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The Bolton News

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174-524: The Bolton News – formerly the Bolton Evening News – is a daily newspaper and news website covering the towns of Bolton and Bury in north-western England. Published each morning from Monday to Saturday and online every day, it is part of the Newsquest media group, a subsidiary of the U.S media giant Gannett Inc . The current editor is Richard Duggan, who also oversees other titles in

348-586: A joint venture composed of an association of 24 colleges in the region. Primary and secondary education within Greater Manchester are the responsibility of the constituent boroughs which form local education authorities and administer schools. The county has several independent schools such as Bolton School , Bury Grammar School , Manchester Grammar School , Oldham Hulme Grammar School , St Bede's College , Stockport Grammar School and Chethams School of Music. Much of Greater Manchester's wealth

522-554: A private day school , was founded on a site next to the parish church in 1524 as a grammar school for boys; it merged around 1656 with a free grammar school (Lever's grammar) that had been founded shortly after 1641. In 1898, it moved to its present site in Chorley New Road, and in 1913 merged with Bolton Girls' Day School. In 1855 the Bolton Church Institute was founded by Canon James Slade near to

696-669: A "stockbroker belt, with well-appointed dwellings in an area of sylvan opulence". Greater Manchester has six universities: the Manchester Metropolitan University , the University of Bolton , the University of Law , the University of Manchester the University of Salford and The University Campus of Football Business . Together with the Royal Northern College of Music they had a combined population of students of 101,165 in 2007 –

870-693: A "wide and varied range" of wildlife and natural habitats. For instance, the wooded valleys of Bolton, Bury and Stockport, the moorlands north and east of Rochdale, Oldham and Stalybridge, and the reed beds between Wigan and Leigh, harbour flora and fauna of national importance. Mature woodland, scrubland, grassland, high moorland, mossland, agricultural land, lakes, wetlands, river valleys, embankments, urban parks and suburban gardens are habitats found in Greater Manchester which further contribute to biodiversity. The Greater Manchester Ecology Unit classifies Sites of Biological Importance . The 21 Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Greater Manchester, and

1044-529: A Special Review Area. The Local Government Commission for England presented draft recommendations, in December 1965, proposing a new county based on the conurbation surrounding and including Manchester, with nine most-purpose boroughs corresponding to the modern Greater Manchester boroughs (excluding Wigan). The review was abolished in favour of the Royal Commission on Local Government before issuing

1218-611: A broadly voluntary basis. That eight of the ten borough councils have (for the most part) been Labour -controlled since 1986, has helped maintain this informal co-operation between the districts at a county-level. After the abolition of the county council, the ten authorities of Greater Manchester co-operated voluntarily on policy issues like Local Transport Plans as well as funding the Greater Manchester County Record Office , and local services were administered by statutory joint boards . Now under

1392-532: A centre for textile production since the 14th century when Flemish weavers settled in the area, introducing a wool and cotton-weaving tradition. It was a 19th-century boomtown , development largely coincided with the introduction of textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution . At its peak in 1929, its 216  cotton mills and 26 bleaching and dyeing works made it one of the largest and most productive centres of cotton spinning in

1566-661: A constitution to the Department for Communities and Local Government and the Department for Transport and two days later the Communities Secretary John Denham approved the constitution and launched a 15-week public consultation on the draft bill together with the approved constitution. Following requests by the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities, which was superseded by the GMCA,

1740-576: A converted former railway station in Manchester city centre used for cultural events, and GMCC's creation of five new country parks within its boundaries. GMCC was, however, criticised for being too Manchester-centric by representatives from the outer suburbs. A decade after they were established, the mostly Labour -controlled metropolitan county councils and the Greater London Council (GLC) had several high-profile clashes with

1914-500: A county-wide basis. The Association of Greater Manchester Authorities (AGMA) was established to continue much of the county-wide services of the county council . The metropolitan county continues to exist in law, and as a geographic frame of reference, for example as a NUTS 2 administrative division for statistical purposes within the European Union . Although having been a Lieutenancy area since 1974, Greater Manchester

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2088-748: A directly elected councillor from one of the ten metropolitan boroughs that comprise Greater Manchester. The authority derives most of its powers from the Local Government Act 2000 and Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009 , and replaced a range of single-purpose joint boards and quangos in 2011, to provide a formal administrative authority for Greater Manchester with powers over public transport, skills, housing, regeneration, waste management, carbon neutrality and planning permission. Functional executive bodies, such as Transport for Greater Manchester , are responsible for delivery of services in these areas. On 3 November 2014,

2262-490: A dwelling. It was recorded as Bothelton in 1212, Botelton in 1257, Boulton in 1288, and Bolton after 1307. Later forms of Botheltun were Bodeltown, Botheltun-le-Moors, Bowelton, Boltune, Bolton-super-Moras, Bolton-in-ye-Moors, Bolton-le-Moors. The town's motto of Supera Moras means "overcome difficulties" (or "delays"), and is a pun on the Bolton-super-Moras version of the name meaning literally, "Bolton on

2436-659: A final report. The Royal Commission's 1969 report, known as the Redcliffe-Maud Report, proposed the removal of much of the then existing system of local government. The commission described the system of administering urban and rural districts separately as outdated, noting that urban areas provided employment and services for rural dwellers, and open countryside was used by town dwellers for recreation. The commission considered interdependence of areas at many levels, including travel-to-work, provision of services, and which local newspapers were read, before proposing

2610-489: A footprint was left in the stone floor. It is a Grade I listed building and is now a museum. Hall i' th' Wood , now a museum, is a late mediaeval yeoman farmer's house built by Laurence Brownlow. Around 1637 it was owned by the Norris family, who added the stone west wing. In the 18th century it was divided up into tenements. Samuel Crompton lived and worked there. In the 19th century it deteriorated further until in 1895 it

2784-410: A global market. The townships in and around Manchester began expanding "at an astonishing rate" around the turn of the 19th century as part of a process of unplanned urbanisation brought on by a boom in industrial textile production and processing. This population increase resulted in the "vigorous concentric growth" of a conurbation between Manchester and an arc of surrounding mill towns , formed from

2958-722: A large Ashkenazi Orthodox synagogue in North Manchester. Greater Manchester is covered by the Roman Catholic Dioceses of Salford and Shrewsbury , and the Archdiocese of Liverpool . Much of Greater Manchester is part of the Anglican Diocese of Manchester , apart from Wigan which lies within the Diocese of Liverpool and parts of Stockport , Tameside and Trafford , which are in

3132-574: A majority of the county north of the River Irwell to as far as Chorley, Darwen, St Helens and Rossendale form a large part of the historic county of Lancashire including Manchester, Salford, Eccles, Bolton, Bury, Prestwich, Swinton, Pendlebury, Wigan, Leigh, Rochdale, Oldham, Ashton-under-Lyne, Stretford, Urmston, Old Trafford, Chadderton, Middleton, Heywood, Radcliffe, Milnrow, Horwich, Blackrod, Westhoughton, Littleborough, Atherton, Ashton-in-Makerfield and Golborne. The eastern and northeastern parts of

3306-399: A minority report suggested that Buxton be included). The metropolitan area was to be divided into nine metropolitan districts, based on Wigan, Bolton, Bury/Rochdale, Warrington, Manchester (including Salford and Old Trafford), Oldham, Altrincham, Stockport and Tameside. The report noted "The choice even of a label of convenience for this metropolitan area is difficult". Seven years earlier,

3480-412: A network of ancient peat bog on the fringe of Chat Moss , which in turn, at 10.6 sq mi (27 km ) comprises the largest area of prime farmland in Greater Manchester and contains the largest block of semi-natural woodland in the county. The Wigan Flashes, such as those at Pennington Flash Country Park , are the by-product of coal mining, where subsidence has led to waterbodies collecting in

3654-403: A new administrative metropolitan area . The area had roughly the same northern boundary as today's Greater Manchester (though included Rossendale ), but covered much more territory from Cheshire (including Macclesfield , Warrington , Alderley Edge , Northwich , Middlewich , Wilmslow and Lymm ), and Derbyshire (the towns of New Mills , Whaley Bridge , Glossop and Chapel-en-le-Frith –

