City of Salford
Description
The City of Salford is a city and metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It is named after its largest settlement, Salford, but covers a far larger area which includes the towns of Eccles, Swinton and Pendlebury, Walkden, and Irlam which apart from Irlam each have a population of over 35,000. The city has a population of 218,000, and is administered from the Salford Civic Centre in Swinton.The current city boundaries were set as part of the provisions of the Local Government Act 1972, and cover an amalgamation of five former local government districts. It is bounded on the south east by the River Irwell, which forms its boundary with the city of Manchester and by the Manchester Ship Canal to the south, which forms its boundary with Trafford. The metropolitan boroughs of Wigan, Bolton and Bury lie to the west, northwest and north respectively. Some parts of the city, which lies directly west of Manchester, are highly industrialised and densely populated, but around one third of the city consists of rural open space. This is because the western half of the city stretches across an ancient peat bog known as Chat Moss.