Editing Greater Manchester (section)

===Manchesterthum===
[[File:Weavers' cottages, Wardle.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Former [[weavers' cottage]]s in [[Wardle, Greater Manchester|Wardle]]. An increase in [[domestic system|domestic]] cloth production, and [[Textile manufacture during the British Industrial Revolution|textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution]] is attributed to a population boom in the area.]]
In the late 18th to early 19th century, the [[Industrial Revolution]] transformed the local domestic system; mechanisation enabled the [[industrialisation]] of the region's textile trade, triggering rapid growth in the [[cotton]] industry and expansion in ancillary trades.<ref name=con/> The area became central to England's woollen trade with [[domestic system|domestic]] [[flannel]] and [[fustian]] cloth production, which encouraged a system of cross-regional trade.{{sfn|Frangopulo|1977|p=ix}}{{sfn|Frangopulo|1977|pp=24–25}}{{sfn|McNeil|Nevell|2000|pp=1–3}} In the 18th century, German traders had coined the name ''Manchesterthum'' to cover the region in and around Manchester.{{sfn|Frangopulo|1977|p=268}}

Infrastructure such as rows of terraced housing, factories and roads were constructed to house labour, transport goods, and [[Textile manufacture during the British Industrial Revolution|produce cotton goods on an industrial scale]] for a global market.<ref name=con/>{{sfn|McNeil|Nevell|2000|pp=1–3}} The townships in and around Manchester began expanding "at an astonishing rate" around the turn of the 19th century as part of a process of unplanned urbanisation brought on by a boom in industrial textile production and processing.{{sfn|Aspin|1981|p=3}} This population increase resulted in the "vigorous concentric growth" of a conurbation between Manchester and an arc of surrounding [[mill town]]s, formed from a steady accretion of houses, factories and transport infrastructure.{{sfn|Carter|1962|p=49}} Places such as [[Bury, Greater Manchester|Bury]], [[Oldham]] and [[Bolton]] played a central economic role nationally, and by the end of the 19th century had become some of the most important and productive cotton-producing towns in the world.{{sfn|Cowhig|1976|pp=7–9}} However, it was Manchester that was the most populous settlement, a major city, the world's largest marketplace for cotton goods,{{sfn|Kidd|2006|pp=12,15–24, 224}}<ref name=Hall>{{cite book |last=Hall |first=Peter |title=Cities in Civilization |publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson |year=1998 |isbn=0-297-84219-6 |chapter=The first industrial city: Manchester 1760–1830 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/citiesinciviliza00hall}}</ref> and the natural centre of its region.{{sfn|Schofield|2003|pp=34–35}} By 1835 "Manchester was without challenge the first and greatest industrial city in the world";<ref name=Hall/> and by 1848 [[urban sprawl]] had fused the city to its surrounding towns and hinterland to form a single continuous conurbation.{{sfn|Carter|1962|p=49}} The area is recorded in planning documents for the [[Manchester Ship Canal]] dated 1883, as "Manchester, Salford and the Out-Townships".<ref name=what>{{cite web |url=https://www.urbinfomanc.com/post/what-is-manchester-and-how-big-is-it |publisher=urbinfomanc.com |date=26 May 2020 |first=Ed |last=Howe |title=What is Manchester, and how big is it? |access-date=1 July 2020 |archive-date=1 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200701220528/https://www.urbinfomanc.com/post/what-is-manchester-and-how-big-is-it |url-status=dead}}</ref>

The conurbation was "a Victorian metropolis, achieving its commercial peak during 1890–1915".{{sfn|Roberts|Thomas|Williams|2014|p=112}} In the 1910s, local government reforms to administer this conurbation as a single entity were proposed.{{sfn|Frangopulo|1977|p=226}} Use in a municipal context appeared in a 1914 report submitted in response to what was considered to have been the successful creation of the [[County of London]] in 1889.{{sfn|Frangopulo|1977|p=226}} The report suggested that a county should be set up to recognise the "Manchester known in commerce", and referred to the areas that formed "a substantial part of South Lancashire and part of Cheshire, comprising all municipal boroughs and minor authorities within a radius of eight or nine miles of Manchester".{{sfn|Frangopulo|1977|p=226}}<ref>{{cite book |author=Swarbrick, J. |date=February 1914 |title=Greater Manchester: The Future Municipal Government of Large Cities |publisher=Institution of Municipal and County Engineers |pages=12–15}}</ref>

In his 1915 book ''Cities in Evolution'', urban planner [[Patrick Geddes|Sir Patrick Geddes]] wrote "far more than Lancashire realises, is growing up another Greater London".{{sfn|Frangopulo|1977|p=229}}
The ''[[Manchester Evening Chronicle]]'' brought to the fore the issue of "regional unity" for the area in April 1935 under the headline "Greater Manchester&nbsp;– The Ratepayers' Salvation". It reported on the "increasing demands for the exploration of the possibilities of a greater merger of [[public service]]s throughout Manchester and the surrounding municipalities".{{sfn|Frangopulo|1977|p=227}} The issue was frequently discussed by civic leaders in the area at that time, particularly those from Manchester and [[County Borough of Salford|Salford]]. The Mayor of Salford pledged his support to the idea, stating that he looked forward to the day when "there would be a merging of the essential services of Manchester, Salford, and the surrounding districts constituting Greater Manchester."{{sfn|Frangopulo|1977|p=227}} Proposals were halted by the [[Second World War]], though in the decade after it, the pace of proposals for local government reform for the area quickened.{{sfn|Frangopulo|1977|p=228}} In 1947, [[Lancashire County Council]] proposed a three "[[Riding (division)|ridings]]" system to meet the changing needs of the county of Lancashire, including those for Manchester and surrounding districts.{{sfn|Frangopulo|1977|p=228}} Other proposals included the creation of a Manchester County Council, a directly elected regional body. In 1951, the [[census in the United Kingdom|census in the UK]] began reporting on South East Lancashire as a homogeneous conurbation.{{sfn|Frangopulo|1977|p=228}}