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3828-633: A new authority covering the Pennines around Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire, and the Saddleworth White Rose Society erected signs with the wording "The Historic West Riding of Yorkshire". A 2015 petition called for Wigan to apply for independence from Greater Manchester and rejoin Lancashire because of its heritage and location. There was a proposal for Horwich , Atherton , Blackrod and Westhoughton to form either

4002-598: A new part of Greater Manchester or become a separate area back within Lancashire possibly under the Borough of Chorley although this was not pursued. The Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) is the top-tier administrative body for the local governance of Greater Manchester. It was established on 1 April 2011 as a pilot combined authority , unique to local government in the United Kingdom . Upon formation, it consisted of ten indirectly elected members, each

4176-502: A plant with fluffy white plumes native to wet hollows on high moors, was announced as the county flower of Greater Manchester. The house sparrow , starling , and blackbird are among the most populous bird species in Greater Manchester; magpie and feral pigeon are common and breed in habitats across the county. Flocks of feral parakeets can be seen in many of south Manchester's parks, including Birchfields Park, Whitworth Park and Platt Fields Park . The birds' relocation to

4350-544: A report released by the Institute for Public Policy Research 's Centre for Cities proposed the creation of two administrative city regions based on Manchester and Birmingham . The Manchester City Region initially appeared in government documents as one of eight city regions defined in the 2004 strategic document Moving Forward: The Northern Way . In July 2007, The Treasury published its Review of sub-national economic development and regeneration , which stated that

4524-542: A rough cloth made of linen and cotton. Digging sea coal was recorded in 1374. There was an outbreak of the plague in the town in 1623. During the English Civil War , the people of Bolton were Puritans and supported the Parliamentarian cause. A parliamentary garrison in the town was attacked twice without success but on 28 May 1644 Prince Rupert's Royalist army with troops under the command of

4698-559: A significant employer in the town. By 1900 Bolton was Lancashire's third largest engineering centre after Manchester and Oldham. About 9,000 men were employed in the industry, half of them working for Dobson and Barlow in Kay Street. Another engineering company Hick, Hargreaves & Co based at the Soho Foundry made Lancashire boilers and heavy machinery. Thomas Ryder and Son of Turner Bridge manufactured machine tools for

4872-413: A small area in the town centre, but until the 19th century it covered a much larger area, divided into eighteen chapelries and townships. The neighbouring ancient parish of Deane centred around St Mary's Church once covered a large area to the west and south of Bolton, and the township of Great Lever was part of the ancient parish of Middleton . Greater Manchester Greater Manchester

5046-672: A staunchly Royalist region and, as a result, the Royalist Prince Rupert of the Rhine led the 1644 storming of Bolton of 3,000 Royalist troops in which is also referred to as The Bolton Massacre , with 1,600 residents perished and 700 were taken prisoner. Bolton Wanderers football club now play home games at the Toughsheet Community Stadium in Horwich . Cultural interests include

5220-420: A steady accretion of houses, factories and transport infrastructure. Places such as Bury , Oldham and Bolton played a central economic role nationally, and by the end of the 19th century had become some of the most important and productive cotton-producing towns in the world. However, it was Manchester that was the most populous settlement, a major city, the world's largest marketplace for cotton goods, and

5394-404: A strategic authority based in what is now Westminster House off Piccadilly Gardens , comprised 106 members drawn from the ten metropolitan boroughs of Greater Manchester. It was a sub-regional body running regional services such as transport, strategic planning, emergency services and waste disposal. In 1986, along with the five other metropolitan county councils and the Greater London Council ,

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5568-677: A survey prepared for the British Association intended to define the "South-East Lancashire conurbation" noted that "Greater Manchester it is not ... One of its main characteristics is the marked individuality of its towns, ... all of which have an industrial and commercial history of more than local significance". The term Selnec (or SELNEC ) was already in use as an abbreviation for south east Lancashire and north east Cheshire; Redcliffe-Maud took this as "the most convenient term available", having modified it to south east Lancashire, north east and central Cheshire. Following

5742-537: A temperate maritime climate , like most of the British Isles , with relatively cool summers and mild winters. The county's average annual rainfall is 806.6 mm (31.76 in) compared to the UK average of 1,125.0 mm (44.29 in), and its mean rain days are 140.4 mm (5.53 in) per annum, compared to the UK average of 154.4 mm (6.08 in). The mean temperature is slightly above average for

5916-631: A variety of types. Manchester city centre is noted for its high-rise apartments, while Salford has some of the tallest and most densely populated tower block estates in Europe. Saddleworth has stone-built properties, including farmhouses and converted weavers' cottages. Throughout Greater Manchester, rows of terraced houses are common, most of them built during the Victorian and Edwardian periods . House prices and labour markets differ in Greater Manchester between north and south, such that in

6090-447: A visual orientation point of reference as a central business district. However, Greater Manchester is also a polycentric county with ten metropolitan districts, each of which has a major town centre – and in some cases more than one – and many smaller settlements. The major towns encircle Manchester city centre, and between them are other outlying towns (such as Denton , Middleton and Failsworth ) which are suburban to both

6264-452: Is "Greater Mancunian". The Manchester accent and dialect , native to Manchester, is common in the city and adjacent areas, but gives way to "slower, deeper accents" towards Greater Manchester's fringes and suburbs. Greater Manchester is home to a diverse population and is a multicultural agglomeration with an ethnic minority population comprising 8.5% of the total population in 2001. In 2008, there were over 66 refugee nationalities in

6438-487: Is a ceremonial county in North West England . It borders Lancashire to the north, Derbyshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Cheshire to the south, and Merseyside to the west. Its largest settlement is the city of Manchester . The county has an area of 493 sq mi (1,277 km ) and is highly urbanised, with a population of 2.9 million. The majority of the county's settlements are part of

6612-671: Is a large £300 million development with the University of Bolton at its core. Bolton is pursuing major redevelopment projects in its town centre, including the regeneration of Crompton Place and Church Wharf areas, aimed at promoting residential, commercial, and leisure spaces. Situated in the town centre on the site of a former market is the Grade II* listed town hall , an imposing neoclassical building designed by William Hill and opened in June 1873 by Albert Edward, Prince of Wales . In

6786-421: Is a mix of high density urban areas, suburbs, semi-rural and rural locations in Greater Manchester, but land use is mostly urban. The built environment of Greater Manchester utilises red brick and sandstone prominently as a building material, alongside structures composed of modern materials, high-rise towers, and landmark 19th, 20th and 21st century buildings in the city and town centres. Manchester city centre

6960-593: Is a town in Greater Manchester in England. In the foothills of the West Pennine Moors , Bolton is between Manchester , Blackburn , Wigan , Bury and Salford . It is surrounded by several towns and villages that form the wider borough , of which Bolton is the administrative centre . The town is within the historic county boundaries of Lancashire . A former mill town , Bolton has been

7134-621: Is represented in Parliament by the Labour Party, and is generally considered a Labour stronghold. The results of the 2024 United Kingdom general election in Greater Manchester are as follows: Greater Manchester has a population of 2,867,800 (2021 Census), making it the third most populous county in England after Greater London and the West Midlands and the highest ever for the county. The demonym of Greater Manchester

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7308-482: Is the commercial and geographic heart of Greater Manchester, and with the adjoining parts of Salford and Trafford, is defined as Greater Manchester's "Regional Centre" for purposes of urban planning and public transport. Political and economic ties between the city centre and neighbouring Salford and Trafford have strengthened with the shift from town and district centres to metropolitan-level centres in England, and this area's high-rise landmark buildings provide

7482-757: The Brigantes . Stretford was also part of the land believed to have been occupied by the Celtic Brigantes tribe, and lay on their border with the Cornovii on the southern side of the River Mersey . The remains of 1st-century forts at Castlefield in Manchester, and Castleshaw Roman Fort in Saddleworth , are evidence of Roman occupation . From the River Mersey to River Ribble

