Lancashire
Flag of Lancashire[1]
Geography
Status	Ceremonial and (smaller) non-metropolitan county
Origin	Historic
Region	North West England
Area - Total - Admin. council - Admin. area	Ranked 17th 3,079 km2 (1,189 sq mi) Ranked 16th 2,903 km2 (1,121 sq mi)
Admin HQ	Preston
ISO 3166-2	GB-LAN
ONS code	30
NUTS 3	UKD43
Demography
Population - Total (2010 est.) - Density - Admin. council - Admin. pop.	Ranked 8th 1,449,300 471 /km2 (1,220 /sq mi) Ranked 4th 1,169,300
Ethnicity	89.7% White British 6.0% S. Asian 2.1% Other White 0.9% Mixed 0.7% E. Asian and Other 0.5% Black 2005 Estimates
Politics
Lancashire County Council http://www.lancashire.gov.uk
Executive	Conservative
Members of Parliament	Jake Berry (C) Gordon Birtwistle (LD) Rosie Cooper (L) Nigel Evans (C) Lorraine Fullbrook (C) Mark Hendrick (LC) Lindsay Hoyle (L) Gordon Marsden (L) Mark Menzies (C) Paul Maynard (C) David Morris (C) Eric Ollerenshaw (C) Greg Pope (L) Jack Straw (L) Andrew Stephenson (C) Ben Wallace (C)
Districts
West Lancashire Chorley South Ribble Fylde Preston Wyre Lancaster Ribble Valley Pendle Burnley Rossendale Hyndburn Blackpool (Unitary) Blackburn with Darwen (Unitary)

Lancashire ( /ˈlæŋkəʃər/ or, less commonly, /ˈlæŋkəʃɪər/) is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster.^[2] Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston. Lancashire is sometimes referred to by the abbreviation Lancs, as originally used by the Royal Mail. The population of the county is 1,449,700. People from the county are known as Lancastrians.

The history of Lancashire is thought to have begun with its founding in the 12th century. In the Domesday Book (1086), some of its lands had been treated as part of Yorkshire. The land that lay Inter Ripam et Mersam, "between the Ribble and Mersey", formed part of the returns for Cheshire. Once its initial boundaries were established, it bordered Cumberland, Westmorland, Yorkshire and Cheshire.

Lancashire emerged during the Industrial Revolution as a major commercial and industrial region. The county encompassed several hundred mill towns and collieries. By the 1830s, approximately 85% of all cotton manufactured worldwide was processed in Lancashire.^[3] Preston, Accrington, Blackburn, Bolton, Rochdale, Oldham, Chorley, Darwen, Nelson, Colne and Burnley were major cotton mill towns during this time. Blackpool was a major centre for tourism for the inhabitants of Lancashire's mill towns, particularly during wakes week.

The county was subject to a significant boundary reform in 1974,^[4] which removed Liverpool and Manchester with most of their surrounding conurbations to form part of the metropolitan counties of Merseyside and Greater Manchester respectively.^[5] At this time, the detached northern part of Lancashire in the Lake District, including the Furness Peninsula and Cartmel, was made part of Cumbria. Today the county borders Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Merseyside and North and West Yorkshire. The Duchy of Lancaster exercises the right of the Crown in the area known as the County Palatine of Lancaster, which includes the counties of Lancashire, Greater Manchester and Merseyside.

History[link]

Early history[link]

The county was established in 1182^[4] and later than many other counties. During Roman times the area was considered part of the Brigantes tribal area and was in the military zone of Roman Britain. The towns of Manchester, Lancaster, Ribchester, Burrow, Elslack and Castleshaw were all originally Roman forts. In the centuries immediately following the Roman withdrawal in 410AD the northern parts, at least, of the county probably formed part of the Brythonic kingdom of Rheged, a successor entity of the Brigantes tribe of northern Britain. During the mid 8th Century this area was incorporated into the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Northumbria which itself became a part of England in the 10th Century. In the Domesday Book, its lands between the Ribble and the Mersey were known as "Inter Ripam et Mersam"^[6][7] and were included in the returns for Cheshire.^[8] Although some historians have taken this to mean that south Lancashire was, at that time, part of Cheshire,^[7][9] neither can it be said clearly to have been part of Cheshire.^[10][11][12] It is also claimed that the territory to the north formed, at that time, part of the West Riding of Yorkshire.^[9] It bordered on Cumberland, Westmorland, Yorkshire, and Cheshire. The county was divided into the six hundreds of Amounderness, Blackburn, Leyland, Lonsdale, Salford and West Derby.^[13] Lonsdale was further partitioned into Lonsdale North, which was the detached part north of "the sands" of Morecambe Bay (including both Furness and Cartmel), and Lonsdale South.

