Greater Manchester

Greater Manchester is a in , with a population of. It was created as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the. The county consists of ten s, including the and the.

Greater Manchester is landlocked, and as a borders, , ,  and. The is the, and spans across most of the county's territory.

was abolished in 1986, and so its districts (the metropolitan boroughs) are now effectively. However, the metropolitan county, which is some 492.7 sqmi, continues to exist in law and as a geographic frame of reference.

Prior to the creation of the metropolitan county, the name SELNEC was used for the area from the initials 'South East Lancashire North East Cheshire'. Parts of the of,  and  covered the area that is now Greater Manchester.

Origins
The modern county of Greater Manchester was created in 1974. However, the history and heritage of its constituent settlements and parts stem back for centuries. Manchester is home to a c.2000 year old Roman fort in, and other towns (such as and ) played a central role during the. Indeed, due to the economic and industrial success of the modern Greater Manchester towns and cities, the connurbation has been forming for the last few centuries and the need for local government and geo-administrative change to reflect this, was postulated in as early as the 1910s.

The first known recorded use of the term Greater Manchester was in 1914 as part of a report put forward as a response to what was considered a successful creation of the 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, or that of South-Lancashire and part of Cheshire.

Conurbations in England tend to build-up at the and Greater Manchester is no exception.

Most of Greater Manchester lies within the ancient county boundaries of ; those areas south of the and  in. The area and a small part of  are historically part of  and in the south-east a small part in. The areas which were incorporated into Greater Manchester in 1974 previously formed parts of the of Cheshire, Lancashire, the  and of various independent s.

Greater Manchester is today made up of some seventy former from these former boundaries, and is the only urban area in the  outside  ever to officially bear the name "Greater".

Redcliffe-Maud Report
The designated the "South East Lancashire" area (which despite its name included north east Cheshire as well), a Special Review Area. The never completed its report before it was abolished in favour of the. Draft recommendations were presented in December 1965 and would have seen a new county based on the Manchester conurbation, with nine most-purpose boroughs, corresponding to the modern Greater Manchester boroughs (excluding Wigan).

The Royal Commission's 1969 report, known as the, proposed a 'SELNEC' (South East Lancashire North East Cheshire) 'metropolitan area'. This had roughly the same northern boundary as today's Greater Manchester, but covered much more territory in north-east Cheshire including and, and also covered  in Derbyshire. The metropolitan area was to be divided into nine metropolitan districts, based on, Bolton, /, , (including  and ), Oldham, ,  and.

In 1969 a SELNEC was set up, which covered an area smaller than the proposed SELNEC, but different to the eventual Greater Manchester. Compared to the Redcliffe-Maud area it excluded Macclesfield, Warrington, and Knutsford, but still including Glossop and, in the. It excluded Wigan, which was in both the Redcliffe-Maud area and in the eventual Greater Manchester (but had not been part of the SEL special review area).

Although the Redcliffe-Maud report was rejected by the government after the, it was committed to local government reform, and accepted the need for a metropolitan county centred on the conurbation surrounding Manchester. Its original proposal was much smaller than the Redcliffe-Maud Report's SELNEC, but further fringe areas such as, and  were trimmed from the edges and remained instead in the shire counties. Other late changes included the separation of the proposed Bury/Rochdale authority (retained from the Redcliffe-Maud report) into the and the.

Post 1974
Greater Manchester was eventually established on. It is the largest of all the Metropolitan counties of England in that it contained ten boroughs (whilst is clearly larger with 32 s and the, it is not officially a metropolitan county).

Some noted historians of Manchester have claimed that "With the creation of the Greater Manchester county, came statutory recognition to what was already as a result of natural evolution, a distinct and recognised region, bound together by innumerable ties extending back over the centuries. Greater Manchester... is the logical outcome of centuries of shared tradition."

On, the  was abolished as part of the. Upon its abolition, most of the functions of the council were devolved to the ten Greater Manchester councils, and some of its functions such as emergency services and public transport were taken over by  and continued to be run on a county-wide basis. After its abolition, the was established to continue much of the county-wide services of the. The metropolitan county itself however continues to exist in law and as a geographic frame of reference. Greater Manchester metropolitan county is also used as a geocode standard for referencing the administrative division of  countries for statistical purposes.

Unlike most other modern counties (including and ), Greater Manchester was never adopted as an official  by  for postal addresses and delivery. As part of the Post Office's policy review in 1973, it was noted that "Greater Manchester" would be unlikely to be adopted because of confusion with the. And so the component areas of Greater Manchester held on to their pre-1974 postal counties until 1996, when they were abolished.

On, the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester further became a  by way of the. These ceremonial counties are increasingly being seen as the main geographic frames of reference within England.

Geography
Greater Manchester is a landlocked county. The rise along the eastern side of the county, through parts of,  and. The, as well as a number of coalfields (mainly sandstones and shales) lie in the west of the county.

