Thehistoric counties of England were mostly formed asshires or divisions of the earlierkingdoms, which gradually united by the 10th century to become England. The counties were initially used primarily for the administration of justice, overseen by asheriff. They subsequently gained other roles, notably serving asconstituencies and as areas for organising themilitia, which was the responsibility of thelord-lieutenant. The countymagistrates also gradually took on some administrative functions.
Administrative counties with 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 (outsideGreater London and theIsles of Scilly) had a two-tier structure of upper-tier county councils and lower-tier district councils, with each county being designated as either ametropolitan county or anon-metropolitan county. From 1995 onwards numerousunitary 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-tiercounty council and a number of lower-tierdistrict 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.[c]
Counties are also frequently used for non-administrative purposes, including culture, tourism and sport, with many organisations, clubs and leagues being organised on a county basis. For the purpose of sorting and delivering mail, England was divided intopostal counties until 1996; they were then abandoned byRoyal Mail in favour ofpostcodes.
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 thecounties palatine, the right to appoint sheriffs rested elsewhere; for example with theBishop of Durham forCounty Durham, and with theEarl of Chester forCheshire.[2][3]
A county's magistrates sat four times a year as thequarter sessions. For more serious cases judges visited each county twice a year for theassizes. In some larger counties the practice arose of holding the quarter sessions separately for subdivisions of the county, including theRidings ofYorkshire, theParts of Lincolnshire and theEastern andWestern divisions ofSussex. The quarter sessions were also gradually given various civil functions, such as providing asylums, maintaining main roads and bridges, and the regulation of alehouses.[4]
FromTudor times onwards alord-lieutenant was appointed to oversee the militia, taking some of the functions previously held by the sheriff.[6] Some larger towns and cities were made self-governingcounties corporate, starting withLondon inc. 1132,[d] 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. Sometimes smaller counties shared either a sheriff or lieutenant; the same person was usually appointed to be lieutenant of bothCumberland andWestmorland until 1876, whilstCambridgeshire andHuntingdonshire shared a sheriff until 1965.[8][9][10]
The counties' role as constituencies effectively ceased following theReform Act 1832 and the associatedParliamentary Boundaries Act 1832. Most counties were divided into smaller constituencies, with the group of constituencies within each county being termed the 'parliamentary county'.[11]
County boundaries were sometimes adjusted, for example by some of theInclosure Acts of the 18th and 19th centuries.[12] 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 theOrdnance 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.[13] Many counties had detachedexclaves, away from the main body of the county. Most exclaves were eliminated by boundary adjustments under theCounties (Detached Parts) Act 1844.[14]
ThePoor Law Amendment Act 1834 createdpoor law unions, which were defined as groups ofparishes 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 electedboards of guardians, and formed the basis for theregistration districts created in 1837. Each union as a whole was assigned to aregistration county, which therefore differed in places from the legal counties. The registration counties were used for census reporting from 1851 to 1911.[15] The unions also formed the basis for thesanitary districts created in 1872, which took on various local government functions.[16]
The county ofWestmorland was formed in 1227.[17] From then until 1889 there were generally agreed to be 39 counties in England, although there were someliberties such as theLiberty of Ripon which were independent from their host counties for judicial purposes. TheLaws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542 formally absorbedWales into the kingdom of England and completed its division into13 counties on the English model. Contemporary lists after that sometimes includedMonmouthshire as a 40th English county, on account of its assizes being included in theOxford circuit rather than one of theWelsh circuits.[18][19] The 39 historic counties were:[9]
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 asShire Hall, Stafford.
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. TheLocal 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.[20]
Some towns and cities were considered large enough to run their own county-level services and so were madecounty boroughs, independent from the new county councils.Urban sanitary districts which straddled county boundaries were placed entirely in one county. A newCounty of London was created covering the area which had been administered by theMetropolitan Board of Works since 1856, which covered the City of London and parts ofMiddlesex,Surrey andKent. 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.[21][22]
The area controlled by a county council was termed anadministrative 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.[23][24] In 1890 theIsle of Wight was made an administrative county whilst remaining part ofHampshire for other purposes.[25]
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 lastreviewed in 1885, by reference to the counties as they had then existed.[26] 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 nextreviewed in 1918, when they were realigned to nest within the newer versions of the counties.[27]
The 1888 Act used the term 'entire county' to refer to the wider version of the county, including any associated county boroughs or parts which had been made administrative counties.[28] The informal term 'geographical county' was also used on Ordnance Survey maps to distinguish the wider version of the county from the administrative counties.[29][30]
There were various adjustments to county boundaries after 1889. There were numerous changes following theLocal Government Act 1894, which convertedrural sanitary districts intorural districts and establishedparish 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 theremaining exclaves not addressed in 1844.[31]
The functions of county councils gradually grew. Notable expansions in their responsibilities included taking over education from the abolishedschool boards in 1902,[32] and taking over the assistance of the poor from the abolished boards of guardians in 1930.[33]
Metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties established in 1974
