Lancashire – The red rose county in the North West of England

Lancashire – The Red Rose county in the North West of England

Lancashire is more commonly known as the Red Rose county, based in the North West of England. It shares its borders with Cheshire, Yorkshire, Cumbria, Merseyside and Greater Manchester. Lancashire was also one half the famous battle of the Roses, between Lancashire and it’s famous neighbours Yorkshire.

The county town is Lancaster although the county’s administrative centre is Preston. The county has a population of 1,449,300 and an area of 1,189 square miles (3,080 km²). People from Lancashire are known as Lancastrians. Major motorways pass through the county like the M6 and the M62. It also has a great connection service to London and Birmingham, with trains from Preston to London Euston & Birmingham running daily.

The Red Rose County

Lancashire emerged as a major commercial and industrial region during the Industrial Revolution. Liverpool and Manchester grew into its largest cities, dominating global trade and the birth of modern industrial capitalism. The county contained several mill towns and the collieries of the Lancashire Coalfield. By the 1830s, approximately 85% of all cotton manufactured worldwide was processed in Lancashire.

A county that is full of lush green lands but also plenty of buzzing commercial towns. famously the Queen commented when she retires she would like to move to the glorious green lands of Lancashire. More specifically, the Ribble Valley.

Accrington, Blackburn, Bolton, Burnley, Bury, Chorley, Colne, Darwen, Manchester, Nelson, Oldham, Preston, Rochdale and Wigan were major cotton mill towns during this time. Blackpool was a centre for tourism and Pendle Hill is one of its more well-known landmarks, a tourist hot spot for all those in the know.

The Lancashire Rose

Today the symbol is also worn by the County Cricket team which has attracted an array of international cricket stars. This is despite the cricket ground being located in Manchester.

Forever, the red rose is a symbol of Lancashire and the White a symbol for Yorkshire.

Why does Lancashire have a Red Rose?

The Lancashire flag is the flag of the historic county of Lancashire. The Red Rose of Lancaster is a symbol for the House of Lancaster, immortalised in the verse “In the battle for England’s head/York was white, Lancaster red.

War of the Roses

Lancaster was historically a significant city. Along with York, it has always been one of the most significant cities in England. Especially during the battles with Scotland. The House of Lancaster always needed to be powerful and strong enough to thwart any invasion from the north.

The Lancaster family were so powerful that they seized the throne in 1399. Many Resented the way the Lancastrians took over the English throne and felt that Henry V, IV or VI were illegitimate to the power of England. This is something that particularly irked the Barons in Yorkshire and is often cited as one of the reasons why the war of the roses broke out.

There is also a white rose with a gold background which symbolises the older traditional boundaries of Lancashire which apply from Liverpool to Manchester to Barrow-in-Furness and the southern part of the Lake District.

When Lancashire was established in 1183, it bordered Cumberland, Westmorland, Yorkshire, and Cheshire. The modern administrative county is much smaller due to significant local government reform in 1974.

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