weaving was established. During the 19th century another settlement grew around the junction of Fairfax Road and Bury New Road along with another village centre on Bury Old Road. The area between these centres remained rural, however, the arrival of the railway in 1881 encouraged affluent merchants from Manchester to build villas and move to the town. By 1912 the population had increased to 12,800, and from the 1930s onwards the remaining fields were developed and by 1961 the population reached 31,000 and Prestwich had become a suburb of Manchester. Prestwich Hospital was built as an asylum in 1851 and by 1900 it had grown into the largest asylum in Europe. Governance Prestwich was the ecclesiastical centre of Prestwich-cum-Oldham an ancient parish in the Salford Hundred of Lancashire. It was in Manchester Poor Law Union (PLU) from 1841 to 1850 and the Prestwich PLU from 1850 to 1915 when it rejoined Manchester PLU until its abolition in 1930. In 1867 the Prestwich Local Board of Health was established which, as a result of the Local Government Act 1894, became Prestwich Urban District to which parts of Great and Little Heaton townships were added. In 1903 Heaton Park was added to the City of Manchester and in 1933 part of the urban district west of the Irwell was added to Swinton and Pendlebury Urban District. Prestwich became a municipal borough in 1939. Under the Local Government Act 1972 it became an unparished area in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury in Greater Manchester, taking effect on 1 April 1974. The old Prestwich Town Hall has since been converted into a block of flats. Prestwich, together with Whitefield and Radcliffe, is part of the marginal Bury South Parliamentary constituency, which has been represented by MP Christian Wakeford since 2019, who gained it from Labour by 402 votes, making it one of the most marginal in the country. However he then defected to Labour in January 2022. It was previously represented by Ivan Lewis who was first elected for Labour in 1997, however due to allegations of indecent behaviour towards women was suspended from the party in 2018 and since resigned from the party to serve as an independent, and stood as an Independent in the 2019 election. Prior to this it was represented by Conservative David Sumberg since the constituency's creation in 1983. Prestwich was previously paired with the neighbouring town of Middleton