A report on Greater Manchester

Former weavers' cottages in Wardle. The development of Greater Manchester is attributed to a shared tradition of domestic cloth production, and textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution.

Greater Manchester lies at the conjunction of the ancient county boundaries of Cheshire, Lancashire and the West Riding of Yorkshire.

The Greater Manchester Exhibition Centre (better known as the G-Mex centre and now rebranded as Manchester Central) was the converted former Manchester Central railway station in Manchester city centre used for hosting the county's cultural events.

Stockport Bus Station in 1988. Greater Manchester Transport (later GM Buses) operated bus services throughout the county, from 1974 to 1993.

GMC County Hall (now known as Westminster House) in Manchester housed the Greater Manchester County Council until its abolition in 1986.

An aerial photograph of Greater Manchester, looking west

The Greater Manchester Urban Area, as defined in 2001, highlighted in red against the boundaries of the Metropolitan County

A view over the borough of Tameside, towards Manchester city centre circa 2008.

Common cottongrass (Eriophorum angustifolium), seen here at Light Hazzles Reservoir near Littleborough, was voted the county flower of Greater Manchester in 2002

Andy Burnham has served as the inaugural Mayor of Greater Manchester since May 2017.

The population of Greater Manchester increased from around 328 thousand in 1801, to 2.68M in 2011, peaking in 1971 at 2.7M.

Much of Greater Manchester's housing stock consists of terraced houses constructed as low-cost dwellings for the populations of local factory towns.

Oldham, painted during the Industrial Revolution by J. H. Carse. Many towns in Greater Manchester were built around the mills.

The Trafford Centre in Trafford is one of the largest shopping centres in the United Kingdom.

The M60 motorway, seen here at Failsworth, is an orbital motorway in Greater Manchester.

A Metrolink tram in Radcliffe, part of Greater Manchester's light rail network.

First Greater Manchester operate bus services in northern-Greater Manchester.

Old Trafford, home to Manchester United F.C.

Bolton Wanderers F.C. are based at the University of Bolton Stadium, in Horwich

The main entrance of Old Trafford Cricket Ground

The City of Manchester Stadium, the main venue of the 2002 Commonwealth Games and home to Manchester City F.C.

Eccles cake is a small round flaky pastry cake filled with currants, sugar and spice. It is native to Eccles.

The Imperial War Museum North in Trafford Park was designed by Daniel Libeskind, and is one of the Imperial War Museum's five branches.

The Lowry is a combined theatre and exhibition centre at Salford Quays, and is Greater Manchester's most visited tourist attraction.

Metropolitan county and combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: Manchester, Salford, Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford and Wigan.

- Greater Manchester

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Manchester

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Manchester Cathedral, a grade I listed building which is the Anglican cathedral and parish church of Manchester and the mother church of the Diocese of Manchester

The Peterloo massacre of 1819 resulted in 15 deaths and several hundred injured

An oil painting of Oxford Road, Manchester in 1910 by Valette

Corporation Street after the Manchester bombing on 15 June 1996. There were no fatalities, but it was one of the most expensive man-made disasters. A large rebuilding project of Manchester ensued.

Oxford Road, one of the main thoroughfares into Manchester city centre

Manchester Town Hall in Albert Square, seat of local government, is an example of Victorian era Gothic revival architecture

The City of Manchester. The land use is overwhelmingly urban

The population of Manchester shown with other boroughs in the Greater Manchester county from 1801 to 2011

The Great Jackson Street skyscraper district under construction in Central Manchester

Neo-baroque Lancaster House. Manchester is known for opulent warehouses from the city's textile trade.

Map of tram lines, railways and main bus routes in Greater Manchester

Manchester Piccadilly railway station, the busiest of the four major railway stations in the Manchester station group with over 32 million passengers using the station in 2019/20.

Manchester Metrolink is the largest tram system in the UK, with a total route length of 57 mi.

Free buses operate on three Manchester Metroshuttle routes around Manchester city centre

The Manchester Arena, the city's premier indoor multi-use venue and one of the largest purpose-built arenas in Europe

The Opera House, one of Manchester's largest theatre venues

Gaskell House, where Mrs Gaskell wrote most of her novels. The house is now a museum.

