X-Nico

70 unusual facts about Greater Manchester


Alexander Rigby

Rigby was the son of Alexander Rigby and his wife Ann Asshaw of Wigan and was baptised on 9 July 1594 in Flixton, a village that was historically within the boundaries of Lancashire.

Andy Goram

Goram was also a league cricketer, appearing as a wicket-keeper and batsman for various Oldham clubs in the Saddleworth League, including Delph & Dobcross, Moorside and also East Lancashire Paper Mill in Radcliffe, Bury.

Arnold W. G. Kean

He was born in Salford, in Lancashire, England, on September 29, 1914.

Ashley Slanina-Davies

Ashley Slanina-Davies (born 18 December 1989) is an English actress born in Standish, near Wigan, who is notable for playing the role of Amy Barnes on Channel 4's teen soap, Hollyoaks.

Bamford, Greater Manchester

Together with neighbouring Birtle, it formed the civil parish of Birtle-with-Bamford (also known as Birtle-cum-Bamford).

Bamfurlong

Bamfurlong, Greater Manchester a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, Greater Manchester, England

Benjamin Chew Tilghman

In 1879, he opened the gates of his new works in Broadheath, Altrincham, which became the hub of the sand blasting industry in Great Britain.

Bowdon Hockey Club

Bowdon Hockey Club is a field hockey club based in Bowdon, Greater Manchester, England.

Cannel coal

In England a member of the Bradshaigh family discovered a plentiful shallow seam of smooth, hard, cannel coal on his estate, near Haigh, Greater Manchester.

Cantilever spar cable-stayed bridge

Trinity Bridge Manchester, United Kingdom, 1995 (backward cantilever)

Charles Ewart

He lived in Salford, and in his final years at Davyhulme, near Manchester, retiring on the full pay of an ensign, and died in 1846.

Ciarán Griffiths

Griffiths attended St Mary's RC High School in Astley near Leigh, between 1994 and 1999; it was during this time that he starred in Children's Ward at the age of thirteen.

Clay Cross

The council was one of several to show defiance against the Act and of three to be ordered to comply by the Department of the Environment in November 1972 (the others being Eccles and Halstead).

Clifton Aqueduct

Clifton Aqueduct, built in 1796, carried the Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal across the River Irwell in Clifton, Salford, England.

Coinslot

Coinslot originated as a section of the World's Fair newspaper, published by the eponymous publishing house based in Oldham, Greater Manchester, before becoming a separate title at the end of the 1960s.

Crawford Library

The family library, the "Bibliotheca Lindesiana" located at Haigh Hall in Haigh near Wigan, had its origins in the sixteenth century and became world famous among scholars for its scope and the many bibliographies of its stock which exceeded 100,000 volumes.

Diggle

Diggle, Greater Manchester, a village within the Saddleworth parish of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, in Greater Manchester, England

Edward Bamber

He returned again, and was soon afterwards apprehended near Standish, Lancashire; he had probably been chaplain at Standish Hall.

Ephraim Longworth

Longworth, born in Halliwell, Bolton, Lancashire, England, noted for his lock of hair, was comfortable in either the right or left-back berths.

George Rodger

Born in Hale, Cheshire, of Scottish descent, Rodger went to school at St.Bees School in Cumberland then joined the British Merchant Navy and sailed around the world.

Golborne

The closure of the colliery led to the loss of employment for a large proportion of Golborne's population as well as people from nearby towns such as Abram, Lowton and Ashton-in-Makerfield.

Gossage

William Gossage died at his home in Bowdon, Cheshire on 9 April 1877, with less than £160,000 to his name.

Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service

Rochdale: E30 Rochdale (Two Water Tender Ladders), E31Littleborough (Two Water Tender Ladders), E32 Heywood (Two Water Tender Ladders, Water Incident Unit)

Harold Cleworth

Cleworth was born in Leigh, Lancashire in the late 1930s, and was born into a family of two brothers and two sisters.

Harry Mallinder

Born in Sale, Greater Manchester, Mallinder lived resided here until the age of 11, attending both Tyntesfield and Brooklands primary schools respectively.

Hazel Townson

She also worked as Chief Assistant Librarian for part of Greater Manchester, a role that included responsibility for libraries in 110 schools, eleven public children's libraries, and four colleges.

Health and Morals of Apprentices Act 1802

In 1784 there was an outbreak of disease at a factory owned by Sir Robert Peel in Radcliffe, which affected much of the workforce and surrounding population.

