Preston is located near the centre of the county, which is urbanised and includes the towns of Blackburn and Burnley; the seaside resort of Blackpool lies to the west, and Lancaster is in the north.

[10] For local government purposes Lancashire comprises a non-metropolitan county, with twelve districts, and two unitary authority areas: Blackburn with Darwen and Blackpool.

The major rivers of the county are, from north to south, the Lune, the Wyre, and the Ribble, which all flow west into the Irish Sea.

The highest point in Lancashire is either Gragareth or Green Hill, both approximately 628 m (2,060 ft) high and located in the far north-east of the county.

This changed during the Industrial Revolution, when the county rapidly industrialised; until 1974 it included both Liverpool, a major port, and Manchester, which with its surrounding towns dominated the manufacture of textiles.

It expanded whenever boroughs annexed areas in neighbouring counties such as Wythenshawe in Manchester south of the River Mersey and from Cheshire, and southern Warrington.

[22] On 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, southern parts of administrative Lancashire were transferred to the two newly established metropolitan counties of Merseyside and Greater Manchester.

In the northwest corner of the county, straddling the border with Cumbria, is the Arnside and Silverdale National Landscape, characterised by its limestone pavements and home to the Leighton Moss nature reserve.

The valleys of the River Ribble and its tributary the Calder form a large gap to the west of the Pennines, overlooked by Pendle Hill.

South of the Ribble are the West Pennine Moors and the Forest of Rossendale, where former cotton mill towns are in deep valleys.

The rest of the region is characterised by small towns and villages in the flat farmland surrounding the lower reaches of the Ribble, Wyre, and Lune and the sparsely populated uplands of the Forest of Bowland.

The centre and south-east of Lancashire is relatively urbanised, especially around the major settlements of Preston, Blackburn, and Burnley and near the border with Greater Manchester.

Elsewhere it is less extensive but covers the areas between the major settlements to prevent their convergence both with each other and with the nearby Merseyside and Greater Manchester conurbations.

[66] The most prominent effect of this is that the Duchy administers bona vacantia within the County Palatine, receiving the property of persons who die intestate and where the legal ownership cannot be ascertained.

[74] This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of the non-metropolitan county of Lancashire at basic prices published by the Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British pounds sterling.

The M61 from Preston via Chorley and the M66 starting 500 metres (0.3 mi) inside the county boundary near Edenfield, provide links between Lancashire and Manchester, and the trans-Pennine M62.

Some of these include: The West Coast Main Line provides direct rail links with London, Glasgow and other major cities, with stations at Preston and Lancaster.

East-west connections are carried via the East Lancashire Line between Blackpool and Colne via Lytham, Preston, Blackburn, Accrington and Burnley.

[76] As part of its industrial past, Lancashire gave rise to an extensive network of canals, which extend into neighbouring counties.

The north of the county is predominantly rural and sparsely populated, except for the city of Lancaster and the towns of Morecambe and Heysham, the three of which form a large conurbation of almost 100,000 people.

[89][90] Of the twelve founder members of the league, six were from Lancashire: Accrington, Blackburn Rovers, Bolton Wanderers, Burnley, Everton, and Preston North End.

The county has produced many successful top flight clubs such as St. Helens, Wigan, Warrington, Oldham, Salford and Widnes.

[96] Some of these have crossed over into the mainstream world of professional wrestling; including multiple Catch wrestling champion Steve Wright father of Alex Wright, Billy Riley the founder of Wigan's catch-wrestling gym, 'The Snake Pit',[97] Billy Robinson, Davey Boy Smith, William Regal, and the Dynamite Kid.

[109] It also played a major part in the development of brass bands which emerged in the county, particularly in the textile and coalfield areas, in the 19th century.

[117] More recent Lancashire-born composers include Hugh Wood (1932– Parbold),[118] Sir Peter Maxwell Davies (1934–2016, Salford),[119] Sir Harrison Birtwistle (1934–2022, Accrington),[120] Gordon Crosse (1937–, Bury),[121] John McCabe (1939–2015, Huyton),[122] Roger Smalley (1943–2015, Swinton), Nigel Osborne (1948–, Manchester), Steve Martland (1954–2013, Liverpool),[123] Simon Holt (1958–, Bolton)[124] and Philip Cashian (1963–, Manchester).

[104] Many Lancashire towns had vibrant skiffle scenes in the late 1950s, out of which a culture of beat groups emerged by the early 1960s, particularly around Liverpool and Manchester.

[129] The Beatles led a movement by various beat groups from the region which culminated in the British Invasion of the US, which in turn made a major contribution to the development of modern rock music.

[131] The towns of Accrington, Burnley, Chorley, Clitheroe, Colne, Lytham St Annes, Morecambe, Nelson, Ormskirk and Skelmersdale as well as the cities of Lancaster and Preston are referenced in the 1991 song, "It's Grim Up North" by the band the KLF.

Other traditional foods from the area include: Whistle Down the Wind (1961) was directed by Bryan Forbes, set at the foot of Worsaw Hill and in Burnley, and starred local Lancashire schoolchildren.

[citation needed] The county is served by these local newspapers: The national weekly Farmers Guardian is published in Fulwood, Preston.