The rivers and  run through the county boundaries, both of which rise in the Pennines. Other rivers run through the county, including the, the and the.

is the highest point of Greater Manchester, rising 542 metres (1778.2 ft) above sea-level, within the parish of. at 10.6 sqmi comprises the largest area of Grade 1 and 2 farmland in Greater Manchester and contains the largest block of semi-natural woodland in the county.

There is a mix of high density s,, semi-rural and locations in Greater Manchester, but overwhelmingly the land use in the county is urban. It has a strong regional, formed by and the adjoining parts of  and. 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.

Greater Manchester is arguably the most complex urban area in the United Kingdom outside, and this is reflected in the density of its transport network and the scale of needs for investment to meet the growing and diverse movement demands generated by its development pattern.

Climate
The climate of Greater Manchester is generally, with few extremes of temperature or weather. The mean temperature is slightly above average for the United Kingdom; whereas annual rainfall and average amount of sunshine is slightly below the average for the UK. These are average temperature and rainfall figures taken between 1971 and 2000 at the weather station at :

Greater Manchester Urban Area
The is an area of land defined by the  consisting of the large conurbation surrounding and including the City of Manchester. Its territory spans much, but not all of the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester.

It discludes settlements such as and  from the Greater Manchester county boundaries (Wigan itself forming the ), but includes some settlements which are outside of the county boundaries, such as  and  in, and  in.

Although neither the Greater Manchester county, nor the have been granted,  literature suggests that the conurbation surrounding Manchester constitutes as a homogonous urban.

Governance
in Greater Manchester is currently provided by the councils of ten, known as s, these are: , , the , , , the , , , and.

Each Metropolitan Borough comprises a large town (usually having formed a before 1974) together with the surrounding smaller towns, villages and countryside. Most of the names are self explanatory, for example the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport is centred on the town of, though includes other smaller towns, such as , , and.

The names of two of the metropolitan boroughs are not as obvious however. For these, a neutral name was chosen because, at the time they were created, there was no agreement on the town to be put forward as the. These boroughs are and, centred today on  and , respectively.

For the first twelve years after the county was created in 1974, the county had a two-tier system of, and the metropolitan borough councils shared power with the. However in 1986, along with the five other councils and the, the Greater Manchester County Council was abolished, and most of its powers were devolved to the boroughs, which effectively became.

Various es exist in certain parts of Greater Manchester: see.

Greater Manchester council's, was located in what is now Westminster House, in , central Manchester.

County level functions
Although the was abolished a number of local government functions take place at the county level.

The ten authorities of Greater Manchester co-operate through the (AGMLA), which meets to create a co-ordinated county-wide approach to many issues. The AGMLA funds some county-wide bodies such as the. Through the AGMLA, the ten authorities of Greater Manchester co-operate on many policy issues, including jointly producing a county-wide.

In addition to this, some local services are still provided county-wide, but are now administered by statutory of the ten districts. These are:


 * The, (GMPTE) which is responsible for planning and co-ordinating across the county.
 * The, who are overseen by a joint.
 * The, who are administered by a joint "Fire and Rescue Authority".
 * The, which does not include the

These joint-boards which are made up of councillors appointed from each of the ten boroughs.

The ten-boroughs jointly own the which controls  and three other UK airports. Other services are directly funded and managed by the local councils.

Ceremonial county
Greater Manchester is a with its own. 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 the - extending the duchy to include areas which were formerly in the counties of Cheshire and the West Riding of Yorkshire. Thus, the and  of Greater Manchester are appointed by the Queen on the recommendation of the  rather than, as is more usual, the recommendation of the.

The first was Sir  who held the title from 1974 through to 1987. The current Lord Lieutenant is Colonel Sir.

As a geographic county, Greater Manchester is utilised by the government (via the ) for the gathering of county-wide s, and organising and collating general register and census material.

Parliamentary representation
Greater Manchester is divided into 28 - 18  and 10.

Most of Greater Manchester is controlled by the, and is generally considered a Labour stronghold, with only four constituencies (since the ) belonging to the , and one constituency to the.

Economy
Due to the overwhelmingly urban, built-up of Greater Manchester,  plays only a minor role, with the county ranking within the bottom third in the United Kingdom for employment in the agricultural sector.

, the of Greater Manchester, is a major centre of trade and commerce. Manchester today is a centre of the, the , and. It is regarded as the third best place to locate business in the UK, is the third most visited city in the United Kingdom by foreign visitors and now often considered to be the .

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The is one of the largest indoor shopping centre's in  and is located within the.

This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of Greater Manchester South at current basic prices published (pp.240-253) by Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of.

This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of Greater Manchester North at current basic prices published (pp.240-253) by Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling.

Industrial Revolution and textiles
Encompassing several former s, Greater Manchester has been described as "one of the classic areas of industrial and urban growth in Britain, the result of a combination of forces that came together in 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 and into the early 20th century. and this is represented by former found throughout the county.

