Rant: Geography lessons on Greater Manchester

Ward map of Greater Manchester. Quite indecipherable, unless you're me.

I would suspect that even the Conservative-Liberal Democrat assault on LEA-lead education of the masses, will do little to inform people of their contemporary geographies. In fact, I suspect that it will do much to embed ignorance in the general public. After all, allowing the pedagogically ignorant to run schools, will only perpetuate ignorance in the populace.

You see, I'm a glutton for geographic accuracy; some might say I have an unhealthy interest in maps and borders. (Yes, in fact, I do.)

So you can imagine my exasperation each and every time I'm faced with someone misplacing my fair city and its environs in the wrong sub-national demarcation.

As you will know- or as I am about to inform you- the county boundaries of England were subject to significant structural reforms following the Local Government Act of 1972- (see also here)- which did away with the convoluted system of administrative counties, county boroughs and urban/rural and municipal districts and replaced them with two-tier non-metropolitan (colloquially "shire" counties) and currently single-tier metropolitan counties (see here and here) -which are effectively a collection of unitary authorities. (Click the link for an explanation.)

District Map of Greater Manchester. A little easier to decipher.

So in the light of this, the sub-national geography of England changed from 1974, and with it, so did the maps. The problem is, many people are still largely unaware of what was a cataclysmic change of geopolitical geography. Indeed, human geography differs quite largely from the marking of imaginary lines on a piece of paper, but the latter serves to standardise what would otherwise be fifty million versions of what an area is.

And that is fine. Your neighbourhood is yours to define and move freely in. But for the sake of accuracy, let us at the very least make ourselves aware of the political geographies which surround us, which whether we like politics or not, influence our lives!

Historical (red) extent of Lancashire, and the modern day equivalent (green.) The lump of grey on the map to the right is Greater Manchester, with the western extent (Wigan), located where the green line lies to its west. Below the red line are the former areas of Cheshire.

So it was during my daily news splurge this morning, that I stumbled across a Guardian article claiming that the Oldham East and Saddleworth constituency- due for a by-election this time next week- lies in Lancashire. The actual fact is that the constituency is a county constituency (search here.) of the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester. You would think that writers for the Guardian wouldn't allow themselves to misinform the public so much. But then after all, it does form part of the mass-media. And indeed, London-based media has such contempt (and blatant ignorance) of the North of England, that they probably aren't aware that the geographies of the North have changed. (Enter Kay Burley of Sky News.) Additionally, they'd do well to know that a broad section of luddites residing in the Saddleworth area- including its parish council, continue to believe that they lie in the former County of York, in spite of the fact that their taxes are paid to Oldham borough.

Now I could be sensitive to the multi-faceted nature of local identities, but for the purpose of this blog I'm not going to be. I blame popular disinterest in geography, coupled with parents passing on ignorant information to their children, for the reasons behind people being so unaware and misinformed. What's more, we geographically enlightened must do battle with pressure groups whose mantra is to consolidate ignorance into one small monthly payment, by way of fallacious arguments- take your pick of The Friends of "Real" Lancashire, the Association of British Counties, The Yorkshire Ridings society, or pseudo-terrorist group Countywatch.

"Always have been and always will be" is not a sound basis for any argument.

Me and these groups share an unhealthy interest in imaginary lines - though they may spuriously claim local culture as well. The fact is that  most people don't care about them, which is what makes these pressure groups' abilties to spoon-feed more ignorance to an already generally ignorant public an easy task, sugar-coated with typically English fetishization of anachronism. (Associating the term 'shire' with some antiquated image of the mythological Merrie England for example.)

Sadly, it isn't just the bad teaching (from either parents or teachers) and the mass-media who perpetuate geographic ignorance. Supermarket giant Tesco also have their dirty hand in it, as I've found in a supermarket I had the misfortune of visiting. Credit to the workers, they had attempted to create a community board at the head of the store, showcasing that Tesco gives a damn about the local "community" in addition to serving as a secondary promotional tool to Tesco's "A taste of [insert local area here]" campaign, both of which provoked my ire. Both referred to my local area as Lancashire and I could not be more unamused.

Geography lessons are needed for whoever made this. (Apologies for the blur)

Just look at that map! It's a map of modern Lancashire, which Greater Manchester does not form a part of. And yet, someone who has not a single clue about English geography, has decided to plonk various markers of so-called Lancastrian farms, on a map which doesn't even correspond to where those places lie. The worst bit as well is the inclusion of Stockport.

The above is actual Lancashire, at the time of writing (2011). Neither Openshaw, Bury or...Stockport, form part of it.- from Lancs Tourism website.

Now if the (flawed) logic that is applied to this promotional campaign was to use the pre-1974 county boundaries, in a vain attempt to portray that "locally-sourced, traditional" image – as they do with "Real Lancashire" Eccles Cakes – then I would have had more respect for it if it had maintained a level of consistency, and recognised the fact that Stockport lied in Cheshire prior to 1974. Cheshire, not Lancashire. It could not be further from being "Lancastrian."

...no.

I could rage on forever. Fact is, my rambling will not stop geopolitical flat-earthers from noticing that the invisible lines have changed around them. It is probably too much to ask of someone who is focused on their own lives and believes that the world changes little around them. Identity is something which is a personal attribute, and the fact that we have so many, reminds us that "multiculturalism" is much more than the habitual differences between dark and light-skinned people. Culture in itself, is an strange concept, since in reality there is no tangible criteria upon which we can say 'this is what people from this place do.'

People in places like Bolton and Wigan, have a strong sense of local identity, yet will baulk at the idea of forming a contiguous settlement with the city of Manchester, but then claim an innate cultural link with people from as far afield as Preston, Lancaster and Barrow-in-Furness. They ought to recognise that there are more concrete, practical links with its bigger, closer sister.

Greater Manchester was no arbitrary creation by spiteful university graduates at the Boundary Commission in London. Lord Redcliffe-Maud had a genuine vision (here. and here.) for a more practical form of local governance that did not follow convoluted boundaries, as well as serving to consolidate areas linked by up-to-date practical geography rather than by emotion or antiquity. Sadly, his plans were watered down, meaning there are still issues with certain settlements which should have been linked up with neighbouring areas e.g. Wilmslow and Glossop with Greater Manchester.

If you genuinely know the history of our county, then you'll know that we were historically linked as a Lancashire Hundred known as Salford(shire)- I bet people were unaware of this at the time too- and that Greater Manchester is the logical extension of this; the name choice reflects the pre-eminence of Manchester over its sister city in the last two centuries. 

Indeed, we can say that 'a rose by any name still smells sweet,' but it would be a huge injustice to allow such a prolific city to be subsumed by another name. A place in Lancashire is just another village surrounded by fields. A Greater Manchester, reflects a series of settlements benefitting from intimate links with Manchester. It might be worth reminding people that together, we produce over half of North West England's Gross Value Added (GVA), which is a measure of goods and services produced in the area.

It is time for people to move on and accept their place in the modern era. Identity can never be determined from above, but we owe it to ourselves and our peers to educate ourselves on our local geography and for the reasons behind its conception.

It is only as part of Greater Manchester, that we will be able to dictate our own future, more relevantly than by policies from Whitehall or Preston.

MB

Panorama of Greater Manchester- courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

View of Greater Manchester (from the location of Scout Moor Wind Farm) -courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

All images are courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
Updated: April 2013