Historic counties of England
The traditional Counties (or historic Counties) of England, Scotland and Wales are historical and geographical subdivisions in the United Kingdom. In England all historic Counties still exist as cultural and geographical entities, and some Counties are still used as a single unit of local government. However, following various governmant administrative boundary changes, most are no longer used in government administration. Others are no longer a local government body but still appear on statistical tables and postal addresses.
Traditional counties
- Bedfordshire
- Berkshire
- Buckinghamshire
- Cambridgeshire
- Cheshire
- Cornwall
- Cumberland
- Derbyshire
- Devon
- Dorset
- Durham
- Essex
- Gloucestershire
- Hampshire
- Herefordshire
- Hertfordshire
- Huntingdonshire
- Kent
- Lancashire
- Lincolnshire
- Leicestershire
- Middlesex
- Norfolk
- Northamptonshire
- Northumberland
- Nottinghamshire
- Oxfordshire
- Rutland
- Shropshire
- Somerset
- Staffordshire
- Suffolk
- Surrey
- Sussex
- Warwickshire
- Westmorland
- Wiltshire
- Worcestershire
- Yorkshire
- Aberdeenshire
- Angus (Forfarshire)
- Argyllshire
- Ayrshire
- Banffshire
- Berwickshire
- Buteshire
- Caithness
- Clackmannanshire
- Cromartyshire
- Dumfriesshire
- Dunbartonshire
- East Lothian (Haddingtonshire)
- Fife
- Inverness-shire
- Kincardineshire
- Kinross-shire
- Kirkcudbrightshire
- Lanarkshire
- Midlothian (Edinburghshire)
- Morayshire
- Nairnshire
- Orkney
- Peeblesshire
- Perthshire
- Renfrewshire
- Ross-shire
- Ross and Cromarty
- Roxburghshire
- Selkirkshire
- Shetland
- Stirlingshire
- Sutherland
- Wigtonshire
- West Lothian (Linlithgowshire)
- Anglesey
- Brecknockshire
- Caernarvonshire
- Cardiganshire
- Carmarthenshire
- Denbighshire
- Flintshire
- Glamorgan
- Merioneth
- Monmouthshire
- Montgomeryshire
- Pembrokeshire
- Radnorshire
Administration
When administrative boundary changes took place, new entities known as "administrative counties" were formed. These often diverged from historic County boundaries, although they technically left all historic Counties unchanged.
The following Counties differ from the administrative counties in various ways:
Traditional
- Berkshire - now administratively unitary authorities
- Cumberland - administered as part of the administrative county of Cumbria
- Herefordshire - now administratively a unitary authority
- Huntingdonshire - now administered as part of administrative Cambridgeshire
- Middlesex - administratively part of Greater London, except for the south-west corner, which is now in administrative Surrey
- Rutland - now administratively a unitary authority
- Sussex - administratively divided into West Sussex and East Sussex
- Westmorland - administered as part of the administrative county of Cumbria
- Yorkshire - administered as a mix of unitary authorities and North Yorkshire administrative county
Administrative Created 1889
- Ross and Cromarty - by the union of Ross-shire and Cromartyshire.
Created 1965
- Greater London - now considered a region, not an administrative county
Created 1974
- Avon - now unitary authorities
- West Midlands administrative metropolitan county - now metropolitan districts.
- Other metropolitan counties.
Advocates of the historic Counties maintain that the counties are entities too important for laws simply to redefine, and furthermore that in 1974 at the time of the creation of the administrative counties -- which is what are described above -- the government specifically stated that the traditional counties are not abolished: "The new county boundaries are administrative areas, and will not alter the traditional boundaries of counties, nor is it intended that the loyalties of people living in them will change, despite the different names adopted by the new administrative counties".
To confuse matters, in 1974 the Post Office recommended using new "postal counties" in addresses, which coincided with neither the new administrative counties nor the traditional counties but drew on both. It seems that it was difficult for the general public to sustain multiple notions of what a county was, and since 1974 most maps and official usages such as road signs have followed the administrative counties exclusively.
More recently, especially since the 1996 and 1999 reorganizations, it is apparent that the historic Counties have -- through cultural means such as classic literature, sports teams & other institutions, and simply thanks to their stability -- endured what some people have mistakenly supposed was their abolition, and the Post Office is much more flexible on how letters are addressed, allowing both historic Counties or administrative areas in addresses. Since in effect the Post Office ignores the county anyway, including the County adds a useful layer of geographical information to the postal address.
See also: Counties of England, Counties of Wales, Counties of Scotland, Subdivisions of England
This map shows the historic Counties of England, Scotland and Wales. These were also administrative boundaries before the boundary reorganization of 1974.
Note that the post-1965 administrative county of Greater London is shown, incorrectly labelled as Middlesex.
The Counties of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire are both subdivided in a similar way to Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Suffolk and Sussex. Cambridge and the Isle of Ely were one pairing, Huntingdon and The Soke of Peterborough (part of Northamptonshire) were the other.
References
- Map reproduced with permission of Riley Williams.
- Commentary on map based on Road Atlas of Great Britain, Bartholomew, Edinburgh, 1969.
External link
- Association of British Counties - A noted authority on the historic Counties and lobby group for their promotion]