Greater Manchester
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 MBC, Stockport MBC, Tameside MBC, Trafford MBC and Wigan MBC.
Greater Manchester was invented as a Metropolitan county in 1974. Previous to this, the area it covered was a part of the county of Lancashire. The Metropolitan boroughs are now mostly independent councils, although they pool resources to run several Greater Manchester-wide services, including:
- Greater Manchester Police Authority
- Greater Manchester County Fire Service
- Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive
Other services are directly funded and managed by the local councils.
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