appointment of lieutenants were accordingly brought in with effect from 1 April 1996. The regulations were then consolidated into
16132-428: The main functions of the counties were the administrative functions of local government. Despite the loss of their functions, sheriffs continued to be appointed to the former judicial counties up until 1974. In 1974, administrative counties and county boroughs were abolished, and a new system of metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties was introduced instead. Sheriffs were renamed 'high sheriffs' and both they and
16280-568: The metropolitan county councils were controlled by the Labour Party led to accusations that their abolition was motivated by party politics: the general secretary of the National Association of Local Government Officers described it as a "completely cynical manoeuvre". Most of the functions of GMCC were devolved to the ten Greater Manchester metropolitan district councils, though functions such as emergency services and public transport were taken over by joint boards and continued to be run on
16428-462: The mid-20th century the county has emerged as a major centre for services, media and digital industries, and is renowned for guitar and dance music and its football teams. Although Greater Manchester was not created until 1974, the history of its settlements go back centuries. There is evidence of Iron Age habitation, particularly at Mellor , and a known Celtic Britons settlement named Chochion , believed to have been an area of Wigan settled by
16576-482: The new authority was created on 1 April 2011. On the same day, the Transport for Greater Manchester Committee was also formed from a pool of 33 councillors allocated by council population (roughly one councillor per 75,000 residents) to scrutinise the running of Greater Manchester's transport bodies and their finances, approve the decisions and policies of said bodies and form strategic policy recommendations or projects for
16724-413: The north and east of the county with the West Pennine Moors in the northwest, the South Pennines in the northeast and the Peak District in the east. Several coalfields (mainly sandstones and shales) lie in the west of the county while the Cheshire Plain fringes the south. The rivers Mersey , Irwell and Tame run through Greater Manchester, all of which rise in the Pennines. Other rivers traverse
16872-493: The old tribal centre at Wroxeter (Virconium Cornoviorum). In addition, Webster quotes Professor Charles Thomas as having made a "good case" for such totemic ethnonyms in Scotland. Webster (1991) states that the Cornovii produced little in the way of identifiable ceramic wares. However, recent research at Poulton, Cheshire , has found large amounts (10 kg; 22 lb) of very coarse pottery (VCP), or briquetage . Such pottery
17020-406: The passage of the bill, the towns of Whitworth , Wilmslow and Poynton successfully objected to their incorporation in the new county. The areas that were incorporated into Greater Manchester in 1974 previously formed parts of the administrative counties of Cheshire, Lancashire, the West Riding of Yorkshire , and eight independent county boroughs . By the early 1970s, this system of demarcation
17168-452: The points of both the River Irwell and Manchester Ship Canal. The southern parts of the county that form part of Trafford, Stockport and Tameside cover Altrincham, Sale, Stockport, Marple, Cheadle Hulme, Hyde, Stalybridge and Wythenshawe (Which became part of Manchester in the 1920s) are all historically part of Cheshire. Denton and Audenshaw in Tameside were historically part of Lancashire. While
17316-809: The region as tributaries to the major rivers, including the Douglas , the Irk , and the Roch . Black Chew Head is the highest point in Greater Manchester which forms part of the Peak District National Park , rising 1,778 ft (542 m) above sea-level, within the parish of Saddleworth . Greater Manchester is characterised by its dense urban and industrial developments, which include centres of commerce, finance, retail and administration, as well as commuter suburbs and housing, interspersed with transport infrastructure such as light rail, roads and motorway, and canals. There
17464-638: The relentless expansion of Anglian power in the English Midlands, the Cornovian tribal area came under the rule of the Kingdom of Pengwern . Following a period of military alliance with Mercian rulers, particularly King Penda , Pengwern was absorbed by neighbouring Mercia after 642 AD. The local Cornovian people may have continued to reside in the area, perhaps as the Wrekensaete , under Mercian rule. The site of
17612-454: The resulting hollows which form an important reed bed resource in Greater Manchester. Opened in 1979, Sale Water Park is a 152-acre (62 ha) area of countryside and parkland in Sale which includes a 52-acre (21 ha) artificial lake by the River Mersey . Clover , sorrel , nettle and thistle are common, and grow wild in Greater Manchester. Common heather ( Calluna vulgaris ) dominates
17760-417: The same northern boundary as today's Greater Manchester (though included Rossendale ), but covered much more territory from Cheshire (including Macclesfield , Warrington , Alderley Edge , Northwich , Middlewich , Wilmslow and Lymm ), and Derbyshire (the towns of New Mills , Whaley Bridge , Glossop and Chapel-en-le-Frith – a minority report suggested that Buxton be included). The metropolitan area
17908-491: The separation of the proposed Bury/Rochdale authority (retained from the Redcliffe-Maud report) into the Metropolitan Borough of Bury and the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale . Bury and Rochdale were originally planned to form a single district (dubbed "Botchdale" by local MP Michael Fidler ) but were divided into separate boroughs. To re-balance the districts, the borough of Rochdale took Middleton from Oldham. During
