Origins Great Britain was first divided into administrative areas by the Romans, most likely following major geographical features such as rivers. Once the
Kingdom of England was united as a whole in 927 it became necessary to subdivide it for administrative convenience and to this end,
earldoms were created out of the earlier kingdoms, which were in turn subdivided into shires. The whole kingdom was divided into shires by the time of the
Norman Conquest.
Robert of Gloucester accounts for thirty-five shires and
William of Malmesbury thirty-two, In Anglo-Saxon times the
earl and sheriff were jointly responsible for administering each shire through its
shire court. Each earl was responsible for multiple shires, with some fluctuation in which shires belonged to which earldoms during this period. In the years following the Norman Conquest of 1066 the large earldoms of the Anglo-Saxon era were gradually replaced by smaller earldoms corresponding to a single shire. The Norman French term for an earl was a
comte or
count; whilst in England the title count was not used for the person, the territory they controlled nevertheless became known as a 'county'. As the shires and counties were generally the same areas from the 12th century onwards, the terms shire and county came to be used interchangeably. The earls' role in administering their counties was gradually reduced as the shire court was eclipsed in importance by other courts, notably the
assizes and
quarter sessions. Although all of England was divided into shires by the time of the Norman Conquest, some counties were formed later, such as Lancashire in the 12th century. Perhaps because of their differing origins the counties
varied considerably in size. The county boundaries were fairly static until the
Local Government Act 1888. Each shire was responsible for gathering taxes for the central government; for local defence; and for justice, through
assize courts.
Southern England In southern England the counties were mostly subdivisions of the Kingdom of
Wessex, and in many areas represented annexed, previously independent, kingdoms or other tribal territories.
Kent derives from the
Kingdom of Kent, Surrey from the Anglian word for 'southern region', and
Essex,
Sussex and
Middlesex come from the
East Saxons,
South Saxons and
Middle Saxons. Norfolk and Suffolk were subdivisions representing the "North Folk" and "South Folk" of the
Kingdom of East Anglia. Only one county on the south coast of England now usually takes the suffix "-shire":
Hampshire, named after the former town of "Hamwic" (sic), the site of which is now a part of the city of
Southampton. A "lost" Saxon county was
Winchcombeshire which lasted from 1007 to 1017 before being incorporated into
Gloucestershire.
Dorset and
Somerset derive their names from the
saete or inhabitants of the areas around the towns of
Dorchester and
Somerton respectively; the names were first used by the Saxons in the 9th century.
Devon and
Cornwall were based on the pre-Saxon
Celtic tribes known in Latin as the
Dumnonii and
Cornovii, in the latter case with the suffix , meaning foreigners, added by the Saxons.
Midlands When Wessex annexed
Mercia in the 10th century, it subdivided the area into various shires of roughly equal size and tax-raising potential or
hidage. These generally took the name of the main town (the
county town) of the county, along with "-shire". Examples are
Northamptonshire and
Warwickshire. In some cases the original names have been worn down: for example,
Cheshire was originally "Chestershire". In the east Midlands, it is thought that county boundaries may represent a 9th-century division of the
Danelaw between units of the Danish army.
Northern England Much of Northumbria was also shired, the best known of these counties being
Hallamshire and
Cravenshire. The Normans did not use these divisions, and so they are not generally regarded as ancient counties. The huge county of Yorkshire was a successor to the Viking
kingdom of York and the
Brittonic kingdom of
Elmet; at the time of the Domesday Book in 1086 it included large areas of what would later become
Lancashire,
Cumberland and
Westmorland; most of Cumberland and Westmorland were under
Scottish rule until 1092. After the
Norman Conquest in 1066 and the
harrying of the North, much of the North of England was left depopulated and was included in the returns for
Cheshire and
Yorkshire in the Domesday Book. However, there is some disagreement about the status of some of this land. The area in between the
River Ribble and the River
Mersey, referred to as in the Domesday Book, was included in the returns for Cheshire. Whether this meant that this land was actually part of Cheshire is however not clear. The Northeast land that later became
County Durham and
Northumberland, was left unrecorded. Cumberland, Westmorland, Lancashire, County Durham, and Northumberland were established as counties in the 12th century. Lancashire can be firmly dated to 1182. Part of the domain of the
Bishops of Durham,
Hexhamshire was split off and was considered an independent county until 1572, when it became part of Northumberland.