ALocal 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.[34]
A Royal Commission on Local Government in England was set up in 1966 and produced theRedcliffe-Maud Report in 1969, which recommended the complete redrawing of local government areas in England, replacing the existing counties and districts and having most local government functions exercised by all-purpose unitary authorities. Following the change in government at the1970 general election, the incomingConservative administration ofEdward Heath abandoned the Redcliffe-Maud proposals, having campaigned against them as part of their election manifesto.[36]
Instead, the Heath government produced theLocal 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 theGreater London Council andLondon boroughs which had been introduced in 1965). The administrative counties and county boroughs were all abolished, and the lower tier of district councils was reorganised.[37][38][39]
The Heath government also reformed the judicial functions which had been organised by geographical counties; theCourts Act 1971 abolished the quarter sessions and assizes with effect from 1972.[40][e] 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.[42]
Whilst the administrative counties and county boroughs were abolished in 1974, the wider geographical or historic counties were not explicitly abolished by the 1972 Act, albeit they were left with no administrative or ceremonial functions.[43]
Following the 1974 reforms there were 45 counties, six of which were classed as metropolitan counties, covering the larger urban areas:
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. Whilst the Heath government had rejected the more radical Radcliffe-Maud proposals, they did still make adjustments to boundaries where they concluded they were necessary to better align with functional economic areas. For example, the north-western part ofBerkshire was transferred toOxfordshire on account of being separated from the rest of Berkshire by theBerkshire Downs hills and having better connections to the city ofOxford than to Berkshire's largest town and administrative centre ofReading. Similarly,Gatwick Airport was transferred fromSurrey toWest Sussex so that it could be in the same county asCrawley, the adjoiningnew town.[44][45][46]
Four of the non-metropolitan counties established in 1974 were given names that had not previously been used for counties:Avon,Cleveland,Cumbria, andHumberside. Another was a merger of two former counties and combined both their names:Hereford and Worcester. The 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. Cumberland and Westmorland were both incorporated into Cumbria (alongside parts of Lancashire and Yorkshire). Huntingdon andPeterborough became lower-tier districts within Cambridgeshire, and Rutland was made a district of Leicestershire.[47]
The metropolitan county councils were abolished in 1986 after just 12 years in operation. The Greater London Council was abolished at the same time. The metropolitan counties and Greater London continued to legally exist as geographic areas and retained their high sheriffs and lieutenants despite the loss of their upper-tier councils. The lower-tiermetropolitan boroughs and London boroughs took on the functions of the abolished councils, with some functions (such as emergency services, civil defence and public transport) being delivered through joint committees.[48]
Furtherreform in the 1990s allowed the creation of non-metropolitan counties containing a single district, where one council performed both county and district functions. These became informally known asunitary authorities.[49] The first was the Isle of Wight, where the two districts were abolished and the county council took over their functions in 1995.[50]
In 1996, Avon, Cleveland and Humberside were abolished after just 22 years in existence. None of those three had attracted much public loyalty, and there had been campaigns to abolish them, especially in the case of Humberside.[51] Those three counties were split into unitary authorities, each of which was legally a new non-metropolitan county and a district covering the same area, with the district council also performing county functions. Rather than appoint lieutenants and high sheriffs for these new counties created in 1996, it was decided to resurrect the pre-1974 practice of defining counties for the purposes of lieutenancy and shrievalty separately from the local government counties.[52][53]
Several other unitary authorities were created between 1996 and 1998. Many of these were districts based on larger towns and cities, including several places that had been county boroughs prior to 1974. Being made unitary authorities therefore effectively restored the pre-1974 powers in such cases. Whilst these unitary authorities are legally all non-metropolitan counties, they are rarely referred to as counties other than in the context of local government law.
The pre-1974 counties of Rutland, Herefordshire and Worcestershire also regained their independence. Rutland was made a unitary authority in 1997,[54] and in 1998 Herefordshire was made a unitary authority and Worcestershire was re-established as a two-tier county.[55]Berkshire County Council was abolished in 1998 and the county's six districts became unitary authorities, but unusually the non-metropolitan county of Berkshire was not abolished. The six Berkshire unitary authorities are the only ones not to also be non-metropolitan counties.[56]
Furtherreforms in 2009 and between2019 and 2023 saw more unitary authorities created within the non-metropolitan counties. Since the most recent changes in 2023, England outside Greater London and the Isles of Scilly has been divided into 84 metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties for local government purposes. The 48 ceremonial counties used for the purposes of lieutenancy have been unchanged since 1998.
Metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties of England (from 2023)
Since the latest changes in 2023 there have been 84 counties for local government purposes, which are categorised as metropolitan or non-metropolitan counties. The non-metropolitan counties may governed by one or two tiers of councils. Those which are governed by one tier (unitary authorities) may either be governed by a county council which also performs the functions of a district, or a district council which also performs the functions of a county. The effect is the same, with only marginal differences in terminology; district councils are elected by wards, county councils byelectoral divisions. The local government counties are listed below, with the numbers corresponding to the adjoining map.[57]
There have been no county councils since 1986; these are governed by the metropolitan borough councils with some joint committees. Most now form part or all of acombined authority.
