Stockport

Coordinates: 53°24′30″N 2°08′58″W / 53.4083°N 2.1494°W / 53.4083; -2.1494

Stockport /ˈstɒkpɔːt/ is a large town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies on elevated ground 7 miles (11 km) south-east of Manchester city centre, at the point where the rivers Goyt and Tame merge to create the River Mersey. Stockport is the largest settlement in the metropolitan borough of the same name.

Historically, most of the town was in Cheshire, but the area to the north of the Mersey was in Lancashire. Stockport in the 16th century was a small town entirely on the south bank of the Mersey, and known for the cultivation of hemp and manufacture of rope. In the 18th century the town had one of the first mechanised silk factories in the British Isles. However, Stockport's predominant industries of the 19th century were the cotton and allied industries. Stockport was also at the centre of the country's hatting industry, which by 1884 was exporting more than six million hats a year; the last hat works in Stockport closed in 1997.

Stockport (UK Parliament constituency)

Stockport is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 1992 by Ann Coffey, a member of the Labour Party.

Boundaries

The constituency covers the electoral wards of Brinnington and Central, Davenport and Cale Green, Edgeley and Cheadle Heath, Heatons North, Heatons South and Manor in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. Brinnington had been in the Denton and Reddish constituency from 1983 until 1997 when it was transferred into Stockport.

History

Stockport was created as a two-member constituency by the Reform Act 1832. It survived as such until 1950, when it was split into single-member seats of Stockport North and Stockport South.

The single Stockport seat was recreated in 1983 on a more central ambit, returning one member, with the remainder of the ex-county borough forming part of the new Denton and Reddish seat.

Edward William Watkin was a railway entrepreneur, who helped to fund and plan lines across Britain, in Canada and, to a lesser extent, in the USA.

Metropolitan Borough of Stockport

The Metropolitan Borough of Stockport is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester in North West England. As well as the town of Stockport, it includes the outyling areas of Cheadle, Cheadle Hulme, Marple, Bredbury, Reddish, Woodley and Romiley. In 2001, it had a population of 284,500.

History

The borough was created in 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972 from the former area of the County Borough of Stockport and from the administrative county of Cheshire the urban districts of Bredbury and Romiley, Cheadle and Gatley, Hazel Grove and Bramhall and Marple.

Stockport became a county borough in 1889 and was enlarged by gaining territory from Lancashire, including in 1906 Reddish and in 1913, the Four Heatons. The Marple Urban District of Cheshire, formed in 1894, gained parts of Derbyshire in 1936 including Mellor and Ludworth from Chapel en le Frith Rural District.

Prior to its creation, it was suggested that the metropolitan borough be named "Norchester", but this was rejected as "a concocted name", being beaten by "Stockport" by a vote of 16 to 5.