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Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to the west. The largest settlement is Preston, and the county town is the city of Lancaster.
The county has an area of and a population of 1,490,300. Preston is located near the centre of the county, which is urbanised and includes the towns of Blackburn and Burnley; the seaside resort of Blackpool lies to the west, and Lancaster is 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 northern Greater Manchester and Merseyside, the Furness and Cartmel peninsulas of Cumbria, and part of northern Cheshire, 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 River Lune, the River Wyre, and the River Ribble, which all flow west into the Irish Sea. The highest point in Lancashire is either Gragareth or Green Hill, both approximately 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 County 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 Coal mining 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.
In the Domesday Book, land between the River Ribble and Mersey were known as "Inter Ripam et Mersam"Sylvester (1980). p. 14 and included in the returns for Cheshire.Morgan (1978). pp. 269c–301c,d Although some historians consider this to mean south Lancashire was then part of Cheshire,Booth, P. cited in George, D., Lancashire (1991) it is by no means certain.Harris and Thacker (1987) write on page 252: "Certainly there were links between Cheshire and south Lancashire before 1000, when Wulfric Spot held lands in both territories. Wulfric's estates remained grouped together after his death, when they were left to his brother Aelfhelm. And indeed, there still seems to have been some kind of connexion in 1086, when south Lancashire was surveyed together with Cheshire by the Domesday commissioners. Nevertheless, the two territories do seem to have been distinguished from one another in some way and it is not certain that the shire-moot and the reeves referred to in the south Lancashire section of Domesday were the Cheshire ones."Phillips and Phillips (2002). pp. 26–31Crosby, A. (1996) writes on page 31: "The Domesday Survey (1086) included south Lancashire with Cheshire for convenience, but the Mersey, the name of which means 'boundary river' is known to have divided the kingdoms of Northumbria and Mercia and there is no doubt that this was the real boundary." It is also claimed that the territory to the north formed part of the West Riding of Yorkshire.
During the 20th century, the county became increasingly urban with Warrington (1900), Blackpool (1904) and Southport (1905) becoming county boroughs, with many boundary extensions. The borders around the Manchester area were particularly complicated, with narrow protrusions of the administrative county between the county boroughs – Lees Urban District formed a detached part of the administrative county, between Oldham county borough and the West Riding of Yorkshire.Lord Redcliffe-Maud and Bruce Wood. English Local Government Reformed. (1974) Lancaster, the historic county town, became a city in 1937.
The administrative county was also 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.
The remainder of Lancashire was reconstituted as a non-metropolitan county with thirteen districts. It included some areas formerly in the West Riding of Yorkshire, namely the urban districts of Barnoldswick and Earby, Bowland Rural District, and the parishes of Bracewell and Brogden and Salterforth from Skipton Rural District.Local Government Act 1972. 1972, c. 70
In 1994, the parish of Simonswood was transferred from the borough of Knowsley in Merseyside to the district of West Lancashire. OPSI – The Cheshire, Lancashire and Merseyside (County and Metropolitan Borough Boundaries) Order 1993 In 1998, Blackpool and Blackburn with Darwen became unitary authorities, removing them from the non-metropolitan county but not from the ceremonial county.
To the west of the county are the Fylde coastal plain and West Lancashire coastal plain, which lie north and south of the Ribble Estuary respectively. Apart from the coastal resorts these areas are largely rural and devoted to vegetable crops. Further north is Morecambe Bay. In the northwest corner of the county, straddling the border with Cumbria, is the Arnside and Silverdale National Landscape, characterised by its limestone pavements and home to the Leighton Moss nature reserve.
In the east of the county are upland areas leading to the Pennines. North of the Ribble are Beacon Fell Country Park and the Forest of Bowland, another National Landscape. Much of the lowland in this area is devoted to dairy farming and cheesemaking, whereas the higher ground is more suitable for sheep, and the highest ground is uncultivated moorland. The valleys of the River Ribble and its tributary the Calder form a large gap to the west of the Pennines, overlooked by Pendle Hill. South of the Ribble are the West Pennine Moors and the Forest of Rossendale, where former cotton mill towns are in deep valleys. The Lancashire Coalfield, largely in modern-day Greater Manchester, extended into Merseyside and to Ormskirk, Chorley, Burnley and Colne in Lancashire.
The highest point of the ceremonial county is Gragareth, near Whernside, which reaches a height of 627 m (2,057 ft). BUBL Information Service – The Relative Hills of Britain Green Hill near Gragareth has also been cited as the Peak bagging. The highest point in the historic county is Coniston Old Man in the Lake District, at 803 m (2,634 ft).