7656-593: The British Aerospace (BAe) factory in Lostock , now closed. The Reebok brand's European headquarters are located at the Reebok Stadium . Bolton is also the home of the family bakery, Warburtons , established in 1876 on Blackburn Road. On 13 February 2003, Bolton was granted Fairtrade Town status. Bolton attracts visitors to its shopping centres, markets, public houses, restaurants and cafes in

7830-562: The Bronze Age , including a stone circle on Cheetham Close above Egerton , and Bronze Age burial mounds on Winter Hill . A Bronze Age mound was excavated in Victorian times outside Haulgh Hall. The Romans built roads from Manchester to Ribchester to the east and a road along what is now the A6 to the west. It is claimed that Agricola built a fort at Blackrod by clearing land above

8004-503: The City of Salford , Stockport , Tameside , Trafford and Wigan . These district councils have the greatest powers over public services, and control matters such as council tax , education provision, social housing, libraries and healthcare. Eight of the ten metropolitan boroughs were named after the eight former county boroughs that now compose the largest centres of population and greater historical and political prominence. As an example,

8178-608: The Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher , with regards overspending and high rates charging. Government policy on the issue was considered throughout 1982, and the Conservative Party put a "promise to scrap the metropolitan county councils" and the GLC, in their manifesto for the 1983 general election . Greater Manchester County Council was abolished on 31 March 1986 under the Local Government Act 1985 . That

8352-570: The Devolution to the Greater Manchester Combined Authority agreement was signed to pass further powers and responsibilities, as well as the establishment of an elected Mayor of Greater Manchester. From April 2016, Greater Manchester became the first area of England to "get full control of its health spending" with a devolution deal which unites the region's health and social care systems under one budget under

8526-521: The Diocese of Chester . Following the deindustrialisation of Greater Manchester in the mid-20th century, there was a significant economic and population decline in the region, particularly in Manchester and Salford. Vast areas of low-quality squalid terraced housing that were built throughout the Victorian era were found to be in a poor state of repair and unsuited to modern needs; many inner-city districts suffered from chronic social deprivation and high levels of unemployment. Slum clearance and

8700-776: The Duchy of Lancaster  – extending the duchy to include areas which are historically in the counties of Cheshire and the West Riding of Yorkshire. Until 31 March 2005, Greater Manchester's Keeper of the Rolls was appointed by the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster ; they are now appointed by the Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain . The first Lord Lieutenant of Greater Manchester was Sir William Downward who held

8874-642: The Earl of Derby attacked again. The attack became known as the Bolton Massacre in which 1,500 died, 700 were taken prisoner and the town plundered. The attackers took to referring to the town as the "Geneva of the North", referencing Geneva 's dominant Calvinism , although historian Malcolm Hardman says this was a description borne "more of irritation than accuracy". At the end of the Civil War, Lord Derby

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9048-706: The Earls of Derby who became royalists in the English Civil War . The area surrounding Bolton was subsequently divided into four parts including the Stanley family, the Earl of Bradford , a Freeman and various other parties. Great Bolton and Little Bolton were part of the Marsey fee, in 1212 Little Bolton was held by Roger de Bolton as plough-land, by the service of the twelfth part of a knight's fee to Randle de Marsey. The parish church in Bolton has an early foundation although

9222-552: The Greater Manchester Built-up Area , which extends into Cheshire and Merseyside and is the second most populous urban area in the UK . The city of Manchester is the largest settlement. Other large settlements are Altrincham , Bolton , Rochdale , Sale , Salford , Stockport and Wigan . Greater Manchester contains ten metropolitan boroughs : Manchester, Salford , Bolton , Bury , Oldham , Rochdale , Stockport , Tameside , Trafford and Wigan ,

9396-601: The Lever Bank Bleach Works in the Irwell Valley. The mule revolutionised cotton spinning by combining the roller drafting of Arkwright's water frame with the carriage drafting and spindle tip twisting of James Hargreaves 's spinning jenny , producing a high quality yarn. Self-acting mules were used in Bolton mills until the 1960s producing fine yarn. The earliest mills were situated by the streams and river as at Barrow Bridge , but steam power led to

9570-530: The Manchester Airport Group which controls Manchester Airport and three other UK airports. Other services are directly funded and managed by the local councils. Greater Manchester is a ceremonial county with its own Lord-Lieutenant who is the personal representative of the monarch. The Local Government Act 1972 provided that the whole of the area to be covered by the new metropolitan county of Greater Manchester would also be included in

9744-565: The Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal providing the owners with markets in Bolton and Manchester. Coal mining declined in the 20th century. Important transport links contributed to the growth of the town and the textile industry; the Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal constructed in 1791, connected the town to Bury and Manchester providing transport for coal and other basic materials. The Bolton and Leigh Railway ,

9918-694: The Octagon Theatre and the Bolton Museum and Art Gallery, as well as one of the earliest public libraries established after the Public Libraries Act 1850 . Bolton is a common Northern English name derived from the Old English bothl - tun , meaning a settlement with a dwelling. The first recorded use of the name, in the form Boelton , dates from 1185 to describe Bolton le Moors, though this may not be in relation to

10092-412: The Office for National Statistics , the Urban Subdivision of Bolton was part of the Greater Manchester Urban Area and had a total resident population of 139,403, of which 67,823 (48.7%) were male and 71,580 (51.3%) were female, living in 57,827 households. The settlement occupied 4,446 hectares (17.17 sq mi), compared with 2,992 hectares (11.55 sq mi) in the 1991 census, though

10266-457: The Pennines : the West Pennine Moors in the northwest, the South Pennines in the northeast and the Peak District in the east. Most of the county's rivers rise in the Pennines and are tributaries of the Mersey and Irwell , the latter of which is itself a tributary of the Mersey. The county is connected to the Mersey Estuary by the Manchester Ship Canal , which for its entire length within Greater Manchester consists of canalised sections of

10440-421: The River Croal flows in a southeasterly direction towards the River Irwell . The geological formation around Bolton consists of sandstones of the Carboniferous series and Coal Measures ; in the northern part of Bolton the lower Coal Measures are mixed with underlying Millstone Grit . Climate in the Greater Manchester area is generally similar to the climate of England , although owing to protection from

10614-410: The Stretford and Urmston in 1960. Tillotson's Fiction Bureau, founded by WF Tillotson in 1873, played an important role in publishing late Victorian and early-20th-century literature. WF Tillotson died in 1889, leaving his widow and six children. In addition to the newspaper the Tillotson family also developed their general printing and carton making businesses. Mary Tillotson, widow of WF Tillotson,

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10788-417: The Transport Act 1968 , in 1969 the SELNEC Passenger Transport Executive (an authority to co-ordinate and operate public transport in the region) was set up, covering an area smaller than the proposed Selnec, and different again to the eventual Greater Manchester. Compared with the Redcliffe-Maud area, it excluded Macclesfield, Warrington, and Knutsford but included Glossop in Derbyshire and Saddleworth in

10962-411: The West Riding of Yorkshire . It excluded Wigan, which was both in the Redcliffe-Maud area and in the eventual Greater Manchester (but had not been part of the 1958 act's review area). Redcliffe-Maud's recommendations were accepted by the Labour-controlled government in February 1970. Although the Redcliffe-Maud Report was rejected by the Conservative government after the 1970 general election , there

11136-433: The Winter Hill TV Mast on the West Pennine Moors above the town. Bolton is well served by the local road network and national routes. The A6 , a major north–south trunk road , passes to the west through Hunger Hill and Westhoughton. The A666 dual carriageway , is a spur to and from the M61 motorway through the town centre to Astley Bridge, Egerton, Darwen and Blackburn. The M61 has three dedicated junctions serving

11310-408: The boroughs of High Peak , Warrington and the former boroughs of Congleton , Macclesfield and Vale Royal . In January 2008, AGMA suggested that a formal government structure be created to cover Greater Manchester. The issue resurfaced in June 2008 with regards to proposed congestion charging in Greater Manchester ; Sir Richard Leese (leader of Manchester City Council ) said "I've come to

11484-516: The cotton industry and expansion in ancillary trades. The area became central to England's woollen trade with domestic flannel and fustian cloth production, which encouraged a system of cross-regional trade. In the 18th century, German traders had coined the name Manchesterthum to cover the region in and around Manchester. Infrastructure such as rows of terraced housing, factories and roads were constructed to house labour, transport goods, and produce cotton goods on an industrial scale for

