After abolition of the Greater Manchester and Merseyside County Councils in 1986, power was transferred to the metropolitan boroughs, making them equivalent to unitary authorities. In April 2011, Greater Manchester gained a top-tier administrative body in the form of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, which means the 10 Greater Manchester boroughs are once again second-tier authorities.
Windermere is the largest natural lake in England, while Broad Crag Tarn on Broad Crag is England's highest lake. Wast Water is England's deepest lake, being 74 metres deep.
A mix of rural and urban landscape, two large conurbations, centred on Liverpool and Manchester, occupy much of the south of the region. The north of the region, comprising Cumbria and northern Lancashire, is largely rural, as is the far south which encompasses parts of the Cheshire Plain and Peak District.
Weather in this part of England is typically classified as maritime, moist and temperate, with a moderate annual temperature range. Average annual precipitation in the UK typically ranges from approximately 800 mm to 1,400 mm. Temperatures are generally close to the national average.[5] Cumbria usually experiences the most severe weather, with high precipitation in the mountainous regions of the Lake District and Pennines. In winter, the most severe weather occurs in the more exposed and elevated areas of the North West, once again mainly the Lake District and Pennine areas.[citation needed]
North West England's population accounts for just over 13% of England's overall population. 37.86% of the North West's population resides in Greater Manchester, 21.39% in Lancashire, 20.30% in Merseyside, 14.76% in Cheshire and 7.41% live in the largest county by area, Cumbria.[6]
The Mixed Race population makes up 1.3% (93,800) of the region's population. There are 323,800 South Asians, making up 4.7% of the population, and 1.1% Black (80,600). 0.6% of the population (39,900) are Chinese and 0.5% (36,500) of people belong to another ethnic group.
North West England is a very diverse region, with Manchester and Liverpool amongst the most diverse cities in Europe. 19.4% of Blackburn with Darwen's population are Muslim, the third-highest among all local authorities in the United Kingdom and the highest outside London. Areas such as Moss Side in Greater Manchester are home to a 30%+ Black British population. In contrast, the town of St. Helens in Merseyside, unusually for a city area, has a very low percentage of ethnic minorities with 98% identifying as White British.[11] The City of Liverpool, over 800 years old, is one of the few places in Britain where ethnic minority populations can be traced back over dozens of generations: being the closest major city in England to Ireland, it is home to a significant ethnic Irish population, with the city being home to one of the first ever Afro-Caribbean communities in the UK, as well as the oldest Chinatown in Europe.[citation needed]
The table below is not how many people belong to each ethnic group (e.g. a BBC News article in 2008 claimed there are over 25,000 ethnic Italians in Manchester alone whilst only 6,000 Italian-born people live in the North West).[18] The proportion of people residing in North West England born outside the UK was 11.7% in 2021, compared with 8.2% in 2011 and 5.1% in 2001. Below are the fifteen largest overseas-born groups in the region according to the 2021 census, alongside the two previous censuses:
Of the nine regions of England, the North West has the fourth-highest GVA per capita—the highest outside southern England. Despite this the region has above average multiple deprivation with wealth heavily concentrated on very affluent areas like rural Cheshire, rural Lancashire, and south Cumbria. As measured by the Indices of deprivation 2007, the region has many more Lower Layer Super Output Areas in the 20% most deprived districts than the 20% least deprived council districts.[28] Only North East England shows more indicators of deprivation than the North West, but the number of affluent areas in the North West is very similar to Yorkshire and the Humber.
The most deprived local authority areas in the region (based on specific wards within those borough areas) are, in descending order—Liverpool, Manchester, Knowsley, Blackpool, Salford, Blackburn with Darwen, Burnley, Rochdale, Barrow-in-Furness, Halton, Hyndburn, Oldham, Pendle, St Helens, Preston, Bolton, Tameside, Wirral, Wigan, Copeland, Sefton, and Rossendale.
In 2007 when Cheshire still had district councils, the least deprived council districts in the region by council district, in descending order, were—Congleton, Ribble Valley, Macclesfield, and South Lakeland.[29] These areas have Conservative MPs, except South Lakeland has a Lib Dem and Labour MPs. At county level, before it was split into two, Cheshire was the least deprived, followed by Trafford, and by Warrington and Stockport.
In March 2011, the overall unemployment claimant count was 4.2% for the region. Inside the region the highest was Liverpool with 6.8%, followed by Knowsley on 6.3%, Halton with 5.5% and Rochdale with 5.1%. The lowest claimant count is in Eden (Cumbria) and Ribble Valley (Lancashire) each with 1.3%, followed by South Lakeland with 1.4%.[30]
Elections
General election results in 2019
In the 2019 general election, the Conservatives gained ten seats, from the Labour Party, with no other seats changing hands. Labour held 42 of their 52 seats, albeit many with slimmed down majorities. They remain the dominant party in the region by seat count, with the Conservatives total now standing at 27. The Conservatives made two gains in Cheshire, three gains in Lancashire, five gains in Greater Manchester, notably including Andy Burnham's former seat of Leigh.
In the 2017 general election, the area was dominated by the Labour Party. Fifty-five per cent of the region's electorate voted Labour, 36.3% Conservative, 5.4% Liberal Democrat, 1.9% UKIP and 1.1% Greens; however, by number of parliamentary seats, Labour have 54, the Conservatives have 20, and the Liberal Democrats have 1. The Lib Dems' North West seat is in south Cumbria; Labour dominates Greater Manchester, and the Conservatives' vote is concentrated in affluent suburban areas such as Cheadle, Hazel Grove and Altrincham and Sale West. Labour seats also predominate in Merseyside. In Cheshire the 2015 result was reversed, with Labour winning seven seats and the Conservatives four, whilst Lancashire is competitive between Labour and Conservative (8 seats each); the Labour seats in Lancashire are concentrated in the south of the county along the M65. For the region, the Labour gained 3 seats; there was a 5.2% swing from Conservative to Labour.
