Bolton ( (listen) BOHL-tən, locally BOH-tən) is a town in Greater Manchester in England. Close to the West Pennine Moors, Bolton is between Manchester (10 miles (16 km) south-east), Darwen, Blackburn, Chorley, Bury and Salford. It is surrounded by several neighbouring towns and villages that form the wider Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, of which Bolton is the administrative centre. The town is also within the historic county boundaries of Lancashire. A former mill town, they has been a production centre for textiles since 14th century Flemish weavers settled in the area, introducing a wool and cotton-weaving tradition. It was a 19th-century boomtown, development largely coincided with the introduction of textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution. At its peak in 1929, its 216 cotton mills and 26 bleaching and dyeing works made it one of the largest and most productive centres of cotton spinning in the world. The British cotton industry declined sharply after the First World War and, by the 1980s, cotton manufacture had virtually ceased in Bolton. The town has a population of 139,403, whilst the wider metropolitan borough has a population of 262,400. Bolton originated as a small settlement in the moorland known as Bolton le Moors. In the English Civil War, the town was a Parliamentarian outpost in a staunchly Royalist region and, as a result, was stormed by 3,000 Royalist troops led by Prince Rupert of the Rhine in 1644. In what became known as the Bolton Massacre, 1,600 residents were killed and 700 were taken prisoner. Bolton Wanderers football club play home games at the University of Bolton Stadium and the WBA World light-welterweight champion Amir Khan was born in the town. Cultural interests include the Octagon Theatre and the Bolton Museum and Art Gallery, as well as one of the earliest public libraries established after the Public Libraries Act 1850.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/