What is Manchester to me?
Well firstly, I find the concept of counties to be archaic. Lines on a map that don’t exist in reality. I couldn’t give a monkeys about Lancashire or Cheshire. Being born after 1974 I don’t consider myself to have ever lived in either Lancashire or Cheshire any more than I’ve lived in The Danelaw, Northumbria, Yr Hen Ogledd, Elmet or Brigantia.
Lancashire to me is “up there”. Blackpool Lancaster Preston Blackburn etc. And parts of Cheshire are more closely linked to Stoke than they are to Manchester.
I don’t really care for the lines on the map of Greater Manchester or the lines on the map for the boroughs within that neither. However, the conurbation that we live in does exist in reality as a physical feature on the land.
If you looked at that without knowing where the current made up borough boundary lines were, you couldn’t possibly separate Salford, most of Manchester, North Trafford, Oldham and parts of Tameside. The same for South Trafford, South Manchester and Stockport.
[Wigan Bolton Bury and Rochdale much less so]
Part of Manchester city centre is in Salford. Ask anyone from Salford Trafford Manchester or Tameside where “Town” is and they’d all say “Manchester city centre”
Originally Manchester was only ever a small district (mainly Angel Meadow, Ancoats and what is now the city centre area) in the Salford Hundred.
It grew and at various times included or didn’t include areas that are now Trafford. Also at times when areas that are now Trafford were part of Manchester, there were areas that are now parts of Manchester that weren’t.
The de Trafford family once owned land in Whalley Range and Moss Side but they weren’t included as part of Trafford when the boroughs were devised.
My Mother’s family were from Moss Side and before that Cheetham Hill (after coming from Łomża in Poland) on her Father’s side, and Moss Side and Newton Heath on her Mother’s side. My Father’s family were from the Broomwood in Timperley and before that various areas of Timperley and Altrincham going back a few hundred years.
I was born at St Mary’s hospital in Town and my Mother’s house was on Russell St in Moss Side. Spent most of my childhood in Timperley, have lived in Manchester city centre, Chorlton-cum-Hardy and now live in Altrincham. I also lived in Warrington for three years (18-21) and certainly felt like that was a different place altogether, much like Wigan Bolton Bury and Rochdale.
Both of my parents consider themselves Mancunian, I see them both as Mancunian, and consider myself a Mancunian and feel like whenever I’ve lived in Manchester or Trafford I’ve lived in the same conurbation and city no matter what the boundary line says.
Manchester’s GDP includes the biggest industrial estate in Europe (Trafford Park), the second most visited shopping centre in Great Britain (Trafford Centre), the two big sports grounds in Stretford (Emirates Old Trafford and The Rags’ ground), Media City, Salford Quays, Trafford Wharf, as well as precincts/town/village centres like Stretford Salford Urmston Sale Altrincham Irlam Swinton Droylsden etc.
They all contribute to this city as a whole.
Manchester has grown up so much I think it’s much bigger than its borough. It’s outgrown those borough lines, quite massively in fact. Maybe not everyone from what I consider to be Manchester will consider themselves Mancunian, but I have no problem with anyone who does.
[again, not so with Wigan Bolton Bury and Rochdale]
Manchester has become to its conurbation what both London and Stoke did to theirs. Manchester is no longer a city, it’s a Metropolis. The Metropolis of Manchester has engulfed the cities and towns that were once distinct from it.
[yet again, less so with Wigan Bolton Bury and Rochdale]