Canal Street, one of Manchester's liveliest nightspots, part of the city's gay village

Whitworth Hall at the University of Manchester. With approximately 44,000 students, it is the second largest university in the UK in terms of enrolment.

The Etihad Stadium is home to Premier League club Manchester City FC and host stadium for the 2002 Commonwealth Games

The 1930s Daily Express Building, Manchester, a remnant of Britain's "second Fleet Street"

Granada Studios, the former headquarters of Granada Television

Manchester is a city in Greater Manchester, England, with a population of 547,627 in 2018.

Lancashire

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County in North West England.

The historic county palatine boundaries in red and the ceremonial county in green

Lancashire, County Palatine shown within England

Cattle grazing on the salt marshes of the Ribble Estuary near Banks

The Beatles began in Liverpool before the city's county was changed from Lancashire to Merseyside

Bank Hall, Bretherton, a Jacobean mansion house, awaiting restoration. Home to Lancashire's oldest Yew tree and one of the two fallen sequoia in the UK.

Rivington Pike, near Horwich, atop the West Pennine Moors, is one of the most popular walking destinations in the county; on a clear day the whole of the county can be viewed from here.

Queen Street Mill, the world's only surviving steam-driven cotton weaving shed, located in Burnley

Many of these places still identify strongly with the county, particularly in areas of Greater Manchester (such as Oldham and Bury) where Lancashire is still used as part of the postal address.

Salford

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The Hundred of Salford was a Royal Manor of Anglo-Saxon origin centred on the demesne of Salford.

Ordsall Hall is a historic house and a former stately home in Ordsall, Salford. It dates back to at least the Late Middle Ages and was the seat of the Radclyffe family.

A woodcut illustrating a serious incident at Nathan Gough's spinning mill in Salford, 1824

The earliest known photograph of Salford, taken at the end of the Crimean War in May 1856

The opening of the Salford Docks turned Salford into a major inland port along the ocean-going Manchester Ship Canal. This site is now occupied by The Lowry.

Following the demise of local manufacturing industries, a 1960s regeneration project saw the construction of over 30 tower blocks in the city, replacing many of Salford's former Victorian slums.

The Housing Market Renewal Initiative has identified Salford as having areas with terraced housing unsuited to modern needs.

MediaCityUK. Urban renewal in Salford has been focused around Salford Quays.

Developments in the East of Salford, on the banks of the River Irwell

Exchange Court – the tallest building in Salford.

Salford Precinct was opened in the 1970s

Salford Lads' Club, on the corner of St. Ignatius Walk and Coronation Street, Ordsall

A British Rail Class 142 train departing from Salford Central railway station

Tram services once criss-crossed Salford. Due to landslips further along the road, this section of line in Broughton is still visible.

Established in 1967, the University of Salford is one of four universities in Greater Manchester. It has some 19,000 students.

The Church of the Sacred Trinity is a Grade II* listed building.

The Lowry is a combined theatre and gallery complex situated in Salford Quays, named after the painter L. S. Lowry.

Salford Museum and Art Gallery opened in November 1850 as the Royal Museum and Public Library.

Salford is a city and the core settlement of the wider City of Salford metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England.

City of Salford

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Kersal Cell, built in the 16th century, was a manor house built on the site of a Cluniac priory.

The Barton Swing Aqueduct in the closed position.

The River Irwell marks the border between Salford & Manchester

Salford Civic Centre in Swinton. The meeting place of Salford City Council.

The coat of arms of Salford City Council

Salford tower blocks in 2001. Tower blocks were mostly built between the 1950s and 1970s.

Aerial photo of Salford Cathedral, one of the oldest and most prominent landmarks in the City of Salford. Also the home of the Diocese and Bishop of Salford.

St Peters' Church, Swinton and Pendlebury.

Salford City Football Club stadium, Peninsula Stadium on Moor Lane, Salford. The spire of the cathedral is partly visible.

Established in 1967, the University of Salford is one of four universities in Greater Manchester and has approximately 19,000 students.

