Administrative counties of England

The division into counties is one of the larger Subdivisions of England of England. County are usually divided into several Districts of England, each with its own separate administration (districts may be called boroughs in some cases). Counties which consist of only one district are more popularly called unitary authority, because they do not match the idea of a county established in the centuries before the 1990s. However, not all unitary authorities are counties. ''Usage note: this definition of a county is not widely used by the British general public, which usually still thinks in terms of Traditional counties of England or Ceremonial counties of England.'' ==Map: Administrative counties of England (current) ==

Administrative counties of England

Northumberland Tyne and Wear † County Durham Cumbria Lancashire Blackpool * Blackburn with Darwen * West Yorkshire † North Yorkshire Darlington * Stockton-on-Tees (borough) * Middlesbrough * Hartlepool * Redcar and Cleveland * York * East Riding of Yorkshire * Kingston-upon-Hull * North Lincolnshire * North East Lincolnshire * Lincolnshire Nottinghamshire Nottingham * South Yorkshire † Derbyshire Derby, England * Greater Manchester † Merseyside † Halton (borough) *	Warrington * Cheshire Shropshire Telford and Wrekin * Staffordshire Stoke-on-Trent * West Midlands (county) † Warwickshire Leicestershire Leicester * Rutland * Northamptonshire City of Peterborough * Cambridgeshire Norfolk Suffolk Essex, England Southend-on-Sea * Thurrock * Hertfordshire Bedfordshire Luton * Milton Keynes (borough) * Buckinghamshire Oxfordshire Gloucestershire	Worcestershire Herefordshire * South Gloucestershire * Bristol * North Somerset * Bath and North East Somerset * Wiltshire Swindon (borough) * Berkshire ‡ Greater London � Medway * Kent East Sussex Brighton and Hove * West Sussex Surrey Hampshire Southampton * Portsmouth * Isle of Wight * Dorset Poole * Bournemouth * Somerset Devon Torbay * Plymouth * Cornwall

