Greater Manchester Accommodation:
Manchester
Bolton
Dukinfield
Hale
Sale
Ashton Under Lyne
Didsbury
Oldham
Horwich
Rochdale
Salford
Saddleworth
Stockport
Bury
Cheadle
Altrincham
Handforth
Wigan
Prestwich
Hyde
Heywood
Eccles
Crumpsall
Castlefield
Standish
Swinton
Worsley
Wythenshawe
Denton
Fallowfield
Radcliffe
Rusholme
Manchester Airport
Failsworth
Old Trafford
Stretford
Cheetham
Ancoats

Greater Manchester

BOOK GREATER MANCHESTER HOTELS

Bury’s Devilish Schoolboys Bury’s Devilish Schoolboys

Information

County Town: Manchester
Population: 2,573,50
Area: 497 Sq miles 1289 Sq km
Greater Manchester Jobs
Greater Manchester Tips Page
County Reviews
Rather interesting Greater Manchester facts
Greater Manchester weather
Visitor reports
Your opinion of Greater Manchester
Famous Dates
Famous People
Food Legends:Bury Black Pudding
Pea Soup with Bacon Ribs
The Butter Pie
Folk Customs:
Haunted Britain:
Cultural Britain:
L.S. Lowrys Greater Manchester
Lore & legend:
Bury’s Devilish Schoolboys
Natural Britain:
River Irwell
The Pennines

Events

January
re:play Festival

March
Big Green Festival
Northern Modelling Exhibition

April
MAPS Festival
Plant Hunters Fair

May
Futuresonic Live
Great Manchester Run
Hungry Pigeon
Manchester to Liverpool Ride for the NSPCC
Spring Market

June
Feast! Picnic by the Lake
Manchester International Festival
Manchester to Chester Ride for Breakthrough Breast Cancer
Oldham Carnival
Sparkle

July
Ben & Jerry's Sundae on the Common
Book Market
Manchester International Festival
Manchester Jazz Festival
Manchester Summer Mega Mela
Manchester to Blackpool Ride for The Christie
Salford BG Triathlon World Cup

August
Caribbean Carnival of Manchester
D:Percussion Festival
Manchester Pride

September
Festival of Fantastic Films
Heritage Open Days
Manchester 100 bike ride for Christies
New Islington Festival
Proms in the Park Manchester
ROWE British Grand Prix

October
Manchester Literature Festival
BBC Blast Festival
Charity Beetham Tower Run
Great Strides 65 North 2014 for Cystic Fibrosis
In The City
Manchester Comedy Festival
Manchester Food & Drink Festival
Manchester Science Festival

November
Christmas Markets

December
Christmas Market
New Years Eve Gala with Manchester Camerata
Salford Quays Jog

Greater Manchester - 217 places to stay

Hotels | Bed & Breakfast | Inns | Self Catering | Budget | Attractions | Activities | Shops | Sports | Directory

Principal Towns: Manchester, Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford

The City of Manchester lies at the heart of the North West of England, it is to the Romans who first came and settled at Castlefield and it was the Normans who named it “Mamecaster”, not becoming Manchester until the 17th century.

