In the USA, geography is quite simple: the country is divided into 50 states, which are further sub-divided into 3,142 counties (or parishes, or other county equivalents ). Like US states, England is also sub-divided into counties... but, unfortunately, our system is a lot more complicated. In fact, due to a bunch of historical quirks, there are three contradictory county maps of England in common use today !
I had been thinking of creating a topic about this for a while. And, now that the Map Men have made a video about the subject, I decided that now was the time to do it:
To summarise, over the past 1,000 or so years, England has had the following sets of counties:
So yeah, it's all a bit of a mess . These days, the ceremonial county map is the one in most common everyday use - and this forms the basis of most people's geographical intuitions. However, there are still people who identify with the historic counties - particularly in those places where the historic county map differs from the ceremonial one . For example, if you look at a packet of Eccles cakes, you'll see that the packaging describes them as "Real Lancashire Eccles Cakes". However, the town of Eccles is only in Lancashire if you're using the historic county map: it's in the ceremonial county (and metropolitan county) of Greater Manchester.
I get the sense that this thread will have raised more questions than answers - so, if you have any questions, then go ahead and ask !
I had been thinking of creating a topic about this for a while. And, now that the Map Men have made a video about the subject, I decided that now was the time to do it:
To summarise, over the past 1,000 or so years, England has had the following sets of counties:
- Historic counties - These were the original counties created for local administration by the Normans. They haven't actually served this purpose for over a century now; however, they do officially still exist on paper (and each one has its own flag ).
- Postal counties (obsolete) - Sub-divisions used by the Royal Mail, to differentiate between similarly-named towns in different parts of the country. As of 1996, these are no longer used (having been replaced by postcodes).
- Administrative counties (obsolete) - The county borders used for local administration from between 1889 and 1974. These were based on the historic counties; however, if a county contained a major city, then this tended to be split off from the rest of the country, and administered separately. In 1974, these were abolished, and replaced by...
- Metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties - By the 20th century, the historic counties no longer reflected the geographical reality on the ground - and even some of the 1889 administrative borders were quite outdated. Some large cities had sprung up - and they straddled the borders of multiple counties (for example, Liverpool's urban area was split between Cheshire and Lancashire). In 1974, a bunch of new 'metropolitan counties' were created, centred on these cities (for example, Liverpool and the surrounding towns became the new metropolitan county of Merseyside). The rest of the country was split into "non-metropolitan counties", which replaced the administrative counties of 1889.
- Ceremonial counties - A sort of 'updated' version of the historic counties map, which includes the metropolitan counties (plus a few other changes here and there). These don't play any role in local government; however, each one does appoint its own "Lord-Lieutenant": a largely ceremonial post which represents the reigning monarch within the county.
So yeah, it's all a bit of a mess . These days, the ceremonial county map is the one in most common everyday use - and this forms the basis of most people's geographical intuitions. However, there are still people who identify with the historic counties - particularly in those places where the historic county map differs from the ceremonial one . For example, if you look at a packet of Eccles cakes, you'll see that the packaging describes them as "Real Lancashire Eccles Cakes". However, the town of Eccles is only in Lancashire if you're using the historic county map: it's in the ceremonial county (and metropolitan county) of Greater Manchester.
I get the sense that this thread will have raised more questions than answers - so, if you have any questions, then go ahead and ask !
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