11658-406: The financial crisis of 2007–2008 , it was announced in the 2009 United Kingdom Budget that Greater Manchester and the Leeds City Region would be awarded Statutory City Region Pilot status, allowing (if they desired) for their constituent district councils to pool resources and become statutory Combined Authorities with powers comparable to the Greater London Authority. The stated aim of the pilot

11832-420: The parish councils , which cover the various civil parishes in Greater Manchester , and have limited powers over upkeep, maintenance and small grants. For the first 12 years after the county was created in 1974, Greater Manchester had a two-tier system of local government, and the metropolitan borough councils shared power with the Greater Manchester County Council . The Greater Manchester County Council,

12006-419: The second most populous built-up area in the UK , and occupied an area of 630.3 km (243.4 sq mi) at the time of the 2011 census. The European Union designate the conurbation as a single homogeneous urban city region . The Built-up Area includes most of Greater Manchester, omitting areas of countryside and small villages, as well as noncontiguous urban towns such as Wigan and Marple . Outside

12180-455: The "Manchester known in commerce", and referred to the areas that formed "a substantial part of South Lancashire and part of Cheshire, comprising all municipal boroughs and minor authorities within a radius of eight or nine miles of Manchester". In his 1915 book Cities in Evolution , urban planner Sir Patrick Geddes wrote "far more than Lancashire realises, is growing up another Greater London". The Manchester Evening Chronicle brought to

12354-414: The 12.1 sq mi (31 km ) of common land in Greater Manchester are of particular interest to organisations such as the Greater Manchester Local Record Centre, the Greater Manchester Biodiversity Project and the Manchester Field Club, which are dedicated to wildlife conservation and the preservation of the region's natural history . Among the SSSIs are Astley and Bedford Mosses which form

12528-404: The 18th and 19th centuries: a phenomenal rise in population, the appearance of the specialist industrial town, a transport revolution, and weak local lordship". Much of the county was at the forefront of textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution and into the early-20th century; Peter Smith, Baron Smith of Leigh , chair of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority said "clearly, all of

12702-655: The 1920s. A brief upturn after the Second World War was not sustained, and the industry had virtually vanished by the end of the 20th century. During the night of 26 September 1916, Bolton was the target for an aerial offensive. L21 , a Zeppelin commanded by Oberleutnant Kurt Frankenburg of the Imperial German Navy , dropped twenty-one bombs on the town, five of them on the working class area of Kirk Street, killing thirteen residents and destroying six houses. Further attacks followed on other parts of

12876-475: The 1930s the building was extended by Bradshaw Gass & Hope . Within the Town Hall are the 'Albert Halls and several function rooms. The original, single Albert Hall was destroyed by fire on 14 November 1981. After rebuilding work, it was replaced by the present Albert Halls , which were opened in 1985. The halls underwent a major restoration project, reopening in 2017. The Great Hall of Smithills Hall

13050-551: The 19th century. Crompton, whilst living at Hall i' th' Wood , invented the spinning mule in 1779. Streams draining the surrounding moorland into the River Croal provided the water necessary for the bleach works that were a feature of this area. Bleaching using chlorine was introduced in the 1790s by the Ainsworths at Halliwell Bleachworks. Bolton and the surrounding villages had more than thirty bleachworks including

13224-490: The 2000s, the Housing Market Renewal Initiative identified Manchester , Salford, Rochdale and Oldham as areas with terraced housing unsuited to modern needs. In contrast, towns and villages in southern Greater Manchester, from Bramhall through Woodford to Altrincham constitute an arc of wealthy commuter towns . Altrincham in particular, with its neighbours Bowdon and Hale , forms

13398-538: The 2001 Urban census area contains a large rural area to the south of the town. Its population density was 31.35 people per hectare compared with an average of 40.20 across the Greater Manchester Urban Area. The median age of the population was 35, compared with 36 within the Greater Manchester Urban Area and 37 across England and Wales. The majority of the population of Bolton were born in England (87.10%); 2.05% were born elsewhere within

13572-649: The Chadwick Orphanage, improved the Bolton Workhouse and funded the towns natural history museum that was the basis of the present Bolton Museum at Le Mans Crescent, the original museum was in a building at Queens Park . The second statue at Victoria Square is in memory of a former Bolton Mayor Sir Benjamin Alfred Dobson (1847–1898) who died in office in 1898, he was a textile machinery manufacturer and chairman of Dobson & Barlow ,

13746-577: The Greater Manchester County Council was abolished, and most of its powers were devolved to the boroughs. Between 1986 and 2011, the boroughs were effectively unitary authority areas , but opted to co-operate voluntarily under the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities (AGMA), which served to create a co-ordinated county-wide approach to issues of common interest to Greater Manchester, such as public transport and

13920-466: The Greater Manchester County Council. The plan set out objectives for the forthcoming metropolitan county. The highest priority was to increase the quality of life for its inhabitants by improving the county's physical environment and cultural facilities which had suffered following deindustrialisation – much of Greater Manchester's basic infrastructure dated from its 19th-century growth, and was unsuited to modern lifestyles. Other objectives were to reverse

14094-596: The Greater Manchester area was once at the heart of a very vibrant [textiles] industry", represented by former textile mills found throughout the county. The territory that makes up Greater Manchester experienced a rapid decline of these traditional sectors, partly during the Lancashire Cotton famine brought on by the American Civil War , but mainly as part of the post-war economic depression and deindustrialization of Britain that occurred during

14268-500: The Market Place, Wood Street and Holy Trinity Church . The Market Hall of 1854 is a Grade II listed building. Outside the town centre can be found Mere Hall, Firwood Fold , Haulgh Hall, Park Cottage, St Mary's Church, Deane, Lostock Hall Gatehouse and All Souls Church . Notable mills still overlooking parts of the town are Sir John Holden's Mill and Swan Lane Mills . Most views northwards are dominated by Rivington Pike and

14442-702: The Mersey and Irwell. What is now Greater Manchester was a largely rural area until the Industrial Revolution , when the region rapidly industrialised. The area's towns and cities became major centres for the manufacture of cotton textiles , aided by the exploitation of the Lancashire coalfield . The region was also an engineering and scientific centre, leading to achievements such as the first inter-city railway and Ernest Rutherford 's pioneering work on nuclear fission . Since deindustrialisation in

14616-581: The Metropolitan Borough of Bolton in Greater Manchester. Bolton unsuccessfully applied for city status in 2011. Bolton Council is divided into twenty wards, each of which elects three councillors for a term of up to four years. Under the Reform Act of 1832 , a Parliamentary Borough was established. The Bolton constituency was represented by two Members of Parliament (MPs). The Parliamentary Borough continued until 1950 when it

14790-664: The Metropolitan Borough of Stockport is centred on the town of Stockport , a former county borough, but includes other smaller settlements, such as Cheadle , Gatley , and Bramhall . The names of two of the metropolitan boroughs were given a neutral name because, at the time they were created, there was no agreement on the town to be put forward as the administrative centre and neither had a county borough . These boroughs are Tameside and Trafford , centred on Ashton-under-Lyne and Stretford , respectively, and are named with reference to geographical and historical origins. The lowest formal tier of local government in Greater Manchester are

14964-705: The North West as Regional Editor, including the Lancashire Telegraph, Bury Times, The Oldham Times, the Warrington Guardian and Wirral Globe. Saiqa Chaudhari is the audience and content editor for the website, while Roger Airey is in charge of print production. The sports editor is David Pye and the chief football correspondent is Marc Iles. The Bolton Evening News was Britain's first community evening halfpenny newspaper. The only other evening paper to publish before The Bolton Evening News

15138-569: The North West of England. The Bolton News has an approximate circulation of 7,589. On 11 September 2006 the Bolton Evening News became The Bolton News , which saw the newspaper being sold from the morning onwards. It considered several names, including Bolton Daily News and Bolton News . Newsquest bought these internet domain names in May 2006. The editor of The Bolton News is Richard Duggan (who also oversees other newspapers in

