Lancashire
County in North West England / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Lancashire (/ˈlæŋkəʃər/ LAN-kə-shər, /-ʃɪər/ -sheer; abbreviated Lancs.) is a ceremonial county in North West England. The administrative centre is Preston, while Lancaster is the county town. The borders of the ceremonial county were created in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972 and enclose a population of 1,449,300 and an area of 1,189 square miles (3,080 km2). However, the modern county is a smaller portion of the extent of the historic county palatine, which includes the cities of Manchester, Salford and Liverpool as well as the Furness and Cartmel peninsulas in the Lake District, and has an area of 1,909 square miles (4,940 km2). Many of these places still identify strongly with the county, particularly in areas of Greater Manchester (such as Oldham and Bury) where Lancashire is still used as part of the postal address. The population of Lancashire in the 1971 census (before local government changes) was 5,118,405, making it the most heavily populated county in the United Kingdom at the time (other than Greater London, which had only been created in 1965).
Lancashire
Lancs | |
|---|---|
 The Red Rose of Lancaster is the county flower of Lancashire, and a common symbol for the county. | |
 Coat of arms | |
| Motto(s): "In Concilio Consilium" ("In Council is Wisdom") | |
 | |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Constituent country | England |
| Region | North West England |
| Established | c. 1182[1] |
| Time zone | UTC±00:00 (Greenwich Mean Time) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+01:00 (British Summer Time) |
| Members of Parliament | |
| Ceremonial county | |
| Lord Lieutenant | Charles Kay-Shuttleworth[2] |
| High Sheriff | Catherine Penny[3] (2020–21) |
| Area | 3,079 km2 (1,189 sq mi) |
| • Ranked | 17th of 48 |
| Population (2021) | 1,498,300 |
| • Ranked | 8th of 48 |
| Density | 487/km2 (1,260/sq mi) |
| Ethnicity | 82.2% White British 9.2% S. Asian 3.8% Black 2.8% Mixed 2% Other 2021 Estimates[4] |
| Non-metropolitan county | |
| County council | Lancashire County Council |
| Executive | Conservative |
| Admin HQ | Preston |
| Area | 2,903 km2 (1,121 sq mi) |
| • Ranked | 12th of 26 |
| Population | 1,219,799 |
| • Ranked | 4th of 26 |
| Density | 422/km2 (1,090/sq mi) |
| ISO 3166-2 | GB-LAN |
| ONS code | 30 |
| ITL | UKD43 |
| Website | www |
| Districts | |
 Districts of Lancashire Unitary County council area | |
| Districts | |
The history of Lancashire begins with its founding in the 12th century. In the Domesday Book of 1086, some of its lands were treated as part of Yorkshire. The land that lay between the Ribble and Mersey, Inter Ripam et Mersam, was included in the returns for Cheshire. When its boundaries were established, it bordered Cumberland, Westmorland, Yorkshire, and Cheshire.
Lancashire emerged as a major commercial and industrial region during the Industrial Revolution. Liverpool, Salford and Manchester grew into its largest cities, with economies built around the docks and the cotton mills respectively.[5] These cities dominated global trade and the birth of modern industrial capitalism. The county contained several mill towns and the collieries of the Lancashire Coalfield. By the 1830s, approximately 85% of all cotton manufactured worldwide was processed in Lancashire.[6] Accrington, Blackburn, Bolton, Burnley, Bury, Chorley, Colne, Darwen, Manchester, Nelson, Oldham, Preston, Rochdale and Wigan were major cotton mill towns during this time. Blackpool was a centre for tourism for the inhabitants of Lancashire's mill towns, particularly during wakes week.
The historic county was subject to a significant boundary reform in 1974 which created the current ceremonial county and removed Liverpool and Manchester, and most of their surrounding conurbations to form the metropolitan and ceremonial counties of Merseyside and Greater Manchester.[7][8] The detached northern part of Lancashire in the Lake District, including the Furness Peninsula and Cartmel, was merged with Cumberland and Westmorland to form Cumbria. Lancashire lost 709 square miles of land to other counties, about two fifths of its original area, although it did gain some land from the West Riding of Yorkshire.
Today the ceremonial county borders Cumbria to the north, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and North and West Yorkshire to the east; with a coastline on the Irish Sea to the west.