The counties of England are divisions of England. Counties have been used as administrative areas in England since Anglo-Saxon times. There are two main legal definitions of the counties in modern usage: the 84 counties for the purposes of local government, and the 48 counties for the purposes of lieutenancy, also termed the ceremonial counties.

Counties of England
Ceremonial counties
Historic counties
CategoryCounties
Location England
Found inRegions of England
Created
Possible types

The historic counties of England were mostly formed as shires or divisions of the earlier kingdoms which gradually united by the 10th century to become England. The counties were initially used primarily for the administration of justice, overseen by a sheriff. They subsequently gained other roles, notably serving as constituencies and as areas for organising the militia, which was the responsibility of the lord-lieutenant. The county magistrates also gradually took on some administrative functions.

Elected county councils were created in 1889, taking over the administrative functions of the magistrates. The functions and territories of the counties have evolved since then, with significant amendments on several occasions, notably in 1889, 1965 and 1974.

Following the 1974 reforms, England (outside Greater London and the Isles of Scilly) had a two-tier structure of upper-tier county councils and lower-tier district councils, with each county being designated as either a metropolitan county or a non-metropolitan county. From 1995 onwards numerous unitary authorities have been established in the non-metropolitan counties, usually by creating a non-metropolitan county containing a single district and having one council perform both county and district functions. Since 1996 there have been two legal definitions of county: the counties as defined in local government legislation, and the counties for the purposes of lieutenancy (the latter being informally known as ceremonial counties).

The local government counties today cover England except for Greater London and the Isles of Scilly. There are six metropolitan counties and 78 non-metropolitan counties. Of the non-metropolitan counties, 21 are governed in a two-tier arrangement with an upper-tier county council and a number of lower-tier district councils, 56 are governed by a unitary authority performing both county and district functions, and one (Berkshire) is governed by six unitary authorities whilst remaining legally one county.

For the purposes of lieutenancy England (including Greater London and the Isles of Scilly) is divided into 48 counties, which are defined as groups of one or more local government counties.[a]

For the purpose of sorting and delivering mail, England was divided into postal counties until 1996; they were then abandoned by Royal Mail in favour of postcodes.

County flags at Parliament Square, opposite the United Kingdom Parliament in Westminster, London

History edit

Origins edit

 
The historic counties of England as they were in 1851, excluding Monmouthshire which was sometimes deemed part of England rather than Wales prior to 1974.

Most of the historic English counties were established between the 7th and 11th centuries.[1] Counties were initially used for the administration of justice and organisation of the militia, all overseen by a sheriff. The sheriff was usually appointed by the monarch but in some cases, known as the counties palatine, the right to appoint sheriffs rested elsewhere; for example with the Bishop of Durham for County Durham, and with the Earl of Chester for Cheshire.[2][3]

A county's magistrates sat four times a year as the quarter sessions. For more serious cases judges visited each county twice a year for the assizes. In some larger counties the practice arose of holding the quarter sessions separately for subdivisions of the county, including the Ridings of Yorkshire, the Parts of Lincolnshire and the Eastern and Western divisions of Sussex. The quarter sessions were also gradually given various civil functions, such as providing asylums, maintaining main roads and bridges, and the regulation of alehouses.

When parliaments began to be called from the 13th century onwards, the counties formed part of the system for electing members of parliament. Certain towns and cities were parliamentary boroughs sending their own representatives, and the remainder of each county served as a county constituency, with the MPs for such constituencies being known as knights of the shire.[4]

From Tudor times onwards a lord-lieutenant was appointed to oversee the militia, taking some of the functions previously held by the sheriff. Some larger towns and cities were made self-governing counties corporate, starting with London in c. 1132,[b] with the right to hold their own courts and appoint their own sheriffs. The counties corporate continued to be deemed part of the wider county for the purposes of lieutenancy, with the exception of London which had its own lieutenants. The Ridings of Yorkshire had their own lieutenants from 1660 onwards, whilst some of the smaller counties effectively shared lieutenants; the same person was usually appointed to be lieutenant of both Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire, and likewise for Cumberland and Westmorland.[6][7][8]

