Middlesex

[[image:EnglandMiddlesexTrad.png|frame|Middlesex as a traditional counties of England before 1888.]] Middlesex was an administrative area in England, mostly covered by Greater London. It was one of the 39 traditional counties of England of England. It included the City of London, which was self-governing from the 13th century. Middlesex has not existed in an official adminisitrative form since 1965 when it was mostly subsumed into Greater London, although it remains in use as a Postal counties of Great Britain, and is still used informally as an area name. ==History== The name means the territory of the middle Saxons and its first recorded use was in A.D 704 as ''Middleseaxan''. Middlesex was recorded in the Domesday Book as being divided into the six hundred (division)s of Edmonton (hundred), Elthorne, Gore (hundred), Hounslow (hundred) (later Isleworth (hundred)), Ossulstone and Spelthorne. [[Image:EnglandMiddlesex1890.png|frame|Middlesex as an administrative counties of England before the creation of Greater London in 1965.]] London's northwestern suburbs steadily covered large parts of Middlesex, especially following the coming of the railways. In 1888 much of the area became part of the County of London - the present-day boroughs of London Borough of Camden, London Borough of Hackney, London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, London Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London Borough of Islington, London Borough of Tower Hamlets and City of Westminster were removed. During the next few decades the county became almost entirely urbanised by suburbs of London. Towards the end of the period, many of the boroughs in the area were demanding independence from Middlesex County Council as county boroughs, which if granted would have left Middlesex County Council controlling an area with three distinct and unconnected fragments - in the west, the south-east and the north of the county. Instead, in 1965, nearly all the remainder of Middlesex was subsumed by the new Greater London except the Potters Bar district, which was ceded to Hertfordshire, and the district of Spelthorne, which was ceded to Surrey. The greater part went to form the new London boroughs of London Borough of Barnet (part only), London Borough of Brent, London Borough of Ealing, London Borough of Enfield, London Borough of Haringey, London Borough of Harrow, London Borough of Hillingdon, London Borough of Hounslow and London Borough of Richmond upon Thames (part only). In 1995 the village of Poyle was transferred from Spelthorne in Surrey to the Berkshire borough of Slough. ==Usage== Middlesex is still used as a placename popularly and by the Royal Mail, and exists in the name of such organisations as the Middlesex County Cricket Club or Middlesex University. Royal Mail guidelines now leave the use on letters of the historic county, administrative county, or no county at all up to the personal preference of the addresser, and Middlesex is consequently commonly found on addresses outside the London postal districts (and sometimes, even within). From an organisational point of view the Royal Mail does however recognise the existence of an area called Middlesex as one of the postal counties of England, but confusingly it is not identical to the historic county boundaries - not only have large sections formed part of the London postal district but elsewhere the borders occasionally follow a different course, such as the village of Denham, Buckinghamshire which is in both the traditional and administrative county of Buckinghamshire but in the postal county of Middlesex (short form ''Middx''). The River Thames, River Lee and the River Colne,_Hertfordshire are all boundaries of Middlesex. In the area around Richmond upon Thames and Twickenham, one bank of the River Thames is often referred to as the "Middlesex Bank", with "Surrey Bank" for the opposite side of the river - this identification is especially useful where the river flows in a north-westerly direction, thus making the terms "north bank" and "south bank" somewhat confusing. The town of Staines, for instance, is north of the River Thames but is now located, administratively if not postally or in the minds of its residents, in Surrey. ==Places== The highest point is the High Road in Bushey Heath at 504 feet. Places once part of the county are: *Acton, London - Ashford, Middlesex *Belgravia - Bethnal Green - Bloomsbury, London - Brentford *Camden Town - Chelsea, London - Chiswick - Clerkenwell - City of London *Ealing - Edgware - London Borough of Enfield *Finchley *Finsbury - Finsbury Park - Fulham *Hackney - Hammersmith - Hampstead - Hampton, London - Hanworth - Harlington, London - Harrow, London - Hayes, Hillingdon *Hendon - Heston *Highbury - Highgate - London Borough of Hillingdon *Holborn - Hornsey - Hounslow *Isle of Dogs - Islington - Isleworth *Kensington - Kentish Town - Maida Vale - Marylebone - Mayfair - Millbank - Millwall - Muswell Hill *Neasden *Paddington - Pimlico - Pinner - Poplar, London - Potters Bar - Poyle *Ruislip *St. James's - St. John's Wood - St. Margarets - St. Pancras - Shoreditch - Sipson - Spelthorne - Staines - Stepney - Soho - The Strand - Stoke Newington -South Mimms - Southall - Southgate, London *Tottenham - Twickenham *Uxbridge, London *Wapping - Wembley - Westminster - Willesden - Whitechapel - Whitehall - Willesden -Wood Green ==Places of interest== *Bushy Park *Camden Market *Chiswick House *Hampton Court Palace *Harrow School *Hogarth House *Lord's cricket ground *Osterley Park *Syon House *Trent Park *Twickenham *Wembley Stadium ==Districts== Middlesex in its final form consisted of the following districts *Acton, London (borough) *Brentford and Chiswick (borough) *Ealing (borough) *Edmonton, London (borough) *London Borough of Enfield (borough) *Feltham (urban district) *Finchley (borough) *Friern Barnet (urban district) *Harrow, London *Hayes and Harlington (urban district) *Hendon (borough) *Heston and Isleworth *Hornsey (borough) *Potters Bar (urban district) *Ruislip-Northwood (urban district) *Southall (borough) *Southgate, London (borough) *Staines (urban district) *Sunbury-on-Thames *Tottenham (borough) *Twickenham (borough) *Uxbridge (borough) *Wembley (borough) *Willesden (borough) *Wood Green (borough) *Yiewsley and West Drayton (urban district) ==External links== * [http://www.middx.net/ "Middlesex, England, UK" umbrella website] * [http://www.middlesexfencing.org.uk Middlesex County Fencing Union], one of a number of active Middlesex County sporting organisations. Middlesex Former administrative counties

