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England Information

  Name Lancashire
  Status Ceremonial & (smaller) Non-metropolitan county
  Origin Historic
  Region North West England
  Arearank Ranked 17th
  Area Km2 3075
  Adminarearank Ranked 16th
  Adminarea Km2 2903
  Adminhq Preston
  Iso GB-LAN
  Ons 30
  Nuts3 UKD43
  Poprank Ranked
  Adminpoprank Ranked
  Ethnicity 934% White<br />53% S Asian
  Council <br />Lancashire County Council<br />http://wwwlancashiregovuk
  Mps Janet Anderson (L)
  Subdivs # West Lancashire


Lancashire is a is based in Preston , the county's administrative capital. Lancaster however is still considered to be the County Town . Commonly, Lancashire is referred to by the abbreviation '''Lancs''', originally used by the Royal Mail . People from the county are known as '''Lancastrians'''. The county was subject to a significant boundary change in 1974,George, D., ''Lancashire'', (1991) which removed Liverpool and Manchester with most of their surrounding conurbations to form part of the Metropolitan Counties of Merseyside and Greater Manchester .Local Government Act 1972. 1972, c. 70 The Duchy Of Lancaster exercises the right of the Crown in the area known as the ''' County Palatine of Lancaster'''.


DIVISIONS AND ENVIRONS


The area under the control of the county council, or Shire County , is divided into a number of local government districts. They are Burnley , Chorley , Fylde , Hyndburn , Lancaster , Pendle , Preston , the Ribble Valley , Rossendale , South Ribble , West Lancashire , and Wyre . Vision of Britain - Divisions of Lancashire Lancashire County Council - Lancashire districts

, North Yorkshire , West Yorkshire , and the metropolitan counties of Greater Manchester , and Merseyside and forms part of the North West England region. Government Office for the North West - Local Authorities


LANCASHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL

See Also: Lancashire County Council



The county council, serving the shire county, is based in County Hall in Preston , built as a home for the Lancashire county administration (including the Quarter Sessions and Lancashire Constabulary ) and opened on September 14 , 1882 .''Opening of the new Town-Hall at Preston''. The Times. September 15, 1882.

Local Elections for 84 councillors from 84 divisions are held every four years. The council is currently Labour Party controlled. Lancashire County Council - County Councillors by Area


PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY


County top

The highest point of the ceremonial county is in the Lake District at 803 m (2,634 ft). Historic County Tops


Rivers and lakes

Lancashire drains west from the Pennines into the Irish Sea. The major rivers which discharge into the sea are the Mersey (which forms the historic border with Cheshire and is now located entirely outside the ceremonial county), Ribble , Wyre and Lune . Now within Cumbria are the Leven and Duddon (which forms the historic border with Cumberland ). Major tributaries of these rivers include the Calder , Crake , Darwen , Douglas , Hodder , Irwell , Roch , Tame and Yarrow .

Within the historic boundaries are the lakes of , as does the River Brathay which feeds the lake at its northern end and the River Winster and flows into the Kent estuary to the south-east.


HISTORY

Main article: History Of Lancashire

]]

The county was established in 1182 and later than many other counties. In the . Booth, P. cited in George, D., ''Lancashire'', (1991) It bordered on Cumberland , Westmorland , Yorkshire, and Cheshire.

The county was divided into the six (also known as Furness ), and Lonsdale South.

The Red Rose Of Lancaster is the traditional symbol for the House Of Lancaster , immortalized in the verse "In the battle for England's head/ York was white, Lancaster red" (referring to the 15th century War Of The Roses ).

Lancashire is now much smaller than its historic extent due to a local government reform.Berrington, E., ''Change in British Politics'', (1984) In 1889 an ) continued to cover the entirety of the administrative county along with the county boroughs, and thus was expanded slightly whenever boroughs annexed areas in other neighbouring counties. Examples of this include Wythenshawe (an area of Manchester south of the River Mersey and historically in Cheshire ), and southern Warrington . This area also did not cover the western part of Todmorden , where the traditional border between Lancashire and Yorkshire runs through the middle of the town.

