The English North West Portal

North West England is one of the nine official regions of England. Its highest point, Scafell Pike in Cumbria, is also England's highest peak, at 3,209 ft (978 m).

Two large conurbations, centred on the cities of Liverpool and Manchester, dominate the south of the region. The north of the region (that is, north Lancashire and Cumbria) is largely rural, but includes a number of towns such as Kendal and Blackpool. Greater Manchester is the third largest conurbation in England, after Greater London and West Midlands respectively. The combined population of Lancashire, Cumbria, Cheshire (which are largely rural) and the two metropolitan counties of Greater Manchester and Merseyside, which are the counties that make up North West England, is 6,853,200 (2006 estimate).

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Askam and Ireleth is a civil parish in the county of Cumbria, in North West England. It originally consisted of two separate coastal villages with different origins and histories which, in recent times, have merged together to become one continuous settlement.

Ireleth has its origins as a mediaeval farming village clustered on the hillside overlooking the flat sands of the Duddon Estuary. Askam was established following the discovery of large quantities of iron ore near the village in the middle of the 18th century. The pair originally fell within the boundaries of the Hundred of Lonsdale 'north of the sands' in the historic county of Lancashire, but following local government reforms in 1974 became part of the county of Cumbria, along with the rest of Furness.

The nearby River Duddon estuary and surrounding countryside have made the area well known for its wildlife, while the villages' exposed position on the eastern bank facing the Irish Sea have encouraged the establishment of wind energy generation, amid local controversy.

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Melanie Jayne Chisholm (born 12 January 1974 in Whiston, Merseyside) is an English singer, songwriter and television personality most famous as one of the five members of English girl group the Spice Girls, where she is known as "Sporty Spice". She is also known as Melanie C or Mel C. As a solo artist she has released four albums and was nominated for a BRIT and ECHO awards. Chisholm holds the record for female who has co-written the most UK number-one singles (equal with Madonna) Chisholm is also third after Lennon and McCartney for most UK number-one singles for a British co-writer.

Prior to becoming a member of the Spice Girls, Chisholm had been studying at the Doreen Bird College of Performing Arts in Sidcup, Kent. She was a student on the Diploma course at the college, studying dance, singing, drama and musical theatre. It was while Chisholm was still at college that the advert appeared in the The Stage, that Chris & Brob Herbert were looking to form a new girl group, which would later become the Spice Girls. Chisholm left the college having nearly completed her 3 year course and holds teaching qualifications in Tap and Modern Theatre Dance with the ISTD.

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Did you know

• ...that the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, today a prominent academic journal in statistics, had as its first work a simple door-to-door survey of occupations in Manchester?
• ...that George Ormerod, an English antiquarian and historian, was responsible for organising the restoration of the Saxon crosses in Sandbach in Cheshire, England in 1816?
• ...that county palatines, autonomous areas ruled by a count palatine with special quasi-royal authority, were first created in the 11th-century Kingdom of England to defend the Scottish and Welsh frontiers and still formerly exist in the modern UK in County Durham, Cheshire, and Lancashire?

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Categories

• Cheshire
• Cumbria
• Greater Manchester
• Lancashire
• Merseyside

North West England lists

Greater Manchester:

• List of bands from Manchester
• List of films set in Manchester
• TV programmes set in Manchester
• List of Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Greater Manchester

Merseyside:

• List of Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Merseyside
• List of films and television shows set in Liverpool
• List of Parliamentary constituencies on Merseyside
• Listed buildings in Liverpool

Lancashire:

• Places in Lancashire
• Famous people from Lancashire

Other:

• List of Places of Interest in Cheshire
• Places of interest in Cumbria

WikiProjects

• Greater Manchester: for all articles relating to Greater Manchester
• Cheshire: for all articles relating to Cheshire
• United Kingdom geography: for all articles relating to the geography and landforms in the United Kingdom
• Cities: for all articles relating to worldwide cities

North West England news

• July 10: UK mathematician Nick Higham wins Fröhlich Prize
• June 29: Bobby Charlton launches anti-landmine campaign
• June 9: UK policeman killed while training

Associated Wikimedia