18056-501: The shared labour market, as well as making representations to central government and the European Union. Although used as a "successful brand", Greater Manchester's politics have been characterised by "entrenched localism and related rivalries", historically resistant to regionalism . The major towns in Greater Manchester retain a "fierce independence", meaning Greater Manchester is administered using "inter-municipal coordination" on
18204-543: The south", and so had to negotiate several land-use, transport and housing projects with its neighbouring county councils. However a "major programme of environmental action" by GMCC broadly succeeded in reversing social deprevation in its inner city slums. Leisure and recreational successes included the Greater Manchester Exhibition Centre (better known as the G-Mex centre and now branded Manchester Central ),
18352-455: The system of administering urban and rural districts separately as outdated, noting that urban areas provided employment and services for rural dwellers, and open countryside was used by town dwellers for recreation. The commission considered interdependence of areas at many levels, including travel-to-work, provision of services, and which local newspapers were read, before proposing a new administrative metropolitan area . The area had roughly
18500-576: The ten boroughs (except the Waste Disposal Authority, which does not include the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan ). Greater Manchester Police was formerly overseen by a joint police authority , but was briefly overseen by the Greater Manchester Police and Crime Commissioner from 2012 until the functions of that office were subsumed into the new regional mayoralty upon its creation in 2017. The ten borough councils are joint-owners of
18648-572: The ten councils. Such strategic matters would be decided on via an enhanced majority rule voting system involving ten members appointed from among the councillors of the metropolitan boroughs (one representing each borough with each council nominating one substitute) without the input of central government. The ten district councils of Greater Manchester approved the creation of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) on 29 March 2010, and submitted final recommendations for
18796-528: The term 'geographical county' to describe the widest definition of the county. In most cases this was the lieutenancy county; the exceptions were Yorkshire, where the judicial county was larger on account of it being split into its three ridings for lieutenancy purposes, and the County of London where the administrative county was larger on account of the City of London and the rest of the county being separate for both judicial and lieutenancy purposes. The counties lost their judicial functions in 1972, after which
18944-478: The third highest number in England behind Greater London (360,890) and the West Midlands (140,980), and the thirteenth highest in England per head of population. The majority of students are concentrated on Oxford Road in Manchester, Europe's largest urban higher education precinct. As of 2010, further education in Greater Manchester is co-ordinated by the Greater Manchester Colleges Group,
19092-529: The title from 1974 to 1988. The current Lord Lieutenant is Warren James Smith. As a geographic county, Greater Manchester is used by the government (via the Office for National Statistics ) for the gathering of county-wide statistics, and organising and collating general register and census material. In terms of representation in the Parliament of the United Kingdom , Greater Manchester is divided into 27 parliamentary constituencies . Most of Greater Manchester
19240-555: The trend of depopulation in central-Greater Manchester, to invest in country parks to improve the region's poor reputation on leisure facilities, and to improve the county's transport infrastructure and patterns. Because of political objection, particularly from Cheshire, Greater Manchester covered only the inner, urban 62 of the 90 former districts that the Royal Commission had outlined as an effective administrative metropolitan area. In this capacity, GMCC found itself "planning for an arbitrary metropolitan area ... abruptly truncated to
19388-463: The tribe itself, thus bearing the name "Cornoviorum", i.e. "of the Cornovii". The strength of this military unit is unknown. The cohort was an infantry unit and is likely to have numbered only 500. The units formed the late-4th-century garrison of Pons Aelius ( Newcastle upon Tyne ) at the eastern terminus of Hadrian's Wall . This is recorded in the Notitia Dignitatum . After Roman occupation,
19536-425: The turn of the 19th century as part of a process of unplanned urbanisation brought on by a boom in industrial textile production and processing. This population increase resulted in the "vigorous concentric growth" of a conurbation between Manchester and an arc of surrounding mill towns , formed from a steady accretion of houses, factories and transport infrastructure. Places such as Bury , Oldham and Bolton played
19684-473: The uplands, such as Saddleworth Moor , which lies within the South Pennines and Dark Peak area of the Peak District National Park . The Rochdale Canal harbours floating water-plantain ( Luronium natams ), a nationally endangered aquatic plant. In 2002, Plantlife International launched its County Flowers campaign , asking members of the public to nominate and vote for a wild flower emblem for their county. Common cottongrass ( Eriophorum angustifolium ),
19832-428: The usual trappings of a classical Roman settlement including the forum basilica , shops and, of course, the baths. Both the massive structural remains of the baths and exercise yard found during archaeological excavations and subsequent research indicate that Viroconium's most prosperous era was between the 2nd and 3rd centuries, and demonstrate the success of this regional economic centre. Nevertheless, it appears that by
19980-554: The village of Wroxeter still continued to grow. Owing to little development in the Wroxeter area, much of the Roman material has survived reasonably intact compared to other parts of Britain. This has led to the town becoming a favourite among archaeologists and students of Roman Britain . The Cohors Primae Cornoviorum was the only recorded native British unit known to have served in Britannia. The I Cohort of Cornovii were recruited from