During the 20th Century the county became increasingly urbanised, particularly the southern part. To the existing county boroughs of Barrow-in-Furness , Blackburn , Bolton , Bootle , Burnley , Bury , Liverpool , Manchester , Oldham , Preston , Rochdale , Salford , St Helens and Wigan were added Blackpool (1904), Southport (1905), and Warrington (1900). The county boroughs also had many boundary extensions. The borders around the Manchester area were particularly complicated, with narrow protrusions of the administrative county between the county boroughs - Lees urban district formed a detached part of the administrative county, between Oldham county borough and the West Riding of Yorkshire.Lord Redcliffe-Maud and Bruce Wood. English Local Government Reformed. (1974)
, a landmark in the History of the Society Of Friends .]]
By the Census of 1971 the population of Lancashire (including all its associated county boroughs) had reached 5,129,416, making it then the most populous geographic county in the UK. The administrative county of Lancashire was also the most populous of its type outside of London, with a population of 2,280,359 in 1961.

On 1 April 1974 , under the Local Government Act 1972 , the administrative county of Lancashire was abolished, as were the county boroughs. The urbanised southern part largely became part of two new Metropolitan Counties . The south-western part became part of Merseyside , the south-eastern part was incorporated into Greater Manchester .Jones, B. et al, ''Politics UK'', (2004) The new county of Cumbria took the Furness exclave. The boroughs of Liverpool , Knowsley , St Helens and Sefton were entirely from Lancashire. In Greater Manchester the successor boroughs were Bury , Bolton , Manchester , Oldham (part), Rochdale , Salford , Tameside (part), Trafford (part) and Wigan .

Warrington and Widnes , south of the new Merseyside/Greater Manchester border, rather than become part of Greater Manchester or Merseyside were instead made part of the new non-metropolitan county of Cheshire .

The urban districts of Barnoldswick and Earby , the Bowland Rural District and the parishes of Bracewell And Brogden and Salterforth from the Skipton Rural District from the West Riding Of Yorkshire became part of the new Lancashire.

One parish, Simonswood , was transferred from the borough of Knowsley in Merseyside to the district of West Lancashire in 1994. OPSI - The Cheshire, Lancashire and Merseyside (County and Metropolitan Borough Boundaries) Order 1993

In 1998 the county borough system re-appeared in all but name, when Blackpool and Blackburn With Darwen became independent Unitary Authorities .

The City of Lancaster, Pennsylvania , USA, founded in 1742, was named after Lancashire. It's neighbor city, York, PA is located about 30 miles to the west. The War Of The Roses tradition continued with Lancaster using as its symbol the red rose, and York, the white.


Northern England referendums, 2004


See Also: Northern English devolution referendums, 2004



In 2004 the Boundary Committee For England published recommendations for a new systems of Unitary Authorities in the North West. A Referendum In The North East rejected a similar reform there and plans to hold a further reform in the North West, including Lancashire, were cancelled.


LOCAL IDENTITY

A pressure group, the Friends Of Real Lancashire , seek to promote use of the historic borders, and raised a petition in 1994 with 30,000 signatures calling "for the restoration of Lancashire's historic boundaries"12 - the petition requested that the "Metropolitan Counties of Merseyside, Greater Manchester and Cumbria {Link without Title} be abolished and the real and historic county of Lancashire be restored". There is also a long-running campaign for Southport to be removed from Sefton in Merseyside.Final Recommendations on the Future Local Government of Sefton, Local Government Commission for England, November 1997.

Greater Manchester was never adopted as a Postal County by the Royal Mail , and so places in Greater Manchester retained their Lancashire and Cheshire addresses until the abolition of postal counties in 1996. Bolton and Wigan, for example, were classed as parts of Lancashire. Other changes to the administrative borders were reflected in the postal counties.


DUCHY OF LANCASTER

The Duchy Of Lancaster is one of two remaining royal duchies in the United Kingdom. It has large landholdings throughout the region and elsewhere, and operates as a property company, but also exercises the right of the Crown in the County Palatine of Lancaster. The Duchy of Lancaster - Boundary Map The Duchy's website now describes the County Palatine as comprising of "the counties of Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Merseyside and the Furness area of Cumbria"
Duchy of Lancaster website . These new counties include areas formerly in Cheshire and Yorkshire and it is unclear as to whether this is a reference to the whole of the new counties or just the parts that comprised the Palatine prior to the 1974 boundary changes. However, in 1992 it was stated by the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, William Waldegrave that the "boundaries of the county palatine are the same as the county boundaries which existed prior to local government reorganisation in 1973" House of Commons Hansard debates for 15 June 1992 (2nd paragraph in "Duchy of Lancaster" section

High Sheriffs for Lancashire, Greater Manchester and Merseyside are appointed "within the Duchy and County Palatine of Lancaster".''High Sheriffs'', The Times, March 21, 1985

The Duchy administers Bona Vacantia within the County Palatine, receiving the property of persons who die intestate, and where the legal ownership cannot be ascertained.