The counties' role as constituencies effectively ceased following the Reform Act 1832 and the associated Parliamentary Boundaries Act 1832. Most counties were divided into smaller constituencies, with the group of constituencies within each county being termed the 'parliamentary county'.[9]

County boundaries were sometimes adjusted, for example by some of the Inclosure Acts of the 18th and 19th centuries.[10] County and other boundaries were not centrally recorded with any accuracy before the 19th century, but were instead known by local knowledge and custom. When the Ordnance Survey started producing large scale maps, they had to undertake extensive research with locals to establish where exactly the boundaries were. Boundaries were recorded by the Ordnance Survey gradually in a process which started in 1841 and was not fully completed until 1888.[11] Many counties had detached exclaves, away from the main body of the county. Most exclaves were eliminated by boundary adjustments under the Counties (Detached Parts) Act 1844.[12]

The Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 created poor law unions, which were defined as groups of parishes and frequently crossed county boundaries. Parishes were typically assigned to a union centred on a nearby town, whether or not that town was in the same county. The unions were administered by elected boards of guardians, and formed the basis for the registration districts created in 1837. Each union as a whole was assigned to a registration county, which therefore differed in places from the legal counties. The registration counties were used for census reporting from 1851 to 1911.[13] The unions also formed the basis for the sanitary districts created in 1872, which took on various local government functions.[14]

Creation of county councils edit

By the late 19th century, there was increasing pressure to reform the structure of English counties; borough councils and boards of guardians were elected, but there were no elections for county-level authorities. Some urban areas had also grown across county boundaries, creating problems in how they were administered. The Local Government Act 1888 sought to address these issues. It established elected county councils, which came into being in 1889 and took over the administrative functions of the quarter sessions.

 
Many counties had a central courthouse from which they were administered, which often became the first meeting place for the county councils created in 1889, such as Shire Hall, Stafford.

Some towns and cities were considered large enough to run their own county-level services and so were made county boroughs, independent from the new county councils. Urban sanitary districts which straddled county boundaries were placed entirely in one county. A new County of London was created covering the area which since 1856 had been administered by the Metropolitan Board of Works, which covered the City of London and parts of Middlesex, Surrey and Kent. In those counties where the quarter sessions had been held separately for different parts of the county, separate county councils were created for each part.[15][16]

The area controlled by a county council was termed an administrative county. The 1888 Act also adjusted the county boundaries for all other purposes, including judicial functions, sheriffs and lieutenants, to match groups of the administrative counties and county boroughs. As such, Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Suffolk and Sussex retained a single sheriff and lieutenant each, despite being split between multiple administrative counties. Yorkshire kept a single sheriff, whilst each of its ridings retained a separate lieutenant and formed their own administrative counties.[17][18] In 1890 the Isle of Wight was made an administrative county whilst remaining part of Hampshire for other purposes.[19]

Constituencies were not changed by the 1888 Act and so the parliamentary counties continued to be defined as they had been when the constituencies were last reviewed in 1885, by reference to the counties as they had then existed.[20] This led to a mismatch in some areas between the parliamentary counties and the counties as had been adjusted for all other purposes. This lasted until the constituencies were next reviewed in 1918, when they were realigned to nest within the newer versions of the counties.[21]

In legislation after 1888 the unqualified use of the term 'county' referred to the wider version of the county, including any associated county boroughs or parts which had been made administrative counties. The informal term 'geographical county' was also used to distinguish these from the administrative counties. They were shown on Ordnance Survey maps of the time under both titles.[22]

There were various adjustments to county boundaries after 1889. There were numerous changes following the Local Government Act 1894, which converted rural sanitary districts into rural districts and established parish councils, but said that districts and parishes were no longer allowed to straddle county boundaries. The number of county boroughs gradually increased, and boundaries were occasionally adjusted to accommodate urban areas which were developing across county boundaries. In 1931 the boundaries between Gloucestershire, Warwickshire, and Worcestershire were adjusted to transfer 26 parishes between the three counties, largely to eliminate the remaining exclaves not addressed in 1844.[23]