15312-532: The Regional Centre and the major town centres. Combined, these factors make Greater Manchester the most complex "polycentric functional urban region" in the UK outside London. The Greater Manchester Built-up Area is the conurbation or continuous urban area based around Greater Manchester, as defined by the Office for National Statistics . In 2011, it had an estimated population of 2,553,379, making it

15486-579: The UK has made them the country's "only naturalised parrot and the most northerly breeding parrot in the world". The South Pennines also support internationally important numbers of golden plover , curlew , merlin and twite . A number of Red Eared Terrapins , a species of small turtle, are known to inhabit the lake in Alexandra Park . Greater Manchester is formed of parts of Cheshire, Lancashire and parts of West Riding of Yorkshire. The historic boundary between Cheshire and Lancashire begins from

15660-508: The United Kingdom, 1.45% within the rest of the European Union, and 9.38% elsewhere in the world. Data on religious beliefs across the town in the 2001 census show that 67.9% declared themselves to be Christian , 12.5% stated that they were Muslim , 8.6% said they held no religion, and 3.4% reported themselves as Hindu . At the time of the 2001 Census, 56,390 people resident in Bolton were in employment. Of these, 21.13% worked in

15834-435: The United Kingdom. Greater Manchester has a relatively high humidity level, which lent itself to the optimised and breakage-free textile manufacturing process that took place around the county. Snowfall is not common in the built up areas because of the urban warming effect but the West Pennine Moors in the northwest, South Pennines in the northeast and Peak District in the east receive more snow, and roads leading out of

16008-540: The approval of the Combined Authority. On 3 November 2014, George Osborne , the Chancellor of the Exchequer , announced that there would be an eleventh member of the GMCA – a directly elected Mayor of Greater Manchester , with "powers over transport, housing, planning and policing" from 2017. Greater Manchester is a landlocked county spanning 493 sq mi (1,277 km ). The Pennines rise to

16182-522: The artificial limits of boundaries" in return for greater autonomy from the central government of the UK . A referendum on the Greater Manchester Transport Innovation Fund was held in December 2008, in which voters "overwhelmingly rejected" plans for public transport improvements linked to a peak-time weekday-only congestion charge. Following a bid from AGMA highlighting the potential benefits in combatting

16356-440: The basis of an illustrated book "Bolton – as it is and as it might be". In 1924, Leverhulme presented Bolton Council with an ambitious plan to rebuild the town centre based on Mawson's designs funded partly by himself. The council declined in favour of extending the town hall and building the civic centre. Lying within the county boundaries of Lancashire , until the early 19th century, Great Bolton and Little Bolton were two of

16530-408: The borough was extended further by adding the civil parishes of Breightmet, Darcy Lever, Great Lever, the rest of Halliwell, Heaton , Lostock , Middle Hulton , the rest of Rumworth which had been renamed Deane in 1894, Smithills, and Tonge plus Astley Bridge Urban District, and part of Over Hulton civil parish. The County Borough of Bolton was abolished in 1974 and became a constituent part of

16704-529: The borough. A network of local buses coordinated by Transport for Greater Manchester serves the Bolton district and beyond; bus operators include Go North West and Diamond North West , both under the TfGM branding of Bee Network . Bolton is also served by the National Express coach network. The bus station on Moor Lane was scheduled to be replaced by a new interchange in the town centre next to

16878-547: The borough. Bolton Sixth Form College comprises the Town Centre Campus and Farnworth Campus. The Bolton TIC (Technical Innovation Centre), opened in 2006, supports local schools by providing additional technical training. The University of Bolton , formerly the Bolton Institute of Higher Education, gained university status in 2005. There is evidence from Saxon times of Christian churches and at

17052-518: The boundary of Greater Manchester it includes several adjacent areas of settlement and a few outliers connected to the conurbation by ribbon development, such as Wilmslow and Alderley Edge in Cheshire, Glossop and Hadfield in Derbyshire, and Whitworth in Lancashire. This conurbation forms part of a megalopolis of 9.4 million across northern England . Greater Manchester experiences

17226-511: The business in 1850. His son, William Frederick Tillotson, became apprenticed to his father. He managed to persuade his father to help him launch the first Bolton Evening News , which stretched to four pages. William Frederick Tillotson married Mary Lever on 20 April 1870. Severe difficulties dogged WF Tillotson's early enterprise but he persevered and the Evening News really took off under the first editor William Brimelow. Legend has it that

17400-455: The changing needs of the county of Lancashire, including those for Manchester and surrounding districts. Other proposals included the creation of a Manchester County Council, a directly elected regional body. In 1951, the census in the UK began reporting on South East Lancashire as a homogeneous conurbation. The Local Government Act 1958 designated the south east Lancashire area (which, despite its name, included part of north east Cheshire),

17574-456: The communities of town and village, each of which was the embodiment of the character of this region". The name Greater Manchester was adopted, having been favoured over Selnec following public consultation, despite opposition claiming that "Greater Manchester [...] is a myth. An abomination. A travesty.". By January 1974, a joint working party representing Greater Manchester had drawn up its county Structure Plan , ready for implementation by

17748-423: The conclusion that [a referendum on congestion charging should be held] because we don't have an indirectly or directly elected body for Greater Manchester that has the power to make this decision". On 14 July 2008 the ten local authorities in Greater Manchester agreed to a strategic and integrated cross-county Multi-Area Agreement ; a voluntary initiative aimed at making district councils "work together to challenge

17922-647: The construction of the large multi-storey mills and their chimneys that dominated Bolton's skyline, some of which survive today. Growth of the textile industry was assisted by the availability of coal in the area. By 1896 John Fletcher had coal mines at Ladyshore in Little Lever ; The Earl of Bradford had a coal mine at Great Lever ; the Darcy Lever Coal Company had mines at Darcy Lever and there were coal mines at Tonge , Breightmet , Deane and Doffcocker . Some of these pits were close to

18096-403: The control of local leaders, including Greater Manchester's new directly elected mayor. On 4 May 2017, Labour politician Andy Burnham was elected as the inaugural mayor , joining the GMCA as its eleventh member and serving as its leader. Beneath the GMCA are the ten councils of Greater Manchester's ten districts , which are Bolton , Bury , the City of Manchester , Oldham , Rochdale ,

18270-640: The councils of which collaborate through Greater Manchester Combined Authority . The county was created on 1 April 1974 from parts of north-east Cheshire, south-east Lancashire, and a small part of the West Riding of Yorkshire . The centre and south-west of Greater Manchester are lowlands, similar to the West Lancashire Coastal Plain to the north-west and the Cheshire Plain to the south-west. The north and east are part of

18444-661: The county can be closed due to heavy snowfall. They include the A62 road via Standedge , the Pennine section of the M62 and the A57 , Snake Pass , towards Sheffield . At the most southern point of Greater Manchester, Woodford's Met Office weather station recorded a temperature of −17.6 °C (0.3 °F) on 8 January 2010 . Contrary to its reputation for urban sprawl, Greater Manchester has green belt constraining urban drift , and

18618-459: The county centuries later, to south of the Mersey and Tame , were governed under Cheshire while the Saddleworth area and a small part of Mossley are historically part of Yorkshire . In the late 18th to early 19th century, the Industrial Revolution transformed the local domestic system; mechanisation enabled the industrialisation of the region's textile trade, triggering rapid growth in

18792-474: The county which include Saddleworth and parts of Rochdale form part of the historic county of West Riding of Yorkshire. Since the formation of Greater Manchester, residents have debated their identities in the metropolitan and historic counties through heritage, culture and governance. Residents in Saddleworth in the Borough of Oldham have called for independence from Greater Manchester and Oldham Council and

18966-520: The county. At the 2001 UK census, 74.2% of Greater Manchester's residents were Christian, 5.0% Muslim, 0.9% Jewish, 0.7% Hindu, 0.2% Buddhist, and 0.1% Sikh. 11.4% had no religion, 0.2% had an alternative religion and 7.4% did not state their religion. This is similar to the rest of the country, although the proportions of Muslims and Jews are nearly twice the national average. It contains the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation ,