The City of Salford is a metropolitan borough and city in Greater Manchester, England.

North West England

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Liverpool Chinatown is the oldest Chinese community in Europe.

The Jodrell Bank Lovell 76-m radio telescope in Lower Withington, built in August 1957, is the world's third largest steerable telescope, and was the largest until 1971. It was designed by Sheffield's Sir Charles Husband and built of steel from Scunthorpe

Proposed flag for the region designed by Peter Saville

Exhibit of ICI's Fluothane (Halothane), discovered at Widnes, at Catalyst Science Discovery Centre, near Spike Island in Widnes

The World of Glass museum in October 2006

A Hawker Siddeley Nimrod MR2 (HS 801), built at Woodford (former Avro) and designed in Manchester in the mid-1960s, with XV148 (former Comet 4C) making its first flight on 23 May 1967, flying from Chester (Broughton, which had built many de Havilland fighter jet aircraft) to Woodford; 49 Nimrods were made for the RAF, entering service with 201 Sqn on 6 November 1970, serving until March 2010 with 38 Sqn

Statue of John Lennon of The Beatles at The Cavern Club, Liverpool

Liverpool Anglican Cathedral, the largest religious building in the UK

Queensway Tunnel, Liverpool under the River Mersey to Birkenhead, Wirral peninsula

The M6 motorway is one of the North West's principal roads

Old meets new at the Stockport Viaduct; designed by George W. Buck, it is the largest free-standing brick structure in the UK, built in 1840 when it was the largest viaduct in the world; it features in many L. S. Lowry paintings

A sign marking entry to Scotland located on the M6 motorway crossing the border of Cumbria.

Manchester's Piccadilly station is the largest and busiest railway station in the region.

Essar Energy's Stanlow Refinery, the
UK's second largest refinery after Fawley, looking north-east from Wervin

Vauxhall's plant in Ellesmere Port exports 88% of its cars, although many of the components are imported, and has made over 5 million since 1962, also making the Vectra from 1995 to 2008; it makes 686 a day (two a minute, 100,000 a year) and the latest model was designed by Mark Adams and Malcolm Ward. Three million Astras have been sold in the UK since 1979, and featured on the Top Gear test track until 2015; the production is split with the Opel Manufacturing Poland site at Gliwice in southern Poland; the Corsa is made at Opel Zaragoza in north-east Spain, with 3-door versions at Opel Eisenach; the Insignia is made at Opel Rüsselsheim

Ineos ChlorVinyls at Runcorn in 2006; the UK chemicals industry is worth £57bn, with 180,000 people in around 3,000 companies

English Electric Canberra gate guard at BAE's Samlesbury site

Heinz, although based in Hayes in Middlesex, has the largest food processing complex in Europe at a 55 acre site at Kitt Green in Wigan, which produces 1.4 billion cans of food each year; it is accessed to the east of the Orrell Interchange of the M6 (A577); the 38-acre Heinz NDC is next door

Head office of Warburtons in Bolton in April 2006

Kelloggs in Manchester, looking north along the A5181 next to GMFRS's Stretford Area Command HQ; the site is the largest producer of cereals in Europe

JD Sports (in Belfast), the largest company in Bury

The 1938 Littlewood's Building next to Wavertree Technology Park, on Edge Lane, looking east from Liverpool Cathedral

Cereal Partners UK (Nestlé) make Cheerios and Golden Nuggets on the A41 opposite Port Sunlight at Bromborough, also the base of CSM UK, the baking ingredients company based at a former Unilever Stork margarine site.

Unilever Research Laboratory at Port Sunlight (Bebington) looking west, next to the Wirral Line

Former head office of the Girobank in Bootle; it closed in 2003; it was taken over by Alliance & Leicester in 1990; it was established in Bootle in the late 1960s with help from Hugh Baird; it was the first financial institution in Europe to be fully computerised from the start

Victoria Building, University of Liverpool

Manchester Metropolitan University's Hollings Campus – the Toast Rack

ITV Granada former studios in Castlefield, Manchester

MediaCityUK being built at Salford Quays

1939 Sir Owen Williams Daily Express Building, Manchester

North West England is one of nine official regions of England and consists of the administrative counties of Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside.

