Editing Lancashire (section)

===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>