Lancashire

Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to the west. The largest settlement is Blackpool, and county town is the city of Preston. The county has an area of and a population of 1,490,300. The north and southwest are generally rural, while the centre, southeast, and coast are more densely populated. After Blackpool (147,663), the largest settlements are Blackburn (117,963) and Burnley (149,422); the city of Preston has a population of 97,866 and the city of Lancaster has a population of 52,234. The county contains fourteen local government districts; twelve are part of a two-tier non-metropolitan county also called Lancashire, while the districts of Blackburn with Darwen and Blackpool are unitary. The county historically included the northern parts of Merseyside and Greater Manchester and the Furness region of Cumbria, and excluded the eastern part of the Forest of Bowland. The geography of Lancashire is characterised by plains in the west, rising to the hills of the Pennines in the east. The county contains large parts of the Arnside and Silverdale and Forest of Bowland Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and other protected areas such as the Ribble and Alt Estuaries National nature reserve. The major rivers in the county are, from north to south, the Lune, the Wyre, and the Ribble, which all flow west into the Irish Sea. 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 palatine, with a semi-independent judicial system. This changed during the Industrial Revolution, when the county rapidly industrialised; until 1974 it included both Liverpool, a major port, and Manchester, which with its surrounding towns dominated the manufacture of cotton 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.