Hindley Green

Hindley Green is one of five communities (the others being Abram, Ashton-in-Makerfield, Bryn and Hindley) served by the Hindley Neighbourhood Policing Team, based at Bamfurlong Police Station.

James Agate

Agate, the eldest child of Charles James Agate (1832-1909), a wholesale linen draper, and Eulalie Julia née Young, was born in Pendleton, near Manchester, England.

James Lindsay, 24th Earl of Crawford

He designed Haigh Hall in Haigh, Greater Manchester to replace the existing hall which dated back to Norman times and lived in a cottage in the grounds whilst it was constructed between 1830-1849.

Jennifer James

Jenny attended St Aidan’s Primary School in Winstanley before attending St Edmund Arrowsmith School in Ashton in Makerfield.

Joe Gladwin

He was born at 44 Tatton Street in the Ordsall district of Salford, Lancashire, the son of Joseph and Elizabeth Gladwin (nee Dooley).

John Loveridge

Loveridge was born in Bowdon in Cheshire, the son of Claude W Loveridge and his wife, Emily (née Malone).

Joseph Watson Sidebotham

He was the eldest son of Joseph Sidebotham and Anne Coward of Bowdon, Cheshire.

Ken Branagan

Kenneth Branagan (27 July 1930 – 9 August 2008) was an English football fullback who was born in Salford.

KFM Radio

KFM originally broadcast on 94.2 MHz FM from a studio on Middle Hillgate, Stockport with the transmitter and aerial at Goyt Mill in Marple from November 1983 to February 1985.

Lancashire Coalfield

The Giant's Hall Fault passes by Abram, west of Ince Hall Colliery, west of Gidlow and under Giant's Hall Farm to Standish Church.

Ludworth

Ludworth, Greater Manchester (historically in Derbyshire, after 1936 in Cheshire)

Macclesfield railway station

During the 1860s, the North Staffordshire Railway collaborated with the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire railway (MS&LR) to construct a joint railway between Macclesfield and Marple near Manchester.

Margaret Burbidge

Eleanor Margaret Burbidge (née Peachey), FRS (born August 12, 1919 Davenport) is a British-born American astrophysicist, noted for original research and holding many administrative posts, including director of the Royal Greenwich Observatory.

Martin Coogan

Born and brought up in Middleton, Greater Manchester, Coogan attended Cardinal Langley RC Grammar School, as did his younger brothers, Steve and Brendan.

Michael Everitt

From 1998 to 2002 he was Chaplain at St Martin's College, Lancaster then Rector of Standish until his Archdeacon’s appointment.

Miles Gerard

Descended perhaps from the Gerards of Ince, he was, about 1576, tutor to the children of Squire Edward Tyldesley, at Morleys Hall, near Astley, Lancashire.

Mr Bennett Goes to Town

The basic story pits George Bennett against the brothers Roni and Ezra Feigenbaum, the latter being the leader of the Whitefield Chamber of Commerce.

Newton, Greater Manchester

Originally a separate district in Cheshire, it was incorporated into Hyde in the 1930s, and occupies a narrow strip of land from the River Tame near Newton Hall to Matley, and lies between Hyde and Dukinfield.

No. 1 Parachute Training School RAF

To maintain secrecy, these men and women were accommodated in separate secure premises in Bowdon and Styal and were trained in select groups.

Otto Monsted

He followed five years later with a factory in Godley, near Manchester, England, and in 1894 he built a vast margarine works in Southall, London.

Pearl Poet

In 1956 Ormerod Greenwood, working on a translation of Gawain, made the suggestion that the author of Pearl and Gawain was one of the Masseys of Sale.

RAF Ringway

There was an additional SOE holding centre in a large house in nearby Bowdon.

There is a monument, formerly in Terminal 1 but now in Manchester Airport railway station, to Alcock and Brown, the pioneers of transatlantic flight; of them, John Alcock was born in Old Trafford, near Barton Airport.

Richard Wroe

Wroe was the son of Richard Wroe of Heaton Yate or Heaton Gate in the parish of Prestwich, Lancashire, was born at Radcliffe, Lancashire, on 21 August 1641, and baptised on 8 September.

Rushbearing

Rushbearing ceremonies have survived, or been revived, in a number of towns and villages in northwest England including: Gorton, Littleborough, and Saddleworth in Greater Manchester, Newchurch in Pendle in Lancashire, Sowerby Bridge in Yorkshire, and Ambleside, Great Musgrave, Grasmere, Urswick and Warcop in Cumbria.