Middlesex

The article seems to assume that Middlesex was only ever a political entity - this is highly disputed by supporters of the historic counties who will assert that the county does still exist because of things like the Cricket Club and the University (which, in the form of Middlesex Polytechnic, only got that name in 1973, after the administrative county was wound up). And many people in Middlesex still feel they are in Middlesex. On the issue of the Post Office having Middlesex in the address - the current text rather implies that the Post Office will just deliver mail that happens to have the name Middlesex on it. The Post Office does actually recognise the existance of an area called Middlesex - mail addresses and boundaries have rarely followed local government boundaries (look at the London postal district for the obvious example). The Post Office still acknowledges the existance of Middlesex (although it doesn't follow the historic county or the post 1888 boundaries) right down to its formal list of areas - take a look at this BBC News story [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3226717.stm]. -- User:Timrollpickering :See Wikipedia:Naming conventions (places). The approach taken here is supported by the vast majority of wikipedia users; the only objections coming from 2 users who are obsessed otherwise. Certainly we could add more mention of the people who believe that Middlesex still exists as a county, rather than a placename. User:Morwen 11:11, Feb 8, 2004 (UTC) ::How does that look? User:Morwen 11:22, Feb 8, 2004 (UTC) :::Looks good. I've changed the word "district" to "area" as district implies a more localised area, and also added a note on the term "Middlesex Bank" for a bank of the Thames. User:Timrollpickering 13:06, Feb 8, 2004 (UTC) ::As someone just coming to this issue, I find the whole "We've decided, no if's and's or but's" and everyone else is "obsessed" unhelpful and not consistent with NPOV, especially when the articles being amended actually conflict with advice given on Wikipedia:Naming conventions (places), e.g. "Middlesex ''was'' a county" is specifically given as an example of what not to write. Keep it NPOV, and mention both "traditional/historic county" and "administrative county" as existing entities. User:Andrew Yong 14:07, 10 Feb 2004 (UTC) :If Middlesex has ceased to exist, please give a reference to the legal instrument that dissolved it! User:LoopZilla 11:11, 28 Jan 2005 (UTC) Doesn't it already explain that in the article? User:G-Man 20:01, 28 Jan 2005 (UTC) ==Proposal to move== I've made a proposal to move this to Middlesex - based on the number of links meant for this article that are actually pointing at Middlesex (see [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Whatlinkshere&target=Middlesex Special:Whatlinkshere&target=Middlesex] ), it's historical precedence and the precedence of choosing the English county for the articles at Essex, Sussex, Norfolk etc.. User:Jooler :The discussion for this page move may be found at Talk:Middlesex/page move. -- User:Francs2000 | [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:Francs2000&action=edit§ion=new Talk] 19:52, 4 Feb 2005 (UTC) ==Cumberland== As far as I can see, only two of the Traditional counties of England are not at an undisambiguated county name - Middlesex, England and Cumberland, England. Is the argument for main article disambiguation of Cumberland any better than it is for Middlesex? -- User:ALoan User_talk:ALoan 23:51, 3 Feb 2005 (UTC) I would say that Cumberland, too should be at the undisambiguated location. User:John Kenney User_talk:John Kenney 19:25, 4 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Middlesex

Places and organisations in Greater London, Spelthorne, Hertsmere and Slough which are associated with Middlesex. Former administrative counties

Middlesex

Why is this category about old Middlesex and not the current boundries? Surely they should be split up to avoid confusion. I came from a page about Whitechapel and saw "Category: Middlesex, London Locations" and thought "What the heck? Whitechapel isn't in Middlesex". :I don't think this category should exist, but so long as no attempt is made to place articles solely in it, it won't do too much harm. User:Oliver Chettle 21:03, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC) :There is a somewhat random selection of articles in this category. I think it should be thinned down to things like Middlesex University, Middlesex Guildhall and Middlesex County Cricket Club and to wholly historical articles about Middlesex such as History of Edgware. User:Mrsteviec 11:56, 24 Apr 2005 (UTC) ::I've cleaned this category up to only include those places listed above but have retained those places still colloqually referred to as being in Middlesex like Feltham. User:Mrsteviec 10:01, 30 Apr 2005 (UTC)

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