The County Borough of Wigan was, from 1889 to 1974, a local government district centred on

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, on the River Douglas. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. Bolton lies to the north-east and Warrington t ...

in the northwest of England. It was alternatively known as Wigan County Borough. The district was created by the

Local Government Act 1888 Local may refer to: Geography and transportation * Local (train), a train serving local traffic demand * Local, Missouri, a community in the United States * Local government, a form of public administration, usually the lowest tier of administrat ...

, with its boundaries based upon the earlier ''Municipal Borough of Wigan''. The adjacent township of Pemberton constituted the Pemberton Urban District from 1894 to 1904, when it became part of the county borough of Wigan. In 1920, the Pemberton parish was abolished and its former area was used to enlarge the

parish, making the areas of the parish and county borough identical.Vision of Britain
- Wigan CP
historic map
) As part of the terms of any

county borough County borough is a term introduced in 1889 in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, to refer to a borough or a city independent of county council control, similar to the unitary authorities created since the 1990s. An equivalent te ...

in England, it was decided that to let the then Lancashire County Council have authority over Wigan would be impractical due to its large size, population and industry, and so the district was independent from the

administrative county An administrative county was a first-level administrative division in England and Wales from 1888 to 1974, and in Ireland from 1899 until either 1973 (in Northern Ireland) or 2002 (in the Republic of Ireland). They are now abolished, although mos ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancash ...

it would otherwise have been part of. The County Borough of Wigan was abolished by the Local Government Act 1972 and its territory transferred to

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: Manchester, Salford, Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tam ...

to form part of the

Metropolitan Borough of Wigan The Metropolitan Borough of Wigan is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, in North West England. It is named after the main settlement of Wigan. It covers the towns of Atherton, Ashton-in-Makerfield, Golborne, Hindley, Ince-in-Mak ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wigan, County Borough of Local government in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan

County boroughs of England

County borough County borough is a term introduced in 1889 in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, to refer to a borough or a city independent of county council control, similar to the unitary authorities created since the 1990s. An equivalent te ...