| Ceremonial counties of England and shrieval counties of England | |
|---|---|
| Location | England |
| Number | 48 |
| Populations | 8,000 (City of London) to 8,167,000 (Greater London)[1] |
| Areas | 3km² to 8,611 km² |
| Densities | 62/km² to 4,806/km² |
Ceremonial counties,[2] formally known ascounties for the purposes of the lieutenancies,[3] are areas ofEngland to whichlord-lieutenants are appointed. A lord-lieutenant is themonarch's representative in an area.[4]
Shrieval counties have the same boundaries and serve a similar purpose, being the areas to whichhigh sheriffs are appointed. High sheriffs are the monarch's judicial representative in an area.[5]
The ceremonial counties are defined in theLieutenancies Act 1997, and the shrieval counties in theSheriffs Act 1887. Both are defined as groups ofcounties used for local government.
Thehistoric counties of England were originally used as areas for administering justice and organising themilitia, overseen by asheriff. FromTudor times onwards alord-lieutenant was appointed to oversee the militia, taking some of the sheriff's functions.[6]
Certain towns and cities werecounties corporate, which gave them the right to appoint their own sheriffs and hold their own courts. Whilst in theory the counties corporate could have had separate lieutenants appointed for them, in practice all of them exceptLondon shared a lieutenant with the wider county from which they had been created.[a] London had instead acommission of lieutenancy, headed by theLord Mayor.[7] The long-standing practice of appointing lieutenants jointly to the wider county and any counties corporate it contained was formalised by the Militia Act 1882.[8]
Apart from the inclusion of the counties corporate, the counties for the purposes of lieutenancy generally corresponded to the judicial counties. The exception was Yorkshire, which was one judicial county, having a singleSheriff of Yorkshire, but from 1660 onwards each of Yorkshire's threeridings had its own lieutenant.
In 1889, electedcounty councils were established under theLocal Government Act 1888, taking over the administrative functions of thequarter sessions. Certain towns and cities were madecounty boroughs, independent from the county councils. In counties where the quarter sessions had been held separately for different parts of the county, such as theParts of Lincolnshire, each part was given its own county council. The area administered by a county council was called anadministrative county. As such, some of the judicial or lieutenancy counties comprised several administrative counties and county boroughs.[9]
TheOrdnance Survey adopted the term 'geographical county' to describe the widest definition of the county. In most cases this was the lieutenancy county; the exceptions were Yorkshire, where the judicial county was larger on account of it being split into its three ridings for lieutenancy purposes, and theCounty of London where the administrative county was larger on account of the City of London and the rest of the county being separate for both judicial and lieutenancy purposes.[10]
The counties lost their judicial functions in 1972, after which the main functions of the counties were the administrative functions of local government.[11] Despite the loss of their functions, sheriffs continued to be appointed to the former judicial counties up until 1974.[12]
In 1974, administrative counties and county boroughs were abolished, and a new system ofmetropolitan andnon-metropolitan counties was introduced instead. Sheriffs were renamed 'high sheriffs' and both they and the lieutenants were appointed to the new versions of the counties.[13][14]
The counties ofAvon,Cleveland andHumberside, each of which had only been created in 1974, were all abolished in 1996. They were divided intounitary authorities; legally these are also non-metropolitan counties. As part of these reforms, it was decided to define counties for the purposes of lieutenancy differently from the local government counties in some cases, effectively reverting to the pre-1974 arrangements for lieutenancies. Whereas the lieutenancies had been defined slightly differently from the shrieval counties prior to 1974, it was decided in 1996 that the high sheriffs and lieutenants should be appointed to the same areas. Regulations amending theSheriffs Act 1887 and specifying the areas for the appointment of lieutenants were accordingly brought in with effect from 1 April 1996.[15][16]
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.[17][18] 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.[16]
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.[19]
Theshrieval counties are defined by theSheriffs Act 1887 as amended, in a similar way to the lieutenancies defined by the Lieutenancies Act 1997. Each has ahigh sheriff appointed (except the City of London, which hastwo sheriffs).