Modern history[link]

The historical boundary of Lancashire, in red, and the modern-day boundary of the ceremonial county, in green

Lancashire is now much smaller than its historical extent, following a major reform of local government.^[14] In 1889 an administrative county of Lancashire was created, covering the historical county except for county boroughs such as Blackburn, Burnley, Barrow-in-Furness, Preston, Wigan, Liverpool, Manchester.^[15] The area covered by the Lord-Lieutenant (termed now a ceremonial county) 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 ancient 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.^[16]

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.^[17] The new county of Cumbria took the Furness exclave.^[4]

The boroughs of Liverpool, Knowsley, St Helens and Sefton were removed 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.^[5] One parish, Simonswood, was transferred from the borough of Knowsley in Merseyside to the district of West Lancashire in 1994.^[18] In 1998 the county borough system re-appeared in all but name, when Blackpool and Blackburn with Darwen became independent unitary authority areas. The Wars of the Roses tradition continued with Lancaster using as its symbol the red rose and York the white. Pressure groups, including Friends of Real Lancashire and the Association of British Counties advocate the use of the historical boundaries of Lancashire for ceremonial and cultural purposes.^[19][20]

Geography[link]

Divisions and environs[link]

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.^[21][22]

Blackpool and Blackburn with Darwen are unitary authorities which form part of the county for various functions such as Lord Lieutenant but do not come under county council control.^[23] The Lancashire Constabulary covers the two unitary authorities.^[24] The ceremonial county, the area including the unitary authorities, borders Cumbria, North Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, Greater Manchester and Merseyside, and forms part of the North West England region.^[25]

Geology, landscape and ecology[link]

Topography of Lancashire.

The highest point of the ceremonial county is Gragareth, near Whernside, which reaches a height of 627 m (2,057 ft).^[26] However, Green Hill near Gragareth has also been cited as the county top.^[27] The highest point within the historic boundaries is Coniston Old Man in the Lake District at 803 m (2,634 ft).^[28]

Lancashire drains west from the Pennines into the Irish Sea. Rivers in Lancashire include the Ribble, Wyre and Lune. Major tributaries of these rivers include the Calder, Darwen, Douglas, Hodder, and Yarrow. The Irwell is partly in Lancashire.

To the west of the county are the West Lancashire Coastal Plain in the south, and the Fylde coastal plain north of the Ribble Estuary. Further north is Morecambe Bay. Apart from the coastal resorts, these areas are largely rural with the land devoted to vegetable crops. In the northwest corner of the county, straddling the border with Cumbria, is the Arnside and Silverdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), characterised by its limestone pavements and home to the Leighton Moss nature reserve.

To the east of the county are upland areas leading to the Pennines. North of the Ribble is Beacon Fell Country Park and the Forest of Bowland, another AONB. Much of the lowland around this area is devoted to dairy farming and cheesemaking, whereas the higher ground is more suitable for sheep farming, and the highest ground is uncultivated moorland. The valleys of the River Ribble and its tributary the Calder form a large gap in the west side of the Pennines, in which sit Pendle Hill and most of the larger Lancashire towns. South of the Ribble are the West Pennine Moors and the Forest of Rossendale where former cotton mill towns are in deep valleys. The Lancashire Coalfield was largely in modern-day Greater Manchester, but extended into Merseyside and to Ormskirk, Chorley, Burnley and Colne within modern-day Lancashire.

Politics[link]

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 14 September 1882.^[29]

Local elections for 84 councillors from 84 divisions are held every four years. The council is currently controlled by the Conservative Party.^[30]

Duchy of Lancaster[link]

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,^[31] which includes areas that were removed from Lancashire as part of the 1974 boundary changes.

