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Lancashire

County of England

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Clitheroe
Peter McDermott · CC BY-SA 2.0

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The county has an area of 3,079 square kilometres (1,189 sq mi) and had an estimated population of 1,601,645 in 2024. Preston and Blackburn are near the centre of the county, Burnley is in the east, the seaside resort of Blackpool on the coast in the west, and the city of Lancaster in the north. For local government purposes the county comprises a non-metropolitan county, with twelve districts, and two unitary authority areas: Blackburn with Darwen and Blackpool. Lancashire County Council and the two unitary councils collaborate through the Lancashire Combined County Authority. The county historically included the Furness and Cartmel peninsulas of Cumbria, northern Greater Manchester and Merseyside, and Warrington, but excluded the eastern part of the Forest of Bowland.

The west of Lancashire contains flat coastal plains: the West Lancashire coastal plain to the south and the Fylde in the centre. The north-western coast is hilly and contains part of Arnside and Silverdale, a national landscape. The east of the county is upland, with the West Pennine Moors in the south-east and the Forest of Bowland in the north-east; Bowland has also been designated a national landscape. The major rivers of the county are, from north to south, the Lune, the Wyre, and the Ribble, which all flow west into the Irish Sea. The highest point in Lancashire is either Gragareth or Green Hill, both approximately 628 m (2,060 ft) high and located in the far north-east of the county.

Lancashire was founded in the 12th century; in the Domesday Book of 1086 much of what would become the county is treated as part of Yorkshire and Cheshire. Until the Early Modern period the county was a comparatively poor backwater, although in 1351 it became a palatine, with a semi-independent judicial system. This changed during the Industrial Revolution, when the county rapidly industrialised; until 1974 it included both Liverpool, a major port, and Manchester, which with its surrounding towns dominated the manufacture of textiles. The Lancashire coalfield was also exploited, with many collieries opening. By 1971 Lancashire had a population of 5,118,405, which made it the most heavily populated county in the United Kingdom after Greater London.

History

Before the county

During Roman times, the area was part of the Brigantes tribal area in the military zone of Roman Britain. The towns of Manchester, Lancaster, Ribchester, Burrow, Elslack and Castleshaw grew around Roman forts. In the centuries after the Roman withdrawal in 410 AD the northern parts of the county probably formed part of the Brythonic kingdom of Rheged, a successor entity to the Brigantes tribe. During the mid-8th century, the area was incorporated into the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Northumbria from the north of the River Ribble and the Kingdom of Mercia from the south, which both became parts of England in the 10th century.

In the Domesday Book, land between the Ribble and Mersey were known as Inter Ripam et Mersam and included in the returns for Cheshire. Although some historians consider this to mean south Lancashire was then part of Cheshire, it is by no means certain. It is also claimed that the territory to the north formed part of the West Riding of Yorkshire.

Early history

The county was established in 1182, and came to be bordered by Cumberland, Westmorland, Yorkshire, and Cheshire. It was divided into the hundreds of Amounderness, Blackburn, Leyland, Lonsdale, Salford and West Derby. Lonsdale was further partitioned into Lonsdale North, the detached part north of the sands of Morecambe Bay including Furness and Cartmel, and Lonsdale South.

Industrial revolution

Lancashire was one of the homes of modern industrialisation, particularly in textile manufacturing. This started with small scale experiments, for example in the automation of weaving. Lancashire had a long history of supplying wool to skilled weavers in Europe and southern England, as well as having many cottager weavers itself by the 18th century. But the advent of increased imports of cotton needing processing was a trigger to innovation. John Kay, Richard Arkwright, Samuel Crompton, and James Hargreaves were from Lancashire.

Historically there had been few boroughs in the county, but as the county became more populous, 22 Lancashire towns were incoporated as municipal boroughs up to 1862. In 1889, the administrative county of Lancashire was created, covering the greater part of the county, with administratively-independent county boroughs for the now large towns of Barrow-in-Furness, Blackburn, Bolton, Bootle, Burnley, Bury, Liverpool, Manchester, Oldham, Preston, Rochdale, Salford, St. Helens, and Wigan.

20th century

During the 20th century, the county became increasingly urban. The administrative county was the most populous of its type outside London, with a population of 2,280,359 in 1961. By the census of 1971, the population of Lancashire and its county boroughs had reached 5,129,416, making it the most populous geographic county in the UK.

In 1974, local government throughout Lancashire was reorganised. Areas in the south-east of the county were included in the new metropolitan county of Greater Manchester, while areas in the south-west were included in Merseyside. Widnes and Warrington became part of Cheshire, while the Furness area in the north became part of the new county of Cumbria. The remainder of Lancashire was reconstituted as a non-metropolitan county with thirteen districts, which included some areas from the West Riding of Yorkshire, namely Barnoldswick and Earby, Bowland Rural District, and the parishes of Bracewell and Brogden and Salterforth.

In 1994, the parish of Simonswood was transferred from the borough of Knowsley in Merseyside to the district of West Lancashire. In 1998, Blackpool and Blackburn with Darwen became unitary authorities, removing them from the non-metropolitan county but not from the ceremonial county.

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