In the 2015 general election, Liverpool Walton was the safest seat in the UK, with a 72% majority, and in 2017 this was repeated with a 77% majority for Dan Carden (Labour), when an astonishing 85.7% of the electorate voted for him (the Conservatives came second with 8.6%). In the by-election of 2012, Manchester Central has the record for the lowest turnout in the UK—18%. Gwyneth Dunwoody, for Crewe and Nantwich, was the longest serving female MP until her death in 2008.
In the final European Elections in the UK in 2019, 31.23% voted for the Brexit Party, with Labour polling 21.91%, the Liberal Democrats 17.15% and the Green Party 12.48%. The Conservatives came fifth in the region with 7.55% of votes cast.[31]
The earliest known language spoken in the North West was a dialect of the Brythonic language spoken across much of Britain from at least the Iron Age up to the arrival of English in the first millennium AD. Fragments of this early language are seen in the inscriptions and place names of the Roman era. In some parts of the region, the Brythonic dialect developed into the medieval language known today as Cumbric, which continued to be spoken perhaps as late as the 12th century in the north of Cumbria. This early Celtic heritage remains today in place names such as Carlisle, Penrith and Eccles, and many river names such as Cocker, Kent and Eden.
English may have been spoken in the North West from around the 7th century AD, when the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria first appears to have made inroads west of the Pennines. The language at this time would have been the Northumbrian dialect of Old English. The high percentage of English place names in the region as a whole suggests English became almost ubiquitous over the coming centuries, particularly in the area south of the Lake District. Manchester, Liverpool, Lancaster, Blackburn and Preston are among the region's many English place names. In the 9th to the 11th centuries, Danes from the east and Norsemen from Ireland and Scotland began settling in the area. The North West is really the only area of England where Norse settlement was significant and their influence remains in the place names and dialect of the region. Elements like fell, thwaite and tarn, which are particularly common in Cumbria, are all Norse. The numerous Kirkbys and place names with "holm" and "dale" show the Scandinavian influence throughout the North West.
Through the Middle Ages the dialects of the North West would have been considerably different from those spoken in the Midlands and south. It was only with the spread of literacy (particularly with the publication of the King James Bible) that Standard English spread to the region. Even so, local dialects continued to be used and were relatively widespread until the 19th and 20th centuries.
In modern times, English is the most spoken language in the North West, with a large percentage of the population fluent in it, and close to 100% conversational in it. To the north-east of the region, within the historic boundaries of Cumberland, the Cumbrian dialect is dominant. The historical county of Lancashire covered a vast amount of land, and the Lancashire dialect and accent is still predominant throughout the county, and stretches as far north as Furness in South Cumbria to parts of north Greater Manchester and Merseyside in the south of the region. The region boasts some of the most distinctive accents in the form of the Scouse accent, which originates from Liverpool and its surrounding areas, and the Manc accent, deriving from the central Manchester district. Both of these descend from the Lancashire dialect but have some distinctions from it, especially Scouse. The region's accents are among those referred to as 'Northern English'.
Large immigrant populations in the North West result in the presence of significant immigrant languages. South Asian languages such as Urdu, Hindi and Punjabi are widespread, with the largest number of speakers residing in Preston, Blackburn and Manchester. The Chinese once made up the largest minority in the region (as Liverpool has one of the oldest Chinese settlements in Europe), and still do to the far north where Chinese is spoken by small but significant communities. Since the enlargement of the EU, over one million Poles have immigrated to the UK, a large number of them settling in the North West. Places such as Crewe as well as larger cities make Polish written information available for the public, to much controversy. Other immigrant languages with a presence in the North West are Spanish, mainly amongst the Latin American communities in Liverpool and Manchester,[citation needed] as well as various other Eastern European and Asian languages.
The most taught languages in schools across the North West are English, French and Spanish. German and Italian are available at more senior levels and, in cities such as Manchester and Liverpool, even Urdu and Mandarin are being taught to help maintain links between the local minority populations.[citation needed]
Liverpool and Manchester are sometimes considered parts of a single large polynuclear metropolitan area,[35][36][37] or megalopolis but are usually treated as separate metropolitan areas.[34] In some studies, part of Wigan in Greater Manchester is considered part of the Liverpool metropolitan area.[34]
Politics
The North West of England has historically been held by the Labour Party.
It is one of the two regions (along with Yorkshire and the Humber) that were expected to hold a referendum on the establishment of an elected regional assembly. However, when the North East region of England rejected having an elected regional assembly in a referendum, further referendums were cancelled and the proposals for elected regional assemblies in England put on hold. The regional leaders' forum, 4NW is based on Waterside Drive in Wigan.
Ten English regions were established by the government in 1994. At that time, Merseyside, which already had its own Government Office, formerly the Merseyside Task Force, was regarded as a separate region. In 1998, Merseyside was merged into the North West region. This action was controversial in some quarters.[38] Regional Government Offices were abolished in April 2011 by the Coalition Government.
Sydney Chapman, a mathematician from Eccles, in 1930 explained the ozone–oxygen cycle in the stratosphere, being the first to propose that atmospheric oxygen or ozone molecules absorb (harmful UVB and UVC) ultraviolet wavelengths of light in photolysis, to produce reactive single atoms which accumulate to form the ozone layer.
