Metropolitan Borough of Bolton


The Metropolitan Borough of Bolton is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England, named after its largest town, Bolton, but covering a far larger area which includes Blackrod, Farnworth, Horwich, Kearsley,
Westhoughton, and part of the West Pennine Moors. It has a population of 276,800.
The boundaries were set by of the Local Government Act 1972, and cover eight former local government districts; seven Urban Districts from the administrative county of Lancashire, and the County Borough of Bolton. The metropolitan districts of Bury, Salford and Wigan lie to the east, south and west respectively; and the non-metropolitan districts of Blackburn with Darwen and Chorley in Lancashire to the north and north-west.

History

The metropolitan borough was formed on 1 April 1974, by the merger of the County Borough of Bolton and the following districts from the administrative county of Lancashire:
Bolton Council unsuccessfully petitioned Elizabeth II for the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton to be granted city status in 1992, in 2000, in 2002, and 2012.

Parishes

Horwich, Westhoughton and Blackrod are now constituted as civil parishes. There are three town councils in the metropolitan borough, Westhoughton Town Council, Horwich Town Council and Blackrod Town Council. The rest of the metropolitan borough, Bolton, Farnworth, Kearsley, Little Lever, and South Turton, have remained unparished areas since 1974.

Demographics

According to the 2011 census, of the 276,787people living in Bolton Metropolitan Borough, the following ethnicities have been recorded:
The table below details the population change since 1801, including the percentage change since the last available census data. Although the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton has only existed since 1974, figures have been generated by combining data from the towns, villages, and civil parishes that would later be constituent parts of the borough.

Transport

The Bolton metropolitan area is served by the following railway stations:
In 2007, Bolton was ranked 69th out of the 149 Local Education Authorities – and sixth out of ten in Greater Manchester – for its National Curriculum assessment performance. Measured on the percentage of pupils attaining at least 5 A*–C grades at GCSE including maths and English, the Bolton LEA was 111th out of 149: 40.1% of pupils achieved this objective, against a national average of 46.7%. Unauthorised absence from Bolton's secondary schools in the 2006/2007 academic year was 1.4%, in line with the national average, and authorised absence was 6.0% against the national average of 6.4%. At GCSE level, Bolton School was the most successful of Bolton's 21 secondary schools, with 99% of pupils achieving at least 5 A*–C grades at including maths and English.
The University of Bolton is one of Greater Manchester's four universities. In 2008, The Times Good University Guide ranked it 111th of 113 institutions in Britain. There are 4,440 students ; 2.6% come from outside Britain. In 2007 there were 8.8 applications for every place, and student satisfaction was recorded as 74.4%. It is one of Britain's newest universities, having been given this status in 2005.

GCSE Examination Performance 2009

Twin towns

The Metropolitan Borough of Bolton has two twin towns, one in France and another in Germany.
CountryPlaceCounty / District / Region / StateOriginally twinned withDate
FranceLe MansPays de la LoireCounty Borough of Bolton1973
GermanyPaderbornNordrhein-WestfalenMetropolitan Borough of Bolton1975

Neighbouring districts

Freedom of the Borough

The following people and military units have received the Freedom of the Borough of Merton.

Individuals