TheLieutenancies Act 1997 defines counties for the purposes of lieutenancies in terms of metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties (created by theLocal Government Act 1972, as amended) as well as Greater London and the Isles of Scilly (which lie outside the 1972 Act's system). Although the term is not used in the act, these counties are sometimes known as "ceremonial counties". The counties are defined in Schedule 1, paragraphs 2–5[3] as amended[20] (in 2009,[21] 2019[22] and 2023).[23]
Generally, each time a new non-metropolitan county is created, the 1997 Act is amended to redefine the existing areas of the lieutenancies in terms of the new areas.[note 1] No such amendment was made in 1997 when Rutland was made a unitary authority or in 1998 when Herefordshire and Worcestershire were re-established; those three therefore have been given their own lieutenants again since the passing of the 1997 Act. The actual areas of the ceremonial counties have not changed since 1998.
These are the 48 counties for the purposes of the lieutenancies in England, as currently defined:
| Location | Land area[24] | Population (2022)[24] | Density[24] | Composition[b] | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (km2) | (mi2) | (/km2) | (/mi2) | |||
| Bedfordshire | 1,235 | 477 | 715,940 | 580 | 1,500 | |
| Berkshire | 1,262 | 487 | 958,803 | 760 | 2,000 | |
| Bristol | 110 | 42 | 479,024 | 4,368 | 11,310 | Bristol |
| Buckinghamshire | 1,874 | 724 | 852,589 | 455 | 1,180 | |
| Cambridgeshire | 3,390 | 1,310 | 906,814 | 268 | 690 |
|
| Cheshire | 2,346 | 906 | 1,108,765 | 473 | 1,230 | |
| City of London[c] | 2.89 | 1.12 | 10,847 | 3,753 | 9,720 | City of London |
| Cornwall | 3,562 | 1,375 | 577,694 | 162 | 420 | |
| Cumbria | 6,768 | 2,613 | 503,033 | 74 | 190 | |
| Derbyshire | 2,625 | 1,014 | 1,066,954 | 406 | 1,050 |
|
| Devon | 6,707 | 2,590 | 1,232,660 | 184 | 480 | |
| Dorset | 2,653 | 1,024 | 785,172 | 296 | 770 | |
| Durham | 2,676 | 1,033 | 872,075 | 326 | 840 |
|
| East Riding of Yorkshire | 2,475 | 956 | 615,161 | 249 | 640 | |
| East Sussex | 1,791 | 692 | 828,685 | 463 | 1,200 |
|
| Essex | 3,664 | 1,415 | 1,877,301 | 512 | 1,330 | |
| Gloucestershire | 3,150 | 1,220 | 947,174 | 301 | 780 |
|
| Greater London | 1,569 | 606 | 8,855,333 | 5,643 | 14,620 | None (seeLondon boroughs) |
| Greater Manchester | 1,276 | 493 | 2,911,744 | 2,282 | 5,910 | Greater Manchester |
| Hampshire | 3,769 | 1,455 | 1,877,917 | 498 | 1,290 |
|
| Herefordshire | 2,180 | 840 | 188,719 | 87 | 230 | Herefordshire |
| Hertfordshire | 1,643 | 634 | 1,204,588 | 733 | 1,900 | Hertfordshire |
| Isle of Wight | 380 | 150 | 140,794 | 371 | 960 | Isle of Wight |
| Kent | 3,738 | 1,443 | 1,875,893 | 502 | 1,300 |
|
| Lancashire | 3,066 | 1,184 | 1,550,490 | 506 | 1,310 |
|
| Leicestershire | 2,156 | 832 | 1,095,554 | 508 | 1,320 |
|
| Lincolnshire | 6,977 | 2,694 | 1,103,320 | 158 | 410 |
|
| Merseyside | 652 | 252 | 1,442,081 | 2,211 | 5,730 | Merseyside |
| Norfolk | 5,384 | 2,079 | 925,299 | 172 | 450 | Norfolk |
| North Yorkshire | 8,654 | 3,341 | 1,172,860 | 136 | 350 |
|
| Northamptonshire | 2,364 | 913 | 792,421 | 335 | 870 | |
| Northumberland | 5,020 | 1,940 | 324,362 | 65 | 170 | Northumberland |
| Nottinghamshire | 2,159 | 834 | 1,163,335 | 539 | 1,400 |
|
| Oxfordshire | 2,605 | 1,006 | 738,276 | 283 | 730 | Oxfordshire |
| Rutland | 382 | 147 | 41,151 | 108 | 280 | Rutland |
| Shropshire | 3,488 | 1,347 | 516,049 | 148 | 380 | |
| Somerset | 4,170 | 1,610 | 991,615 | 238 | 620 | |
