Pendlebury is a town in the City of Salford, Greater Manchester, England. The population at the 2011 Census was 13,069. It lies 4 miles (6 km) north-west of Manchester, 3 miles (5 km) north-west of Salford and 6 miles (10 km) south-east of Bolton.

Historically in Lancashire, Pendlebury, together with the neighbouring settlements of Swinton and Clifton, formed the municipal borough of Swinton and Pendlebury. Pendlebury saw extensive coal extraction from several collieries until the closure of Agecroft Colliery in the 1990s.

Pendlebury is formed from the Celtic pen meaning hill and burh a settlement. The township was variously recorded as Penelbiri, Pennilbure, Pennebire and Pennesbyry in the 13th century, Penilburi in 1300, Penulbury in 1332; Penhulbury in 1358, Pendulbury in 1561 and Pendlebury after 1567.

In 1199 King John confirmed a gift of a carucate of land called Peneberi to Ellis son of Robert. He had made the grant when he was Count of Mortain (1189–99) and confirmed it when he became king in a deed signed at Le Mans in France. Ellis was described as Master Sergeant of Salford and a benefactor of Cockersand Abbey.

In 1201 Pendlebury was linked to the manor of Shoresworth to the south (described as "one oxgang of land") before Shoreworth became part of Pendleton. The manors of Pendlebury and Shoresworth were held of the king in thegnage by a rent of 12 shillings in 1212. Ellis died in or about 1216, and his son Adam succeeded to his manor and serjeanty. In 1274 Ellis, son of Roger came to a violent death, and Amabel, his widow claimed dower in various lands against Roger de Pendlebury. A short time afterwards, Amabel having received her dower, she and Roger de Pendlebury had to defend a suit brought by Adam de Pendlebury, who satisfied the jury of his title to the manor. Ellis had a brother, William and daughters Maud, Lettice and Beatrice. Maud married Adam son of Alexander de Pilkington of Pilkington, and had a daughter Cecily. The manor was sold before 1300 to Adam de Prestwich. The new lord of Pendlebury married Alice de Woolley daughter of Richard son of Henry de Pontefract, the eventual heir was his daughter Alice, wife of Jordan de Tetlow. Her heir was her daughter, Joan, who married Richard de Langley, and the manor descended with the Langleys until the end of the 16th century. Robert Langley died 19 September 1561, leaving four daughters as co-heirs. On the division of the estates, Agecroft, and lands in Pendlebury, became the portion of Anne, who married William Dauntesey, from Wiltshire. The manor of Pendlebury was claimed by the Daunteseys for some time, but was afterwards held with Prestwich, descending in the Coke family until about 1780, when it was sold to Peter Drinkwater of Irwell House, Prestwich.

Agecroft Hall, the Tudor home of the Lord of the Manor of Pendlebury, stood on rising ground on the west side of the River Irwell, where it flows southwards towards Salford and Manchester between the high ground of Kersal and Prestwich to the east and north, and Irlams o' th' Height and Pendlebury on the west. Building probably began towards the end of the reign of Henry VII. In 1666, of the thirty-five hearths liable for tax in Pendlebury, Agecroft Hall the only large house had eleven hearths.

At the end of the 19th century, industrialisation swept through the Irwell Valley. Collieries were sunk around Agecroft Hall, railway tracks cut across the manor and a dirty lake formed on the edge of the estate. The house fell into disrepair and was sold at auction in 1925 to Mr and Mrs Thomas C Williams. The structure was dismantled, crated, shipped across the Atlantic, and painstakingly reassembled in Windsor Farms, Richmond, Virginia, United States. Agecroft Hall is re-created as a tourist attraction on the banks of the James River, in a setting chosen to be reminiscent of its original site at Agecroft near the River Irwell.

The Langley name is remembered locally by having several streets, Langley Road, Langley Mill and Langley housing estate in Middleton named after the family. Agecroft Hall Estate is a recently built housing estate on Agecroft Road (A6044), named after the hall.