High Sheriffs for Lancashire, Greater Manchester and Merseyside are appointed "within the Duchy and County Palatine of Lancaster".^[32]

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 Loyal Toast is still in regular local use: 'The Queen, Duke of Lancaster'.

Economy[link]

Lancashire County Hall, Preston

Lancashire in the 19th century was a major centre of industrial activity and hence of wealth. Activities included mining and textile production (particularly cotton), though on the coast there was also fishing. Historically, the docks in Preston were an industrial port, though are now disused for commercial purposes. Lancashire was historically the location of the port of Liverpool while Barrow-in-Furness is famous for shipbuilding.

Today the largest private industry in Lancashire is the defence industry with BAE Systems Military Air Solutions division based in Warton on the Fylde coast. The division also operates a manufacturing site in Samlesbury. Other defence firms include BAE Systems Global Combat Systems which operates a site at Chorley, Ultra Electronics in Fulwood and Rolls-Royce plc in Barnoldswick.

The nuclear power industry has a major presence with the Springfields plant at Salwick operated by Westinghouse and Heysham nuclear power station operated by British Energy. Other major manufacturing firms include Leyland Trucks which is a subsidiary of Paccar and builds the DAF truck range.

Other companies with a major presence in Lancashire include:

• Airline Network, an internet travel company with its headquarters in Preston.
• BAXI, a heating equipment manufacturer which was established in Preston and which has a large manufacturing site in Bamber Bridge.
• Crown Paints, a major paint manufacturer based in Darwen.
• Enterprise plc, one of the UK's leading support services based in Leyland.
• Hanson plc, a building supplies company which operates the Accrington brick works.
• National Savings and Investments, a state owned savings bank with major operations and the headquarters of the Premium Bond Lottery Bond in Blackpool.
• Thwaites Brewery, a regional brewery founded in 1807 by Daniel Thwaites in Blackburn.
• Xchanging, a company that provides business process outsourcing services, with operations in Fulwood.

Economic output[link]

Cattle grazing on the salt marshes of the Ribble Estuary near Banks.

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

Education[link]

Lancashire has a mostly comprehensive system with four state grammar schools. Not including sixth form colleges, there are 77 state schools (not including Burnley's new schools) and 24 independent schools. The Clitheroe area also has secondary modern schools. Sixth form provision is limited at most schools in most districts, with only Fylde and Lancaster districts having mostly sixth forms at schools. The rest (most schools) depend on FE colleges and sixth form colleges, where they exist. South Ribble has the largest school population, with Fylde the smallest (only three schools). Burnley's schools have had a new broom and have essentially been knocked down and started again in 2006. There are many Church of England and Catholic faith schools in Lancashire.

Lancashire is home to four universities; Lancaster University, University of Central Lancashire, Edge Hill University and the Lancaster campus of The University of Cumbria. Additionally there are also seven colleges which offer higher education courses.

Transport[link]

Road[link]

The M6 near Carnforth

The Lancashire economy relies strongly on the M6 motorway which runs from north to south, past Lancaster and Preston. Other motorways in the region include the fairly short M55 which connects the city of Preston and the town of Blackpool at 11.5 miles (18.3 km) in length. The M65 motorway runs from east to west starting in the town of Colne, running through Burnley, Accrington, Blackburn and terminating in Preston. The M61 heads from Preston past Chorley towards Manchester and the trans-Pennine M62, and the M58 crosses the southernmost part of the county from the M6 near Wigan to Liverpool via Skelmersdale.

Other major roads in the county include the east-west A59 between Liverpool in Merseyside and Skipton in North Yorkshire via Ormskirk, Preston and Clitheroe, and the connecting A565 to Southport; the A56 from Ramsbottom to Padiham via Haslingden and from Colne to Skipton; the A585 from Kirkham to Fleetwood; the A666 from the A59 north of Blackburn to Bolton via Darwen; and the A683 from Heysham to Kirkby Lonsdale via Lancaster.

Rail[link]

The West Coast Main Line provides direct rail links with London and other major cities, with stations at Preston and Lancaster. East-west connections are carried via the East Lancashire Line between Blackpool and Colne via Lytham Preston, Blackburn, Accrington and Burnley. The Ribble Valley Line runs from Bolton to Clitheroe via Darwen and Blackburn. There are also connecting lines from Preston to Ormskirk and Bolton, and from Lancaster to Morecambe, Heysham and Skipton.