Welsh border At the time of the
Domesday Book, some parts of what later became
Wales were included in English counties:
Monmouth, for example, was included in
Herefordshire. Additionally, the Domesday Book included, as part of Cheshire, areas that later became part of Wales, including the two hundreds of
Atiscross and Exestan, and the southern part of Duddestan Hundred (as it was known as the time), which later became known as
Maelor Saesneg (English Maelor), and (later still) "
Flintshire Detached". Parts of the
March of Wales, which after the
Norman conquest had been administered by
Marcher Lords largely independently of the English monarch, were incorporated into the English counties of Shropshire, Herefordshire and Gloucestershire in 1535. There was historic ambiguity as to the status of the county of
Monmouthshire. As with other Marcher areas added to existing counties, it was created out of "the said Country or Dominion of Wales" by the
Laws in Wales Act 1535. It was then added to the
Oxford circuit of the English Assizes. For legal purposes it was regarded as part of England, but Laws since the late 19th century were often applied to "
Wales and Monmouthshire". It was listed among the English counties for parliamentary purposes until 1950 and for local government until 1974, but the
Local Government Act 1972 unambiguously included the area as part of Wales.
Counties corporate A
charter of
Henry I in about 1130 gave the
City of London its own
Sheriff. The Sheriff of London also had jurisdiction over the county of Middlesex, so that "London and Middlesex were from that time regarded as one from an administrative point of view", although they retained their separate identities. This relationship continued until the
Local Government Act 1888 created a new office of
High Sheriff of Middlesex appointed in the same manner as other English and Welsh counties, created the
County of London with its own high sheriff, and restricted the jurisdiction of the sheriffs of London to the City. Charters were granted constituting the boroughs or cities of
Lincoln (1409),
Nottingham (1448),
Lichfield (1556) and
Worcester (1622) as counties. The
County of the City of Coventry was separated from Warwickshire in 1451, and included an extensive area of countryside surrounding the city. Charters granting separate county status to the cities and boroughs of
Chester (1238/9),
York (1396),
Newcastle upon Tyne (1400) and
Kingston-upon-Hull (with the surrounding area of
Hullshire) (1440). In 1551
Berwick upon Tweed, on the border with
Scotland, was created a county corporate.
Exclaves in a
detached part of
Worcestershire surrounded by
Staffordshire, an exclave of
Shropshire (the parish of
Halesowen) to the south-east, and part of Staffordshire (
Broome and
Clent) to the south-west The ancient counties have many anomalies, and many small
exclaves, where a parcel of land was politically part of one county despite not being physically connected to the rest of the county. The
Counties (Detached Parts) Act 1844 was passed, the effect of which was to treat many of these exclaves as part of the county which surrounded them. This had already been done for Parliamentary purposes under the
Great Reform Act 1832. Large exclaves affected by the 1844 Act included the County Durham exclaves of
Islandshire,
Bedlingtonshire and
Norhamshire, which were subsequently treated as hundreds of
Northumberland; and those parts of
Halesowen forming part of Shropshire, which was
subsequently treated as part of
Worcestershire, as the remainder already was.
Exclaves that the 1844 Act did not touch included the part of
Derbyshire around
Donisthorpe, locally in
Leicestershire; a part of
Huntingdonshire near
Woodbury Park, separated by
Cambridgeshire; and most of the larger exclaves of Worcestershire, including the town of
Dudley, which remained surrounded by
Staffordshire. Additionally, the
Furness portion of
Lancashire remained separated from the rest of Lancashire by a narrow strip of Westmorland — though it was accessible by way of the
Morecambe Bay tidal flats.