There is no separate Duke of Lancaster, the title having merged in the Crown many centuries ago - but the Duchy is administered by the Queen in Right of the Duchy of Lancaster. A separate court system for the county palatine was finally abolished by Courts Act 1971 . A particular form of the The Loyal Toast is still in regular local use: 'The Queen, Duke of Lancaster'.


INDUSTRY AND COMMERCE

Lancashire in the 19th century was a major centre of industrial activity and hence of wealth. Activities included mining and textile production (particularly (now on Merseyside) while Barrow-in-Furness (now in Cumbria) is famous for Shipbuilding .

Today Lancashire is home to firms such as BAE Systems (which has four factories in Lancashire including Warton Aerodrome and BAE Samlesbury , major centres of production for the Eurofighter Typhoon and F-35 Joint Strike Fighter), Heinz , TVR cars, Leyland Trucks and Marconi telecoms.


Economic output

This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of the non-metropolitan county of Lancashire at current basic prices published (pp.240-253) by ''Office for National Statistics'' with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling.


TRANSPORT


Lancashire has a well-developed transport infrastructure Lancashire County Council - Local Transport Plan with an extensive network of motorways covering the county. The . The county is served by Blackpool International Airport , however Manchester Airport in Greater Manchester is the main airport in the region. Liverpool John Lennon Airport , on Merseyside is also nearby.

, Lancaster Canal , Bridgewater Canal , Rochdale Canal , Ashton Canal and Manchester Ship Canal .


DEMOGRAPHICS

The major settlements in the ceremonial county are concentrated on the Fylde coast (the Blackpool Urban Area ), and a belt of towns running west-east along the M65 - Preston , Blackburn , Accrington , Burnley , Nelson and Colne . South of Preston are the towns of Leyland and Chorley - the three formed part of the Central Lancashire New Town designated in 1970. The north is generally sparsely populated, with Morecambe and Lancaster forming a small conurbation.


SETTLEMENTS

:''Main article: List Of Places In Lancashire .

The table below has divided the settlements into their local authority district. Each district has a centre of administration; for some of these correlate with a district's largest town, while others are named after the geographical area.



This table does not form an extensive list of the settlements in the ceremonial county. More settlements can be found at .


]]
Some settlements which were historically part of the county now fall under the counties of West Yorkshire , Cheshire , Merseyside , Greater Manchester and Cumbria : Vision of Britain - Lancashire boundaries 1974 Vision of Britain - Lancashire ancient boundariesChandler, J., ''Local Government Today'', (2001)Youngs. Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England. Volume 2. Northern England.

Note: Cities are in bold

† - part of the West Riding Of Yorkshire until 1974

Boundary changes to occur before 1974 include:

  • Todmorden (split between Lancashire and Yorkshire) entirely to West Riding of Yorkshire in 1889

  • Mossley (split between Lancashire, Yorkshire and Cheshire) entirely to Lancashire in 1889

  • Stalybridge , entirely to Cheshire in 1889

  • the former county boroughs of Manchester and Warrington both extended south of the Mersey into historic Cheshire (areas such as Wythenshawe and Latchford )

  • correspondingly, the former county borough of Stockport extended north into historic Lancashire, including areas such as Reddish and the Heatons ( Heaton Chapel , Heaton Mersey , Heaton Moor and Heaton Norris ).



SPORT

stadium home of Preston North End ]]
Lancashire is one of Britain's most successful sporting counties.


Cricket

teams, particularly in the One-day game. It is home to England Cricket Team members Andrew Flintoff , James Anderson and Sajid Mahmood .

Historically important local cricket leagues include the Lancashire League and the Central Lancashire League , both of which were formed in 1892. These league clubs hire international professional players to play alongside their amateur players.


Football


Six of the twelve clubs which founded the Football League were from Lancashire.

Based in ceremonial Lancashire are .

