Ramsbottom

Bury grew rapidly from the 18th century as a textile town, at first for wool but later chiefly for cotton. Sir Robert Peel (1788-1850) was born here to a wealthy textile family, and founded the modern police force and served as British prime minister. The lot of Bury's mill workers was less fortunate, as the 19th-century town became overcrowded, squalid and rife with disease. Still they scratched a living, until the mid 20th century when the cotton industry collapsed, and much of the town became derelict. Historically within Lancashire, in 1974 Bury became part of Greater Manchester, and it’s nowadays primarily a commuter town. The borough also includes the more affluent suburbs of Prestwich and Whitefield (with long-established Jewish populations), Radcliffe, and (the most scenic) Ramsbottom on the edge of the Pennines.

Bury produces and consumes black puddings in industrial quantities, and uses them as missiles at an annual contest in Ramsbottom.

See Manchester#Get in for long-distance travel routes. From Manchester Airport (MAN IATA) the tram runs all the way to Bury. Otherwise take the train or bus to Piccadilly then Bus 135 or tram.

By road:

Bury lies at the junction of the A56 and A58. From M60, exit J17 to join the A56 (Manchester Road / Bury New Road). From M66, exit J2 to join A58 Bolton Road.

There's plenty of parking in and around town. Free parking is available for Metrolink users at most tram stops, so day-trippers can park up and ride into town.

By tram:

Bury has no mainline trains, but it’s a terminus of the Metrolink trams green and yellow lines. These run downtown via Whitefield and Prestwich to Manchester Victoria station. The yellow line forks south to Piccadilly station, while the green line crosses city centre westwards out to Old Trafford, Stretford, Sale and Altrincham. Change in city centre for trams to Salford Quays, Media City and Eccles, to Etihad Stadium and Ashton-under-Lyne, to Imperial War Museum and Trafford Centre, to Wythenshawe and the airport, and to East Didsbury.

Trams run every 15 min between 6AM and 11:30PM. See TGM Metrolink website for fare deals, service updates and travel planner. You must buy your ticket before boarding, pay at the stop, contactless accepted.

1 Bury Interchange off Haymarket Street is in Fare Zone 4, so a ride from city centre costs £4.60 single. The same ticket would bring you all the way from the airport, 90 min.

By bus:

Bee Network Bus 135 runs from Manchester Piccadilly to Bury every 10 min, taking an hour via Cheetham and Heaton Park. It runs daily to midnight, with night buses from Shudehill late Th-Sa.

Bus 97 / 98 runs every 15 min from Shudehill via Prestwich.

Bus 471 runs from Bolton every 15 min, taking 30 min, and continues to Heywood and Rochdale.