Eccles, Greater Manchester along the route of the track linking those two cities. Eccles cakes, first produced and sold in the town in 1796, are now exported across the world. The derivation of the name is uncertain, but several ideas have been proposed. One is that the "Eccles" place-name is derived from the Romano-British "Ecles" or "Eglys", itself derived from the Ancient Greek "Ecclesia". Following the arrival in AD 613 of the invading Anglo-Saxons at Lancashire, many existing British place-names, especially rivers and hills (the River Irwell for example), survived intact. The root "Ecles", found in several village names, is an exception to
Eccles, Greater Manchester that Eccles be split between two new constituencies; Salford and Eccles, from the existing Salford constituency and the central/eastern part of Eccles, and Worsley and Eccles South, from the existing Worsley constituency and the southern/western part of Eccles. Eccles is situated 3.7 miles (6 km) west of Manchester, on the north bank of the Manchester Ship Canal. The area is along a gentle slope from above sea level to the north, to above sea at the south, near the Irwell. The underlying geology is made up of New Red Sandstone and pebble beds. The coal measures of the Lancashire coalfield