Bolton is a town in Greater Manchester, in the North West of England. It is close to the West Pennine Moors, and 10 miles north west of the city of Manchester.
A former mill town, Bolton has been a production centre for textiles since the 15th century, developing a wool and cotton weaving tradition. The development of Bolton largely coincided with the introduction of textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution.
It was a boomtown of the 19th century and at its zenith, in 1929, its 216 cotton mills and 26 bleaching and dying works made it one of the largest and most productive centers 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.