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Greater Manchester

Counties of England established in 1974Greater ManchesterMetropolitan countiesNUTS 2 statistical regions of the United KingdomPages containing links to subscription-only content
Use British English from October 2014
Manchester Cathedral and skyline
Manchester Cathedral and skyline

Greater Manchester is a metropolitan and ceremonial county 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. The county was created on 1 April 1974, as a result of the Local Government Act 1972, and has been covered by a combined authority on 1 April 2011. Greater Manchester is formed from parts of the historic counties of Cheshire, Lancashire and the West Riding of Yorkshire. Greater Manchester spans 493 square miles (1,277 km2), which roughly covers the territory of the Greater Manchester Built-up Area, the second most populous urban area in the UK. Though geographically landlocked, it is connected to the sea by the Manchester Ship Canal which is still open to shipping in Salford and Trafford. Greater Manchester borders the ceremonial counties of Cheshire (to the south-west and south), Derbyshire (to the south-east), West Yorkshire (to the north-east), Lancashire (to the north) and Merseyside (to the west). There is a mix of high-density urban areas, suburbs, semi-rural and rural locations in Greater Manchester, but land use is mostly urban—the product of concentric urbanisation and industrialisation which occurred mostly during the 19th century when the region flourished as the global centre of the cotton industry. It has a focused central business district, formed by Manchester city centre and the adjoining city of Salford and Borough of Trafford, but Greater Manchester is also a polycentric county with ten metropolitan districts, each district is concentrated around a large town or a city (Manchester and Salford being the only cities). These districts contain suburbs, towns and villages for each city and town. Greater Manchester is governed by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), which consists of political leaders from each of the ten metropolitan borough councils, plus a directly elected mayor, with responsibility for economic development, regeneration and transport. Andy Burnham is the inaugural Mayor of Greater Manchester, elected in 2017. For the 12 years following 1974, the county had a two-tier system of local government; district councils shared power with the Greater Manchester County Council. The county council was abolished in 1986 and so its districts (the metropolitan boroughs) effectively became unitary authority areas. However, the metropolitan county continued to exist in law and as a geographic frame of reference, and as a ceremonial county, with a Lord Lieutenant and a High Sheriff. Several county-wide services were coordinated through the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities between 1985 and 2011. Before the creation of the metropolitan county, the name for the area was "South East Lancashire North East Cheshire" (SELNEC). Greater Manchester is an amalgamation of 70 former local government districts from the former administrative counties of Lancashire, Cheshire, the West Riding of Yorkshire and eight independent county boroughs. Since deindustrialisation in the mid-20th century, Greater Manchester has emerged as a major centre for services, media and digital industries, and is renowned for guitar and dance music and its association football teams.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Greater Manchester (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Greater Manchester
Radcliffe Park Crescent, Salford Irlams o' th' Height

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Wikipedia: Greater ManchesterContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 53.5 ° E -2.3166666666667 °
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Radcliffe Park Crescent

Radcliffe Park Crescent
M6 7WQ Salford, Irlams o' th' Height
England, United Kingdom
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Manchester Cathedral and skyline
Manchester Cathedral and skyline
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Clifton Hall Tunnel

Clifton Hall Tunnel, also called (locally) the Black Harry Tunnel, was a railway tunnel passing beneath much of Swinton and Pendlebury, in Greater Manchester, England. It was located on the Patricroft and Clifton branch of the London and North Western Railway line, linking Patricroft with Molyneux Junction. Originally opened in 1850, the Clifton Hall Tunnel was heavily used by freight trains to and from Clifton Hall Colliery and other neighboring collieries. Construction had been complicated by the unstable ground, which had already been subject to mining. Throughout its operational life, it was subject to routine inspections and several rounds of remedial work aimed at stabilising sections of the tunnel roof, principally using steel ribbing. The neighboring land around and above the tunnel was also subject to urbanisation, leading to housing being built directly above it. The tunnel acquired a level of public infamy when it suffered a partial collapse on 28 April 1953, which resulted in the deaths of five occupants of houses in Temple Drive, Swinton, located directly above one of the construction shafts that had been infilled and forgotten about. No danger was posed to rail traffic as a temporary closure had already been enacted earlier that month following the discovery of debris in the tunnel. The tunnel was subsequently stabilised and largely infilled; further measures were taken during 2007 and the 2010s to reinforce the closed tunnel and infill any remaining voids.