Stockport is a town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies on elevated ground 6 miles (10 km) southeast of Manchester city centre, at the point where the rivers Goyt and Tame join and create the River Mersey. Stockport is the largest settlement in the metropolitan borough of the same name. As of the 2001 Census the town had a population of 136,082 and the wider borough 281,000.
Stockport in the 16th century was a small town entirely on the southbank of the Mersey, and known for the cultivation of hemp and rope manufacture. In the 18th century the town had one of the first mechanised silk factories in the British Isles. However, Stockport's predominant industries of the 19th century were the cotton and allied industries. Stockport was also at the centre of the country's hatting industry which by 1884 was exporting more than six million hats a year; the last hat works in Stockport closed in 1997. The town's hatting heritage is preserved at 'Hat Works – the Museum of Hatting'.© This article about tourism in Stockport is provided by a external resource
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