19140-556: The day the Local Government Act came into effect noted that the "new arrangement is a compromise which seeks to reconcile familiar geography which commands a certain amount of affection and loyalty, with the scale of operations on which modern planning methods can work effectively". Frangopulo noted that the creation of Greater Manchester "was the official unifying of a region which, through history and tradition, had forged for itself over many centuries bonds ... between

19314-622: The direction of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, these joint boards are Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) which is responsible for planning and co-ordinating public transport across the county; the Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service , who are administered by a joint Fire and Rescue Authority; and the Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority . These joint boards are made up of councillors appointed from each of

19488-534: The eighteen townships of the ecclesiastical parish of Bolton le Moors . These townships were separated by the River Croal , Little Bolton on the north bank and Great Bolton on the south. Bolton Poor Law Union was formed on 1 February 1837. It continued using existing poorhouses at Fletcher Street and Turton but in 1856 started to build a new workhouse at Fishpool Farm in Farnworth. Townleys Hospital

19662-633: The exact date is unknown; it was given by the lord of the manor to the Gilbertine canons of Mattersey Priory in Nottinghamshire, founded by Roger de Marsey. A charter to hold a market in Churchgate was granted on 14 December 1251 by King Henry III of England . Bolton became a market town and borough by a charter from the Earl of Derby, William de Ferrers, on 14 January 1253, and a market

19836-544: The fore the issue of "regional unity" for the area in April 1935 under the headline "Greater Manchester – The Ratepayers' Salvation". It reported on the "increasing demands for the exploration of the possibilities of a greater merger of public services throughout Manchester and the surrounding municipalities". The issue was frequently discussed by civic leaders in the area at that time, particularly those from Manchester and Salford . The Mayor of Salford pledged his support to

20010-615: The forest. Evidence of a Saxon settlement exists in the form of religious objects found when the Victorian parish church was built. In 1067 Great Bolton was the property of Roger de Poitou and after 1100, of Roger de Meresheys. Bolton became the property of the Pilkington family until they forfeited the land in the Wars of the Roses . The land was given to the Stanley family and thus

20184-510: The former Westhoughton constituency . Under the town twinning scheme the local council have twinned Bolton with Le Mans in France, since 1967, and Paderborn in Germany, since 1975. It is surrounded by several neighbouring towns and villages that together form the Borough of Bolton , of which Bolton is the administrative centre . The town of Bolton has a population of 139,403, whilst

20358-464: The government would allow those city regions that wished to work together to form a statutory framework for city regional activity, including powers over transport, skills, planning and economic development. The Manchester City Region encompassed fifteen local government districts: the cities of Manchester and Salford plus the metropolitan boroughs of Stockport , Tameside , Trafford , Bolton , Bury , Oldham , Rochdale and Wigan , together with

20532-499: The idea, stating that he looked forward to the day when "there would be a merging of the essential services of Manchester, Salford, and the surrounding districts constituting Greater Manchester." Proposals were halted by the Second World War , though in the decade after it, the pace of proposals for local government reform for the area quickened. In 1947, Lancashire County Council proposed a three " ridings " system to meet

20706-511: The increased building of social housing overspill estates by Salford and Manchester City Councils lead to a decrease in population in central Greater Manchester. During the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, the population of Greater Manchester declined by over 8,000 inhabitants a year. While Manchester's population shrank by about 40% during this time (from 766,311 in 1931 to 452,000 in 2006), the total population of Greater Manchester decreased by only 8%. Greater Manchester's housing stock comprises

20880-579: The international motor industry. Wrought iron was produced for more than 100 years at Thomas Walmsley and Sons ' Atlas Forge. By 1911 the textile industry in Bolton employed about 36,000 people. As of 1920, the Bolton Cardroom Union had more than 15,000 members, while the Bolton Weavers' Association represented 13,500 workers. The last mill to be constructed was Sir John Holden's Mill in 1927. The cotton industry declined from

21054-698: The job application process then could be traumatic. Brimelow is said to have had a habit of throwing a book on the ground just as potential applicants entered the office to see what their reaction was. Following on from the success of the evening paper the weekly Journals followed: Bolton Weekly Journal 1871 (which merged with the Bolton Guardian in 1893 to become the Bolton Journal and Guardian ), Farnworth Weekly Journal 1873, Leigh, Tyldesley and Atherton Journal 1874, Eccles and Patricroft Journal 1874, Horwich and Westhoughton Journal 1925, and

21228-476: The largest and most productive centres of cotton spinning in the world. The British cotton industry declined sharply after the First World War and, by the 1980s, cotton manufacture had virtually ceased in Bolton. A tradition of cottage spinning and weaving and improvements to spinning technology by local inventors, Richard Arkwright and Samuel Crompton , led to rapid growth of the textile industry in

21402-465: The latter part of the 20th century, but the days of family-owned newspapers were drawing to a close and in 1971 the Tillotsons sold the company to St Regis International of New York. From then on change happened rapidly. St Regis sold the group to Reed International in 1982 and the Bolton Evening News became the largest of its titles. In 1987 the paper relocated to Newspaper House in Churchgate and

21576-579: The metropolitan county councils were controlled by the Labour Party led to accusations that their abolition was motivated by party politics: the general secretary of the National Association of Local Government Officers described it as a "completely cynical manoeuvre". Most of the functions of GMCC were devolved to the ten Greater Manchester metropolitan district councils, though functions such as emergency services and public transport were taken over by joint boards and continued to be run on

21750-464: The mid-20th century the county has emerged as a major centre for services, media and digital industries, and is renowned for guitar and dance music and its football teams. Although Greater Manchester was not created until 1974, the history of its settlements go back centuries. There is evidence of Iron Age habitation, particularly at Mellor , and a known Celtic Britons settlement named Chochion , believed to have been an area of Wigan settled by

21924-497: The moors". The name itself is referred to in the badge of the Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council using a form of visual pun, a rebus , in combining motifs of arrow for 'bolt' and heraldic crown for 'tun', the term for the central high point of a defensive position that is the etymon of the suffix of Bolton. There is evidence of human existence on the moors around Bolton since the early part of

22098-569: The mountains in North Wales it experiences slightly lower than average rainfall except during the summer months, when rainfall is higher than average. Bolton has mild differences between highs and lows, and there is adequate rainfall year-round. The Köppen Climate Classification subtype for this climate is " Cfb " (Marine West Coast Climate/ Oceanic climate ). At the time of the United Kingdom Census 2001 , according to

22272-548: The natural centre of its region. By 1835 "Manchester was without challenge the first and greatest industrial city in the world"; and by 1848 urban sprawl had fused the city to its surrounding towns and hinterland to form a single continuous conurbation. The area is recorded in planning documents for the Manchester Ship Canal dated 1883, as "Manchester, Salford and the Out-Townships". The conurbation

22446-488: The new authority was created on 1 April 2011. On the same day, the Transport for Greater Manchester Committee was also formed from a pool of 33 councillors allocated by council population (roughly one councillor per 75,000 residents) to scrutinise the running of Greater Manchester's transport bodies and their finances, approve the decisions and policies of said bodies and form strategic policy recommendations or projects for

22620-596: The north and east of the county with the West Pennine Moors in the northwest, the South Pennines in the northeast and the Peak District in the east. Several coalfields (mainly sandstones and shales) lie in the west of the county while the Cheshire Plain fringes the south. The rivers Mersey , Irwell and Tame run through Greater Manchester, all of which rise in the Pennines. Other rivers traverse

22794-609: The old building in Mealhouse Lane became the Shipgates shopping centre, later becoming part of Crompton Place shopping arcade. In September 2006 the paper was renamed The Bolton News . The rename came about as the paper is now delivered from the morning onwards. On 11 June 2009 the sub-editors in the editorial department were moved to Blackburn, working from the offices of the Lancashire Telegraph . It meant

22968-569: The oldest in Lancashire, opened to goods traffic in 1828 and Great Moor Street station opened to passengers in 1831. The railway initially connected Bolton to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal in Leigh , an important link with the port of Liverpool for the import of raw cotton from America, but was extended in 1829 to link up with the Manchester to Liverpool Line . Local firms built locomotives for

