coal accounted for 53.4 per cent of the total export tonnage carried by the ship canal. The coal trade in turn resulted in Partington becoming a major railway depot, and attracted a range of other industries, including the Partington Steel & Iron Company, which was encouraged by the availability of coal to construct a steelworks. The works became a part of the Lancashire Steel Corporation in 1930, and dominated the economy of nearby Irlam until their closure in 1976. After the Second World War, Partington was extended as an overspill estate. Governance The civil parish of Partington was created in 1894, under the Local Government Act 1894 and has its own town council. Partington became part of the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford in 1974 upon the borough's creation, but was previously in Bucklow Rural District. The town is part of the Bucklow St Martin electoral ward; Partington Parish Council is made up of local residents and ward councillors. Partington also belongs to the Stretford and Urmston constituency. Since its creation in 1997 the constituency's Member of Parliament has been a member of the Labour Party, Kate Green being the present incumbent. Geography At (53.42, −2.43), Partington lies west of Sale, north-east of the civil parish of Warburton, and is on Trafford's northern border with the City of Salford. It is south-west of Manchester city centre. Sinderland Brook runs east–west through the area, and the town is about above sea level on generally flat ground. Partington's local drift geology is a mixture of alluvial deposits, fluvio-glacial gravel, and peat deposited about 10,000 years ago, during the last ice age. The bedrock is Keuper sandstone in the south and Bunter sandstone in the north. The town's climate is generally temperate, like the rest of Greater Manchester. The mean highest and lowest temperatures ( and ) are slightly above the national average, while the annual rainfall () and average hours of sunshine (1394.5 hours) are respectively above and below the national averages. Demography According to the Office for National Statistics, at the time of the United Kingdom Census 2001, Partington had a population of 7,723. The 2001 population density was , with a 100 to 93.1 female-to-male ratio. Of those over 16 years old, 34.7% were single (never married), 34.9% married, and 10.5% divorced. Partington's 3,354 households included 33.5% one-person, 28.7% married couples living together, 8.8% were co-habiting couples, and 16.3% single parents