The University of Manchester built the world's first programmable computer, the Manchester Baby, on 21 June 1948; the Williams–Kilburn tube on the machine was the world's first computer memory, and the beginning of random-access memory (RAM); the baby computer was made from 550 Mullard valves. The first commercially available computer, the Ferranti Mark 1, was made in Manchester and sold in February 1951 to the University of Manchester. The world's first transistor computer was the Manchester Transistor Computer in November 1953. Atlas was another important computer developed at the University of Manchester, largely developed by Tom Kilburn; at the time in 1962 it was most powerful computer in the world. The government had dropped its financial support of this computer, and was only funded by Ferranti—the total development cost was around £1m. Britain was leading the world at this time in computing, with the only main competitor being IBM; after the mid-1950s America took over the industry. The spreadsheet was invented in 1974, known as the Works Record System, and used an Adabas database on an IBM 3270 at ICI in Northwich; it was developed by Robert Mais and it was around four years before (the more well-known) VisiCalc in 1978. The University of Manchester has collected 25 Nobel prizes, though recent years have been less notable.
Parsonage Colliery at Leigh had the UK's deepest mine—1,260 metres in 1949. Macclesfield was the base of UK's silk weaving industry. John Benjamin Dancer of Manchester invented microphotography in 1839, which would lead to microform in the 1920s. Frank Hornby from Liverpool invented Meccano in 1901, where Meccano Ltd would be based for over 60 years. Bryant & May's site in Garston was the last wooden match factory in the UK, closing in 1994 to become The Matchworks business centre off the A561 west of the former Speke airport. Cottonopolis was the industrial name for Manchester and the local area. Manchester at one time was the world's richest city. The CIS Tower, built by John Laing in 1962, was Europe's tallest building, and Britain's tallest building until 1963, and Manchester's tallest building until 2006.
Kirkby was planned in the 1950s as the largest trading estate in Britain—1,800 acres. Trafford Park is the world's first planned industrial estate. Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers opened their first co-operative outlet on 21 December 1844.
Alastair Pilkington invented the float glass method of manufacture in 1957 at St Helens, announcing it in January 1959. It was manufactured from 1961, and 80% of the world's glass is made with the process; the former site closed in 2014 and it is made now at the Green Gate site. Pears soap, made at Port Sunlight, is the world's first registered brand, and world's oldest brand in existence. Elihu Thomson, born in Manchester who subsequently moved to America, formed Thomson-CSF which became Thales Group in 2000. The British part (British Thomson-Houston) would later become part of GEC; he invented the arc lamp. Henry Brunner from Liverpool would join with Ludwig Mond in the 1860s to form a chemical company which became ICI in 1926. Mossbay Steelworks in Workington, when opened in 1877, were the world's first large-scale steelworks; its austenitic manganese steel (mangalloy) was produced from 1877 until 1974, with Britain's railways converting from iron to steel by the 1880s. Track was made there for the UK's railways (exclusively from the 1970s onwards, with the steel made in Teesside) until August 2006; much of the rails made were exported (from 1882), with its main competitor being Voestalpine of Austria, and a plant (bought by British Steel in 1999) in Hayange, France, who make all of SNCF's railway tracks, and the Katowice Steelworks in Poland. Workington was thought to make the best quality rail track in the world.
Sebastian Ziani de Ferranti, born in Liverpool in 1864, was an electrical engineer who designed the layout for Deptford Power Station, the first alternating currentpower station in the world in 1887, and whose design all others would follow; his later company Ferranti, of Oldham, would later be an industry leader in Britain's defence electronics, on the FTSE 100 Index. Ferranti's design of increasing AC voltage to high tension at the power station, to be stepped-down at a transformer at substations before entering properties, is the system all electricity networks take today; the system reduces wasteful heating of electricity transmission cables.
Calder Hall was the world's first nuclear power station in 1956. There are approximately 430 nuclear power stations around the world, and the UK is the third most experienced operator of nuclear reactors after the US and France, and is the world's ninth largest producer of nuclear-generated electricity, with nine stations operating in the UK producing around 10GW. New-build nuclear power stations will either be the AP1000 (Toshiba Westinghouse NuGeneration) or EPR design (developed by Areva). BNFL bought Pittsburgh-based Westinghouse Electric Company in 1999; it was sold in October 2006 for £5.4 billion to Toshiba. British Energy was sold in 2009 for £12.5 billion to EDF; Centrica (British Gas) had also wanted to buy it; 26 Magnox reactors were built in the UK, followed by 14 AGR reactors.
A Hawker Siddeley Nimrod MR2 (HS 801), built at Woodford (former Avro) and designed in Manchester in the mid-1960s, with XV148 (former Comet 4C) making its first flight on 23 May 1967, flying from Chester (Broughton, which had built many de Havilland fighter jet aircraft) to Woodford; 49 Nimrods were made for the RAF, entering service with 201 Sqn on 6 November 1970, serving until March 2010 with 38 Sqn
W. T. Glover & Co. of Salford were important electricity cable manufacturers throughout the early 20th century. BAE Systems Wind Tunnel Department at Warton—one of its four wind tunnels—the High Speed Wind Tunnel—can test speeds intermittently up to Mach 3.8 (trisonic)—the second fastest in the UK, to the University of Manchester's Aero-Physics Laboratory which has a hypersonic wind tunnel up to Mach 6. Osborne Reynolds of Owens College (which became the Victoria University of Manchester in 1904), known worldwide for his Reynolds number (introduced elsewhere by the mathematician George Gabriel Stokes), showed in the early 1880s that wind tunnels (invented by Francis Herbert Wenham in 1871) could model large-scale objects accurately. BAE Systems Regional Aircraft assembled Britain's last airliner, the British Aerospace 146 (Avro RJX), at Woodford in November 2001. The Merlin-powered Avro Tudor G-AGPF, which took off from what is now Manchester Airport on 14 June 1945, was Britain's first pressurised civilian aircraft; only 38 were built and it was designed for the North Atlantic route. On 13 May 1949, VN799 the English Electric Canberra first flew from Warton: Warton at the time was a former USAAF wartime maintenance base; the German Arado Ar 234 was technically the world's first jet bomber; the Canberra would be the first jet aircraft to make a non-stop crossing of the Atlantic on 21 February 1951.
