h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

People might find it odd that Manchester is the "5th largest city" in the UK, expecting it to be larger. Manchester's population stats are based on only one of its metropolitan boroughs - City of Manchester which is 5 miles wide and about 20 long. There are another 9 in Greater Manchester, filling out the east and west. In fact, its the largest conurbation after London, with a population of about 2.5m.

To be honest, I had regarded Manchester as small until I moved to Nottingham. Mind you, you know size doesn't matter :o)

Manchester has to be the second largest city then, i've been to leedsm, birmingham, liverpool and a few others and they are nothing in comparison!

Especially in the south, everything runs seamlessly into each other so that the old distinctions between towns and boroughs just get to be academic. Manchester proper runs north-south like a long thin streak, slightly fatter in the middle, from Wythenshawe in the far south (just by the airport) right up to Blackley in the north (Bury and Oldham borders).

But in the south-east it runs seamlessly into Stockport - the two overlap just by the McVities' biscuit factory that supplies the nation with its Jaffa Cakes and Penguin Biscuits (all made in Stockport, folks -- home to the Jaffa Cake) All you'll notice is that Wellington Road, Heaton Chapel, very abruptly renames itself as Stockport Road,Levenshulme.

In the west, Manchester merges into Salford - the two could be called twin cities. WAY out west is Wigan, also counted a part of the conurbation.

In the south-west, Stretford is technically a seperate entity - home to the two Old Traffords, one for cricket and the other for football.

To the east, the abortion of "Tameside", spreading into the Pennines and covering what ARE independent towns such as Ashton and Hyde and Stalybridge. (but still Greater Manchester, not Cheshire or Derbyshire)

The North is a bit more spread out - towns like Oldham, Bury, Rochdale, and distant Bolton, which doesn't have 0161 phone numbers, it's allowed its own prefix. Greater Manchester doesn't end until Ramsbottom, which is WAY out north in Lancashire. And out beyond Rochdale, there's even a little corner of Yorkshire that got sliced off and added to Greater Manchester (the county), much to its residents' disgust.