* unitary authority
† metropolitan county
‡ no county council
� 'administrative area' not a county. == List == === Shire counties === A 'shire county' is a non-metropolitan county which has multiple districts. Its name need not have 'shire' in it. There are 35 such counties: Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Cheshire, Cornwall, Cumbria, Derbyshire, Devon, Dorset, County Durham, East Sussex, Essex, England, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Hertfordshire, Kent, Lancashire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Northamptonshire, Northumberland, North Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Shropshire, Somerset, Staffordshire, Suffolk, Surrey, England, Warwickshire, West Sussex, Wiltshire, Worcestershire Of these, all apart from Berkshire also have county councils. Sometimes 'shire county' is used to exclude Berkshire, because it has no county council. There is some debate as to the status of Cornwall, whether it is a shire county or not. It is interesting to note that Cornwall is the only 'county' where a large minority dispute its constitutional status of Cornwall and instead claim it should be described as a Duchy and one of the home nations of the UK. ===Metropolitan counties=== The metropolitan county are Greater Manchester, Merseyside, South Yorkshire, Tyne and Wear, West Midlands (county) and West Yorkshire. The county councils of these were abolished in 1986 by Margaret Thatcher for largely political rather than practical reasons, but they still exist legally. They are used for some administrative and geographic purposes, and are still ceremonial counties of England also. Most of the powers that the former county councils used to have, devolved to their metropolitan boroughs, which are now in effect unitary authorities, however some functions such as emergency services, civil defence, and public transport are still run jointly on a metropolitan county wide basis. Greater London is not formally a county but an 'administrative area'. It was created in 1965 and its Greater London Council abolished in 1986 along with the metropolitan county councils. It now has a Greater London Authority in its capacity as a Regions of England. ===Unitary authorities=== Unitary authority are areas with only one council. 40 of these are coterminous with a county. Bath and North East Somerset, Blackburn with Darwen, Blackpool, Bournemouth, Brighton and Hove, Bristol, Derby, Darlington, East Riding of Yorkshire, Halton (borough), Hartlepool, Herefordshire, Isle of Wight, Kingston upon Hull, Leicester, Luton, Medway Towns, Middlesbrough, Milton Keynes (borough), North East Lincolnshire, North Lincolnshire, North Somerset, Nottingham, Peterborough, Plymouth, Poole, Portsmouth, Redcar and Cleveland, Rutland, Southampton, Southend-on-Sea, South Gloucestershire, Stockton-on-Tees, Stoke-on-Trent, County of Swindon, Telford and Wrekin, Thurrock, Torbay, Warrington, City of York For 39 of these, they are defined as a county with a single district, which has a district council, and no county council. For the Isle of Wight, technically it is a county with a county council and no district councils, but the effect is the same. The districts of Berkshire are unitary authorities, but are not granted county status. The Isles of Scilly are not part of Cornwall for administrative purposes, but neither do they constitute a county. See Subdivisions of England for the full list of unitary authorities. ==History== See traditional counties of England for the history of the English counties before 1888. === 1888 : County Councils === In 1888 the government, led by the Tory Prime Minister Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury established county councils for all of England and Wales, covering areas known as administrative county. Excluded from administrative counties were the county boroughs, which were what today are known as unitary authority. Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Suffolk, Sussex, and Yorkshire were split up for administrative purposes, following historical divisions used by the Courts of Quarter Sessions. Additionally there was a County of London which covered the area today known as Inner London. The Isle of Wight was originally included under the administrative county of Hampshire but obtained its own county council in 1890. Some exclaves that had been left untouched by the 1844 Act were affected by this one, for example the Measham area of Derbyshire was placed under the control of Leicestershire County Council. In 1894 a uniform two-tier system was established, with subdivisions of the administrative counties called urban districts, rural districts and municipal boroughs. ===Map: Administrative counties of England from 1890 to 1965=== This map follows the usual practice of not showing county boroughs. Instead, they were included in their 'host' county. When a county borough expanded into territory of a county that wasn't the one it came from, maps often showed this as an increase in size of the county the county borough was associated with. So, for example, Bristol south of the River Avon, Bristol would be shown as part of Gloucestershire rather than Somerset. This system was the basis of the Ceremonial counties of England used for Lieutenancy - except that Cambridgeshire, Hampshire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Suffolk and Sussex were not split for Lieutenancy. (Yorkshire, however, was). {| border=1 cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" |- |colspan=3 align=center bgcolor="#ff9999"| Administrative counties of England from 1890 to 1965 |- |

| |} === Encroachment === As urbanisation increased, and suburbs were built on a scale not seen before, the urban areas surrounding various towns and cities started to cross traditional county borders. Since boroughs, urban districts, and civil parish could no longer cross county boundaries, the administrative county borders were adjusted. Examples of these include *Beauchief, Dore, Norton, South Yorkshire, Totley, South Yorkshire in Derbyshire, annexed by Sheffield in West Riding of Yorkshire, in 1934 *Caversham in Oxfordshire, annexed by Reading, Berkshire, in 1911 *Little Bowden in Northamptonshire, annexed by Market Harborough, Leicestershire *half of Tamworth, Staffordshire, historically in Warwickshire *Winshill in Derbyshire, annexed by Burton-upon-Trent *Wythenshawe in Cheshire, annexed by City of Manchester, Lancashire *Reddish and the Heatons in Lancashire, annexed by Stockport County Borough, Cheshire === 1965 : Greater London === ''Main article: London Government Act 1963'' Throughout the next century, debates took place about what should be done about local government in respect of the increasing urbanisation of the country. Proposals to expand or change county boroughs or to create larger urban counties were discussed, but nothing happened until 1963, when legislation was passed to come into effect in 1965. The County of London was expanded and renamed Greater London, and consumed nearly all of Middlesex - the remaining parts being ceded to Surrey and Hertfordshire. Some other changes took place, such as the Soke of Peterborough and Huntingdonshire being merged into Huntingdon and Peterborough, and the merger of the original Cambridgeshire county council and the Isle of Ely County Council. === Map: Administrative counties of England from 1965 from 1974 === ''The map below is shown with the county boroughs immediately prior to 1974.''