]] The north of the ceremonial county is less densely populated than the south, especially inland. The The Fylde coast is continuously built-up from Lytham St Annes to Fleetwood, including Blackpool, and further north Lancaster, Morecambe, and Heysham form a conurbation. The rest of the region is characterised by small towns and villages in the flat farmland surrounding the lower reaches of the River Ribble, River Wyre, and River Lune and the sparsely populated uplands of the Forest of Bowland.
The centre and south-east of Lancashire are relatively urbanised, especially around the major settlements of Preston, Blackburn, and Burnley and near the border with Greater Manchester. The Central Lancashire urban area includes the city of Preston and the towns of Penwortham, Leyland and Chorley. A short distance east, Blackburn and Darwen are the first of several adjacent areas urban areas which continue east toward West Yorkshire and south into the valleys leading to Greater Manchester, the others being Accrington and Rossendale and Burnley. West Lancashire in the south-west is rural with the exception of Skelmersdale, which forms part of Wigan urban area.
The North West Green Belt covers a large part of the south and centre of the county to prevents the settlements there from converging both with each other and with the nearby Merseyside and Greater Manchester conurbations. It includes all of the non-urban areas in the boroughs of West Lancashire and South Ribble and the majority of Chorley; elsewhere it is less extensive, but covers the areas between the major settlements. There is a further area of green belt in the north of the county between Lancaster, Morecambe, and Carnforth.
The cities of Manchester, Salford, Liverpool and the following settlements within the historic county boundaries are currently in the ceremonial counties of West Yorkshire, Cheshire, Merseyside, Greater Manchester and Cumbria: Vision of Britain – Lancashire ancient county boundaries Vision of Britain – Lancashire boundaries 1974Chandler, J., Local Government Today, (2001)Youngs. Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England. Volume 2. Northern England
Boundary changes before 1974 include:
The twelve districts of Burnley, Chorley, Fylde, Hyndburn, Lancaster, Pendle, Preston, Ribble Valley, Rossendale, South Ribble, West Lancashire, and Wyre are part of the two-tier non-metropolitan county of Lancashire, which is administered by Lancashire County Council and twelve district councils. Vision of Britain – Divisions of Lancashire Lancashire County Council – Lancashire districts The county council is based in County Hall in Preston, and has 84 councillors."Opening of the new Town-Hall at Preston". The Times. 15 September 1882 It has been controlled by Reform UK since the 2025 local election.
Blackpool and Blackburn with Darwen are unitary authority areas, meaning their councils combine the functions of a district and county council. They were formed in 1996, before which each district was part of the non-metropolitan county of Lancashire. Both authorities currently have a majority Labour administration.
Lancashire County Council, Blackpool Council, and Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council collaborate through the Lancashire Combined County Authority, which was established in February 2025.
The ceremonial county itself only has a minor administrative function, being the area to which the Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire is appointed; the shrieval county has the same boundaries and is the area to which the High Sheriff of Lancashire is appointed.
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As of 2013, the largest private sector industry is the defence industry with BAE Systems Military Air Solutions division based in Warton on the Fylde coast. The division operates a manufacturing site in Samlesbury. Other defence firms include BAE Systems Global Combat Systems in Chorley, Ultra Electronics in Fulwood and Rolls-Royce plc in Barnoldswick.
The nuclear power industry has a plant at Springfields, Salwick operated by Westinghouse and Heysham nuclear power station is operated by British Energy. Other major manufacturing firms include Leyland Trucks, a subsidiary of Paccar building the DAF Trucks truck range.
Other companies with a major presence in Lancashire include:
In March 2015 the government announced a new enterprise zone would be created at Blackpool Airport, using some airport and adjoining land. Operations at the airport will not be affected.
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Lancashire is home to four universities: Lancaster University, the University of Central Lancashire, Edge Hill University and the Lancaster campus of the University of Cumbria. Seven colleges offer higher education courses.
Other major roads include the east–west A59 between Liverpool in Merseyside and Skipton in North Yorkshire via Ormskirk, Preston and Clitheroe, and the connecting A565 to Southport; the A56 from Ramsbottom to Padiham via Haslingden and from Colne to Skipton; the A585 from Kirkham to Fleetwood; the A666 from the A59 north of Blackburn to Bolton via Darwen; and the A683 from Heysham to Kirkby Lonsdale via Lancaster.
Several bus companies run bus in the Lancashire area serving the main towns and villages in the county with some services running to neighbouring areas, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Merseyside and West Yorkshire. Some of these include:
There is an operational airfield at Warton Aerodrome near Preston where there is a major assembly and test facility for BAE Systems.
The north of the county is predominantly rural and sparsely populated, except for the city of Lancaster and the towns of Morecambe and Heysham, the three of which form a large conurbation of almost 100,000 people. Lancashire is home to a significant British Asian population, numbering over 70,000 and 6% of the county's population, and concentrated largely in the former cotton mill towns in the south east.
