WiganWigan (ˈwɪɡən ) is a town in Greater Manchester, England, on the River Douglas. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. Bolton lies to the north-east and Warrington to the south. It is the largest settlement in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and is its administrative centre. The town has a population of 107,732 and the wider borough of 330,714. Wigan is part of the historic county of Lancashire.
Leeds and Liverpool CanalThe Leeds and Liverpool Canal is a canal in Northern England, linking the cities of Leeds and Liverpool. Over a distance of , crossing the Pennines, and including 91 locks on the main line. The Leeds and Liverpool Canal has several small branches, and in the early 21st century a new link was constructed into the Liverpool docks system. In the mid-18th century the growing towns of Yorkshire, including Leeds, Wakefield and Bradford, were trading increasingly.
MerseysideMerseyside (ˈmɜrzisaɪd ) is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Greater Manchester to the east, Cheshire to the south, the Welsh county of Flintshire across the Dee Estuary to the southwest, and the Irish Sea to the west. The largest settlement is Liverpool. The county is highly urbanised, with an area of and a population of 1.42 million. The majority of the population live in the Liverpool Built-up Area (864,122), which is the sixth most populous urban area in the UK, and the Birkenhead Built-up Area (325,264).
County boroughCounty borough is a term introduced in 1889 in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, to refer to a borough or a city independent of county council control, similar to the unitary authorities created since the 1990s. An equivalent term used in Scotland was a county of city. They were abolished by the Local Government Act 1972 in England and Wales, but continue in use for lieutenancy and shrievalty in Northern Ireland. In the Republic of Ireland they remain in existence but have been renamed cities under the provisions of the Local Government Act 2001.
LeedsLeeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is governed by a metropolitan borough named after the city, the wider county having devolved powers. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. The city was a small manorial borough in the 13th century and a market town in the 16th century. It expanded by becoming a major production centre, including of carbonated water where it was invented in the 1760s, and trading centre (mainly with wool) for the 17th and 18th centuries.
SkelmersdaleSkelmersdale ˈskɛlmərzdeɪl is a town in the West Lancashire district, in Lancashire, England, on the River Tawd, west of Wigan, northeast of Liverpool and southwest of Preston. In 2006, it had a population of 38,813. The town is known locally as Skem ˈskɛm. While the first record of the town is in the Domesday Book of 1086, much of the town, including the current town centre, was developed as a second wave new town in the 1960s. The town's initial development as a coal town coincided with the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century; the town lies on the Lancashire Coalfield.