Administrative counties of England from 1965 to 1974
Northumberland County Durham Westmorland Cumberland, England Lancashire West Riding of Yorkshire North Riding of Yorkshire East Riding of Yorkshire Lindsey Holland, England Kesteven Nottinghamshire Derbyshire Cheshire Shropshire (Shropshire) Staffordshire Warwickshire Leicestershire Rutland Northamptonshire Huntingdon and Peterborough	Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely Norfolk East Suffolk West Suffolk Essex Hertfordshire Bedfordshire Buckinghamshire Oxfordshire Gloucestershire Worcestershire Herefordshire Wiltshire Berkshire Greater London Kent East Sussex West Sussex Surrey Hampshire Isle of Wight Dorset Somerset Devon Cornwall

=== 1974 : Two-tier === ''Main article: Local Government Act 1972'' By the late 1960s, it had become obvious that the structure of local government in England and Wales needed reforming. Harold Wilson's Labour Party (UK) government set up the Redcliffe-Maud Commission to produce proposals for wholesale reform. The report proposed that most of England the two-tier structure be abolished, and replaced with a system of 58 unitary authority, which would generally ignore the previous administrative boundaries in favour of changes that made geographic sense - a total redrawing of the map. In the metropolitan areas of Merseyside, Greater Manchester, and the West Midlands (county), there would be 3 metropolitan areas, with 20 district authorities. These proposals were opposed by the Conservative Party (UK) opposition led by Edward Heath. They won the United Kingdom general election, 1970, and set to work defining their own scheme. This scrapped the concept of unitary authorities (even for existing county boroughs) — the entire area of England and Wales was to be divided into uniform counties and districts. In England the counties were to be largely modelled on the existing counties, but in some areas (quite apart from the metropolitan areas) quite radical reforms were put forward. Despite reassurances from the government that nobody's loyalties were expected to change as a result of the local government reform, and that the traditional counties of England would not be formally abolished; many changes did incur significant local oppositions. Most of the radical changes were withdrawn. One aspect the government stood firm on was the mergers of small counties. Campaigns for the continuation of Rutland and Herefordshire were unsuccessful, although due to its special geographic circumstances, the Isle of Wight was permitted to retain a separate county council, as opposed to being reunified with its historic county of Hampshire. The Local Government Act 1972 was passed in 1972, and defined the English counties and metropolitan districts, but not the non-metropolitan districts. These were set by a Boundary Commission that had already begun work. The metropolitan counties were composed as follows *Merseyside - based around Liverpool, south-west Lancashire, along with, from the other side of the River Mersey, the Wirral in north-west Cheshire *Greater Manchester - the Manchester urban area along with many surrounding towns *South Yorkshire - based upon the Sheffield-Rotherham area in the West Riding of Yorkshire *Tyne and Wear - the Tyneside conurbation based on Newcastle-upon-Tyne in Northumberland, along with Sunderland in County Durham *West Midlands (county) - Birmingham conurbation, including the Black Country and Coventry *West Yorkshire - Leeds-Bradford area in the West Riding of Yorkshire Other significant changes were - *County of Avon formed from northern Somerset, southern Gloucestershire, and Bristol and Bath *Cleveland, England formed from southern County Durham and northern part of the North Riding of Yorkshire, focusing on the Teesside conurbation along with Guisborough and Hartlepool *Cumbria was formed from Westmorland, Cumberland, England and part of Lancashire and Yorkshire *Herefordshire and Worcestershire were merged into Hereford and Worcester *Humberside formed from East Riding of Yorkshire and northern Lincolnshire *Huntingdon and Peterborough was annexed by Cambridgeshire *Rutland was merged into Leicestershire as a Districts of England *Vale of White Horse, including Berkshire's former county town Abingdon, England was ceded to Oxfordshire === Map: Administrative counties of England from 1974-1995 ===