Sam Darbyshire

He belongs to a local youth theatre group in Wigan, Willpower Youth Theatre, near to where he lives in Standish, Greater Manchester.

Shuttleworth

Shuttleworth, Greater Manchester, a hamlet at the northeastern extremity of the Metropolitan Borough of Bury, England

Sir Edward Green, 1st Baronet

Green married Mary Lycett, daughter of Edward Lycett of Bowdon Cheshire in 1859, introducing the name Lycett into the family.

Slate budgerigar mutation

W H James, of Flixton, near Manchester, was one of the first to cross-breed Violets and Slates, attempting it first in 1955, and Cyril Rogers also investigated the effect of combining several darkening mutations in one bird in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

St Augustine of Canterbury RC High School

St Augustine of Canterbury RC High Specialist Humanities School was a Roman Catholic high school for 11-16 year olds, located in Werneth within the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, Greater Manchester, England under the Roman Catholic Diocese of Salford.

Stanislaw Przespolewski

They moved to Salford (near Manchester, England) where he had a number of odd jobs and appointments as designer for the ceramic industries.

Steven N'Zonzi

In September 2013 N'Zonzi was interviewed by police after he was involved in a collision with a cyclist in Hale, Greater Manchester.

Stirling Gallacher

Susan Stirling Gallacher (born 30 November 1970 in Bowdon, Altrincham, Cheshire) is an English actress.

Stockport Castle

The medieval town was on the south side of a valley at the confluence of the rivers Goyt and Tame, where they form the River Mersey.

Stockport Sports F.C.

Stockport Sports F.C. is a football club based in Woodley, Stockport, Greater Manchester, England.

Tonge, Middleton

Middleton Railway Station was in Tonge.

Vicky Binns

Victoria Jane "Vicky" Binns (born 27 August 1982 in Tottington, Bury, Greater Manchester) is an English actress who is best known for her two roles in the two veteran ITV soap operas Emmerdale and Coronation Street respectively.

W. G. Grace in the 1871 English cricket season

During July, Grace made two appearances for the USEE at Uppingham and Broughton, both being "odds" matches with 11 against 22.

Wear Mill, Stockport

The original water powered Wear Mill was built on the southern bank of the River Mersey, 500 m from it source's at the confluence on the River Tame and the River Goyt.

Whittaker Wood

Whittaker Wood is a woodland in Greater Manchester, England, near Littleborough.

Wigan Urban Area

The historic town of Wigan forms an integrated conurbation along with the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan districts of Orrell and Ince-in-Makerfield, this is connected by ribbon development to Standish, Platt Bridge and Abram.

The Urban Area includes the integrated conurbation around Wigan, (containing the contiguous areas of Ince-in-Makerfield, Orrell and Wigan itself), along with the outlying areas of Standish, Abram and the West Lancashire town of Skelmersdale.

Winifred Mary Letts

She was born on 10 February 1882 in Broughton, Salford, in what was then the County of Lancaster, (now Greater Manchester), to an English father (the Revd Ernest Letts) and Irish mother (Isabel Mary Ferrier).


Altrincham Aces

The Altrincham Aces were a semi-professional and amateur ice hockey team of the English National Ice Hockey League, based out of the old Altrincham Ice Rink, situated on Devonshire Road in Altrincham, Greater Manchester, England.

Animal Hospital

The animal hospitals are still in use today and are situated at Sonderburg Road in Islington, North London, Clarendon Drive in Putney, South London, and Eccles New Road, Salford, Greater Manchester.

Barbodhan

The largest population of Barbodhians outside India is in Bolton, Greater Manchester, where the community settled in the 1950s and 1960s.

Bedford Colliery

Speakman's Sidings between Tyldesley Station and Bedford Leigh Station were provided after 1882.

Bolton Sailing Club

Bolton Sailing Club (Bolton SC or BSC) is an inland sailing club located close to the village of Belmont in Lancashire to the north of Bolton, Greater Manchester in the West Pennine Moors.

Bryn Hall Colliery

Bryn Hall Colliery was a coal mine on the Lancashire Coalfield in Bryn, Ashton-in-Makerfield, Greater Manchester then in the historic county of Lancashire, England.

Cataclysmic Pink

This single was recorded, mixed and produced by Tim Scott at Acer Studios, Greater Manchester, mastered on December 16, 2010 by Geoff Pesche in Suite 5 at Abbey Road Studios, London.