Britain's most popular car, the Ford Escort, was made throughout its life (until 21 July 2000) at Halewood by Ford; 5 million were made there from 1967. In 1998, production of its replacement the Focus was transferred to Saarlouis and Valencia, which signalled the end of the site's ownership by Ford. The Jaguar X-Type was first made there in May 2001, until late 2009. In the UK, the Mondeo has sold 1.4m since 1993, and is made in Valencia in Spain.
Starchaser Industries of Hyde is hoping to send a British citizen into space, on a British rocket; BAC at Preston had proposed its MUSTARD re-usable spacecraft in 1964, which although not built had given NASA a concept.
Ann Lee from Manchester started the USA Shakers movement, founded out of the Quakers, which itself has strong links to Pendle Hill in Lancashire. Joseph Livesey of Preston was the founder of Britain's temperance movement, and the word teetotal was first coined in Preston in 1833. The crumbly Cheshire cheese is thought to be the oldest in Britain. Heaton Park in north Manchester is the largest municipal park in Europe. Jelly Babies were invented in Lancaster in 1864, at Fryers of Lancashire. The first KFC outlet in the UK was on Fishergate in Preston in May 1965, opened by the entrepreneur Ray Allen. Oldham claims to be the site of the first fried potatoes in the UK in 1860. The UK's biggest dance music festival takes place on the August Bank Holiday at Creamfields on Daresbury Estate. Ingvar Kamprad's IKEA opened its first UK store in Warrington on 1 October 1987; the UK was the 20th country at the time that IKEA had been established. The International Cheese Awards are held at the end of July in Nantwich.
Liverpool and Manchester, the two largest cities in the North West by population, are known for being the birthplace of beat music (also called "Merseybeat") during the 1960s to 1970s, and the development of the Madchester music scene from the 1980s, and 1990s respectively.
A Taste of Honey was an influential 1960s film set in Salford, depicting working class poverty in ways not previously seen at the cinema, known as kitchen sink realism; Walter Greenwood's Love on the Dole, a 1930s book also set in Salford, was thought by the BBFC to be too sordid a depiction of poverty to be made into a film; Mike Leigh, from Salford, has produced films on a similar subject.
As part of the national transport planning system,
the North West Regional Assembly was, before its abolition in 2008, required to produce a Regional Transport Strategy (RTS) to provide long term planning for transport in the region. This involved region wide transport schemes, such as those carried out by the Highways Agency and Network Rail.[39] Within the region, the local transport authorities plan for the future by producing Local Transport Plans (LTPs) which outline their strategies, policies and implementation programmes.[40] The most recent LTP is that for the period 2006–11. In the North West region, the following transport authorities have published their LTP online: Blackburn with Darwen U.A,[41]Blackpool U.A.,[42]Cheshire,[43]Cumbria,[44]Greater Manchester,[45]Halton U.A.,[46]Lancashire,[47]Merseyside[48] and Warrington U.A.[49] Since 1 April 2009, when the county of Cheshire was split into two unitary councils[50] the Cheshire transport authority ceased to exist, however it is the most recent LTP for the area.
Road
The M6 motorway is one of the North West's principal roads
Britain's most severe steep road is Hardknott Pass in Cumbria and the highest road in the UK is the former A6293 at 2,780 ft at Milburn, Cumbria; the highest classified road in England was the A689 east of Nenthead in Cumbria on the Durham boundary.
Old meets new at the Stockport Viaduct; designed by George W. Buck, it is the largest free-standing brick structure in the UK, built in 1840 when it was the largest viaduct in the world; it features in many L. S. Lowry paintings.
The Greater Manchester and Merseyside areas are home to almost 4 million people; over half of the region's population. The road networks intertwining these metropolitan areas are extremely important to the economy and are largely motorway, including the M62 which crosses the entire country (east to west, Hull to Liverpool); this motorway directly connects the cities of Manchester and Liverpool, carrying 78,000 vehicles in the North West per day.[52]
The Merseyside-Manchester region has many other motorways that serve many millions on a daily basis: the M61 connects Manchester to Preston; the M56 runs south of Manchester to Cheshire and Wales; the M57 and M58 motorways run north of Liverpool and connect towns such as St. Helens and Wigan; the M60 is Manchester's ring road; and the M67 and M66 motorways run east and north respectively, both of these roads are under 10 mi (16 km) and link Manchester to smaller outlying settlements. On top of this there are countless numbers of A-roads, B-roads and minor roads which circle, entwine and serve these two major metropolises.
Cumbria
A sign marking entry to Scotland located on the M6 motorway crossing the border of Cumbria.
In Cumbria the M6 runs all the way down the east of the county connecting the very north of England to the Lancashire border. The A590 links Barrow-in-Furness to Kendal with around 14,000 vehicles per day.[53] The A595 runs all the way along the West Cumbrian coast beginning near Barrow and ending in Carlisle, linking towns such as Whitehaven and Workington. The A591 road runs from Kendal to the centre of the county connecting Lake District settlements like Windermere, Ambleside and Keswick. Other important A-roads include the A5092, A66, A596 and formerly the A74, until this was upgraded to motorway standard as an extension of the M6 between 2006 and 2008 to meet the A74(M) at the Scottish border.
Lancashire
The Lancashire economy relies strongly on the M6, which also runs from north to south (Lancaster to Chorley). Other motorways in the region include the M55, which connects the city of Preston and the town of Blackpool at 11.5 mi (18.5 km) in length. The M65 motorway runs from east to west, starting in the town of Colne, running past Burnley, Accrington, Blackburn and terminating in Preston. The Lancaster-Morecambe area is served by the A683, A6, A588 and A589 roads. The Blackpool-Fylde-Fleetwood area is home to the A583, A584, A585, A586, A587 and A588 roads. The city of Preston and its surroundings are served by the A6, A59, A582, A583, A584 and, to the very south-east, the M61 motorway. To the east of the county are the A59, A6119, A677, A679, A666, A680, A56, A646 and A682. The M66 begins 500 m (0.3 mi) inside the county border near Edenfield, providing an important link between east Lancashire and Manchester.
Cheshire
In Cheshire, there are four motorways: the M6, the M56 (linking Chester to the east), the M53 (linking Chester to Birkenhead) and the M62, which runs just along the county's northern border with Merseyside and Greater Manchester. The Cheshire road system is made up of 3,417 mi (5,499 km) of highway and the principal road (M6) carries 140,000[54] vehicles in the county daily, linking the North West to the West Midlands.
The county town of Chester is served by the A55, A483 and A494 roads, amongst others. To the west of the M6, Crewe, Northwich and Sandbach are served by the A54, A51, A49, A533, A556 and A530 roads; these all eventually link up connecting the towns to the larger cities, including Stoke-on-Trent to the south. To the east of the M6 in Cheshire lies the Peak District and towns such as Macclesfield and Congleton, which are served by the A6, A537, A536, A34, A523 and A566 roads.
The region's second largest airport, but is the oldest and fastest growing, is Liverpool John Lennon Airport, which serves over 5 million passengers annually. The airport serves destinations primarily in the UK and Europe and is a major hub for EasyJet and Ryanair.
The only other significant passenger airport in the region was Blackpool Airport, which was refurbished in 2006 and handled around half a million passengers annually. Destinations ranged from the Canary Islands in Spain to the Republic of Ireland. Commercial flights ended there in March 2017.
The main connection by train is the West Coast Main Line, connecting most of the North West. Other important lines are the Liverpool to Manchester Lines and the North TransPennine, which connects Liverpool to Manchester through Warrington. East-west connections in Lancashire are carried via the Caldervale Line to Blackpool. Liverpool and Manchester both have extensive local passenger rail networks operating high-frequency commuter trains. The quietest railway station in the region, by usage, is Reddish South, the 4th quietest in Britain.
The InterCity branded service in the UK began between London and Manchester in the mid-1960s; the new Euston station opened in 1968. With the new electrification of the line in the late 1960s, passenger numbers doubled.
The region saw the last steam-train service on the UK network – the Fifteen Guinea Special on 11 August 1968, with
three Black Five locomotives.
The North West is historically linked with the textiles industry, mainly before the mid 20th century. The Greater Manchester region produces the most economic output according to GVA in 2014 with £57,395m, followed by Merseyside £28,257m, Lancashire with £27,668m, Cheshire £25,803m and Cumbria with £10,747m.
According to research by Cushman & Wakefield in 2008, Manchester is the second best city to locate a business in the UK whilst Liverpool is the eleventh best city.[56] The Financial Times stated that the North West economy, led by the redevelopment of Manchester and Liverpool, is a genuine rival to "overheated London".[57]
Essar Energy's Stanlow Refinery, the UK's second largest refinery after Fawley, looking north-east from WervinVauxhall's plant in Ellesmere Port exports 88% of its cars, although many of the components are imported, and has made over 5 million since 1962, also making the Vectra from 1995 to 2008; it makes 686 a day (two a minute, 100,000 a year) and the latest model was designed by Mark Adams and Malcolm Ward. Three million Astras have been sold in the UK since 1979, and featured on the Top Gear test track until 2015; the production is split with the Opel Manufacturing Poland site at Gliwice in southern Poland; the Corsa is made at Opel Zaragoza in north-east Spain, with 3-door versions at Opel Eisenach; the Insignia is made at Opel Rüsselsheim
Cheshire is linked with the salt industry. AstraZeneca, the fifth largest pharmaceutical company in the world, has a manufacturing site in the north-east of Macclesfield on Hurdsfield Ind Est (former ICI Pharmaceuticals) off the A523, where it makes Zoladex (goserelin); it was formerly ICI until June 1993 when it became Zeneca. Vauxhall, home of the Astra, is on a former airfield next to the M53, and Essar Energy (former Shell, partly in Thornton-le-Moors) are in Ellesmere Port. Industrial inspection organisation SGS UK is based on junction 8 of the M53 at Rossmore Business Park. Innospec (former Octel) is west of the refinery near junction 9 of the M53 (A5032); Innospec also has a site at Widnes (former Aroma Fine Chemicals) which makes Lilestralis. Encirc Glass (former Aventas group) make glass bottles to the east of the refinery at Elton; the Shell Technology Centre on the southern side of the railway, off the A5117 and the M56 Hapsford Interchange on the east side of the refinery, closed in 2014; to the east is the large site of CF Fertilisers UK (former Shellstar) who make the Nitram brand of fertiliser.
Mornflake is in Crewe on the B5071, Focus closed in July 2011, and Orion Optics make telescopes. Bentley Motors (owned by Volkswagen since 1998) have their main plant in the west of the town between the A530 and A532, next to the railway to Chester. Crewe Works built the HST (Class 43) power cars, and now carries out maintenance for Bombardier. Unipart Rail is on the B5071 next to Crewe railway station. Bargain Booze is at the A532/A5020 roundabout in the east of the town, and further along the A532 Whitby Morrison are the world's leading manufacturer of ice cream vans. Air Products have a main HQ off the A534 in central Crewe near the Virgin Trains training academy. UK Fuels (fuel cards) are off the A532, north of Crewe railway station.
The ONS 2010 Annual Business Survey states that 30.3% of jobs in the British aerospace industry are based in Lancashire.[59] The main private employer in the county is BAE Systems Military Air & Information who have two sites east and west of Preston for the manufacture of military aircraft. Samlesbury (4000 employees) makes air-frames; the front fuselage, canards and tailfin of the Eurofighter. Warton, BAE Systems' main site (former English Electric, then BAC), is in Bryning-with-Warton (6500 employees).[60] BAE builds a Eurofighter every two weeks (takt time). Rolls-Royce make turbofan blades in Barnoldswick (950 employees).[61] Nearby Weston EU manufacture components in Foulridge (250)[62] and engine maintenance contractor Euravia are in Kelbrook (100).[63]Safran Aircelle make engine nacelles and thrust reversers in Burnley (800), and mostly make thrust reversers for the Trent 700.[64]GE subsidiary Unison Engine Components (320),[63] are the largest of several others in the area.
Westinghouse (BNFL) make nuclear fuel at the Springfields site at Salwick, off the A583 in Newton-with-Clifton. The boiler firm BAXI have a factory in the south of Preston, and next door, Assystem UK (engineering consultancy) are off the B5258 in Bamber Bridge. AB InBev have a brewery on the B6230 in nearby in Samlesbury (former Whitbread, and brews Stella Artois); further east the BAE Systems factory is between the A677 and A59, mainly in Balderstone. To the north-east of Preston, Bodycare Group make toiletries at the Red Scar Business Park on the B6243, near junction 31a of the M6, where Goss International UK make printing presses. Webb Ivory (charity fundraising, owned by Findel plc) is off the A6 in Avenham, in the south of Preston. Alstom Transport (former GEC Traction) is at TLS Preston; company's main Trafford Park site closed in the early 1990s. Bosal was the UK's leading manufacturer of car exhausts on Walton Summit, between the M6 and M61 until they closed operations. The Pilkington European Technical Centre is at Lathom.
Ennis Prismo make traffic white line products at Chorley; Walmsleys is a paper manufacturer off the A675 in Withnell. DXC Technology (former CSC) have sites in Chorley and Preston. Along the M65, Fort Vale based in Simonstone (near Burnley) (300) are a world leader in valves and fittings for road tankers.[68] Close by, office furniture manufacturer Senator International (800)[63][69] are the largest in the UK in their field. Off the A646 in Habergham Eaves, east of Burnley, is AMS Neve, a renowned manufacturer of audio mixing desks. Telecoms provider Daisy Group (former Pipex, 400),[63] based in Nelson is one of the UK's fastest growing companies, on Lomeshaye Ind Est north of M65 junction 12 in Brierfield;[70]Cott Beverages (former Macaw Soft Drinks before 2006) is off junction 12 of the M65 in Brierfield, west of Nelson, next to Pendle Water. Jura UK (Swiss coffee machines) is off the A6068 in Colne. At Horrocksford near Clitheroe, Hanson Cement have their large Ribblesdale Cement works, next to the River Ribble, which supplied construction of the Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral. Bensons for Beds (previously in Burtonwood near Warrington) and Sleepmasters (both owned by Steinhoff International) are in the north of Accrington, off junction 8 (A56) of the M65, near Huncoat railway station. Kleeneze (owned by Findel plc) is based with Express Gifts off the A678 in Clayton-le-Moors off the M65 Hyndburn Interchange between Blackburn and Burnley, north of Accrington with a main distribution centre off the A679 in Church on the other side of the M65 in the west of Accrington, with both sites next to the Leeds-Liverpool Canal. Off the A678 near the River Calder in Altham (north east of Clayton le Moors) is Senator who claim to be the UK's largest manufacturer of office furniture; Simon Jersey designed and made the Team GB clothing for the 2016 Olympics opening and closing ceremonies.
Crown Paints is in Darwen (500).[63]DS Smith have the Hollins paper mill just south of junction 4 of the M65, off the A666 in Darwen, which is set to close. Across the M65 to the north Apeks make diving equipment at Blackamoor. Graham & Brown at Blackburn make fancy wallpaper, next to the Leeds & Liverpool Canal, and off the A6077 is CWV (Coloroll and Crown Wallpaper); Capita Group runs TV Licensing in the middle of the town; Lucite International has its main plant on the A666 in the north of the town centre, where it makes Lucite; this site, under ICI Acrylics, manufactured the perspex for wartime aircraft canopies from 1940, becoming Ineos Acrylics from 1999 until 2002 and the company is the world's largest manufacturer of methyl methacrylate (MMA); ICI Acrylics invented the process to make perspex in 1936; the granular form of Perspex was known by ICI as Leukon. Tensar International, invented and manufacture geogrids for construction, off the A6077 near junction 5 of the M65 in Blackburn near the B6231 roundabout; nearby is Castle Metals UK; also on the Shadsworth Business Park is Evertaut, who make auditorium seating.
Shell UK (retail) was at Rowlandsway House in Wythenshawe until 2011 and has moved to Brabazon House nearby on the Concord Business Park; Royal Dutch Shell, by revenue ($458bn) in 2010, was the world's largest company, with ExxonMobil second. Electrium make their Wylex fuse boxes on the B5168 and B5166 in Wythenshawe, north of the Sharston Interchange of the M56; to the west is a plant of the Heimbach Group. PZ Cussons (formerly in Cheadle Heath) is off the Airport Interchange of the M56, with a manufacturing site on the former Agecroft Colliery next to the railway in Pendlebury, Salford, off the A6044. Nearby in Moss Nook is Franke UK, the world's largest manufacturer of domestic sinks and Simon Carves (process engineering), and Renold plc is an international chain company based on the B5166, off the Manchester Airport spur of the M56. Amazon have a fulfilment centre off the A538 west of the airport, south of the Hale Four Seasons Roundabout of the M56.
N Brown Group (JD Williams) is one of Britain's main clothing manufacturers and retailers, and based in
central Manchester near the A62/A665 junction and Sir Owen William's Daily Express Building, and owns well-known brands. Gazprom Energy is on Quay Street (A34) towards the River Irwell.
Heinz, although based in Hayes in Middlesex, has the largest food processing complex in Europe at a 55-acre (22 ha) site at Kitt Green in Wigan, which produces 1.4 billion cans of food each year; it is accessed to the east of the Orrell Interchange of the M6 (A577); the 38-acre Heinz NDC is next door
JD Sports (in Belfast), the largest company in Bury
JD Sports is west of the Pilsworth Interchange of the M66 in Unsworth south of Bury; Birthdays is west of the Heap Bridge Interchange; Tetrosyl Group Ltd, UK maker of car care products are at Walmersley, off the A56 and also at junction 2 (A58) of the M66. At A6053/A56 junction in Redvales, to the south of Bury is Melba Swintex, a main supplier of street furniture—traffic cones and barriers, claiming to be a world leader. Milliken make airbags on the A58, south-west of Bury.
Tangerine Confectionery makes its Princess marshmallows off Edge Lane (A5047) in east Liverpool, west of Wavertree Technology Park. Home Bargains are off the A580 west of junction 4 of the M57, on the Knowsley boundary at Stonebridge Park. JF Renshaw (Renshaw Napier), who have a Royal warrant, make cake icing on the A562 next to the Liverpool Women's Hospital in Edge Hill; 90% of the UK's marzipan comes from this factory. At Speke on the A561, west of the JLR plant, partly in Knowsley, Novartis make vaccines such as Fluvirin, and directly to the south MedImmune (owned by AstraZeneca) makes components of influenza vaccine (FluMist); Briggs Automotive Company is on Speke Hall Ind Est, with HP Chemie Pelzer UK (automobile acoustics). At Hunts Cross on the northern side of the railway line, the large Eli Lilly Speke Operations manufacturing plant produces antibiotics such as Capreomycin, and in 1981 produced the world's first biosynthetic product, by manufacturing biologic insulin, and has also produced biosynthetic human growth hormone since 1985; the plant was owned by The Distillers Company after the war until 1962, where it made penicillin and later made thalidomide. Near the A561/A562 junction, the NWDA-funded National Biomanufacturing Centre was built in 2006. On the south side of the A561 in Speke is Estuary Commerce Park. Further to south is Prinovis UK and B & M (previously in Blackpool) on the Liverpool International Business Park; on the former Speke Aerodrome is Shop Direct near the National Biomanufacturing Centre.
Jaguar Land Rover has 166 acres of its main production site (formerly owned by Ford) in Halewood, making the Freelander and Range Rover Evoque. Getrag Ford Transmissions, make 400,000 automatic and manual transmissions next door to the east of JLR's Halewood plant, for Ford, Volvo and Mazda vehicles. Magna Decoma, west of JLR Halewood and east of Novartis, make car interiors and exteriors. Dairy Crest makes Vitalite and Utterly Butterly on the A5207 in Kirkby, off the M57 Randles Farm Interchange, opposite a former site of Ethel Austin; to the east of Dairy Crest is Yorkshire Copper Tube, Britain's main manufacturer of copper tubing, owned by Italian KME Group; Counterline make foodservice counters on Knowsley Business Park; Clarke Energy is on the A5208. Further north on the estate next to the A5208 is QVC UK's distribution centre, with all three in Kirkby. Further north, next to the Lancashire boundary is Goodrich Actuation Systems on the Huyton Ind Est (in former Huyton Quarry) on the north-west side of the M62 Tarbock Island (off the A5080) in Tarbock. Next door Halewood International, who make Lambrini, Red Square, Lamb's Navy Rum and some alcopops, are in Whitefield Lane End, in the south of Huyton at the M62/M57 junction. Belling Ltd (owned by Glen Dimplex) is in Whiston, next to the large Whiston Hospital; Glen Dimplex Whiston is the UK's only manufacturer of cookers, around 350,000 a year (Stoves plc before 2001), and also owns LEC fridges. Manesty manufactures medicine tablets off the B5194 on the Knowsley Business Park. Nationwide fashion retailer Matalan has its head office and main distribution centre in the north of the Knowsley Ind Est (at Skelmersdale until 2014); the Knowsley Ind Estate is all on the former ROF Kirkby. Camelot Group have their Liverpool Prize Payout Centre on the Kings Business Park on the A57, west of the M57 Forest House Interchange.