Air[link]

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.

As well as Blackpool another major operational airfield exists at Warton near Preston, the site is a major assembly and test facility for BAE Systems; arguably Lancashire's biggest private sector employer.

Ferry[link]

Heysham and Fleetwood offer ferry services to Ireland and the Isle of Man.^[37] As part of its industrial past, Lancashire gave rise to an extensive network of canals, which extend into neighbouring counties. These include the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, Lancaster Canal, Bridgewater Canal, Rochdale Canal, Ashton Canal and Manchester Ship Canal.

Bus[link]

Several bus companies run bus services in the Lancashire area serving the main towns and villages in the county with some services running to neighbouring areas, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Merseyside and West Yorkshire.

Demography[link]

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 of the county is predominantly rural and sparsely populated, except for the towns of Lancaster and Morecambe which form a large conurbation of almost 100,000 people. Lancashire is home to a significant Asian population, numbering over 70,000 and 6% of the county's population, and concentrated largely in the former cotton mill towns in the south east.

Blackpool

Preston

Blackburn

Burnley

Lancaster

Morecambe

Lytham St Annes

Chorley

Leyland

Skelmersdale

Accrington

Darwen

Thornton-Cleveleys

Nelson

Fleetwood

Ormskirk

Penwortham

Clitheroe

Rawtenstall

Colne

The largest towns & cities of Lancashire

Population change[link]

Settlements[link]

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.

Areas[link]

Ceremonial county	Administration borough		Centre of administration	Other towns, villages and settlements
Lancashire	Blackburn with Darwen Borough (Unitary)		Blackburn	Belmont, Chapeltown, Darwen, Edgworth, Hoddlesden, Tockholes
	Blackpool Borough (Unitary)		Blackpool	Bispham, Layton
	Burnley Borough		Burnley	Padiham, Rose Grove, Worsthorne, Cliviger.
	Chorley Borough		Chorley	Adlington, Clayton-le-Woods, Coppull, Croston, Eccleston, Euxton, Whittle-le-Woods
	Fylde Borough		Lytham St Annes	Freckleton, Kirkham, Warton, Wrea Green
	Hyndburn Borough		Accrington	Altham, Church, Clayton-le-Moors, Great Harwood, Oswaldtwistle, Rishton
	City of Lancaster		Lancaster	Bolton-le-Sands, Carnforth, Heysham, Morecambe,
	Pendle Borough		Nelson	Barnoldswick†, Barrowford, Brierfield, Colne, Earby†, Foulridge, Trawden
	City of Preston		Preston	Barton, Broughton, Fulwood, Goosnargh, Grimsargh, Whittingham
	Ribble Valley Borough		Clitheroe	Bolton-by-Bowland†, Chipping, Hurst Green, Longridge, Read, Ribchester, Slaidburn†, Whalley, Wilpshire,
	Rossendale Borough		Rawtenstall	Bacup, Chatterton, Edenfield, Haslingden, Helmshore, Whitworth
	South Ribble Borough		Leyland	Bamber Bridge, Farington, Longton, Lostock Hall, Penwortham, Samlesbury, Walton-le-Dale
	West Lancashire Borough		Ormskirk	Appley Bridge, Aughton, Banks, Bickerstaffe, Burscough, Downholland, Great Altcar, Halsall, Lathom, Parbold, Rufford, Scarisbrick, Skelmersdale, Tarleton, Upholland
	Wyre Borough		Poulton-le-Fylde	Cleveleys, Fleetwood, Garstang, Great Eccleston, Pilling, Preesall, St Michael's On Wyre, Thornton

† – part of the West Riding of Yorkshire until 1974

This table does not form an extensive list of the settlements in the ceremonial county. More settlements can be found at Category:Towns in Lancashire, Category:Villages in Lancashire, and Category:Civil parishes in Lancashire.

Blackpool Tower

Historic Areas[link]

Some settlements which were historically part of the county now fall under the counties of West Yorkshire, Cheshire, Merseyside, Greater Manchester and Cumbria:^{[4][5][15][17][39][40][41]}