| South Yorkshire | 1,552 | 599 | 1,392,105 | 897 | 2,320 | South Yorkshire |
| Staffordshire | 2,714 | 1,048 | 1,146,249 | 422 | 1,090 |
|
| Suffolk | 3,800 | 1,500 | 768,555 | 202 | 520 | Suffolk |
| Surrey | 1,663 | 642 | 1,214,540 | 731 | 1,890 | Surrey |
| Tyne and Wear | 540 | 210 | 1,141,795 | 2,115 | 5,480 | Tyne and Wear |
| Warwickshire | 1,975 | 763 | 607,604 | 308 | 800 | Warwickshire |
| West Midlands | 902 | 348 | 2,953,816 | 3,276 | 8,480 | West Midlands |
| West Sussex | 1,991 | 769 | 892,336 | 448 | 1,160 | West Sussex |
| West Yorkshire | 2,029 | 783 | 2,378,148 | 1,172 | 3,040 | West Yorkshire |
| Wiltshire | 3,485 | 1,346 | 751,542 | 216 | 560 | |
| Worcestershire | 1,741 | 672 | 609,216 | 350 | 910 | Worcestershire |
After the creation of county councils in 1889, there were counties for judicial and shrieval purposes, counties for lieutenancy purposes, and administrative counties and county boroughs for the purposes of local government.
The 1888 Act used the term 'entire county' to refer to the group of administrative counties and county boroughs created within each judicial county.[25] The Ordnance Survey used the term 'geographical county' to refer to this wider definition of the county.[10]
Yorkshire had three lieutenancies, one for each riding, but was a single judicial county with one sheriff, and was counted as one geographical county by Ordnance Survey.[26]
The counties lost their judicial functions in 1972 under theCourts Act 1971 which abolished thequarter sessions andassizes.[11] Sheriffs continued to be appointed for each county despite the loss of the judicial functions. Certain towns and cities werecounties corporate appointing their own sheriffs. The counties corporate were all included in a wider county for lieutenancy purposes, except the City of London which had its own lieutenants.
The geographical counties were relatively stable between 1889 and 1965. There were occasional boundary changes, notably following theLocal Government Act 1894 which said that parishes and districts were no longer allowed to straddle county boundaries. After that most boundary changes were primarily to accommodate urban areas which were growing across county boundaries, such as whenCaversham was transferred fromOxfordshire toBerkshire as a result of being absorbed into theCounty Borough of Reading in 1911.
The lieutenancies and judicial / shrieval counties were defined as groups of administrative counties and county boroughs, and so were automatically adjusted if the boundaries of those administrative areas changed. There were two exceptions to this rule (one only briefly). The county borough ofGreat Yarmouth straddled Norfolk and Suffolk for judicial and lieutenancy purposes until 1891 when it was placed entirely in Norfolk for those purposes.[27] The county borough ofStockport straddled Cheshire and Lancashire for judicial and lieutenancy purposes - it was placed entirely in Lancashire for judicial purposes in 1956 but continued to straddle the two counties for lieutenancy purposes until 1974.[28][d]
More significant changes to the geographical counties were made in 1965 with the creation of Greater London and ofHuntingdon and Peterborough, which resulted in the abolition of the offices ofLord Lieutenant of Middlesex,Lord Lieutenant of the County of London, andLord Lieutenant of Huntingdonshire and the creation of theLord Lieutenant of Greater London and of theLord Lieutenant of Huntingdon and Peterborough.
| Region | |
|---|---|
| County | |
| District andcivil parish | |