Based in other ceremonial counties are Premiership teams Bolton Wanderers , Everton , Liverpool , Manchester City , Manchester United and Wigan Athletic . Oldham Athletic play in League One and Bury and Rochdale play in League Two. All of these teams are part of the Historic County Of Lancashire a county under which they have played for the majority of their history.

Together these teams have achieved 51 Football League / Premier League titles, 7 European Cup s and 42 FA Cup s.


Rugby


Several successful Rugby League teams are based within the historic boundaries of Lancashire, mainly in the south of the county:


Of these only Blackpool Panthers are based within the ceremonial county.

Rugby Union teams include Sale Sharks , Fylde , Orrell R.U.F.C. and Preston Grasshoppers .


Other

Two of the nine at Lytham St Annes and Royal Birkdale near Southport .

Lancashire has a long history of Wrestling , developing its own style called Lancashire Wrestling with many clubs that over the years have produced many renowned wrestlers. Some of these have crossed over into the mainstream world of Professional Wrestling , including Billy Riley , Davey Boy Smith , William Regal and The Dynamite Kid .


CUISINE

, Lancaster]]
Lancashire is widely-known for its eponymous Lancashire Hotpot , a Casserole dish traditionally made with Lamb and for Lancashire Cheese , reputed to be the best toasting Cheese in the world. Other traditional foods from the area include:

  • and Preston .

  • .

  • .

  • Butter Cake - slice of bread and butter.

  • Clapbread: Oatcake .

  • .

  • Ducks : faggots as in savoury ducks.

  • .

  • Fag Pie: pie made from chopped dried figs, sugar and lard. Associated with Blackburn and Burnley where it was the highlight of ''Fag Pie Sunday'' ( Mid-Lent Sunday ).

  • near Oldham around 1863. History of fish and chips

  • Frog-i'-th'-'ole pudding: now known as Toad In The Hole .

  • Frumenty : sweet porridge. Once a popular dish at Lancashire festivals like Christmas and Easter Monday.

  • biscuits with coriander or Caraway seeds pressed into the biscuit before baking. Traditionally baked on feast days like Shrove Tuesday .

  • Jannock: cake or small loaf of oatmeal. Allegedly introduced to Lancashire (possibly Bolton by Flemish Weavers .

  • Nettle Porridge: a common starvation diet in Lancashire in the early 1800s. Made from boiled stinging nettles with perhaps a handful of meal.

  • Ormskirk Gingerbread: local delicacy which were sold all over South Lancashire

  • Pobs, Pobbies: bread and milk.

  • Potato Hotpot, a variation of the Lancashire Hotpot without meat also known as ''fatherless pie''.

  • Ran Dan: barley bread. Food of last resort for the poor at the end of the 18th Century and beginning of the 19th Century.

  • Rag Pudding : Traditional Suet Pudding filled with Minced Meat and Onions.

  • Sad Cake: A traditional cake, perhaps a variation of the more widely known Chorley cake, once common around Burnley .

  • Scouse , a type of stew popular in Liverpool (historically part of Lancashire).

  • .



FAMOUS LANCASTRIANS


As one of the most populous counties Lancashire has produced many famous names. See .


PLACES OF INTEREST




The following are places of interest in the ceremonial county:


NOTES AND REFERENCES






BIBLIOGRAPHY

  • Crosby, A. (1996). ''A History of Cheshire.'' (The Darwen County History Series.) Chichester, West Sussex, UK: Phillimore & Co. Ltd. ISBN 0850339324.

  • Harris, B. E., and Thacker, A. T. (1987). ''The Victoria History of the County of Chester. (Volume 1: Physique, Prehistory, Roman, Anglo-Saxon, and Domesday).'' Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0197227619.

  • Morgan, P. (1978). ''Domesday Book Cheshire: Including Lancashire, Cumbria, and North Wales''. Chichester, Sussex: Phillimore & Co. Ltd. ISBN 0850331404.

  • Phillips A. D. M., and Phillips, C. B. (2002), ''A New Historical Atlas of Cheshire''. Chester, UK: Cheshire County Council and Cheshire Community Council Publications Trust. ISBN 0904532461.

  • Sylvester, D. (1980). ''A History of Cheshire''. (The Darwen County History Series). (2nd Edition.) London and Chichester, Sussex: Phillimore & Co. Ltd. ISBN 0850333849.



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