Whitefield is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury, Greater Manchester, England. It lies on undulating ground above the Irwell Valley, along the south bank of the River Irwell, 3 miles (4.8 km) southeast of Bury, and 5 miles (8.0 km) northwest of Manchester. Prestwich and the M60 motorway lie just to the south. In 2001 it had a population of 23,283.

Historically part of Lancashire, Whitefield was on the path of an ancient Roman road leading from Mamucium (Manchester) in the south to Bremetennacum (Ribchester) in the north. Throughout the Middle Ages, Whitefield was a division of the township of Pilkington, itself a part of the parish of Prestwich-cum-Oldham and hundred of Salford. Pilkington and Whitefield have historic associations with the Earls of Derby. Farming was the main industry of this rural area, with locals supplementing their incomes by hand-loom woollen weaving in the domestic system.

The urbanisation and development of Whitefield largely coincided with the Industrial Revolution. The name Whitefield is thought to derive from the medieval bleachfields used by Flemish settlers to whiten their woven fabrics, or else from the wheat crop once cultivated in the district. The construction of a major roads routed through the village facilitated Whitefield's expansion into a mill town by the mid-19th century. Whitefield became a local government district in 1866, and was governed by a local board of health until 1894, when the area of the local board became an urban district.

There are several theories for the origin of the place name, discussed in two local history publications. One, published in John Wilson's A History of Whitefield (1979), is that the name is derived from the Flemish weavers who used to lay out their fabrics to bleach in the sun (a process known as tentering). Although Wilson doubts this, believing it to be chronologically inaccurate, another theory relies on the fact that historically, Whitefield has been a farming community of open fields, and that the name is a corruption of "Wheat-fields". A third is that the name refers to a field of white flowers, evidenced by the existence of the area of Lily Hill Street.

In Remains, Historical and Literary, Connected with the Palatine Counties of Lancaster and Chester (1861), the will of a John Rhodes describes leaving ownership of land in Whitefield Moore in Pilkington, to his son.

In Elizabethan times, Whitefield was mostly moorland and until the 19th century existed, along with the districts of Ringley, Unsworth and Outwood, as part of the Manor of Pilkington. In the 15th century the Pilkington family who, during the Wars of the Roses, supported the House of York, owned much of the land around the parish. Thomas Pilkington was at this time lord of many estates in Lancashire including the Manor of Bury. In 1485 Richard III was killed in the Battle of Bosworth. The Earl of Richmond, representing the House of Lancaster, was crowned Henry VII. Sir William Stanley may have placed the crown upon his head. As a reward for the support of his family, on 27 October 1485 Henry made Thomas Stanley the Earl of Derby. Thomas Pilkington was attainted, and in February 1489 Earl Thomas was given many confiscated estates including those of Pilkington, which included the township of Pilkington, and Bury. With their seat at Knowsley Hall, the Earls of Derby were by and large absentee landlords who appointed agents to manage their interests in the area, unlike the Earls of Wilton whose lands at Prestwich bordered the area and who oversaw events on their estate and dispensed charity from Heaton Hall.

Over the centuries, hamlets grew at Besses o' th' Barn, Lily Hill, Four Lane Ends (now the junction around Moss Lane and Pinfold Lane), Stand and Park Gate (now the junction around Park Lane and Pinfold Lane). These now form the area known as Whitefield. Besses o' th' Barn was for some time known as Stone Pale and a small street of that name still exists.

Whitefield was in 1853 a part of the township of Pilkington, in the parish of Prestwich-cum-Oldham. Pilkington ceased to be a township in 1894 and at the same time part of the old boundary of Whitefield was absorbed by Radcliffe. The realignment of the boundary with Radcliffe was due to the location of the Whitefield sewage works, which lying between Hillock and Parr Lane were in the wrong place to serve the Stand Lane area. Whitefield had gained a local board in 1866, but after the dissolution of Pilkington township in 1894, Whitefield became an urban district with two wards, in the administrative county of Lancashire.