1889 When the first county councils were set up in 1889, they covered newly created entities known as
administrative counties. Several historic subdivisions with separate county administrations were also created administrative counties, particularly the separate
ridings of
Yorkshire, the separate
parts of Lincolnshire, and the East and West divisions of Sussex. The
Local Government Act 1888 also contained wording to create both a new "administrative county" and a "county" of
London, and to ensure that the
county boroughs which were created at the same time continued for non-administrative purposes to be part of the county which they geographically lay. These counties were to be used "for all purposes, whether sheriff, lieutenant, custos rotulorum, justices, militia, coroner, or other". The effect was that new county boroughs which were counties corporate retained their status as separate counties. In retrospect, these "statutory" counties can be identified as the predecessors of the ceremonial counties of England. The censuses of 1891, 1901 and 1911 provided figures for the "ancient counties". , mentioning the historic county boundary Several towns are historically divided between counties, including
Banbury,
Burton upon Trent,
Newmarket,
Peterborough,
Royal Tunbridge Wells,
Royston, Stamford,
Tamworth,
Todmorden,
Warrington and
Wisbech. In Newmarket and Tamworth the historic county boundary runs right up the middle of the high street; in Royal Tunbridge Wells the historic county boundary had a theatre (now the Corn Exchange) built right on it, with the actors playing in Sussex to an audience in Kent; and in Todmorden, the historically fractious border between Lancashire and Yorkshire (the river known as Walsden Water) had
Todmorden Town Hall built right on top of it on a
culvert tunnel, dividing the hall down the middle between the two counties – a division reflected in its architecture. The 1888 Act ensured that every urban sanitary district would be considered to be part of a single county. This principle was maintained in the 20th century: when county boroughs such as
Birmingham,
Manchester,
Reading and
Sheffield expanded into neighbouring counties, the area added became associated with the county borough's geographic county. This principle was not, however, applied to
Stockport or
Cardiff, which remained divided, the latter even divided between Wales and England (from 1938 Cardiff included
Rumney in the territory of the historic county of
Monmouthshire, which was legally regarded as part of England until 1972 when it was instead assigned to Wales).
1965 and 1974 cover a larger area than the administrative area in 1974 (in green). On 1 April 1965, a number of changes came into effect. The new administrative area of
Greater London was created, resulting in the abolition of the administrative counties of London and Middlesex, at the same time taking in areas from surrounding counties. On the same date the new counties of
Cambridgeshire and Isle of Ely and of
Huntingdon and Peterborough were formed by the merger of pairs of administrative counties. The new areas were also adopted for lieutenancy and shrievalty purposes. In 1974 a major local government reform took place under the
Local Government Act 1972. The Act abolished administrative counties and county boroughs, and divided England (except Greater London and the Isles of Scilly) into counties. These were of two types: "metropolitan" and "non-metropolitan" counties. Apart from local government, the new counties were "substituted for counties of any other description" for judicial, shrievalty, lieutenancy and other purposes. Several counties, such as
Cumberland,
Herefordshire,
Rutland,
Westmorland and
Worcestershire, vanished from the administrative map, while new entities such as
Avon,
Cleveland,
Cumbria and
Humberside appeared, in addition to the six new
metropolitan counties. The built-up areas of conurbations tend to cross historic county boundaries freely. Examples are
Bournemouth–
Poole–
Christchurch (
Dorset and
Hampshire)
Greater Manchester (
Cheshire,
Derbyshire, Yorkshire and
Lancashire),
Merseyside (Cheshire and Lancashire),
Teesside (Yorkshire and County Durham),
South Yorkshire (Yorkshire,
Nottinghamshire and
Derbyshire),
Tyneside (County Durham and
Northumberland) and
West Midlands (
Staffordshire,
Warwickshire and
Worcestershire).
Greater London itself straddles five ancient counties —
Essex,
Hertfordshire, Kent,
Middlesex,
Surrey — and the London urban area sprawls into Buckinghamshire and Berkshire. The Local Government Act 1972 sought generally to unite conurbations within a single county, while retaining the historic county boundaries as far as was practicable. the
Post Office was able to alter many of its
postal counties in accordance with the 1965 and 1974 reforms, but not all. The two major exceptions were
Greater London and
Greater Manchester. Greater London was not adopted in 1965, since, according to the Post Office at the time, it would have been too expensive to do so, while it gave as its reason for not adopting Greater Manchester the ambiguity of the name with the
Manchester post town. Perhaps as a result of this, the ancient counties appear not to have fallen completely out of use for locating places in Greater Manchester, along with areas of Greater London that are not part of the
London post town. It is common for people to speak of "
Uxbridge, Middlesex", "
Dagenham, Essex" or "
Bromley, Kent" (which are outside the London postal district), but much less so to speak of "
Brixton, Surrey", "
Greenwich, Kent", or "
West Ham, Essex" (which are inside it). In 1996, following further local government reform and the modernisation of its sorting equipment, the Royal Mail ceased to use counties at all in the direction of mail. Instead it now uses the outward code (first half) of the postcode. The former postal counties were removed in 2000 from its
Postcode Address File database and included in an "alias file", which is used to
cross-reference details that may be added by users but are no longer required, such as former street names or historic, administrative and former postal counties. During a public consultation in 2009
Postcomm found that many respondents objected to the use of counties in the alias file. In May 2010 Postcomm announced that it was encouraging Royal Mail to discontinue the use of counties in its alias file at the earliest opportunity. However, because some existing software included the use of counties, Royal Mail was advised not to implement the change before 2013.
