Manchester

Home of the world famous Manchester United football club and the world's longest running soap opera "Coronation Street". Albert Einstein presented his first lecture in Britain at the University of Manchester's Whitworth Hall in 1921. The recent series 'Life on Mars' is also set in Manchester.

Greater Manchester is the third largest urban area in England with a population of over 2.2 million. The actual city has a population of 460,000 - many parts of the urban area are considered seperate: e.g. Salford, Stockport and Oldham.

Manchester has Roman Origins, it was built by the Romans as a fort called Mamucium, also known as Mancunium. Today, 'Mancunian' is still used to describe anything Manchester related. After the Romans it slowly grew as a town and by 1540 it was the largest town in Lancashire, its home county.

Manchester played a key part in the Industrial revolution, where the city grew and became very industrial. The city grew wealthy but there was much poverty. After the Second World War, its industry fell into decline but later regeneration took place during the 1980s. This continued in the late 1990s, with large parts of the town centre dating from the 1960s being demolished or completely renovated. It contests with Birmingham for being the 'UK's Second City'. In Welsh it is known as Manceinion.
www.roman-britain.org/places/mamucium.htm