Leigh railway station (Lancashire)

Leigh is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, Greater Manchester, England, on low-lying land northwest of Chat Moss. Within the boundaries of the historic county of Lancashire, Leigh was originally the centre of a large ecclesiastical parish covering six vills or townships. When the three townships of Pennington, Westleigh and Bedford merged in 1875 forming the Leigh Local Board District, Leigh became the official name for the town, although it had been applied to the area of Pennington and Westleigh around the parish church for many centuries. The town became an urban district in 1894 when part of Atherton was added. In 1899 Leigh became a municipal borough. The first town hall was built in King Street and replaced by the present building in 1907. Originally an agricultural area (noted for dairy farming), domestic spinning and weaving led to a considerable silk industry and, in the 20th century, cotton industry. Leigh also exploited the underlying coal measures, particularly after the town was connected to the canals and railways. Leigh had an important engineering base. The legacy of Leigh's industrial past can be seen in the remaining red brick mills – some of which are listed buildings – although it is now a mainly residential town, with Edwardian and Victorian terraced housing packed around the town centre. Leigh's present-day economy is based largely on the retail sector.

St Joseph's Church is an active Roman Catholic church on Chapel Street in Bedford, Leigh in Greater Manchester, England. It is in the parish of St Edmund Arrowsmith. It has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade II listed building.

Mather Lane Mills was a complex of cotton mills built by the Bridgewater Canal in Bedford, Leigh in Lancashire, England. The No 2 mill and its former warehouse are grade II listed buildings.

Leigh Infirmary is a healthcare facility in The Avenue, Leigh, Greater Manchester, England. It is managed by the Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust.

Leigh Town Hall is a municipal building in Leigh, Greater Manchester, England. It stands in Civic Square at the junction with Market Street, facing Leigh parish church. It was built in 1907 and granted grade II listed building status in 1987.

The Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin (grid reference SD656003) is a Church of England parish church in Leigh, Greater Manchester, England. It is a member of the Salford & Leigh deanery in the archdeaconry of Salford, diocese of Manchester. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building.Leigh was in the Diocese of Lichfield and Coventry until 1541 when it was transferred to the Diocese of Chester. In 1847 Leigh became the only parish in the Hundred of West Derby to be part of the new Diocese of Manchester. Leigh has had its own deanery since 1933. Before that it was part of the deanery of Eccles and prior to that Warrington.

The Municipal Borough of Leigh was, from 1899 to 1974, a local government district of the administrative county of Lancashire, England, consisting of the townships of Pennington, Westleigh, Bedford and part of the township of Atherton and named after the ancient ecclesiastical parish. The area contained the market town of Leigh that served as its administrative centre until its dissolution in 1974. The borough council built Leigh Town Hall which was completed in 1907. In 1875 Leigh Local Board of Health was formed comprising the areas Bedford, Pennington and Westleigh, members of the Leigh Poor Law Union. It was created an urban district in 1894 by the Local Government Act 1894 and was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1899. It was affected by a minor boundary change with Golborne Urban District in 1969 which affected no population.In 1974 the borough was abolished by the Local Government Act 1972 and its former area transferred to Greater Manchester to be combined with others to form the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan. From 1894 to 1933, Leigh Rural District located (in two fragments) either side of the district, comprised the civil parishes of Astley, Culcheth, Kenyon and Lowton. The rural district was abolished in 1933 under a County Review Order.

The A572 is a main road serving the Greater Manchester and Merseyside areas, running from Swinton to St Helens via Leigh and Newton-le-Willows.

Leigh South is an electoral ward in Leigh, England. It forms part of Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council, as well as the parliamentary constituency of Leigh.

Red Rose Forest is the previous name for the charity City of Trees, the charity underwent a rebranding in 2016. City of Trees is the community forest for Greater Manchester, part of a national network of community forests across England - www.communityforest-trust.org Red Rose Forest was founded as a community forest in western and central Greater Manchester, England. It was established in 1991, as the Greater Manchester Community Forest – one of 12 community forests across England. In 1994 the Red Rose Forest Plan was approved by Government and launched to the public. It aimed to be a mechanism for the economic, social, and environmental regeneration of the countryside around our towns and cities. Achieving this by involving communities in creating and preserving a woodland flora for the future. The population within the forest boundary amounted to 2.5 million, at the time the community was founded, making it the largest urban community forest in the United Kingdom.The main aim of Red Rose Forest was to get greenery where people can appreciate it every day. This included street trees, green roofs and green spaces. Red Rose Forest's Green Streets team worked with local communities on unique and innovative greening projects to improve the quality of life for urban communities. The value of greening as a means of tackling a range of social, health and economic issues is huge. Red Rose Forest offered many ways for the people to get involved in their environment including the general public through their Friends of the Forest scheme, businesses through sponsorship and communities through the Green Streets project.

Leigh is a constituency in Greater Manchester represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2019 by James Grundy of the Conservative Party. Before this, the seat was represented by Andy Burnham of the Labour Party, who served as the MP from 2001, and Shadow Home Secretary in Jeremy Corbyn's Shadow Cabinet until October 2016. Burnham stood down following his victory at the 2017 Greater Manchester mayoral election, and was succeeded by the Labour and Cooperative Party's Jo Platt who was MP from 2017 to 2019. Burnham, who was re-elected as Mayor of Greater Manchester in 2021 with an increased majority, still resides in the Leigh constituency.

Pennington, a suburb of Leigh, Greater Manchester is one of six townships in the ancient ecclesiastical parish of Leigh, that with Westleigh and Bedford merged to form the town of Leigh in 1875. The township of Pennington covered most of Leigh's town centre.