County cricket The historic counties of England continue to be used as the basis for
county cricket teams and the governance of
cricket in England through the
ECB County Boards. There are exceptions in that Rutland is integrated with Leicestershire; the Isle of Wight has its own board outside the Hampshire one; there is a board for the ceremonial county of Cumbria which is representative of both Cumberland and Westmorland. In addition, the ECB County Boards include one for the country of Wales.
Recognition of historic county boundaries A review of the structure of local government in England by the
Local Government Commission for England led to the restoration of the
East Riding of Yorkshire,
Herefordshire,
Rutland and
Worcestershire as administrative areas in the 1990s; the abolition of Avon, Cleveland and Humberside within 25 years of their creation; and the restoration of the traditional borders between Somerset and Gloucestershire (except at
Bristol), County Durham and Yorkshire (towards the mouth of the
River Tees; not in
Teesdale), and Yorkshire and Lincolnshire for ceremonial purposes in these areas. The case of Huntingdonshire was considered twice, but the Commission found that "there was no exceptional county allegiance to Huntingdonshire, as had been perceived in Rutland and Herefordshire". The
Association of British Counties (ABC), with its regional affiliates, such as the
Friends of Real Lancashire and the
Yorkshire Ridings Society, promotes the historic counties. It states that the
"...ABC contends that Britain needs a fixed popular geography, one divorced from the ever changing names and areas of local government...The ABC, therefore, seeks to fully re-establish the use of the historic counties as the standard popular geographical reference frame of Britain and to further encourage their use as a basis for social, sporting and cultural activities. The Campaign for Historic Counties is dedicated to campaigning, both in the public arena and among parliamentarians, for the restoration of historic counties. Their objectives are: • Maps, roads and addresses to included historic counties as standard • Removal of the word 'county' from all local council names • Historic Counties to be used for ceremonial purposes In 2013,
Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Eric Pickles formally recognised and acknowledged the continued existence of England's 39 historic counties. On 23 April 2014 a new initiative was announced to support the 'tapestry' of traditional English counties, including the removal of a restriction preventing the names of traditional counties being displayed on street and road signs. The Government is also publishing a new online interactive map of England's county boundaries. The Government has previously changed rules to allow local and county flags to be flown without planning permission, and supported the
Flag Institute in encouraging a new wave of county and community flags to be designed and flown by local communities. The flags of England's historic counties have been flown from Government offices in support of these identities. All 39 counties have registered flags, with the flag of Leicestershire the last to be adopted. In July 2019 the UK Government published official guidance on Celebrating the Historic Counties of England, stating that "the tapestry of England's historic counties is one of the bonds which draws our nation together".
Sussex and
Yorkshire, both historic counties and long abandoned as units for administrative purposes, have continued to be widely recognised as cultural regions, significant in sport and used by many organisations as regional units. These counties, and several others, have a
county day in which the culture and history of the historic county is celebrated; many of these county days were created in the 21st century. A
direct action group,
CountyWatch, was formed in 2004 to remove what its members consider to be wrongly placed county boundary signs that do not mark the historic or traditional county boundaries of England and
Wales. They have removed, resorted or erected a number of what they claim to be "wrongly sited" county boundary signs in various parts of England. For instance, in Lancashire 30 signs were removed. CountyWatch has been criticised for such actions by the councils that erected the signs:
Lancashire County Council pointed out that the taxpayers would have to pay for the signs to be re-erected. The only political party with a manifesto commitment to restore the boundaries and political functions of all ancient counties, including
Middlesex and
Monmouthshire, is the
English Democrats Party. In 2026, a bid proposing that the new unitary authority area
West Surrey, which covers the
Spelthorne area of historic Middlesex, should use the name "West Surrey and South Middlesex" was agreed by Surrey County Council. ==Functions==