The functions of county councils gradually grew. Notable expansions in their responsibilities included taking over education from the abolished school boards in 1902,[24] and taking over the assistance of the poor from the abolished boards of guardians in 1930.[25]

Reforms edit

 
Metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties established in 1974

A Local Government Boundary Commission was set up in 1945 which reviewed the structure of local government and recommended a significant overhaul, including extensive changes to counties and county boroughs. The commission was wound up in 1949 when the government decided not to pursue these proposals.[26]

A Royal Commission on Local Government in Greater London was established in 1957 and a Local Government Commission for England in 1958 to recommend new local government structures. The major outcomes of the work of the commissions came in 1965. The County of London was abolished and was replaced by the Greater London administrative area, which also included most of the remaining part of Middlesex (which was abolished as an administrative county) and areas formerly part of Surrey, Kent, Essex and Hertfordshire. Huntingdonshire was merged with the Soke of Peterborough to form Huntingdon and Peterborough, and the original administrative county of Cambridgeshire was merged with the Isle of Ely to form Cambridgeshire and Isle of Ely.[27]

A Royal Commission on Local Government in England was set up in 1966 and produced the Redcliffe-Maud Report in 1969, which broadly recommended the complete redrawing of local government areas in England, abandoning the existing counties and districts and having most local government functions exercised by all-purpose unitary authorities. Following the change in government at the 1970 general election, the incoming Conservative administration of Edward Heath abandoned the Redcliffe-Maud proposals, having campaigned against them as part of their election manifesto.[28]

Instead, the Heath government produced the Local Government Act 1972 which reorganised local government from 1 April 1974 into a two-tier structure of counties and districts across the whole of England apart from the Isles of Scilly and Greater London (which retained its two-tier structure of the Greater London Council and London Boroughs which had been introduced in 1965). The administrative counties and county boroughs were all abolished, and the lower tier of district councils were reorganised.[29][30]

The Heath government also reformed the judicial functions which had been organised by geographical counties; the Courts Act 1971 abolished the quarter sessions and assizes with effect from 1972.[31] The sheriffs and lieutenants continued to exist, but both roles had lost powers to become largely ceremonial by the time of the 1970s reforms. As such, following the loss of judicial functions in 1972, the counties' roles were the administrative functions of local government, plus the limited ceremonial roles of the sheriffs and lieutenants. As part of the reforms under the Local Government Act 1972 the post of sheriff was renamed 'high sheriff', and both they and the lieutenants were appointed to the new counties created in 1974.[32]

Whilst the administrative counties and county boroughs were abolished in 1974, the wider geographic or historic counties were not explicitly abolished by the 1972 Act, albeit they were left with no administrative or ceremonial functions.[33]

Following the 1974 reforms there were 45 counties, six of which were classed as metropolitan counties, covering the larger urban areas:

The other 39 counties were classed as non-metropolitan counties. Most of the non-metropolitan counties retained the names of historic counties and were defined by reference to the administrative and geographical counties which preceded them, retaining the same or similar boundaries where practicable. Adjustments to boundaries were made where the government concluded they were necessary to better align with functional economic areas. For example, the north-western part of Berkshire was transferred to Oxfordshire on account of being separated from the rest of Berkshire by the Berkshire Downs hills and having better connections to the city of Oxford than to Berkshire's largest town and administrative centre of Reading. Similarly, Gatwick Airport was transferred from Surrey to West Sussex so that it could be in the same county as Crawley, the adjoining new town.[34][35][36]

Four of the non-metropolitan counties established in 1974 had entirely new names: Avon, Cleveland, Cumbria, and Humberside. Another was a merger of two former counties and combined both their names: Hereford and Worcester. The other pre-1974 counties of Cumberland, Rutland, Westmorland, and Huntingdon and Peterborough were considered too small to function efficiently as separate counties, and did not have their names taken forward by new counties, although Huntingdon, Peterborough and Rutland each became lower-tier districts.[37]

Further changes edit

 
Metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties from 2023

The metropolitan counties ceased to have county councils in 1986 and a further reform in the 1990s allowed the creation of non-metropolitan counties of a single district. These became known as unitary authorities and effectively re-established county boroughs. The reform caused the geographic counties to be defined separately once again, and they became known as ceremonial counties.

