Greater Manchester refers to an area roughly encompassing the conurbation of which the city of Manchester is the centre. It is situated in North West England. It has a population of about 2.5 million.
It is made up of ten Metropolitan boroughs - Bolton MBC (Metropolitan Borough Council), Bury MBC, Manchester City Council, Oldham MBC, Rochdale MBC, Salford MBC, Stockport MBC, Tameside MBC, Trafford MBC and Wigan MBC.
Greater Manchester was invented as a Metropolitan county in 1974. Previous to this, the area it covered was a part of the county of Lancashire. The Metropolitan boroughs are now mostly independent councils, although they pool resources to run several Greater Manchester-wide services, including:
- Greater Manchester Police Authority
- Greater Manchester County Fire Service
- Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive
Other services are directly funded and managed by the local councils.
Towns and villages
- Ainsworth, Altrincham, Ashton-in-Makerfield, Ashton-under-Lyne, Ashton upon Mersey, Astley Green, Atherton
- Blackrod, Bolton, Bowdon, Broadbottom, Bury
- Carrington, Chadderton, Cheadle, Cheadle Heath, Cheadle Hulme, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Crumpsall
- Denton, Droylsden, Dukinfield
- Failsworth, Fallowfield, Flixton
- Gatley
- Hazel Grove, Heald Green, Heywood, Horwich, |Hyde
- Irlam
- Kearsley
- Leigh, Levenshulme, Littleborough, Little Lever, Lowton, Lowton common
- Manchester, Marple, Marple Bridge, Milnrow, Mossley, Mottram-in-Longdendale
- Northenden
- Oldham, Orrell
- Partington, Pendlebury, Pennington, Prestwich
- Radcliffe, Ramsbottom, Rochdale, Royton
- Sale, Standish, Swinton
- Timperley, Trafford Park
- Urmston
- West Didsbury, Whitefield, Wigan Withington, Woodley, Worsley
Places of interest