A flag consisting of a red rose on a gold field was designed by the Friends of Real Lancashire, a pressure group which promotes the historic county, and registered with the Flag Institute, a vexillological charity, in 2008. The flag has been flown from public buildings within the historic county boundaries on Lancashire Day (27 November), including from County Hall in Preston, St Helens Town Hall, and in parts of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham which were previously in Lancashire. It has also been flown from the Ministry for Housing, Communities, and Local Government building in London.
An alternative flag consists of a red rose on a white field. This design had already been registered by Montrose in Scotland.
Local cricket leagues include the Lancashire League, the Central Lancashire League and the North Lancashire and Cumbria League.
Since 2000, the designated ECB Premier League for Lancashire has been the Liverpool and District Cricket Competition.
Lancashire clubs were prominent in the formation of the Football League in 1888, with the league being officially named at a meeting in Manchester. Of the twelve founder members of the league, six were from Lancashire: Accrington, Blackburn Rovers, Bolton Wanderers, Burnley, Everton, and Preston North End.
The Football League is now based in Preston. The National Football Museum was founded at Deepdale, Preston in 2001, but moved to Manchester in 2012.
Seven professional full-time teams were based in Lancashire at the start of the 2024–25 season:
The county's most prominent football rivalries are the East Lancashire derby between Blackburn Rovers and Burnley, and the West Lancashire derby between Blackpool and Preston North End.
A further nine professional full-time teams lie within the historical borders of Lancashire but outside of the current ceremonial county. These include the Premier League clubs Everton, Liverpool, Manchester City and Manchester United.
A local pioneer of folk song collection in the first half of the 19th century was Shakespearean scholar James Orchard Halliwell,E. D. Gregory, Victorian Songhunters: the Recovery and Editing of English Vernacular Ballads and Folk Lyrics, 1820–1883 (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow, 2006), , p. 248 but it was not until the second folk revival in the 20th century that the full range of song from the county, including industrial folk song, began to gain attention. The county produced one of the major figures of the revival in Ewan MacColl, but also a local champion in Harry Boardman, who from 1965 onwards probably did more than anyone to popularise and record the folk song of the county. Folk North West, , retrieved 16 February 2009 Perhaps the most influential folk artists to emerge from the region in the late 20th century were Liverpool folk group the Spinners, and from Manchester folk troubadour Roy Harper and musician, comedian and broadcaster Mike Harding.S. Broughton, M. Ellingham and R. Trillo, World Music: Africa, Europe and the Middle East (Rough Guides, 1999), , p. 67 The region is home to numerous folk clubs, many of them catering to Irish and Scottish folk music. Regular include the Fylde Folk Festival at Fleetwood.
The vibrant brass band culture of the area made an important contribution to the foundation and staffing of the Hallé Orchestra from 1857, the oldest extant professional orchestra in the United Kingdom.D. Russell, Popular Music in England, 1840–1914: a Social History (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1987), , p. 230 The same local musical tradition produced eminent figures such as Sir William Walton (1902–88), son of an Oldham choirmaster and music teacher,D. Clark and J. Staines, Rough Guide to Classical Music (Rough Guides, 3rd edn., 2001), , p. 568 Sir Thomas Beecham (1879–1961), born in St. Helens, who began his career by conducting local orchestrasL. Jenkins, While Spring and Summer Sang: Thomas Beecham and the Music of Frederick Delius (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, 2005), , p. 1 and Alan Rawsthorne (1905–71) born in Haslingden.J. McCabe, Alan Rawsthorne: Portrait of a Composer (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), The conductor David Atherton, co-founder of the London Sinfonietta, was born in Blackpool in 1944. Lancashire also produced more populist figures, such as early musical theatre composer Leslie Stuart (1863–1928), born in Southport, who began his musical career as organist of Salford Cathedral.A. Lamb, Leslie Stuart: Composer of Floradora (London: Routledge, 2002),
More recent Lancashire-born composers include Hugh Wood (1932– Parbold), Sir Peter Maxwell Davies (1934–2016, Salford), Sir Harrison Birtwistle (1934–2022, Accrington), Gordon Crosse (1937–, Bury), John McCabe (1939–2015, Huyton), Roger Smalley (1943–2015, Swinton), Nigel Osborne (1948–, Manchester), Steve Martland (1954–2013, Liverpool), Simon Holt (1958–, Bolton) and Philip Cashian (1963–, Manchester).