The territory that makes up Greater Manchester experienced a rapid decline of these traditional sectors, partly during the brought on by the, but mainly as part of the  that occurred during the 20th century. Considerable industrial restructuring has helped the region to recover.

Historically, the docks at were an industrial port, though are now (following a period of disuse) a commercial and residential area which includes the,  and is to become a major centre for the.

Demography
Greater Manchester has a population of 2,547,700, making it the in the United Kingdom (after  and the ). It is the seventh most densely populated county of England.

Greater Manchester is a multicultural agglomeration with significant ethnic minority population comprising 8.49% of the total population.

Below is a table outlining population totals of the area for every ten years since 1801. Pre-1974 statistics were gathered from local government areas that now comprise Greater Manchester.

Settlements


As a large urbanised county, Greater Manchester is home to two cities and several towns of varying sizes. Some of the ten metropolitan boroughs are named after the largest settlements, including, , and. However Greater Manchester is also home to many smaller settlements including some rural villages along the outskirts.

The table below outlines many of these settlements, and is formatted according to their metropolitan borough. Each district has a centre of administration; for the most part these correlate with a boroughs largest town (which in further cases gave their name to the boroughs themselves), though for some districts such as the, other arrangements apply.


 * This table does not form an extensive list. More settlements can be found at Category:Towns in Greater Manchester, Category:Villages in Greater Manchester, and Category:Districts of Greater Manchester.

Some of these settlements were immortalised on 's 2006 single (which somewhat erroneously places many settlements within Manchester, rather than Greater Manchester).

Transport
In addition to a network of bus routes and a light rail system which radiate from, Greater Manchester has a rail network of 142 route miles with 98 stations, forming a central hub to the North West rail network. Train services are provided by private operators and run on the national rail network which is owned and managed by.

Greater Manchester has a higher percentage of the network than any other county in the country. According to the , it has the most traffic lanes side by side (17), spread across several parallel carriageways ( at Linnyshaw Moss, Greater Manchester, close to the interchange).

A canal network also remains from the Industrial Revolution.

Venues and facilities
The were staged in Manchester and provided the area with world class sports facilities, including the, , ,  and the supporting athletics stadium at. This built on the success of the in regenerating the Eastern side of the connurbation.

Football
Greater Manchester has a high concentration of clubs. Four Greater Manchester teams,, , , and , play in the 2007-08. In addition to this, play in  and,  and  play in. There are numerous high-profile non-league football teams, including, , , , , , (1954) and the recently created. Manchester United F.C. is the most successful team in the history of the Premier League, having won the title nine times since it was introduced in 1991-92, dating from 1893, includes numerous amateur teams.

Rugby
In, compete in the , and won the league in 2006. Whitefield based are competing in National League 1,  in National League 2 and Wigan side  in National League 3 (North).

In, and  compete in the , while  and  take part in National League 1, with  being local rivals of  in National League 2. Prominent amateur sides are numerous and include, , , and.

Cricket


began in the county as and continues to represent the area (along with the rest of the historic county of ). The club is based at and near the famous football stadium of the same name. Lancashire contested the original 1890. Lancashire are perenial favourites in most competitions, though have not won much silverware since 1999.

Other sports
The Kirkmanshulme Lane stadium in is the home to top-flight speedway team the  and regular.

Professional is set to return to the area in early 2007 with the scheduled opening of a purpose designed rink in, the  to host the , the predecessor  having gone out of business in 2002 due to the overheads of staging matches in the 17,500 capacity.

Greater Manchester had a venue for for 87 years, initially at  and later at  which is now a student residence for the. Racing began at New Barnes in 1876 but the site had to be vacated in 1901 to facilitate an expansion to - the land is now home to Dock 9 of the re-branded. Racing then moved to Castle Irwell which later staged a Classic - the 1941, and was most famous as home of the (nowadays run at ) and the , which was traditionally the last major race of the UK flat season. Through the late 50's and early 60's the track saw legendary jockeys and  annually battle out the closing acts of the jockey's title until racing ceased on. The main stand at Castle Irwell was designed by local architect Ernst Atherton and was the first stand at any UK sports venue to include private boxes, the idea having later been copied by and then made commonplace throughout the country. The structure still survives as a building. Although both sites carried the name of, neither was strictly speaking within the boundaries of itself. A proposal to reincarnate is presently being pursued by  at a site in  - which like New Barnes and Castle Irwell is found in the neighbouring.

Aside from Sports City, which has hosted numerous national trials, alternative athletics venues can be found at in Wigan,  in  (home to Stretford Harriers) and the Cleavleys Track in  (home of Salford Harriers).

A wide range of new sports facilities that include a 10,000 capacity stadium and athletics venue are presently being constructed at the.

Places of interest
Greater Manchester boasts many places of interest, including multiple museums, galleries and centres of art and culture. Along the outskirts of the Greater Manchester conurbation feature many sites of natural beauty, including the, and parts of the.