CFM Radio

Networked presenters are based with sister stations Key 103 in Manchester and Metro Radio in Newcastle.

City region

The New Local Government Network proposed the creation of city regions as part of on-going reform efforts, while a report released by the IPPR's Centre for Cities proposed the creation of four large city-regions based on Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool and Greater Manchester.

Cosmic Ignition

This single was recorded, mixed and produced by Tim Scott at Acer Studios, Greater Manchester, mastered on 19 July 2010 by Geoff Pesche in Suite 5 at Abbey Road Studios, London.

Empress Mill, Ince

Empress Mill, Ince was a single storey shed mill alongside the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, spinning cotton in Ince, Wigan, Greater Manchester, England.

Eyck Zimmer

He then worked in a number of well-known hotels in Europe, Palasthotel (East Berlin), Grand Hotel Regina (Grindelwald, Switzerland), The Dorchester (Mayfair, London), The Berkeley (London), The Lanesborough (London), Claridge's (London), The Ritz (London), Choupana Hills in Madeira and the Lowry Hotel in Manchester, UK.

Grand Pro Wrestling

The promotion runs shows in the North West of England, mainly in the Greater Manchester area at The Rose Club (formerly known as The Monaco Ballroom) in Hindley Wigan running between 8 and 10 times a year.

Haslingden Canal

The Haslingden Canal was a proposed canal link between the Bury arm of the Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal in Greater Manchester, England, and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal in Accrington, England, passing through Haslingden.

Hunslet Austerity 0-6-0ST

The NCB continued to use Austerities in the 1970s and a small number remained in service until the early 1980s, notably at Bickershaw Colliery, Greater Manchester.

Jennifer James

Jennifer James (born Jennifer Marie Reynolds; 3 December 1977) is an English actress born in Billinge Higher End, Wigan in Greater Manchester.

John Maines

In addition to his everyday banding activities Maines was for many years the presenter of the long running BBC weekly band programme "GMR Brass” and in 1999 received the Manchester Music Makers award for his contribution to music broadcasting in the Greater Manchester area.

Kiss Me thru the Phone

An unsuspecting family in Oldham, Greater Manchester, found themselves inundated with calls from fans in the UK who dialled the number without using the international dialling code prefix for the United States.

Kulveer Ranger

At the 2005 General Election, Ranger stood as the Conservative parliamentary candidate for Makerfield, Greater Manchester, against the Labour incumbent Ian McCartney.

Menelik Watson

Watson was born into a single-parent family of four brothers raised on the Anson Estate in Longsight, Greater Manchester, England; his mother worked as an office cleaner to support the family.

Mountains and hills of England

The Yorkshire Dales end at Skipton, and a short distance to the south is a range of moors that rises up between the urban cores of Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire.

New Hall moated site

New Hall moated site is a scheduled monument in Tyldesley, Greater Manchester, England.

North Chadderton School

North Chadderton School is a mixed gender comprehensive school and sixth form for 11–18 year olds, located in Chadderton, in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, Greater Manchester, England.

North Lindsey Light Railway

Part of the line still exists at the Scunthorpe end and is used to access a landfill site near Roxby which receives trainloads of household rubbish from various locations in the Greater Manchester area.

Oldham King Street Metrolink station

Oldham King Street Metrolink station is a stop on the Oldham and Rochdale Line (ORL) of Greater Manchester's light-rail Metrolink system and is located opposite Oldham Sixth Form College, at the junction of King Street and Union Street in Oldham, England.

Pennine Blue

Pennine Blue, later known as First Pennine, was a bus company serving the Tameside area of Greater Manchester, England.

Saddleworth, South Australia

Saddleworth was originally established as one of many settlements on the road to Burra, and was named after Saddleworth Lodge pastoral station, a local landholding which itself was named after a town of Saddleworth in Greater Manchester (formerly in Yorkshire), England.

Stockport, South Australia

It was laid out on section 1283, Hundred of Light in 1845 by Samuel Stocks junior, naming it for his birthplace, Stockport in Cheshire (now Greater Manchester), England.

The Peel Group

The Group moved into the energy sector in 2008 with the opening of Scout Moor Wind Farm on the West Pennine Moors in Greater Manchester nearby Edenfield and Rochdale.

In 1986, Peel submitted a planning application for a large shopping centre development on land attached to the Manchester Ship Canal, adjacent to the M63, now the M60, in Trafford, Greater Manchester.