The Royal Manchester College of Music was founded in 1893 to provide a northern counterpart to the London musical colleges. It merged with the Northern College of Music (formed in 1920) to form the Royal Northern College of Music in 1972.M. Kennedy, The History of the Royal Manchester College of Music, 1893–1972 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1971),
The first musicians to break through in the UK who were not from Liverpool or managed by Beatles manager Brian Epstein were Manchester's Freddie and the Dreamers, Dreamers' star Freddie Garrity dies" Daily Telegraph, 20 May 2006. Retrieved 1 August 2007 with Herman's Hermits and the Hollies also hailing from Manchester.V. Bogdanov, C. Woodstra and S. T. Erlewine, All Music Guide to Rock: the Definitive Guide to Rock, Pop and Soul (Milwaukee, WI: Backbeat Books, 3rd edn., 2002), , p. 532 The Beatles led a movement by various beat groups from the region which culminated in the British Invasion of the US, which in turn made a major contribution to the development of modern rock music.V. Bogdanov, C. Woodstra and S. T. Erlewine, All Music Guide to Rock: the Definitive Guide to Rock, Pop, and Soul (Milwaukee, WI: Backbeat Books, 3rd edn., 2002), , pp. 1316–7 After the decline of beat groups in the late 1960s, the centre of rock culture shifted to London, and there were relatively few Lancashire bands who achieved national prominence until the growth of a disco scene and the punk rock revolution in the mid-and-late 1970s.S. Cohen, Rock Culture in Liverpool: Popular Music in the Making (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991), , p. 14
The tunnel scene was shot on the old Bacup-Rochdale railway line, location 53°41'29.65"N, 2°11'25.18"W, off the A6066 (New Line) where the line passes beneath Stack Lane. The tunnel is still there, in use as an industrial unit but the railway has long since been removed.
Funny Bones (1995) was set mostly in Blackpool, after opening scenes in Las Vegas.
The national weekly Farmers Guardian is published in Fulwood, Preston.
Classical music
Lancashire had a lively culture of choral and classical music, with very large numbers of local church from the 17th century,R. Cowgill and P. Holman, Music in the British Provinces, 1690–1914 (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2007), , p. 207 leading to the foundation of local choral societies from the mid-18th century, often particularly focused on performances of the music of Handel and his contemporaries.R. Southey, Music-Making in North-East England During the Eighteenth Century (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, 2006), , pp. 131–2 It also played a major part in the development of brass bands which emerged in the county, particularly in the textile and coalfield areas, in the 19th century.D. Russell, Popular Music in England, 1840–1914: a Social History (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1987), , p. 163 The first open competition for brass bands was held at Manchester in 1853, and continued annually until the 1980s.A. Baines, The Oxford Companion to Musical Instruments (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992), , p. 41
Popular music
Liverpool, both during its time in Lancashire and after being moved to the new county of Merseyside, has produced a number of successful musicians. This includes pop stars such as Frankie Vaughan and Lita Roza, as well as rock stars such as Billy Fury, who is considered to be one of the most successful British rock stars of all time.P. Frame, Pete Frame's Rockin' Around Britain: Rock'n'Roll Landmarks of the UK and Ireland (London: Music Sales Group, 1999), , pp. 72–6 Many Lancashire towns had vibrant skiffle scenes in the late 1950s, out of which a culture of beat groups emerged by the early 1960s, particularly around Liverpool and Manchester. It has been estimated that there were at least 350 bands—including the Beatles—active in and around Liverpool during this era, playing ballrooms, concert halls, and clubs.A. H. Goldman, The Lives of John Lennon (A Capella, 2001), , p. 92 A number of Liverpool performers followed the Beatles into the charts, including Gerry & the Pacemakers, the Searchers, and Cilla Black.
Cuisine
Lancashire is the origin of the Lancashire hotpot, a casserole dish traditionally made with lamb. Other traditional foods from the area include:
Cinema
Whistle Down the Wind (1961) was directed by Bryan Forbes, set at the foot of Worsaw Hill and in Burnley, and starred local Lancashire schoolchildren.
Media
Television
The county is covered by BBC North West and ITV Granada which broadcast from Salford. Television signals are received from the Winter Hill TV transmitter. A small part of East Lancashire around Barnoldswick and Earby is served by BBC Yorkshire and ITV Yorkshire broadcasting from Leeds. This area is served by a local transmitter in Skipton which is relayed from the Emley Moor TV transmitter.
Radio
BBC Local Radio for the county is served by BBC Radio Lancashire which broadcast from its studios in Blackburn, BBC Radio Merseyside can be heard in southern parts, BBC Radio Manchester in the east and BBC Radio Cumbria in the north. County-wide commercial stations are Greatest Hits Radio Lancashire, Capital Manchester and Lancashire, Heart North West, and Smooth North West. Community based stations are Beyond Radio (covering northwestern Lancashire), Pendle Community Radio (serving the Pendle area), Rossendale Radio (for Rossendale), and Central Radio (for The Fylde, Preston, Leyland and Chorley areas of Lancashire).
Newspapers
The county is served by these local newspapers:
Places of interest
The following are places of interest in the ceremonial county:
Gallery
See also
Notes
Bibliography
Further reading
External links
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