Since 2000, Greater London has had an electedAssembly andMayor responsible for strategic local government.[59] Whilst not a county in terms of local government legislation, Greater London is deemed to comprise two counties for the purposes of lieutenancy: the City of London (covering the 'square mile' at the centre of the conurbation) and a Greater London lieutenancy county covering the rest of the area, being the 32 London boroughs.[53]
Isles of Scilly
TheCouncil of the Isles of Scilly was formed in 1890 as asui generis county council.[60] It was given the "powers, duties and liabilities" of acounty council in 1930.[61] Some functions, such as health and economic development, are shared withCornwall Council. For lieutenancy purposes the islands form part of the ceremonial county of Cornwall.[42]
From 1974 to 1996 the local government counties were also used for the purposes of lieutenancy, with the exceptions that the Isles of Scilly were deemed part of Cornwall for lieutenancy purposes,[42] and Greater London was deemed to be two lieutenancy counties (the City of London and the rest of Greater London) under theAdministration of Justice Act 1964.[62]
As unitary authorities began to be created in the mid 1990s it was decided to define counties for the purposes of lieutenancy differently from the local government counties in some cases. This was effectively reverting to the pre-1974 approach, when lieutenancy areas had covered multiple county boroughs and administrative counties. Regulations came into effect in 1996 introducing a new definition of the counties for lieutenancy purposes, being either the local government counties or specified groups of them. On the abolition of Avon, Cleveland and Humberside in 1996 the regulations split the area of Avon for the purposes of lieutenancy between Gloucestershire, Somerset and Bristol (a change from the pre-1974 position when Bristol had been part of the Gloucestershire lieutenancy). Cleveland was split between North Yorkshire and County Durham, and Humberside was split between Lincolnshire and a new 'East Riding of Yorkshire' lieutenancy county.[52]
The regulations were then consolidated into theLieutenancies Act 1997. When Herefordshire, Rutland and Worcestershire were re-established as local government counties in 1997 and 1998 no amendment was made to the 1997 Act regarding them, allowing them to also serve as their own lieutenancy areas.[55][54] The lieutenancy counties have not changed in area since 1998, although the definitions of which local government counties are included in each lieutenancy have been amended to reflect new unitary authorities being created since 1997.[53]
In legislation the lieutenancy areas are described as 'counties for the purposes of the lieutenancies'; the informal term 'ceremonial county' has come into usage for such areas, appearing in parliamentary debates as early as 1996.[63] Since the adoption of different definitions of the counties for local government and lieutenancy purposes in 1996 there have been a growing number of instances where a local government county shares a name with a larger ceremonial county. For example the local government (non-metropolitan) county of Gloucestershire is the area administered byGloucestershire County Council, but the ceremonial county of Gloucestershire additionally includes the unitary authority of South Gloucestershire.[52]
The ceremonial counties and their definitions by reference to local government areas (metropolitan counties, non-metropolitan counties, Greater London and the Isles of Scilly) are as follows:[53]
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 theCollege of Arms forcoats of arms, often incorporating traditional symbols associated with the county. This practice continued as new county councils were created in 1965 and 1974. Such armorial bearings were granted to the council rather than the geographic area of the counties themselves. Some have therefore become obsolete if the council they were granted to no longer exists. A recentseries 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.[64][65]
TheRoyal Mail has always required postal addresses to include the name of certain towns, known aspost towns, to assist with efficiently directing the mail.[68] Historically they also required the name of the county in which that post town lay to be included as part of the address (except in some cases where the county name was considered superfluous, for example because the county took its name from the post town). 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 ofEaston on the Hill inNorthamptonshire had to includeStamford, Lincolnshire in its address. The postal counties therefore included the same set of towns as the geographical counties, but had quite different boundaries.[69]
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 intoNorth Humberside andSouth Humberside.[70]
The use of postal counties was abandoned by the Royal Mail in 1996 afterpostcodes had become sufficiently well-established.
^abcThe metropolitan county councils wereabolished in 1986 and their powers transferred to themetropolitan boroughs, but the counties themselves were not abolished.Unitary authorities hold the status of a combined non-metropolitan county and district. The exception isBerkshire where the county council was abolished and its powers transferred to new unitary authorities, but its districts were not granted the status of non-metropolitan counties, thus retaining the Royal County of Berkshire. Greater London was designated an 'administrative area' rather than a county under theLondon Government Act 1963, although it does contain the two ceremonial counties ofGreater London and theCity of London.
^Each ceremonial county except two (Cheshire andCumbria) shares its name with a metropolitan or non-metropolitan county. All 6 metropolitan counties and 13 of the non-metropolitan counties cover the same areas as the corresponding ceremonial counties. But 22 of the ceremonial counties cover larger areas than the eponymous non-metropolitan counties, because parts of the wider counties are served by separateunitary authorities.
^The charter ofHenry 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.[7]
^Despite the name,county courts were not arranged by counties but by separately defined county court districts.[41]
^Like most unitary authorities, Durham is legally a non-metropolitan county and a district covering the same area, with just one council. Unusually, they have different names; the county is just called 'Durham' but the district is called 'County Durham' (which is how the area is often described in everyday language, to distinguish it from the city ofDurham). There is no district council, withDurham County Council serving as unitary authority. The ceremonial county is also legally just called 'Durham'.
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