Administrative county (England)
The administrative counties as they were when abolished in 1974
Category	Administrative county
Location	England
Found in	County
Created by	Local Government Act 1888
Created	1889
Abolished by	Local Government Act 1972
Abolished	1974
Populations	25,000–4.2 million
Government	County council
Subdivisions	Rural district Urban district Municipal borough

Administrative counties weresubnational divisions of England used forlocal government from 1889 to 1974. They were created by theLocal Government Act 1888 (51 & 52 Vict. c. 41), which established an electedcounty council for each area. Some geographically largehistoric counties were divided into several administrative counties, each with its own county council. The administrative counties operated until 1974, when they were replaced by a system ofmetropolitan and non-metropolitan counties under theLocal Government Act 1972.

In 1888 the government, led by the Tory prime ministerLord Salisbury establishedcounty councils throughoutEngland and Wales, covering areas known asadministrative counties. Many larger towns and cities were given the status ofcounty borough, with similar powers and independent of county council control. Under the Act, each county borough was an "administrative county of itself".

Cambridgeshire,Lincolnshire,Northamptonshire,Suffolk,Sussex, andYorkshire were split up for administrative purposes, following historical divisions used by the Courts ofQuarter Sessions.

Additionally there was aCounty of London which covered the area today known asInner London. TheIsle of Wight was previously administered as part ofHampshire but became its own administrative county in 1890.^[1]

In 1894 a uniform two-tier system was established outside the county boroughs and London, with subdivisions of the administrative counties calledurban districts,rural districts andmunicipal boroughs. The structure was complete once the County of London was divided intometropolitan boroughs in 1900.

Mostexclaves of counties were eliminated under theCounties (Detached Parts) Act 1844, but in1894 county councils were given the power to adjust county boundaries, and most of the remaining anomalies were removed in the next few years. For example, theMeasham area ofDerbyshire was transferred toLeicestershire in 1897.

The map shows the counties and the county boroughs. When a county borough expanded into territory of a county that was not the one it came from, maps sometimes showed this as an increase in size of the county which the county borough was associated with.

Monmouthshire, not shown on the map, was reckoned for some legal purposes among the English counties for most of this period.

The 1888 Act did not contain a list of administrative counties: it was not until 1933 and the passing of a newLocal Government Act that they were enumerated in the Act's schedule. Unlike the 1888 Act, the 1933 Act did not include county boroughs as administrative counties.

In legislation and formal documents the suffix "shire" was generally not used: for example, Bedfordshire was referred to as "the administrative county of Bedford" and the Northamptonshire council as the "county council of Northampton". In the case of Lancashire and Cheshire the councils were officially the "county council of the palatine county". Shropshire was always officially entitled the "county of Salop". The right ofBerkshire to be described as a "royal county" was recognised by the monarch in 1958. On 1 April 1959 the administrative county of Southampton was renamed as Hampshire.

This system was the basis of theceremonial counties used for Lieutenancy – except that Cambridgeshire, Hampshire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Suffolk and Sussex were not split for Lieutenancy. (Yorkshire, however, was).

The table lists the area and population of each administrative county at the censuses of 1891 and 1961.^[2][3]

Several county councils had administrative headquarters outside of their area. This was usually because the traditionalcounty town was a county borough. The headquarters of Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire county councils were moved from the county boroughs to locations within their respective administrative counties.

The boundaries of the administrative counties changed considerably over time. The reasons for this were threefold: the growth of towns on either side of an existing boundary, the creation and extension of county boroughs and the elimination of outlying exclaves and other anomalies.

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. TheLocal Government Act 1888 (51 & 52 Vict. c. 41) provided that in the case that anurban sanitary district crossed a county border, the entire district would be considered part of the county in which the larger part was. This condition was maintained with the expansion ofurban districts andmunicipal boroughs.

Towns that were split by historic borders and were unified in one administrative county includeBanbury,Mossley,Tamworth,Todmorden.

Urban districts to annexe areas in another counties include:

• Little Bowden in Northamptonshire, annexed byMarket Harborough, Leicestershire
• Mellor andLudworth, inDerbyshire, annexed byMarple in Cheshire (and now inGreater Manchester)

Additionally, the territory and population of administrative counties was reduced by the increasing numbers ofcounty boroughs, and extensions thereof. This was recognised as a problem, and the process of creation and enlargement of such boroughs was made more difficult by theLocal Government (County Boroughs and Adjustments) Act 1926. By June 1970 25% of the population were within the county boroughs.^[5]

On creation, many of the administrative counties had a number ofexclaves. During the 1890s most of these were eliminated, with parishes being exchanged between counties. The boundaries of Gloucestershire, Worcestershire and Wiltshire contained numerous enclaves and exclaves, and were realigned in 1931.

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 abolished, and replaced byGreater London, asui generis council area, taking the three of the surrounding county boroughs, more ofSurrey andKent, parts ofEssex andHertfordshire and consuming nearly all ofMiddlesex – the remaining parts being ceded to Surrey and Hertfordshire. Some other changes took place, such as theSoke of Peterborough andHuntingdonshire being merged intoHuntingdon and Peterborough, and the merger of the originalCambridgeshire with theIsle of Ely to formCambridgeshire and Isle of Ely.

The map shows the counties and county boroughs just prior to their abolition in 1974.

In 1974 the administrative counties were abolished by theLocal Government Act 1972 and replaced with themetropolitan and non-metropolitan counties of England.

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