About Opentopia
Opentopia Directory Encyclopedia Tools

Ceremonial counties of England

Encyclopedia : C : CE : CER : Ceremonial counties of England

The Ceremonial counties of England are areas of England that are appointed a Lord-Lieutenant, and are defined by the government with reference to the metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties of England. They are also often used in a geographic reference frame, and in this capacity are sometimes called geographic counties.

Contents

Map

  1. Northumberland
  2. Tyne and Wear
  3. County Durham
  4. Cumbria
  5. Lancashire
  6. North Yorkshire
  7. East Riding of Yorkshire
  8. South Yorkshire
  9. West Yorkshire
  10. Greater Manchester
  11. Merseyside
  12. Cheshire
  13. Derbyshire
  14. Nottinghamshire
  15. Lincolnshire
  16. Rutland
  17. Leicestershire
  18. Staffordshire
  19. Shropshire
  20. Herefordshire
  21. Worcestershire
  22. West Midlands
  23. Warwickshire

  1. Northamptonshire
  2. Cambridgeshire
  3. Norfolk
  4. Suffolk
  5. Essex
  6. Hertfordshire
  7. Bedfordshire
  8. Buckinghamshire
  9. Oxfordshire
  10. Gloucestershire
  11. Bristol
  12. Somerset
  13. Wiltshire
  14. Berkshire
  15. Greater London
  16. Kent
  17. East Sussex
  18. West Sussex
  19. Surrey
  20. Hampshire
  21. Isle of Wight
  22. Dorset
  23. Devon
  24. Cornwall
EnglandCountiesCere.png
Not shown: City of London

History

Ceremonial counties before the creation of Greater London in 1965 (excluding Bristol and the City of London).
Enlarge
Ceremonial counties before the creation of Greater London in 1965 (excluding Bristol and the City of London).

After the 1889 establishment of county councils and county boroughs, by the Local Government Act 1888, the Lieutenancy was varied from its earlier basis (based in large part on the traditional counties, although there were differences, as for example Bristol had had a Lord-Lieutenant for centuries).

The Act established that areas that were part of an administrative county would be part of the county for all ceremonial purposes, and also made the whole of county boroughs part of that county. The distinction between these counties and the ones used for lieutenancy before 1889 is usually subtle; but can be noted in the encroachment of towns across county borders. For example, the traditional county border between Oxfordshire and Northamptonshire follows the River Cherwell through the middle of Banbury - it was included entirely in the administrative county of Oxfordshire by the Act, and so became part of the Oxfordshire lieutenancy area. The largest difference was the existence of the County of London, which covered parts of the historic counties of Middlesex, Kent and Surrey.

Areas that were subdivided were retained as a single ceremonial county. For example, The administrative counties of East Suffolk and West Suffolk were considered to make up a single ceremonial county of Suffolk, and the administrative county of the Isle of Wight was part of the ceremonial county of Hampshire.

The term ceremonial county for these entities is an anachronism - at the time they were shown on Ordnance Survey maps by the name 'counties' or 'geographic counties', and were referred to in the Local Government Act 1888 as simply 'counties'.

Apart from minor boundary revisions (for example, Caversham, a town in Oxfordshire, becoming part of Reading county borough and thus of Berkshire, in 1911), these areas changed little until the 1965 creation of Greater London and Huntingdon and Peterborough, which resulted in the abolition of the offices of Lord Lieutenant of Middlesex, Lord Lieutenant of the County of London and Lord Lieutenant of Huntingdonshire and the creation of the Lord Lieutenant of Greater London and Lord Lieutenant of Huntingdon and Peterborough.

Ceremonial counties from 1974 to 1996 (City of London not shown)
Enlarge
Ceremonial counties from 1974 to 1996 (City of London not shown)

In 1974, administrative counties and county boroughs were abolished, and a major reform took place. At this time, Lieutenancy was redefined to use the new metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties directly.

Following the 1990s local government reforms, Avon, Cleveland, Hereford and Worcester, and Humberside were abolished. This led to a resurrection of a distinction between the local government counties and the ceremonial or geographic counties used for Lieutenancy, and also to the adoption of the term 'ceremonial counties', which although not used in statute was used in the House of Commons prior to the arrangements coming into effect. [link]

Avon was mostly split between Gloucestershire and Somerset, with Bristol regaining its status of a county of itself. Cleveland was partitioned between North Yorkshire and County Durham. Hereford and Worcester was split into Herefordshire and Worcestershire. Humberside was split between a new ceremonial county of East Riding of Yorkshire, with the remaining parts going to Lincolnshire. Also at this time, Rutland was restored as a ceremonial county. Many county boroughs were re-established as 'unitary authorities'.

Most ceremonial counties are therefore defined today as groups of local authority areas; the same situation as prevailed between 1889 and 1974. The Association of British Counties, a traditional counties lobbying group, have suggested that the ceremonial counties could be restored to their ancient boundaries, or as near as is practicable.

Definition

The Lieutenancies Act 1997 defines the "ceremonial counties" in terms of local government areas created by the Local Government Act 1972 as amended. Schedule 1, paragraphs 2—5 defines them as:

Lieutenancy areas in 1890

See also

External link

United Kingdom | England | Ceremonial counties of England

Counties of the Lieutenancies Act 1997

Bedfordshire | Berkshire | City of Bristol | Buckinghamshire | Cambridgeshire | Cheshire | Cornwall | Cumbria | Derbyshire | Devon | Dorset | Durham | East Riding of Yorkshire | East Sussex | Essex | Gloucestershire | Greater London | Greater Manchester | Hampshire | Herefordshire | Hertfordshire | Isle of Wight | Kent | Lancashire | Leicestershire | Lincolnshire | City of London | Merseyside | Norfolk | Northamptonshire | Northumberland | North Yorkshire | Nottinghamshire | Oxfordshire | Rutland | Shropshire | Somerset | South Yorkshire | Staffordshire | Suffolk | Surrey | Tyne and Wear | Warwickshire | West Midlands | West Sussex | West Yorkshire | Wiltshire | Worcestershire


Lists of English counties
All counties; By area By population By population density By highest point
Ceremonial counties; By area By population By population density
Non-metropolitan counties; By area By population By population density

 

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.

Search Titles
0123456789
ABCDEFGHIJ
KLMNOPQRST
UVWXYZ?

E-mail this article to:

Personal Message: