Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county which covers an area roughly encompassing the conurbation of which the city of Manchester is the centre. It is situated in North West England. It has a population of about 2.5 million. It borders onto Cheshire, Derbyshire, West Yorkshire, Lancashire and the unitary authorities of Blackburn with Darwen and Warrington. It is made up of ten Metropolitan boroughs - Bolton, Bury, Manchester proper, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford and Wigan. Greater Manchester was established as a Metropolitan county in 1974 from areas that had previously been part of Lancashire and Cheshire, and a number of areas that had previously been county boroughs independent of county administration. It was initially administered by the "Greater Manchester County Council" but this was abolished in 1986 with most functions being devolved to the metropolitan boroughs. The Metropolitan boroughs are now mostly independent councils, although they pool certain resources to run several Greater Manchester-wide services, including: Greater Manchester Police Authority Greater Manchester County Fire Service Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive Other services are directly funded and managed by the local councils. Towns and villages Ainsworth, Altrincham, Ashton-in-Makerfield, Ashton-under-Lyne, Ashton upon Mersey, Astley Green, Atherton Blackrod, Bolton, Bowdon, Bramhall, Broadbottom, Bury Carrington, Chadderton, Cheadle, Cheadle Heath, Cheadle Hulme, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Crumpsall Denton, Droylsden, Dukinfield Failsworth, Fallowfield, Flixton Gatley Hazel Grove, Heald Green, Heywood, Horwich, |Hyde Irlam Kearsley Leigh, Levenshulme, Littleborough, Little Lever, Lowton, Lowton Common Manchester, Marple, Marple Bridge, Milnrow, Mossley, Mottram-in-Longdendale Northenden Oldham, Orrell Partington, Pendlebury, Pennington, Prestwich Radcliffe, Ramsbottom, Rochdale, Royton Sale, Salford, Standish, Stretford, Swinton Timperley, Trafford Park Urmston West Didsbury, Whitefield, Wigan Withington, Woodley, Worsley Places of interest Buckton Castle Bramall Hall, Bramhall Salford Quays, Salford Smithills Hall Wythenshawe Hall Astley Cheetham Art Gallery, Ashton-under-Lyne Museum of the Manchester Regiment, Ashton-under-Lyne Park Bridge Heritage Centre Portland Basin Museum, Ashton-under-Lyne Etherow Country Park Etherow Park River Bollin, River Croal, River Irwell, River Mersey, River Roch, River Tame Manchester Ship Canal East Lancashire Railway, a heritage railway This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.