As well as unitary authorities covering large towns, some small counties such as Rutland and Herefordshire were re-established as unitary authorities. In 2009 unitary authorities were created to replace each of the county councils of Cornwall, County Durham, Northumberland, Shropshire and Wiltshire. Bedfordshire and Cheshire were thus abolished as non-metropolitan counties but are retained as ceremonial counties, divided between their unitary authorities.

As of 2023, for the purpose of administration, England outside Greater London and the Isles of Scilly is divided into 84 metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties.

Local government edit

Hertfordshire, Norfolk, Oxfordshire, Suffolk, Surrey, Warwickshire, West Sussex and Worcestershire are non-metropolitan counties of multiple districts with a county council. In these counties most services are provided by the county council and the district councils have a more limited role. Their areas each correspond exactly to ceremonial counties.

There are six metropolitan counties which are based on the major English conurbations; and they also correspond exactly to a ceremonial county and have multiple districts (commonly referred to as metropolitan boroughs), but do not have county councils. They are Greater Manchester, Merseyside, South Yorkshire, Tyne and Wear, West Midlands and West Yorkshire. In these counties the district councils provide the majority of services.

Similarly, Berkshire is a non-metropolitan county with no county council and multiple districts. It maps directly to the ceremonial county of Berkshire.

Bristol, Herefordshire, the Isle of Wight, Northumberland and Rutland are ceremonial counties consisting of a non-metropolitan county of a single district, and are known as unitary authorities.[38]

Cambridgeshire, Derbyshire, Devon, East Sussex, Essex, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Kent, Lancashire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and Staffordshire are non-metropolitan counties with multiple districts and a county council, where one or more districts have been split off to form unitary authorities. The effect is that the corresponding ceremonial county is larger than the non-metropolitan county of the same name and the county council is responsible for providing services in only part of the ceremonial county.


In Buckinghamshire, Cornwall, Dorset, Durham, East Riding of Yorkshire, North Yorkshire, Shropshire, Somerset and Wiltshire the bulk of the area is a unitary authority which shares the name of the ceremonial county, and the rest of the ceremonial county consists of one or more other unitary authorities.

In total, there are 43 unitary authorities that do not have the same name as any of the ceremonial counties. Bedfordshire, Cheshire, Cumbria and Northamptonshire are ceremonial counties that consist of a number of unitary authorities, none of which has the same name as the ceremonial county.

The City of London and Greater London are anomalous as ceremonial counties that do not correspond to any metropolitan or non-metropolitan counties, and pre-date their creation.

Institutions edit

The metropolitan counties have passenger transport executives to manage public transport, a role undertaken by the local authorities of non-metropolitan counties and Transport for London in Greater London.

Large ceremonial counties often correspond to a single police force. For example, the four unitary authorities which make up Cheshire correspond to the same area as the Cheshire Constabulary. Some counties are grouped together for this purpose, such as Northumberland with Tyne and Wear to form the Northumbria Police area. In other areas a group of unitary authorities in several counties are grouped together to form police force areas, such as the Cleveland Police and Humberside Police. Greater London and the City of London each have their own police forces, the Metropolitan Police Service and the City of London Police.

The fire service is operated on a similar county basis, and the ambulance service is organised by the regions of England.

Most ceremonial counties form part of a single region, although Lincolnshire and North Yorkshire are divided between regions. Economic development is delivered using the regions, as is strategic planning.

Comparative areas and populations edit

As of 2009, the largest county by area is North Yorkshire and the smallest is the City of London. The smallest county with multiple districts is Tyne and Wear and the smallest non-metropolitan county with a county council is Buckinghamshire. The county with the highest population is Greater London and the lowest is the City of London.

Greater London and the metropolitan counties are all in the 15 largest by population and the 15 smallest by area. Greater London has the highest population density, while the lowest is found in Northumberland. By area, the largest ceremonial county consisting of a single-district non-metropolitan county is Northumberland and the smallest is Bristol. By population the largest such county is Bristol and the smallest is Rutland.