Administrative counties of England from 1974 to 1996
Northumberland Tyne and Wear County Durham Cleveland, England North Yorkshire Cumbria Lancashire Merseyside Greater Manchester West Yorkshire South Yorkshire Humberside Lincolnshire Nottinghamshire Derbyshire Cheshire Shropshire Staffordshire West Midlands (county) Warwickshire Leicestershire Northamptonshire Cambridgeshire	Norfolk Suffolk Essex Hertfordshire Bedfordshire Buckinghamshire Oxfordshire Gloucestershire Hereford and Worcester County of Avon Wiltshire Berkshire Greater London Kent East Sussex West Sussex Surrey Hampshire Isle of Wight Dorset Somerset Devon Cornwall

=== 1986 : Break-up of Metropolises === ''Main article: Local Government Act 1985.'' In 1986 the county councils of the metropolitan counties, and the Greater London Council, were abolished by Margaret Thatcher's government following disputes with central government, but the counties themselves remained legally in existence. === 1995-1998 : Unitary Authorities ===

''Main article: 1990s UK local government reform'' The 1990s led to the restoration of county boroughs under a new name, unitary authority, which radically changed the administrative map of England. The changes were carried out in several waves. On April 1, 1995, the Isle of Wight became a single unitary authority. It had previously had a two-tier structure with an Isle of Wight County Council; and a Medina, England Borough Council and a South Wight Borough Council. Also on this day, two small areas were ceded from Surrey and Buckinghamshire to Berkshire, giving it a border with Greater London. On April 1, 1996, the unpopular counties of County of Avon, Humberside and Cleveland, England were abolished and their districts turned into unitary authorities. Also at this time, the City of York was expanded and separated from North Yorkshire. On April 1, 1997, the districts of Bournemouth, Darlington, Derby, England, Leicester, Luton, Borough of Milton Keynes, Poole, Portsmouth, Rutland and Southampton became unitary authorities. Also, the districts of Brighton and Hove, England were merged to form the new unitary authority of Brighton and Hove. On April 1, 1998, Blackpool, Blackburn with Darwen, Halton (borough), Medway, Nottingham, County of Peterborough, Plymouth, County of Swindon, Stoke-on-Trent, Southend-on-Sea, Telford and Wrekin, Torbay, Thurrock and Warrington became unitary authorities. Also, Hereford and Worcester was abolished and replaced by the unitary authority of Herefordshire and the shire county of Worcestershire. Berkshire was split into six unitary authorities, but not formally abolished. === 2000 : London === ''Main article: Greater London Authority'' The incoming Labour Party (UK) government under the leadership of Tony Blair had made it a campaign pledge to establish some form of local government for all London, whilst being keen to stress that it was not going to be a resurrection of the Greater London Council. The Greater London Authority has an elected Mayor of London and an London Assembly with scrutinizing powers. === 2004 : Regional assemblies === ''Main article: Northern England referendums, 2004'' As part of the Blair government's policy of devolution, a referendum was held in November 2004 about whether North East England should have an elected regional assemblies in England. The outcome of this referendum was a decisive 'no', and further referendums in North West England and Yorkshire and the Humber have been abandoned. Had the referendum produced a 'yes' vote, the existing local government structure in the affected regions would have been reformed to be wholly unitary, which might have affected the counties depending upon which option was chosen. In Cornwall a cross party movement for devolution collected over 50000 signature endorsing the call for a Cornish Assembly, however the petition was largly ignored by government who have no plans for devolution to Cornwall. ==See also== *Local Government in the United Kingdom *List of Administrative shire counties of England by Area *List of Administrative shire counties of England by Population *List of Administrative Counties of England by Population Density *Subdivisions of England *Ceremonial counties of England *Districts of England *Traditional counties of England *Constitutional status of Cornwall *Subdivisions of Wales *Subdivisions of Scotland *List of United Kingdom topics ==External links== *[http://jonathan.rawle.org/hyperpedia/counties/history.php History of the counties] *[http://www.hmso.gov.uk/acts/acts1999/90001--b.htm European Parliamentary Elections Act 1999 - Schedule 2 - Electoral Regions in England] listing many counties extant at that date Counties of England Local government of the UK Subnational entities United Kingdom-related lists

