Traditional counties of England

The traditional counties of England ( Historic counties off England ) are old Subdivisions of England installation as from the 12th century. They fulfilled various functions during several centuries and are today at the origin of modern administrative divisions, with however many important modifications. The traditional counties are also known as " historiques" or " anciens".

The historical counties were replaced, by the administrative counties in 1889, then by the metropolitan counties and not-subways in 1974, altered in 1996. There exist today also counties of pageantry.

Counties

The historical counties are the following:

On the chart the Exclave S (detached territories) do not appear, except the district of Furness, left the Lancashire located at the south of the Cumberland and the Westmorland. The county of Monmouthshire was formerly condiséré like English, but he is rather regarded today as belonging to the Wales.

Denomination and abbreviations

The counties which bore names of cities often had a legal name of the " type; County de" follow-up of the name of the city. The Yorkshire, for example, were called " County of York". This use had extended even to the counties without éponyme city, like " County of Berks" for Berkshire. The modern use prefers the use of the suffix " - shire" for the counties éponymes of a city, as for those which would not have differently than a syllable. Two exceptions are to be noted: the Kent formed an old kingdom of the Jutes, therefore the word " Kentshire" used forever; the Comté of Durham was never called " Durhamshire" , undoubtedly because of its historical statute of palatine County under the crook of the bishop of Durham.

In the past, of the forms such as " Devonshire" , " Dorsetshire" and " Somersetshire" frequently met. Besides there exists always the Duc of Devonshire, that convention never calls Duc of Devon.

Current abbreviations exist for number of the counties. In the majority of the cases, they consist of a simple truncation, followed in general " s." final, like " Berks." for Berkshire or " Bucks." for Buckinghamshire. Some abbreviations are not also obvious, namely " Salop" for Shropshire, " Oxon" for Oxfordshire, " Hants" for Hampshire and " Northants" for Northamptonshire.

Origins

The first Anglo-Saxon counties ( shires ) date from the 10th century. They were controlled by a count ( Earl ). The installation of the traditional counties ( counties ) in England took form after the Conquête Norman, at the 12th century. These territorial divisions replaced old the shires and accepted administrative offices, political and legal. largest was, without question, the Yorkshire, with a surface of 3 669 510 acre S is 1 485 050 ha and the smallest Rutland, with a surface of 97 500 acres is 39 460 ha. The limits of the counties were relatively stable between the Acte of Union of 1536 and the Act on the Local governments of 1888.

England of the South

In England of the South, the counties were based on the five Saxon kingdoms of the south of the Heptarchie, and on their divisions:

the Kingdom of Kent, which gave the county of Kent;
Kingdoms of Essex and Sussex, which gave the counties of Essex and Sussex;
the Kingdom of East Anglia, subdivided between the " people of Nord" ( North Folk in English), at the origin of the Norfolk, and " people of Sud" ( South Folk ), at the origin of the Suffolk;
and the subdivisions of the Kingdom of Wessex, which, in several of zones, represented kingdoms, or other tribal, formerly independent territories and from now on annexed; for example, the Middlesex, which owes its name with the " Saxon of Milieu" ( Middle Saxon ), was one of these grounds.

Only one county of the southern part of England carried the suffix " - shire" , the Hampshire, éponyme of the old town of Hampton, today Southampton.

The Midlands

When Wessex invades the Mercie at the centuries, the territory was subdivided into various county ( shires ), baptized in general name of their chief town ( county town ) to which was added the suffix " - shire". One can quoted in examples the Northamptonshire and the Warwickshire. Some have undergoes a contraction, as it is the case of the Cheshire, at the origin " Chestershire". Rutland was a territory with irregular statute (a jurisdiction called soke in English) associated with the Nottinghamshire, then became finally the smallest county.

The Royaume of Lindsey was at the origin of the Lincolnshire, to which the territories of Kesteven and Holland were also assistant when Stamford became only the Borough (district) of the Danelaw not to be reached the statute of chief town of county ( county town ).

The border with Wales was not definitively fixed before the Acte of Union of Wales. Since, it kept this same layout. In the general census of the time of William the Conqueror, collected in the Domesday Book , the frontier counties included certain parts of what would become later Wales. Monmouth, for example, was included in the Herefordshire. In the same way, the old town of Ludlow, today in the Shropshire, belonged to Herefordshire according to the Domesday .

England of North

Most of the Northumbrie was also divided into the counties ( shires ), most known being the Hallamshire and the Cravenshire. The Normands did not use these divisions, which generally are thus not regarded as historical counties. Immense the Yorkshire succeeded the Royaume Viking of York, in 1086, the Domesday Book included there the north of the Lancashire, the Cumberland and the Westmorland. After the Conquest Norman of 1066 and the Devastation of the north of England, the territories of north remained depopulated, in general. According to the Domesday Book , the counties of North included/understood only the Cheshire and the Yorkshire; the territory corresponding to the current counties of Durham and Northumberland was not taken into account.

Cumberland, Westmorland, Lancashire, County of Durham and Northumberland were established at the 12th century. With regard to Lancashire, its formation can be fixed at 1182 with certainty. Part of the field under jurisdiction of the bishops of Durham, the Hexhamshire separate and was regarded as an independent county until 1572.

Role

From the end of bottom the Middle Ages, the county had become the geographical base of a certain number of functions. had the responsibility, on a scale it county, to control the local government and to inspect the public accounts. They were also in load of the Highways Departments, and the weights and measures. The Courts of Assizes used the counties, or their principal divisions, as bases of their organization.

Administrative subdivisions

Certain counties had principal subdivisions. Among those, most notorious were the Riding S , divisions of Yorkshire: the Riding of the East, the Riding of the West, the Riding of North and the ainsty of York. Owing to the fact that Yorkshire is so wide, its ridings was also established like geographical terms, in addition to their administrative role of origin. The second larger county, the Lincolnshire, was divided into three " parts" histories, of intermediate size enters the county and the wapentake (Hundred): the Lindsey, the Holland and the Kesteven. Other counties knew divisions like: the Kent, between Kent of the East and Kent of the West, or the Sussex, between Sussex of the East and Sussex of the West.

Several counties counted wedged free jurisdictions which were managed separately. In the Cambridgeshire was the Île of Ely and in the Nottinghamshire the Soke de Peterborough. These divisions were used by entities such as the courts of justice with quarterly sessions ( Quarter Sessions courts ) and were taken again later in administrative counties, with the load of comtaux councils.

The majority of the English counties were finally subdivided in smaller zones, the Hundred S. These cantons took the name of wapentakes in Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Rutland and Lincolnshire; of wards in the County of Durham, Cumberland, Northumberland and Westmorland.

Kent and Sussex had moreover an intermediate level between divisions major (Is and Western) and the hundreds, named Lathe S in Kent and Rape S in Sussex. Hundreds, and their equivalents, were divided into " zones of dîme" ( tithings ) and in Parish S (the only class of these divisions always in place in the British administration), themselves in their turn subdivided in Municipality S and Seigneurie S. the hundred Ossulstone in the Middlesex was still parcelled out in four under-parts at the 17th century, which replaced the hundred in his functions. The boroughs and the parishes provided the principal local services through all England until the installation of adequate councils and, later, districs of local governments.

Changes

Detachments

1889

1974

Postal counties

Restoration of the limits of the historical counties

Vice-counties

Notes and references of the article

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