Arrow Mill is a former cotton mill and Grade II listed building in Castleton

Rochdale

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The coat of arms of the former Municipal, and later County Borough of Rochdale council, granted 20 February 1857. The arms incorporate references to Rochdale's early industries and lords.

Rochdale Cenotaph stands before Rochdale Town Hall

The Metrolink stop at Rochdale railway station

Scout Moor Wind Farm overlooking Rochdale

Rochdale is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, 5.3 mi northwest of Oldham and 9.8 mi northeast of Manchester.

Cheshire

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Historic and ceremonial county in North West England.

A resident of Knutsford sanding the street in celebration of May Day in 1920

Lewis Carroll memorial window (featuring the Hatter and March Hare)

Manchester Ship Canal from Ellesmere Port Dock towards Stanlow

It is bordered by the counties of Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south, and Wales to the west.

Oldham

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Royd mill, built in 1907, and seen here in 1983, was one of the more than 360 textile mills that operated night and day during Oldham's peak.

Workmen leaving Platt's Works, Oldham, 1900

The coat of arms of the former County Borough of Oldham council, granted 7 November 1894, based upon those of an ancient local family surnamed Oldham. The owls suggest that the family, like the town, called itself 'Owdham', and adopted the birds in allusion to its name. The motto "Sapere aude" ("Dare to be wise") refers to the owls.

Oldham's irregularly constructed built environment is characterised by its red-brick cotton mills and surrounding terraced houses.

A panorama of Oldham looking from Hartshead Pike toward the north-west.

Fredrick Street, in Werneth. Much of Oldham's housing stock is two-up-two-down rows of terraced houses, a reminder of its mill town history.

Stained glass skylight of the Spindles Town Square Centre by local artist Brian Clarke, inspired by Oldham-born composer William Walton's Orb and Sceptre Coronation March. The work is one of three interrelated windows, among the largest stained glass windows in Europe, designed and made between 1990 and 1993.

Oldham's old town hall, built in 1841, following its conversion into a multiplex cinema

Oldham's war memorial was commissioned in 1919 to "symbolise the spirit of 1914–1918".

The civic centre is the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham's centre of local governance.

The 409 to Rochdale, pictured in Oldham's town centre. First Greater Manchester has its headquarters in Oldham, operating bus services throughout Greater Manchester.

A Metrolink tram running through Union Street, on the Oldham town centre line opened in January 2014.

Boundary Park is Oldham's main sports stadium, and is used by Oldham Athletic A.F.C.

Oldham College is a centre for further education.

The Blue Coat School is one of Oldham's oldest schools, dating back to 1834.

The stained glass rotunda of The Spindles Town Square Centre, one of Europe's largest works in the medium, created by local artist Brian Clarke

The Lyceum is a Grade II listed building opened in 1856 as a "mutual improvement" centre for the working men of Oldham.

Oldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, amid the Pennines and between the rivers Irk and Medlock, 5.3 mi southeast of Rochdale and 6.9 mi northeast of Manchester.

Trafford

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The coat of arms of Trafford Metropolitan Borough Council

The Church of All Saints, Urmston, is a Grade I listed building.

The Imperial War Museum North in Trafford Park

The East Stand of Old Trafford football ground

Trafford is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England, with an estimated population of 235,493 in 2017.

West Yorkshire

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Metropolitan and ceremonial county in England.

Population density in the 2011 census in West Yorkshire.

Bridgewater Place, a symbol of Leeds' growing financial importance.

Titus Salt's mill in Saltaire, Shipley is an UNESCO World Heritage Site

Royal Armouries Museum, Leeds: Looking up the main stairwell

West Yorkshire consists of five metropolitan boroughs (City of Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees, City of Leeds and City of Wakefield) and is bordered by the counties of Derbyshire to the south, Greater Manchester to the south-west, Lancashire to the west and north-west, North Yorkshire to the north and east, and South Yorkshire to the south and south-east.