Former head office of the Girobank in Bootle; it closed in 2003; it was taken over by Alliance & Leicester in 1990; it was established in Bootle in the late 1960s with help from Hugh Baird; it was the first financial institution in Europe to be fully computerised from the start
Secondary schools are mostly comprehensive, but Trafford retains a wholly selective school system, and there are some other grammar schools in Lancashire, Wirral, Liverpool and Cumbria.
There are around 345,000 at secondary school in the region, the third highest in England, after South East England and Greater London. This is around three times as much as there are in North East England. For school truancy the most persistent truants are in Manchester with a rate of 7.3%, followed by Knowsley with 6.9%, and Blackpool with 6.6%. The lowest truancy rate is in South Ribble with 2.4% followed by Ribble Valley with 2.9% (both in Lancashire).
At A level in 2010, Trafford performed the best and, again like its results at GCSE, is one of the best areas in England. The lowest performing area is, again, Knowsley but followed by Rochdale. Knowsley has had some dreadful results at A-level; Halewood Academy, its last school sixth-form, closed in 2016; there is now no school-based A-level provision in Knowsley, it is provided by the Knowsley Community College. For traditional counties, Lancashire gets excellent results at A-level, being one of the best in England. Areas also performing above the England average, in order of results, are Blackpool, Warrington, Wigan, Cheshire West and Chester, Bury, Cumbria, Wirral, and Stockport. Blackpool performs not particularly well at GCSE, yet produces much better results at A level—even better than Cheshire West and Chester, and the third-best in the region.[citation needed]
Winstanley CollegeClitheroe Royal Grammar SchoolSir John Deane's College
Top ten state schools in the North West (2015 A level results)
The areas that have school children most likely to attend university are Trafford and Cheshire, followed by Wirral, Sefton, Stockport and Bury. Four of these areas are or were part of Cheshire.[citation needed]
Colleges
Carmel CollegeBlackburn CollegeTrafford CollegeManchester City College, Didsbury
The two main higher education colleges in the region are Blackburn College and Blackpool and The Fylde College. There are forty three FE colleges. The regional LSC was in central Manchester; this is now the SFA and the YPLA.
Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester – Also one of the country's largest universities with 40,420 students – second-largest university in the region
UCLAN, Preston – The University of Central Lancashire in Preston, 28,850 students – third-largest university in the region
Over 60% of university students in the region are native to the region. The region with the next-highest number of students in the North-West is Yorkshire and the Humber, so approximately 80% of university students in the area are from the north of England. The region's students have the highest proportion of students from so-called low-participation neighbourhoods.[citation needed]
Local media
ITV Granada former studios in Castlefield, Manchester
TV
Liverpool TV is a local television station serving Liverpool City Region and surrounding areas. The station is owned and operated by Local Television Limited and is required to broadcast 35 hours a week of first-run local programming.
That's Manchester is a local television station serving Greater Manchester. It is owned and operated by That's TV and broadcasts on Freeview channel 7 from studios at The Flint Glass Works in the Ancoats suburb of Manchester.
N.B. Digital TV comes from Winter Hill for the south of the region, and Caldbeck for Cumbria. Digital switchover took place in mid-2009 for Cumbria and late-2009 for the south of the region.
National radio comes from Holme Moss (for Merseyside, Greater Manchester, and Cheshire) and Sandale for Cumbria. There is a main MW transmitter for the region (and England), over the border in Kirklees, at Moorside Edge.
Guardian Media Group have a printing site at Trafford Park Printers off the A5081 (M60 junction 9) between the Bridgewater Canal and the A576 roundabout which prints the Guardian (it is owned 50% with the Telegraph and 50% by Guardian Print Centre); it printed the Telegraph until 2008, and is known also as GPC Manchester. From 2008, the Telegraph has been printed at the Newsprinters huge site at Knowsley. Newsprinters have a site near Dairy Crest at Knowsley, and prints the Times, Telegraph and Sun titles, near the B5202.
Broughton Printers, owned by Northern & Shell, print the Express and Star at Fulwood on the B6241 south of the M55/M6 junction, on the same site as the Lancashire Evening Post.
Teams in the North West have won 64 out of 124 English football League titles (just over 50%), more than any other region, with Manchester United having won more than any other team.
^"The Catholic Vote in Britain Helped Carry Blair To Victory". Ipsos MORI. 23 May 2005. Archived from the original on 4 January 2015. Retrieved 16 October 2011. There are considerable regional variations, of course, Catholics being most widespread in London, Scotland and particularly the North-West (where one in five is Catholic)
^Kevin Phillips, The Cousins' Wars (New York: Basic Books, 1999), 480–84. Phillips notes: "The subjugation [of the Irish] of the seventeenth century was almost complete.... During the first quarter of the eighteenth century [after the Treaty of Union], Catholic bishops were banned and priests required to register. Catholics lost their right to vote, hold office, own a gun or a horse worth more than 5 pounds, or live in towns without paying special fees... Once again the Irish were pushed west to poorer lands, an exodus that prefigured the disposition of the American Indians over the next two centuries."
^"The aerospace industry". Lancashire County Council – Office of the chief executive. Archived from the original on 1 September 2011. Retrieved 10 June 2012.
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