Administrative counties of England

Each of the entities drawn on the map is an administrative county, and I can provide references to back it up. (Berkshire of course is still one, because Berkshire was never abolished, it just had all its functions transferred downwards). User:Morwen 12:08, Jan 25, 2004 (UTC) References? Go on then: Wikipedia:Cite your sources... In fact, the following seems to be good evidence for what you say so I've added it to the article: [http://www.hmso.gov.uk/acts/acts1999/90001--b.htm European Parliamentary Elections Act 1999 - Schedule 2 - Electoral Regions in England] User:Andy G 16:13, 25 Jan 2004 (UTC) :See User:Morwen/UAs for a list of all the SIs that implemented these changes. You will note that they all exclude/abolish counties, apart from the one dealing with Berkshire one. (And one of the earlier ones, but that was split into two orders, including a Further Provisions one which did the counties stuff). User:Morwen 22:56, Jan 25, 2004 (UTC) ---- Was Middlesex ever a county? According to the article it became part of Greater London in 1965, but it is not mentioned before this point. Can someone rectify this please? --User:HappyDog 16:34, 21 Feb 2004 (UTC) :The article doesn't deal with the pre-1965 counties yet, but yes. User:Morwen 18:00, Feb 21, 2004 (UTC) ---- Table on the top map is wrong. E.g. Hertfordshire is 48, not 47. ---- Is Greater London a county? The previosly-cited reference [http://www.hmso.gov.uk/acts/acts1999/90001--b.htm European Parliamentary Elections Act 1999 - Schedule 2 - Electoral Regions in England] implies it (like Scilly) is not. User:Andy G 22:55, 8 Mar 2004 (UTC) :I think you are probably right. User:Morwen 22:57, Mar 8, 2004 (UTC) ---- I'm sorry, but to me as an American this is just bizarre. Of course our states don't change boundaries (except rarely), but except for minor annexations/successions, out county boundaries don't either. Our voting districts do on various schedules, perhaps this is why you must do this so often? As an aid to foreigners like me, could someone put a general explanation of why this is needed at the top of the article, before the wonderfully well researched but rather dry "Under the Baldwin government, boundaries in counties to the north of Newcastle where adjusted three rods to the north and east just to confound visitors from the Continent and provide challenge to the Ordnance Survey" bits? I mean this just seems so much ''churn''. User:Orthogonal 07:30, 20 Apr 2004 (UTC) :It ''is'' bizarre. My personal explanation is that the British government has always been deeply unhappy about the 'unfortunate necessity' of delegating power downwards, and thus messes with local governmental boundaries on a regular basis to keep things disorganised. User:Morven 07:58, 20 Apr 2004 (UTC) :And as a further note; this is NOT anything to do with electoral districts for Parliament, Europe or anything else; these are regularly messed with in the UK as in the USA. User:Morven 08:00, 20 Apr 2004 (UTC) ==Berkshire== I was confused reading the Shire county paragraph. Berkshire is included in the list of Shire counties, but then the use of the term 'Shire counties' is to exclude Berkshire. So, is Berkshire a Shire County or not? Thanks, User:Icairns 21:15, 25 Nov 2004 (UTC) ==Naming== Shouln't this really be moved to Counties of England seem as that is what administrative counties are officially called. With perhaps a link to ceremonial counties and traditional counties? User:G-Man 15:33, 2 Dec 2004 (UTC) ::No, the disambiguation way it is done now is fine. There needs to be a distinction between the different types of county, so moving one type to the main article would cause even more confusion. User:Owain 09:43, 9 Jan 2005 (UTC) ==Very Confusing== Well as a German I'm very confused about the English administration system with all its counties, caeremonial stuff and god knows what else. I always thought that German administration history is confusing, especially since Germany's Borderlines kept changing through the centuries, (well, especially in the 20th)...but these changements are nothing compared with the British administration changes. Counties appear, vanish again or ar divided up...Foreigners really get the impression that the English/UK governments don't have anything else to do than drawing lines on maps. ::Agreed, it is exceptionally confusing and there is so much mis-information