Bolton

Bolton
Town
Left to right, Top: The Town Hall Upper: the Market Hall and Deansgate Lower: Churchgate and St Peter's Church Bottom: Hall i' th' Wood and Wanderers Stadium
Bolton Location within Greater Manchester
Population	296,000 (2021 Census)[1]
OS grid reference	SD715095
Metropolitan borough	Bolton
Metropolitan county	Greater Manchester
Region	North West
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Areas of the town	List Astley Bridge Barrow Bridge Bradshaw Breightmet Bromley Cross Burnden Darcy Lever Deane Doffcocker Eagley Egerton Great Lever Halliwell Harwood Heaton Horrocks Fold Longworth Lostock Markland Hill Moss Bank Sharples Tonge
Post town	BOLTON
Postcode district	BL1-BL7
Dialling code	01204
Police	Greater Manchester
Fire	Greater Manchester
Ambulance	North West
UK Parliament	Bolton North East Bolton South East Bolton West
Website	bolton.gov.uk
List of places UK England Greater Manchester 53°34′42″N 2°25′48″W / 53.57833°N 2.43000°W / 53.57833; -2.43000

Bolton (/ˈboʊltən/ ^ⓘ BOHL-tən, locally /ˈboʊtən/ BOH-tən)^[2] is a town in Greater Manchester in England. In the foothills of the West Pennine Moors, Bolton is between Manchester, Blackburn, Wigan, Bury and Salford. It is surrounded by several towns and villages that form the wider borough, of which Bolton is the administrative centre. The town is within the historic county boundaries of Lancashire.

A former mill town, Bolton has been a centre for textile production since the 14th century when Flemish weavers settled in the area, introducing a wool and cotton-weaving tradition. It was a 19th-century boomtown, development largely coincided with the introduction of textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution. At its peak in 1929, its 216 cotton mills and 26 bleaching and dyeing works made it one of the largest and most productive centres of cotton spinning in the world. The British cotton industry declined sharply after the First World War and, by the 1980s, cotton manufacture had virtually ceased in the town.

The town has a population of 139,403, whilst the wider metropolitan borough has a population of 262,400. Bolton originated as a small settlement in the moorland known as Bolton le Moors. In the English Civil War, the town was a Parliamentarian outpost in a staunchly Royalist region and, as a result, was stormed by 3,000 Royalist troops led by Prince Rupert of the Rhine in 1644. In what became known as the Bolton Massacre, 1,600 residents were killed and 700 were taken prisoner.

Bolton Wanderers football club now play home games at the University of Bolton Stadium in Horwich. Cultural interests include the Octagon Theatre and the Bolton Museum and Art Gallery, as well as one of the earliest public libraries established after the Public Libraries Act 1850.