Slough is the smallest unitary authority by area that is not also a ceremonial county and Cheshire East is the largest. Hartlepool is the smallest such unitary authority by population and Cheshire West and Chester is the largest. The sui generis Isles of Scilly is smaller both in terms of area and population. The highest population density of any metropolitan or non-metropolitan county is found in Portsmouth and the lowest is found in Northumberland.

Culture edit

There is no well-established series of official symbols or flags covering all the counties. From 1889 the newly created county councils could apply to the College of Arms for coats of arms, often incorporating traditional symbols associated with the county. This practice continued as new county councils were created in 1965 and 1974. However these armorial bearings belong to the incorporated body of the county council and not to the geographic area of the counties themselves. As county councils have been abolished, and unitary authorities have been carved out, some of these symbols have become obsolete or effectively no longer represent the whole ceremonial county. A recent series of flags, with varying levels of official adoption, have been established in many of the counties by competition or public poll. County days are a recent innovation in some areas.

There are 17 first-class men's county cricket teams that are based on historical English counties. These compete in the County Championship and in the other top-level domestic competitions organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board along with the 18th first-class cricket county - Glamorgan in Wales. There are also 19 English minor county teams which, along with a Wales Minor Counties side, compete for the Minor Counties Championship. The County Football Associations are roughly based on English counties, with exceptions such as the combinations of Berkshire and Buckinghamshire and Leicestershire and Rutland.

Postal counties edit

The Royal Mail has always required postal addresses to include the name of certain towns, known as post towns, to assist with efficiently directing the mail. Historically they also required the name of the name of the county in which that post town lay to be included as part of the address. There was also a series of official county name abbreviations sanctioned for postal use. For many rural areas and villages the post town to which they were assigned lay in a different county, and so in many places a correct postal address included the name of a county where the specific address was not located. For example the village of Easton on the Hill in Northamptonshire had to include Stamford, Lincolnshire in its address. The postal counties therefore included the same set of towns as the geographical counties, but had quite different boundaries.

The Royal Mail was unable to follow the changes to county boundaries in 1965 and 1974 due to cost constraints and because several new counties had names that were too similar to post towns. The main differences were that Hereford and Worcester, Greater Manchester and Greater London could not be adopted as postal counties and that Humberside had to be split into North Humberside and South Humberside.

The use of postal counties was abandoned by the Royal Mail in 1996 after postcodes had become sufficiently well-established.

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ With the exception of the non-metropolitan county of Stockton-on-Tees, which straddles the two ceremonial counties of County Durham and North Yorkshire.
  2. ^ The charter of Henry I which gave London the right to appoint its own sheriffs is undated, but the evidence suggests it was issued between 1130 and 1133, with sometime around Easter 1132 considered the most likely date.[5]
  1. ^ Aspects of Britain: Local Government. Her Majesty's Stationery Office. 1996.
  2. ^ Webb, Sidney; Webb, Beatrice Potter (1906). English local government, from the Revolution to the Municipal Corporations Act. London: Longmans, Green. pp. 287, 310–318. Retrieved 17 March 2024.
  3. ^ "Records of the Palatine of Durham". The National Archives. Retrieved 16 March 2024.
  4. ^ Youngs, Frederic (1991). Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England: Volume II. London: Royal Historical Society. p. xvi. ISBN 0861931270.
  5. ^ Tatlock, J. S. P. (October 1936). "The Date of Henry I's Charter to London". Speculum. 11 (4): 461–469. Retrieved 17 March 2024.
  6. ^ Webb, Sidney; Webb, Beatrice Potter (1906). English local government, from the Revolution to the Municipal Corporations Act. London: Longmans, Green. pp. 284–286. Retrieved 17 March 2024.
  7. ^ "Milita Act 1796 (37 Geo. 3 c. 3)". The Statutes at Large. 1798. p. 426. Retrieved 18 February 2024.
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  10. ^ A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 6. London: Victoria County History. 1959. pp. 324–333. Retrieved 18 March 2024.
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