23142-412: The parish church. The school became Canon Slade School , which has since relocated to Bradshaw . The town's other secondary schools include Bolton St Catherine's Academy , Ladybridge High School , Rivington and Blackrod High School , Sharples School , Smithills School , Thornleigh Salesian College , and University Collegiate School . Bolton College provides further education from sites throughout

23316-408: The passage of the bill, the towns of Whitworth , Wilmslow and Poynton successfully objected to their incorporation in the new county. The areas that were incorporated into Greater Manchester in 1974 previously formed parts of the administrative counties of Cheshire, Lancashire, the West Riding of Yorkshire , and eight independent county boroughs . By the early 1970s, this system of demarcation

23490-457: The points of both the River Irwell and Manchester Ship Canal. The southern parts of the county that form part of Trafford, Stockport and Tameside cover Altrincham, Sale, Stockport, Marple, Cheadle Hulme, Hyde, Stalybridge and Wythenshawe (Which became part of Manchester in the 1920s) are all historically part of Cheshire. Denton and Audenshaw in Tameside were historically part of Lancashire. While

23664-611: The production of pages for The Bolton News were created away from Bolton for the first time in the publication's history. At the start of 2009, the Bury Times operation was merged with The Bolton News . The Bury Times office in Market Street was sold to Bury College. The Bury Times is now largely produced in Bolton and Blackburn and in April 2013, it was revamped with more pages and a £1 price point. In 2011, The Bolton News looked towards digital production, expanding into

23838-471: The railway station by the end of 2014, at a cost of £48 million. Bolton Interchange is managed by Northern ; the railway station is part of a town centre transport interchange with services to Manchester, Wigan, Southport, Kirkby, Blackburn, Preston, Blackpool, Barrow in Furness, Windermere, Glasgow, Edinburgh and intermediate stations operated by Northern and TransPennine Express . Bolton School ,

24012-620: The railway, in 1830 "Union" was built by Rothwell, Hick and Company and two locomotives, "Salamander" and "Veteran" were built by Crook and Dean. Bolton's first Mayor, Charles James Darbishire was sympathetic to Chartism and a supporter of the Anti-Corn Law League . In August 1839 Bolton was besieged by Chartist rioters and the Riot Act was read and special constables sworn in. The mayor accompanied soldiers called to rescue special constables at Little Bolton Town Hall , which

24186-835: The region as tributaries to the major rivers, including the Douglas , the Irk , and the Roch . Black Chew Head is the highest point in Greater Manchester which forms part of the Peak District National Park , rising 1,778 ft (542 m) above sea-level, within the parish of Saddleworth . Greater Manchester is characterised by its dense urban and industrial developments, which include centres of commerce, finance, retail and administration, as well as commuter suburbs and housing, interspersed with transport infrastructure such as light rail, roads and motorway, and canals. There

24360-410: The resulting hollows which form an important reed bed resource in Greater Manchester. Opened in 1979, Sale Water Park is a 152-acre (62 ha) area of countryside and parkland in Sale which includes a 52-acre (21 ha) artificial lake by the River Mersey . Clover , sorrel , nettle and thistle are common, and grow wild in Greater Manchester. Common heather ( Calluna vulgaris ) dominates

24534-432: The separation of the proposed Bury/Rochdale authority (retained from the Redcliffe-Maud report) into the Metropolitan Borough of Bury and the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale . Bury and Rochdale were originally planned to form a single district (dubbed "Botchdale" by local MP Michael Fidler ) but were divided into separate boroughs. To re-balance the districts, the borough of Rochdale took Middleton from Oldham. During

24708-447: The shared labour market, as well as making representations to central government and the European Union. Although used as a "successful brand", Greater Manchester's politics have been characterised by "entrenched localism and related rivalries", historically resistant to regionalism . The major towns in Greater Manchester retain a "fierce independence", meaning Greater Manchester is administered using "inter-municipal coordination" on

24882-481: The smartphone app market, launching Bolton and Bury Football for Apple iOS devices, and producing ebooks for the iPad and Kindle. In October 2012, The Bolton News relocated to The Wellsprings, Bolton, taking over the former Barclays Bank after the lease on Newspaper House came to an end. The newspaper was given a fresh look and increased price in May 2013 but it led to a 32 per cent drop in circulation. In 2023, Bolton based British-Indian Entrepreneur Dr Prash Ladva ,

25056-418: The south", and so had to negotiate several land-use, transport and housing projects with its neighbouring county councils. However a "major programme of environmental action" by GMCC broadly succeeded in reversing social deprevation in its inner city slums. Leisure and recreational successes included the Greater Manchester Exhibition Centre (better known as the G-Mex centre and now branded Manchester Central ),

25230-443: The ten boroughs (except the Waste Disposal Authority, which does not include the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan ). Greater Manchester Police was formerly overseen by a joint police authority , but was briefly overseen by the Greater Manchester Police and Crime Commissioner from 2012 until the functions of that office were subsumed into the new regional mayoralty upon its creation in 2017. The ten borough councils are joint-owners of

25404-495: The ten councils. Such strategic matters would be decided on via an enhanced majority rule voting system involving ten members appointed from among the councillors of the metropolitan boroughs (one representing each borough with each council nominating one substitute) without the input of central government. The ten district councils of Greater Manchester approved the creation of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) on 29 March 2010, and submitted final recommendations for

25578-405: The third highest number in England behind Greater London (360,890) and the West Midlands (140,980), and the thirteenth highest in England per head of population. The majority of students are concentrated on Oxford Road in Manchester, Europe's largest urban higher education precinct. As of 2010, further education in Greater Manchester is co-ordinated by the Greater Manchester Colleges Group,

25752-419: The time of the Civil War a Puritan and nonconformist presence in the town. The Unitarians were among the early dissenting congregations which eventually included Methodists , Baptists, Seventh Day Adventist and other denominations. More than forty churches were built during the Victorian era, but some have now been closed, demolished or converted to other uses. Today, the parish of Bolton-le-Moors covers

25926-480: The title from 1974 to 1988. The current Lord Lieutenant is Warren James Smith. As a geographic county, Greater Manchester is used by the government (via the Office for National Statistics ) for the gathering of county-wide statistics, and organising and collating general register and census material. In terms of representation in the Parliament of the United Kingdom , Greater Manchester is divided into 27 parliamentary constituencies . Most of Greater Manchester

26100-642: The town centre as well retail parks and leisure facilities close to the town centre and in the surrounding towns and suburbs. Tourism plays a part in the economy, visitor attractions include Hall i' th' Wood , Smithills Hall and Country Park, Last Drop Village, Barrow Bridge and the Bolton Steam Museum . There are several regeneration projects planned for Bolton over the next ten years, including Church Wharf by Ask Developments and Bluemantle and Merchant's Quarter by local developer Charles Topham group, which together will contribute 1,000,000 square feet (93,000 m ) of business space. The Bolton Innovation Zone

26274-502: The town with 67 acres (270,000 m ) of land for a public park which the corporation named Leverhulme Park in 1914. In 1902 he gave the people of Bolton Lever Park at Rivington . In 1911, Lever consulted Thomas Mawson , landscape architect and lecturer in Landscape Design at the University of Liverpool, regarding town planning in Bolton. Mawson published "Bolton – a Study in Town Planning and Civic Art" and gave lectures entitled "Bolton Housing and Town Planning Society" which formed

26448-502: The town, including three incendiaries dropped close to the Town Hall. In 1899 William Lever, Lord Leverhulme , bought Hall i'th' Wood as a memorial to Samuel Crompton inventor of the spinning mule. Lever restored the dilapidated building and presented it to the town in 1902, having turned it into a museum furnished with household goods typical of domestic family life in the 16th and 17th centuries. Lever re-endowed Bolton Schools , giving land and his house on Chorley New Road. He presented

26622-557: The trend of depopulation in central-Greater Manchester, to invest in country parks to improve the region's poor reputation on leisure facilities, and to improve the county's transport infrastructure and patterns. Because of political objection, particularly from Cheshire, Greater Manchester covered only the inner, urban 62 of the 90 former districts that the Royal Commission had outlined as an effective administrative metropolitan area. In this capacity, GMCC found itself "planning for an arbitrary metropolitan area ... abruptly truncated to

