Editing Lancashire (section)

==History==
{{Main|History of Lancashire}}

===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, Lancashire|Lancaster]], [[Ribchester]], [[Over Burrow|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 [[Britons (historical)|Brythonic]] kingdom of [[Rheged]]{{Citation needed|reason=Rheged is generally associated with further North (around Carlisle), a source is required to demonstrate territory extending so far Southwards.|date=January 2025}}, a successor entity to the Brigantes tribe{{Citation needed|reason=|date=January 2025}}. 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 [[River Ribble|Ribble]] and Mersey were known as "[[Hundreds of Cheshire|Inter Ripam et Mersam]]"<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.shrievalty-association.org.uk/Lancashire/LancashireHistory.htm |title=Lancashire: County History |publisher=High Sheriff's Association of England and Wales (The Shrievalty Association) |access-date=26 August 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120320101912/http://www.shrievalty-association.org.uk/Lancashire/LancashireHistory.htm|archive-date=20 March 2012 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all}}</ref><ref name=sylvesterp14>Sylvester (1980). p. 14</ref> and included in the returns for [[Cheshire]].<ref>Morgan (1978). pp. 269c–301c,d</ref> Although some historians consider this to mean south Lancashire was then part of Cheshire,<ref name=sylvesterp14 /><ref name="Booth, P 1991">Booth, P. cited in George, D., ''Lancashire'' (1991)</ref>{{Full citation needed|date=October 2022}} it is by no means certain.<ref group="note">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."</ref><ref>Phillips and Phillips (2002). pp. 26–31</ref><ref group="note">Crosby, 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."</ref> It is also claimed that the territory to the north formed part of the [[West Riding of Yorkshire]].<ref name="Booth, P 1991"/>{{Full citation needed|date=October 2022}}

===Early history===
[[File:Lancashire 1610 Speed Hondius - Restoration.jpg|thumb| Map of the ''countie pallatine of Lancaster'', 1610 by [[John Speed]]]]
The county was established in 1182,<ref name="George_D">George, D., ''Lancashire'', (1991)</ref>{{Full citation needed|date=October 2022}} and came to be bordered by [[Cumberland, England|Cumberland]], [[Westmorland]], Yorkshire, and Cheshire. It was divided into the [[hundred (division)|hundred]]s of [[Amounderness]], [[Blackburn (hundred)|Blackburn]], [[Leyland (hundred)|Leyland]], [[Lonsdale (hundred)|Lonsdale]], [[Salford (hundred)|Salford]] and [[West Derby (hundred)|West Derby]].<ref name=lancs_ancient_divisions>[http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/relationships.jsp?u_id=10173000&c_id=10001043 Vision of Britain] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071001002010/http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/relationships.jsp?u_id=10173000&c_id=10001043 |date=1 October 2007 }} – Lancashire ancient county divisions</ref> Lonsdale was further partitioned into Lonsdale North, the detached part north of the sands of [[Morecambe Bay]] including [[Furness]] and [[Cartmel]], and Lonsdale South.

===Victorian era to late 20th century===
Since the [[Victorian era]], Lancashire has had multiple reforms of local government.<ref name=berrington>Berrington, E., ''Change in British Politics'', (1984)</ref> In 1889, the [[administrative counties of England|administrative county]] of Lancashire was created, covering the greater part of the county. Multiple [[county borough]]s were outside the [[county council]] control: [[Barrow-in-Furness]], [[Blackburn]], [[County Borough of Bolton|Bolton]], [[Bootle]], [[Burnley]], [[County Borough of Bury|Bury]], [[Liverpool]], [[Manchester]], [[County Borough of Oldham|Oldham]], [[Preston, Lancashire|Preston]], [[County Borough of Rochdale|Rochdale]], [[County Borough of Salford|Salford]], [[St Helens, Merseyside|St. Helens]], and [[County Borough of Wigan|Wigan]]. The area served by the [[Lord-Lieutenant]] (termed now a [[ceremonial counties of England|ceremonial county]]) covered the entirety of the administrative county and the county boroughs. It expanded whenever boroughs annexed areas in neighbouring counties such as [[Wythenshawe]] in Manchester south of the River Mersey and from Cheshire, and southern [[Warrington]]. It did not cover the western part of [[Todmorden]], where the ancient border between Lancashire and Yorkshire passes through the middle of the town.

During the 20th century, the county became increasingly urban with [[County Borough of Warrington|Warrington]] (1900), [[County Borough of Blackpool|Blackpool]] (1904) and [[County Borough of Southport|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]].<ref name=maudwood>Lord Redcliffe-Maud and Bruce Wood. English Local Government Reformed. (1974)</ref> Lancaster, the historic [[county town]], became a city in 1937.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Beckett |first1=John |date=2008 |title=Lancaster becomes a city, 1937 |url=https://www.hslc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/157-9-Beckett.pdf |journal=Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire |volume=157 |pages=149–156 |doi=10.3828/transactions.157.9 |access-date=20 March 2024}}</ref> 

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.<ref name="highsheriffs.com">{{cite web|url=http://www.highsheriffs.com/Lancashire/LancashireHistory.htm|title=High Sheriff – Lancashire County History|work=highsheriffs.com|access-date=7 September 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140819222224/http://www.highsheriffs.com/Lancashire/LancashireHistory.htm|archive-date=19 August 2014|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}}</ref>

===Post-1974===
[[File:Historical and current boundaries of Lancashire.png|thumb|The [[Historic counties of England|historic]] [[county palatine]] boundaries in red and the ceremonial county in green]]

On 1 April 1974, under the [[Local Government Act 1972]], the local government structure of Lancashire was reorganised. The south-east of the county became part of the [[metropolitan county]] of [[Greater Manchester]] and the south-west became part of the metropolitan county of [[Merseyside]];<ref name="politics_uk">Jones, B. et al., ''Politics UK'', (2004)</ref> [[Widnes]] and [[Warrington]] in the south were transferred to [[Cheshire]].<ref name="George_D" />{{Full citation needed|date=October 2022}} In the north, the [[non-metropolitan county]] of [[Cumbria]] incorporated the [[Furness|Furness exclave]].  

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 district council|urban districts]] of [[Barnoldswick]] and [[Earby]], [[Bowland Rural District]], and the parishes of [[Bracewell and Brogden]] and [[Salterforth]] from [[Skipton Rural District]].<ref name="lga1972">Local Government Act 1972. 1972, c. 70</ref> 

In 1994, the parish of [[Simonswood]] was transferred from the borough of [[Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley|Knowsley]] in Merseyside to the district of [[West Lancashire]].<ref>[http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si1993/Uksi_19930691_en_1.htm OPSI] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930165106/http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si1993/Uksi_19930691_en_1.htm |date=30 September 2007 }} – The Cheshire, Lancashire and Merseyside (County and Metropolitan Borough Boundaries) Order 1993</ref> In 1998, Blackpool and [[Blackburn with Darwen]] became [[Unitary authorities of England|unitary authorities]], removing them from the [[non-metropolitan county]] but not from the [[Ceremonial counties of England|ceremonial county]].