around even most British people can't figure it out; so I have little hope that anyone else could. Hopefully Wikipedia will explain all the different types of county in a non-biased way, but this does require authors who favour one system over the other to compromise their positions somewhat :) User:Owain 09:49, 9 Jan 2005 (UTC) == Cornwall == Is not and never has been a shire county that is why i have removed it from the list of shire counties. If you wish to return it then you will have to provide evidence of it being historically described as a shire or administered as a shire (of Wessex). ''Whence county was gradually adopted in English ( scarcely before the 15th century ) as an alternative name for the shire, and in due course applied to similar divisions made in Wales and in Ireland, as well as the shires of Scotland, and also extended to those separate parts of the realm which never were shires, as The Duchy of Cornwall, Orkney and Shetland.'' Part definition of the term County. Complete Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd Ed 1989 p. 1044. User:Bretagne 44 26/2/05 :I think you misunderstand the meaning of the list. Cornwall is included because of its style of local government (i.e a county council and districts), not because of any historical reasons. User:G-Man 19:26, 7 Mar 2005 (UTC) :: Why use a silly, inaccurate lable like 'shire county', then, particularly as the Oxford English Dictionary, ''the'' authority on the correct use of language (the adherence to which goes without saying in an encyclopaedia), disagrees with it? Using the term ''administrative county'' to describe two-tier systems and ''unitary aithority'' to describe everything else is far more sensible. All the remaining two-tier administrations are basically modified versions of the ''administrative counties'' created in 1888, so the term is accurate and has legislative precedents. Furthermore, the legislation also uses the term ''unitary authority'' to refer to single-tier administrative entities. The fact that it uses the word "county" to refer to both and more, willy-nilly is neither here nor there, because it's imprecise and ambiguous. "Counties in the context of this bill" has meant all sorts of completely different things in various pieces of legistlation; 'county' is not an 'official' term; just a handy descriptor which, in legislation, has no single meaning. User:80.255 23:01, 7 Mar 2005 (UTC) :It is not a term I have invented, it seems to be a common term used for counties with a two-tier system of government, as opposed to single-tier counties like Herefordshire and Rutland, or counties without county councils like Berkshire or the metropolitan county. Also where exactly does Greater London fit into that definition, the London boroughs are not proper unitary authorities, and the Greater London Authority is not a proper county council. User:G-Man 20:14, 22 Mar 2005 (UTC) I agree with User:80.255 and see the use of 'Shire' as inaccurate and unnecessary, it should be changed! User:Morwen maybe you could contribute to the Constitutional status of Cornwall article as well. Also did you add the following to the Cornish nationalism page. "The Local Government Act 1972 unambiguously declares Cornwall to be part of England" If so what was Cornwall before 1972? Was it created a County in 1888, if so what was it before 1888? User:Bretagne 44 21/3/05 Are you really trying to contend that there was ''anybody'' in 1888 who considered Cornwall not to be an English county? 1911 Britannica calls it "the south-westernmost county of England." It mentions none of these novel constitutional theories respecting the Duchy, either. User:John Kenney User_talk:John Kenney 02:12, 10 May 2005 (UTC) Yes, most importantly the Duchy of Cornwall as proved in case law in the 19th century.http://www.cornwall.gov.uk/history/ab-hi01c.htm see this link for more details, check the date 1855. Not only that but some Cornish people still consider Cornwall not to be a county of England and many more consider there are questions over describing Cornwall as just an English county User:Bretagne 44 24/5/05 == Devolution and Cornwall == Why has information on the movement for a Cornish Assembly been removed without debate. It is a popular movement which although not successful 'yet' deserves mention under this title. User:Bretagne 44 21/3/05

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