20128-406: The western expansion of early 47 AD commanded by Publius Ostorius Scapula . Prior to the Roman invasion of Cornovian territory in 47 AD the most significant Cornovian hillforts known were those at Titterstone Clee near Bitterley , being the only one excavated to date, Chesterton Walls near Romsley and Bury Walls near Weston-under-Redcastle . Other hillforts of Iron Age Cornovii include
20276-662: The works of Ptolemy in the 2nd century A.D.: The name may mean "People of the Horn". Graham Webster in The Cornovii (1991) cites Anne Ross's hypothesis that the tribal name(s) may be totemic cult-names referring to a " horned god " cult followed by the tribe(s) and although there is no direct evidence of this, Webster points out that it is interesting that at Abbot's Bromley the " Horn Dance " which he believes survived from pagan ritual (something questioned by other folklorists )—Abbot's Bromley being only 35 miles (55 km) north east of
20424-498: The world"; and by 1848 urban sprawl had fused the city to its surrounding towns and hinterland to form a single continuous conurbation. The area is recorded in planning documents for the Manchester Ship Canal dated 1883, as "Manchester, Salford and the Out-Townships". The conurbation was "a Victorian metropolis, achieving its commercial peak during 1890–1915". In the 1910s, local government reforms to administer this conurbation as
20572-481: Was Viroconium Cornoviorum. With the passage of time the lesser Magonsæte sub-kingdom also emerged in this area during the period between Powys and Mercian rule. Although not widely accepted by modern scholarship, John Morris 's theory deals with the hypothetical link between the Midlands Cornovii and later Cornwall . In The Age of Arthur , 1973, Morris discussed the Wroxeter dynasty of Constantine whose name
20720-515: Was a commitment to local government reform, and the need for a metropolitan county centred on the conurbation surrounding Manchester was accepted. The new government's original proposal was much smaller than the Redcliffe-Maud Report's Selnec, with areas such as Winsford, Northwich, Knutsford, Macclesfield and Glossop retained by their original counties to ensure their county councils had enough revenue to remain competitive ( Cheshire County Council would have ceased to exist). Other late changes included
20868-402: Was carefully planned and executed... and "were skillfully constructed to Roman measurements using a trained labour force". Who instigated this rebuilding program is not known, although it may have been a bishop. Some of the buildings were renewed three times and the community probably lasted about 75 years until for some reason many of the buildings were dismantled. After this period, and with
21016-632: Was described as "archaic" and "grossly inadequate to keep pace both with the impact of motor travel, and with the huge increases in local government responsibilities". The Local Government Act 1972 reformed local government in England , with the act enacted on the 1 April 1974. The area was given the name Greater Manchester and a metropolitan county designation. This was a two-tier counties and districts system. The act formally , although Greater Manchester County Council (GMCC) had been running since elections in 1973 . The leading article in The Times on
21164-421: Was generated during the Industrial Revolution, particularly textile manufacture. The world's first cotton mill was built in the town of Royton , and the county encompasses several former mill towns . An Association for Industrial Archaeology publication describes Greater Manchester as "one of the classic areas of industrial and urban growth in Britain, the result of a combination of forces that came together in
21312-450: Was included as a ceremonial county by the Lieutenancies Act 1997 on 1 July 1997. In 1998, the people of Greater London voted in a referendum in favour of establishing a new Greater London Authority , with mayor and an elected chamber for the county. The New Local Government Network proposed the creation of a new Manchester City Region based on Greater Manchester and other metropolitan counties as part of on-going reform efforts, while
21460-635: Was known as Durocornovium and was a little north west of the current position, at a road junction mentioned in the Antonine Itinerary . Being the last vicus on Ermin Way before the scarp slope of the Marlborough Downs , Durocornovium was a site where horses were watered before the steep climb off the Oxfordshire plain. It is not obvious why this name was used as it is a long way from the territories of
21608-512: Was placed entirely in Lancashire for judicial purposes in 1956 but continued to straddle the two counties for lieutenancy purposes until 1974. More significant changes to the geographical counties were made in 1965 with the creation of Greater London and of Huntingdon and Peterborough , which resulted in the abolition of the offices of Lord Lieutenant of Middlesex , Lord Lieutenant of the County of London , and Lord Lieutenant of Huntingdonshire and
21756-520: Was to be divided into nine metropolitan districts, based on Wigan, Bolton, Bury/Rochdale, Warrington, Manchester (including Salford and Old Trafford), Oldham, Altrincham, Stockport and Tameside. The report noted "The choice even of a label of convenience for this metropolitan area is difficult". Seven years earlier, a survey prepared for the British Association intended to define the "South-East Lancashire conurbation" noted that "Greater Manchester it
21904-405: Was to evaluate the contributions to economic growth and sustainable development by Combined Authorities. The Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009 enabled the creation of a Combined Authority for Greater Manchester with devolved powers on public transport, skills, housing, regeneration, waste management, carbon neutrality and planning permission , pending approval from
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