Greater Manchester refers to an area roughly encompassing the conurbation[?] of which the city of Manchester is the centre. It is situated in North West England. It has a population of about 2.5 million.
It borders onto Cheshire, Derbyshire, West Yorkshire, Lancashire and the unitary authorities of Blackburn with Darwen[?] and Warrington.
It is made up of ten Metropolitan boroughs[?] - Bolton MBC (Metropolitan Borough Council), Bury[?] MBC, Manchester City Council, Oldham MBC, Rochdale MBC, Salford City Council, Stockport[?] MBC, Tameside MBC, Trafford[?] MBC and Wigan MBC.
Greater Manchester was established as a Metropolitan county in 1974 from areas that had previously been part of the county of Lancashire and the county of Cheshire. The Metropolitan boroughs[?] are now mostly independent councils, although they pool certain resources to run several Greater Manchester-wide services, including:
- Greater Manchester Police Authority[?]
- Greater Manchester County Fire Service[?]
- Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive[?]
Towns and villages
- Ainsworth[?], Altrincham[?], Ashton-in-Makerfield[?], Ashton-under-Lyne[?], Ashton upon Mersey[?], Astley Green[?], Atherton[?]
- Blackrod[?], Bolton[?], Bowdon[?], Bramhall[?], Broadbottom, Bury[?]
- Carrington[?], Chadderton[?], Cheadle[?], Cheadle Heath[?], Cheadle Hulme[?], Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Crumpsall[?]
- Denton, Droylsden[?], Dukinfield[?]
- Failsworth[?], Fallowfield[?], Flixton[?]
- Gatley[?]
- Hazel Grove[?], Heald Green[?], Heywood[?], Horwich[?], |Hyde[?]
- Irlam[?]
- Kearsley[?]
- Leigh[?], Levenshulme[?], Littleborough[?], Little Lever[?], Lowton[?], Lowton Common[?]
- Manchester, Marple[?], Marple Bridge[?], Milnrow[?], Mossley[?], Mottram-in-Longdendale[?]
- Northenden[?]
- Oldham, Orrell[?]
- Partington[?], Pendlebury[?], Pennington[?], Prestwich[?]
- Radcliffe[?], Ramsbottom[?], Rochdale, Royton[?]
- Sale[?], Salford, Standish[?], Swinton[?]
- Timperley[?], Trafford Park[?]
- Urmston[?]
- West Didsbury[?], Whitefield[?], Wigan Withington[?], Woodley[?], Worsley[?]
Places of interest
- Buckton Castle[?]
- Bramall Hall[?], Bramhall[?]
- Salford Quays[?], Salford
- Smithills Hall[?]
- Wythenshawe Hall
- Astley Cheetham Art Gallery[?], Ashton-under-Lyne[?]
- Museum of the Manchester Regiment[?], Ashton-under-Lyne
- Park Bridge Heritage Centre[?]
- Portland Basin Museum[?], Ashton-under-Lyne
- Etherow Country Park[?]
- Etherow Park[?]
- River Bollin[?], River Croal[?], River Irwell[?], River Mersey, River Roch[?], River Tame
- Manchester Ship Canal
- East Lancashire Railway, a heritage railway