r/NorthernEngland

Southport and Formby were only put in Merseyside to increase the population numbers for that newly created county. They are Lancashire seaside towns through and through so I've restored that. St Helens, Wigan, Leigh, Bolton and Warrington are all in that "middle zone" between Liverpool and Manchester. They are South Lancashire towns, and extending the border to Warrington (which was historically a Lancashire town, not Cheshire) restores Lancashire's ancient southern border which was always the River Mersey (Mersey means border river). The towns that circle the Mersey Estuary (Widnes, Runcorn, Ellesmere Port) are now all part of the same county with Liverpool and the Wirral. Makes much more sense as a cultural region. Similarly Glossop, Hadfield, New Mills, Wilmslow and Alderley Edge are in Greater Manchester because they're in that cultural sphere much more than their current counties. Glossop being in the same county as Derby and Swadlincote is madness. Those are the reasons I think these borders are better than the current ones.