As early as the 14th century the people of Manchester had become involved in the manufacture of cloth and it remained very much a local industry until the Industrial Revolution and the arrival of the canal network, the railways together with steam and water power which enabled the mill owners to construct their great mills and that still contributes to much of the landscape today. The power and wealth was not to be restricted to the centre of Manchester, as pressure grew on Manchester the economic benefits could be seen in the surrounding towns and villages and it wasn’t long before these towns and villages became part of the Greater City of Manchester but it wasn’t until 1974 the County of Greater Manchester was inaugurated, by 1986 though the tide of change meant that the County of Greater Manchester had been abolished. Whilst this may have been the case in relation to local government it was not the case for the people. The ten boroughs that make up Greater Manchester are all independently governed but they are all proud of their association with Manchester, Stockport , Tameside, City of Salford , Rochdale and Bury together with Oldham, Bolton, Wigan , City of Manchester and Trafford form the ten boroughs that make up Greater Manchester today. Each of these boroughs are unique in their history and their identity, yet each has made a valuable contribution to the growth of Greater Manchester and the diversity that the area offers. Manchester City centre provided the economic centre of the area and today whilst many of the mills have gone some still stand proud of their heritage and have been put to alternate uses. With its museums, theatres, shopping parades Manchester still attracts visitors from all over the world, two great football teams, a great cricket team, sporting arenas and the transformation of the canal basins into some of the most desirable residential and leisure locations in the UK all contribute to what Manchester is today. None of this would have been possible though if it were not for the surrounding towns and boroughs. Bolton , just north of Manchester, on the edge of the Pennines was at one time the largest and most productive cotton production area in the world. Today the wealth created during this period is evident in the buildings that remain, St Peters Church, built during the 19th century together with the impressive Town Hall, itself built in the neo classical style and officially opened by the Prince of Wales in 1873. Alongside the town centre Bolton’s retail economy is thriving with the opening of Middlebrook Retail Park which is immediately adjacent to Bolton FC and the Reebok Stadium (it was here in Bolton that Reebok was first established in the late 19th century). Linked to the North West and the rest of the UK by excellent rail and motorway connections Bolton is a thriving location in itself. Think of Rochdale and you think of yet more mills – lying in the foothills of the Pennines and with the River Roach close by it is no wonder that the success of the town is firmly rooted in cotton production. Today, like Bolton, Rochdale has a legacy of excellent architecture, again the Town Hall and its church, St Chad’s, which dates in part back to Norman Times are testament to the hard work of the local people and the wealth they created. The same is true for each of these towns and boroughs, from Altrincham to Worsley, each town and village within this conurbation has made a contribution to the growth of the City of Manchester, from arts and crafts through to industrial invention and commerce the people and places in Manchester are without doubt some of the most industrious and inventive in the world. From the world of arts names such illustrious as Richmal Crompton (author of the Just William books), LS Lowry , Sir John Barbirolli, Sir Charles Halle, Sir Norman Foster to name but a select few were all born here, politicians and social reformers such as Emeline Pankhurst, larger than life MP Sir Cyril Smith, Joe Gormley and William Gladstone, Jack Straw and Glenda Jackson all formed their opinions based on their life here in Manchester. It was the engineers, inventors and scientists that helped make all this possible, Samuel Crompton and Richard Arkwright , Ernest Rutherford and Alan Turing, Sir Bernard Lovell and Dr Patrick Steptoe – to name just a few . Whilst Manchester’s contribution to the world of television, film and media include Harry H Corbett, Joan Bakewell, Les Dawson, Cannon and Ball, Terry Christian and Jimmy Saville, Robert Shaw and John Culshaw – the list could go on. There are the sporting personalities that Manchester has provided, Fred Perry, David Lloyd and Ricky Hatton are just some of the people without whom the world of sport would be a less colourful place. With its diverse leisure activities, the biggest indoor ski centre in the country together with one of the best indoor retail parks at Trafford Park, to its museums and art galleries both in the City Centre and at Salford Quays or its theatres and designer shopping centre with some of the most magnificent countryside in the UK on its doorstep it is no wonder that Greater Manchester is often considered England’s second capital city.

If you like this, Share it

Destinations

Recommended Hotels See Map

Hotels bookable online See Map

More Greater Manchester Hotels

Bed and Breakfast See Map

Pubs & Inns

Self-Catering See Map

Brit Quote:
The first condition of progress is the removal of censorship. - George Bernard Shaw
More Quotes

On this day:
The assassination of James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray - 1570, The Royal Exchange opens in London. - 1571, Battle of Rorkes Drift - 1879, The Tottenham Outrage - 1909, First Labour Government - 1924
More dates from British history

click here to view all the British counties

County Pages

England:
Bath
Bedfordshire
Berkshire
Bristol
Buckinghamshire
Cambridgeshire
Cheshire
Cleveland/Teesside
Cornwall
County Durham
Cumbria
Derbyshire
Devon
Dorset
Essex
Gloucestershire
Greater Manchester
Hampshire
Herefordshire
Hertfordshire
Kent
Lancashire
Leicestershire
Lincolnshire
London
Merseyside
Norfolk
Northamptonshire
Northumberland
Nottinghamshire
Oxfordshire
Rutland
Shropshire
Somerset
Staffordshire
Suffolk
Surrey
Sussex
Tyne & Wear
Warwickshire
West Midlands
Wiltshire
Worcestershire
East Yorkshire
North Yorkshire
South Yorkshire
West Yorkshire
Scotland:
Angus & Dundee
Argyll
Ayrshire & Arran
Borders
Dumfries & Galloway
Edinburgh & the Lothians
Fife
Glasgow
Grampian
Highlands
Isle of Islay
Isle of Mull
Isle of Skye
Lanarkshire
Perthshire
Stirlingshire
Western Isles
Wales:
Anglesey
Mid Wales
North Wales
South Wales
West Wales
Ireland
Northern Ireland:
Belfast
County Antrim
County Armagh
County Down
County Fermanagh
County Londonderry
County Tyrone
Offshore:
Guernsey
Jersey
Isle of Man
Isle of Wight
Isles of Scilly
Orkneys
Shetland Isles