In reply to CathS:
>Winter Hill near Bolton is on fire now too.
I was on the tops about 15 miles away last night. It looked pretty wild, with a large firefront and huge plume of smoke.
What a lot of commentators seem to be forgetting, is that the moors around Manchester act as a sponge. Absorbing rain during the winter and releasing it slowly all year. Without the covering of grass and heather, the peat will blow away and get washed away, leaving bare rock. This will lead to more erosion and flooding downstream. (Upland peat bogs are a unique habitat for wildlife as well.)
The area supports a lot of dams and reservoirs, thanks to the Victorians. It remains to be seen how they will cope with flash floods and long periods of no water, rather than the continuous feed of water they get all year.