Greater Manchester

Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 2.7 million. It encompasses one of the largest metropolitan areas in the United Kingdom and comprises ten metropolitan boroughs: Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Wigan, and the cities of Manchester and Salford. Greater Manchester was created on 1 April 1974 as a result of the Local Government Act 1972; and designated a City Region on 1 April 2011.

Greater Manchester spans 493 square miles (1,277 km²), which roughly covers the territory of the Greater Manchester Built-up Area, the second most populous urban area in the UK. It is landlocked and borders Cheshire (to the south-west and south), Derbyshire (to the south-east), West Yorkshire (to the north-east), Lancashire (to the north) and Merseyside (to the west). There is a mix of high-density urban areas, suburbs, semi-rural and rural locations in Greater Manchester, but land use is mostly urban — the product of concentric urbanisation and industrialisation which occurred mostly during the 19th century when the region flourished as the global centre of the cotton industry. It has a focused central business district, formed by Manchester city centre and the adjoining parts of Salford and Trafford, but Greater Manchester is also a polycentric county with ten metropolitan districts, each of which has at least one major town centre and outlying suburbs.

Manchester

Coordinates: 53°28′N 2°14′W / 53.467°N 2.233°W / 53.467; -2.233

Manchester (/ˈmæntʃɪstər/) is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England, with a population of 514,417 as of 2013. It lies within the United Kingdom's second-most populous urban area, with a population of 2.55 million. Manchester is fringed by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east and an arc of towns with which it forms a continuous conurbation. The local authority is Manchester City Council.

The recorded history of Manchester began with the civilian settlement associated with the Roman fort of Mamucium or Mancunium, which was established in about 79 AD on a sandstone bluff near the confluence of the rivers Medlock and Irwell. It was historically a part of Lancashire, although areas of Cheshire south of the River Mersey were incorporated during the 20th century. Throughout the Middle Ages Manchester remained a manorial township but began to expand "at an astonishing rate" around the turn of the 19th century. Manchester's unplanned urbanisation was brought on by a boom in textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution, and resulted in it becoming the world's first industrialised city.

Manchester Airport

Manchester Airport (IATA: MAN, ICAO: EGCC) is an international airport in Ringway, Manchester, England, 7.5 nautical miles (13.9 km; 8.6 mi) south west of Manchester city centre. In 2015, it was the third busiest airport in the United Kingdom in terms of passenger numbers. Manchester Airport has flights to around 225 destinations, three terminals, a goods terminal and two runways, each over 3,281 yd (3,000 m) in length. The airport covers an area of 1,440 acres (580 ha).

Officially opened on 25 June 1938, it was initially known as Ringway Airport. In World War II, as RAF Ringway, it was a base for the Royal Air Force. The airport is owned and managed by the Manchester Airports Group (MAG), a holding company owned by the Australian finance house IFM Investors and the ten metropolitan borough councils of Greater Manchester, with Manchester City Council owning the largest stake.

Manchester is the largest airport outside of the South East and handles more international flights than other regional airports in the UK. The airport regularly handled the supersonic Concorde and houses the British Airways G-BOAC flagship Concorde at the Manchester Runway Visitor Park. Ringway, after which the airport was named, is a village with a few buildings and church at the southern edge of the airport. The airport handled 23.1 million passengers in 2015 and has capacity for up to 50 million passengers annually. This potential figure is limited by the airport's restriction to 61 aircraft movements per hour. Future developments include the £800 million Manchester Airport City logistics, manufacturing, office and hotel space next to the airport, and transport improvements such as the SEMMMS relief road and a High Speed 2 station.

Greater

Greater may refer to:

Great Manchester Run

The Morrisons Great Manchester Run, established in 2003, is an annual 10 kilometre run through Greater Manchester (namely Manchester, Trafford and Salford) and is the largest of its type in Europe. Usually held in mid-May, it is among the largest and most prestigious mass participation runs in the United Kingdom. It is part of the Great Run series of road races in the UK and on 2015 is sponsored by Morrisons. It was formerly sponsored by Bupa.

Course

The course starts and finishes in Manchester city centre. It starts on Portland Street and heads southwest, out of the city centre and down the Chester Road. After entering Trafford it leaves this road and passes Old Trafford stadium. The course loops around Trafford Park, passing the Coronation Street set and the Imperial War Museum North. It then returns to Manchester city centre along the Chester Road, finishing by the Beetham Tower in Deansgate.

2007–2008

The 2007 race had an estimated 28,000 participants. Briton Jo Pavey won the women's event while Kenyan Micah Kogo won the men's, beating the UK all-comers' record by four seconds with a finishing time of 27:25 minutes. Celebrity participants included Kelly Holmes, Amir Khan and members of the cast of Coronation Street.