26796-475: The uplands, such as Saddleworth Moor , which lies within the South Pennines and Dark Peak area of the Peak District National Park . The Rochdale Canal harbours floating water-plantain ( Luronium natams ), a nationally endangered aquatic plant. In 2002, Plantlife International launched its County Flowers campaign , asking members of the public to nominate and vote for a wild flower emblem for their county. Common cottongrass ( Eriophorum angustifolium ),

26970-614: The wholesale and retail trade, including repair of motor vehicles; 18.71% worked within manufacturing industry; 11.00% worked within the health and social work sector and 6.81% were employed in the transport, storage and communication industries. In the last quarter of the 20th century heavy industry was replaced by service-based activities including data processing, call centres, hi-tech electronics and IT companies. The town retains some traditional industries employing people in paper-manufacturing, packaging, textiles, transportation, steel foundries and building materials. Missiles were produced at

27144-425: The wider metropolitan borough has a population of 262,400. Close to the West Pennine Moors , Bolton is 10 miles (16 km) north-west of Manchester . The early name, Bolton le Moors, described the position of the town amid the low hills on the edge of the West Pennine Moors southeast of Rivington Pike (456 m). Bolton lies on relatively flat land on both sides of the clough or steep-banked valley through which

27318-426: The world. The British cotton industry declined sharply after the First World War and, by the 1980s, cotton manufacture had virtually ceased in the town. The town has a population of 139,403, whilst the wider metropolitan borough has a population of 262,400. Bolton originated as a small settlement in the moorland known as Bolton le Moors . In the English Civil War , the town was a Parliamentarian outpost in 1644 in

27492-458: Was the Shipping Gazette in South Shields . The first edition of The Bolton Evening News was founded by the Tillotson family and was published on Tuesday 19 March 1867 – with the front page entirely devoted to adverts. But the origins of the paper stretch way back to 1834 when John Tillotson was apprenticed to printer Robert Marsden Holden, who had premises in Mealhouse Lane, Bolton. Tillotson eventually married his boss's daughter and took over

27666-419: Was "a Victorian metropolis, achieving its commercial peak during 1890–1915". In the 1910s, local government reforms to administer this conurbation as a single entity were proposed. Use in a municipal context appeared in a 1914 report submitted in response to what was considered to have been the successful creation of the County of London in 1889. The report suggested that a county should be set up to recognise

27840-415: Was a business partner in the Bolton Evening News ; John Lever Tillotson left the Bolton Evening News to join the board of Lever Brothers . The paper went from strength to strength and outgrew its primitive origins in a hand-fed printer and in 1876 a Victory printing and folding machine was acquired with a capacity of printing 16,000 copies an hour. The Tillotsons remained owners of the Evening News into

28014-516: Was a commitment to local government reform, and the need for a metropolitan county centred on the conurbation surrounding Manchester was accepted. The new government's original proposal was much smaller than the Redcliffe-Maud Report's Selnec, with areas such as Winsford, Northwich, Knutsford, Macclesfield and Glossop retained by their original counties to ensure their county councils had enough revenue to remain competitive ( Cheshire County Council would have ceased to exist). Other late changes included

28188-405: Was abolished and replaced with two parliamentary constituencies, Bolton East and Bolton West , each with one Member of Parliament. In 1983 Bolton East was abolished and two new constituencies were created, Bolton North East , and Bolton South East covering most of the former Farnworth constituency . At the same time major boundary changes also took place to Bolton West, which took over most of

28362-501: Was besieged by a mob, and the incident ended without bloodshed. Derby Barracks was established in Fletcher Street in the early 1860s. One of two statues prominent on Victoria Square near Bolton Town Hall is that of Samuel Taylor Chadwick (1809 – 3 May 1876) a philanthropist who donated funds to Bolton Hospital to create an ear, nose and throat ward. Built houses for people living in cellars, through Bolton Council fought for better public health including cleaner water, established

28536-430: Was bought by industrialist William Hesketh Lever , who restored it and presented it to Bolton Council in 1900. Bolton's 26 conservation areas contain 700 listed buildings, many of which are in the town centre, and there is parkland including the Victorian Queen's Park , Leverhulme Park and other open spaces in the surrounding area. These include Le Mans Crescent, Ye Olde Man & Scythe, Little Bolton Town Hall,

28710-417: Was built in the 14th century when William de Radcliffe received the Manor of Smithills from the Hultons, the chapel dates from the 16th century and was extended during the 19th. Smithills Hall was where, in 1555, George Marsh was tried for heresy during the Marian Persecutions . After being "examined" at Smithills, according to local tradition, George Marsh stamped his foot so hard to re-affirm his faith, that

28884-520: Was built on the site which is now Royal Bolton Hospital . In 1838 Great Bolton, most of Little Bolton and the Haulgh area of Tonge with Haulgh were incorporated under the Municipal Corporations Act 1835 as a municipal borough , the second to be created in England. Further additions were made adding part of Rumworth in 1872 and part of Halliwell in 1877. In 1889 Bolton was granted County Borough status and became self-governing and independent from Lancashire County Council jurisdiction. In 1898,

29058-524: Was crowned Young Entrepreneur of the Year. The Bolton News has had just 15 editors but it functioned without anyone officially being designated editor until William Brimelow was confirmed in the post in 1871. The Bolton News has had five dedicated online editors who have overseen theboltonnews.co.uk and burytimes.co.uk. Before 2005, there was no single online editor. Bolton Bolton ( / ˈ b oʊ l t ən / BOHL -tən , locally / ˈ b oʊ t ən / BOH -tən )

29232-586: Was described as "archaic" and "grossly inadequate to keep pace both with the impact of motor travel, and with the huge increases in local government responsibilities". The Local Government Act 1972 reformed local government in England , with the act enacted on the 1 April 1974. The area was given the name Greater Manchester and a metropolitan county designation. This was a two-tier counties and districts system. The act formally , although Greater Manchester County Council (GMCC) had been running since elections in 1973 . The leading article in The Times on

29406-424: Was generated during the Industrial Revolution, particularly textile manufacture. The world's first cotton mill was built in the town of Royton , and the county encompasses several former mill towns . An Association for Industrial Archaeology publication describes Greater Manchester as "one of the classic areas of industrial and urban growth in Britain, the result of a combination of forces that came together in

29580-440: Was held until the 18th century. Burgage plots were laid out on Churchgate and Deansgate in the centre of the medieval town close to where Ye Olde Man & Scythe public house, dating from 1251, is situated today. In 1337 Flemish weavers settled and introduced the manufacture of woollen cloth. More Flemish weavers, fleeing the Huguenot persecutions, settled here in the 17th century. The second wave of settlers wove fustian ,

29754-452: Was included as a ceremonial county by the Lieutenancies Act 1997 on 1 July 1997. In 1998, the people of Greater London voted in a referendum in favour of establishing a new Greater London Authority , with mayor and an elected chamber for the county. The New Local Government Network proposed the creation of a new Manchester City Region based on Greater Manchester and other metropolitan counties as part of on-going reform efforts, while

29928-448: Was recorded as an area surveyed with Cheshire in the Domesday Book of 1086; it is thought that the area was partially surveyed. Between Lancashire 's creation to the 18th century an ancient division of the shire, with a similar but smaller area to the current county, was known as Salfordshire . The division (a wapentake which later became a hundred) had several parishes, townships and market towns. Other areas of what would become

30102-406: Was to evaluate the contributions to economic growth and sustainable development by Combined Authorities. The Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009 enabled the creation of a Combined Authority for Greater Manchester with devolved powers on public transport, skills, housing, regeneration, waste management, carbon neutrality and planning permission , pending approval from

30276-407: Was tried as a traitor at Chester and condemned to death. When his appeal for pardon to parliament was rejected he attempted to escape but was recaptured. For his part in the massacre, he was executed outside Ye Olde Man & Scythe Inn on 15 October 1651. Bolton was a 19th-century boomtown and, at its zenith in 1929, its 216  cotton mills and 26 bleaching and dyeing works made it one of

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