I was born in a fairly large industrial town in Lancashire. In the seventies, the government reorganized boundaries and decreed that my home town was no longer in Lancashire but part of Greater Manchester. However, I have always considered myself a Lancashire lass and always will, despite the fact I've lived in Canada for most of my life.
Until the industrial revolution, Lancashire was a mostly rural county. However, its cool, damp climate proved perfect for the spinning of cotton. Mills sprang up providing mass employment. Lancashire was the first place where spinning and weaving of cotton into fabric began and it was the hub of cotton and textile mills, responsible for half of the world's cotton production. As people flocked to the towns and cities, overcrowding in hastily built row housing resulted in often horrendous living conditions.
This was the unfortunate image people had of Lancashire for years after the industrial revolution.
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. Until the political boundary changes, 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 collieries 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.
The cotton industry is a thing of the past and most of the mills have been demolished or repurposed. Today, the economy of Lancashire is more diversified. While there are many major cities, there is also a great deal of beautiful open countryside, much of it dominated by the moorland Pennine chain.
Robert Peel, former Prime Minister and founder of the modern police force was born in Lancashire. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Peel
Other famous Lancastrians include actress and singer Gracie Fields https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gracie_Fields, Samuel Crompton, inventor of the Spinning Mule that revolutionized the cotton industry https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Crompton, James Darcy Lever, co-founder of Lever Brothers that became Unilever https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lever_Brothers (there is a district in my home town called Darcy Lever), actor Sir Ian McKellen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_McKellen, actor Robert Shaw https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Shaw_(actor),
I am proud of my Lancashire roots and have often included names of people and places remembered from childhood. The Earls Are Wild series is full of references to my roots.
I hope you'll include Lancashire in your plans to visit England some day.
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