Administrative counties of England
The administrative counties of England ( English administrative counties ) were local and regional administrative units . They came into being in 1888, were administered by a county council and replaced the traditional counties of England that had existed until then . They were replaced in 1974 by a division into Metropolitan Counties and Non-Metropolitan Counties, which in turn have been partially replaced by Unitary Authorities since 1996 . Counties with a real administrative function, which are officially no longer referred to as Administrative Counties , are today the remaining Non-Metropolitan Counties and most of the Unitary Authorities.
The administrative counties in England from 1888 to 1974
The English administrative structure from 1888 to 1965
In 1888, the government, under the leadership of Prime Minister Marquess of Salisbury, fundamentally changed the administrative structure in England and Wales . The previous division of counties was changed and county councils were set up in the newly established administrative counties. The county boroughs were not affected by the new zoning in administrative counties .
The layout of the traditional counties of Cambridgeshire , Lincolnshire , Northamptonshire , Suffolk , Sussex and Yorkshire has been changed by splitting them into new administrative counties ; these were based on the already existing division of the Court of Quarter Sessions . In addition, the County of London was created, which included those boroughs that are now referred to as Inner London . The Isle of Wight initially belonged to the administrative county of Hampshire , but received its own county council in 1890.
In 1894 a uniform two-tier system was created: the administrative counties were on the upper tier, and the second tier was divided into urban districts , rural districts and municipal boroughs . The county boroughs are not listed as separate administrative units on the map below . The resulting system was the basis for the Ceremonial Counties , which was created for the sake of the Lord Lieutenancy . Here, however, Cambridgeshire, Hampshire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Suffolk and Sussex were not divided.
Administrative Counties of England 1890–1965
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With increasing urbanization and the expansion of the suburbs , more and more areas that had previously belonged to one county extended into the area of another. But because boroughs , urban districts and parishes could not go beyond the boundaries of a county, the boundaries of the administrative counties were changed several times in the following period.
Examples:
- Beauchief , Dore , Norton , Totley in Derbyshire came to Sheffield in the West Riding of Yorkshire in 1935
- Caversham in Oxfordshire joined Reading in Berkshire in 1911
- Little Bowden in Northamptonshire came to Market Harborough , Leicestershire
- Half of Tamworth , Staffordshire was formerly Warwickshire
- Winshill in Derbyshire came to Burton-upon-Trent
The administrative counties from 1965 to 1974
In 1965 the County of London was dissolved and merged into Greater London . Was also dissolved Middlesex , the rose almost completely in Greater London, the residue was counties Surrey and Hertfordshire assigned.
Some other administrative counties were also changed. The Soke of Peterborough and Huntingdonshire were combined to form Huntingdon and Peterborough and Cambridgeshire was merged with the Isle of Ely .
The following map shows the boundaries of the county boroughs .
Administrative Counties of England from 1965 to 1974
- Northumberland
- Durham
- Westmorland
- Cumberland
- Lancashire
- West Riding of Yorkshire
- North Riding of Yorkshire
- East Riding of Yorkshire
- Lindsey
- Holland
- Kesteven
- Nottinghamshire
- Derbyshire
- Cheshire
- Shropshire
- Staffordshire
- Warwickshire
- Leicestershire
- Rutland
- Northamptonshire
- Huntingdon and Peterborough
- Cambridgeshire and Isle of Ely
- Norfolk
- East Suffolk
- West Suffolk
- Essex
- Hertfordshire
- Bedfordshire
- Buckinghamshire
- Oxfordshire
- Gloucestershire
- Worcestershire
- Herefordshire
- Wiltshire
- Berkshire
- Greater London
- Kent
- East Sussex
- West Sussex
- Surrey
- Hampshire
- Isle of Wight
- Dorset
- Somerset
- Devon
- Cornwall
The English administrative structure from 1974 to 1995
In the late 1960s it became apparent that the structure of local government was in need of reform. The Labor government under Harold Wilson set up a commission to reform the administrative structure.
The report prepared by the Commission proposed the abolition of two-tier management. Instead, 59 unitary authorities should be created, the layout of which should completely ignore the previous borders of the administrative areas and were based on geographic conditions. In the metropolitan areas of Merseyside, South East Lancashire and North East Cheshire as well as around Birmingham three metropolitan areas with 20 district administrations were to be established.
The Conservatives, led by Edward Heath , turned against this reform proposal . After they won the 1970 elections, they drew up their own administrative scheme. The concept of unitary authorities was rejected; rather, the entire area of England and Wales should be divided into administrative counties and districts in a two-tier system. In England, the proposed redesign of the counties was based on the existing ones, but also included some fundamental changes.
Despite assurances that traditional counties would not formally be abolished and no one would be expected to change their loyalty as a result of the proposed territorial reform, the plan met with considerable resistance from the counties. As a result, most of the fundamental changes have been removed. On the question of the amalgamation of small counties, however, the government was adamant; Initiatives to keep Rutland and Herefordshire unsuccessful.
The administrative reform was implemented by the Local Government Act 1972 , which came into force on April 1, 1974. This law regulated the counties and metropolitan districts, while a commission was set up to shape the non-metropolitan districts.
The main point was the creation of the Metropolitan Counties :
- Merseyside - the area around Liverpool , southwest Lancashire , and the Wirral area in northwest Cheshire across the River Mersey
- Greater Manchester - the conurbation Manchester and its surrounding towns
- South Yorkshire - mainly the area around Sheffield and Rotherham in the West Riding of Yorkshire
- Tyne and Wear - the metropolitan area around Newcastle-upon-Tyne in Northumberland with Sunderland in County Durham
- West Midlands - The Birmingham metropolitan area includes Black Country and Coventry
- West Yorkshire - the area around Leeds and Bradford in the West Riding of Yorkshire
Other significant changes:
- New counties
- Avon from parts of northern Somerset , southern Gloucestershire and the cities of Bristol and Bath
- Cleveland , consisting of southern Durham and northern parts of the North Riding of Yorkshire
- Cumbria from counties Westmorland and Cumberland and parts of Lancashire and Yorkshire
- Hereford and Worcester from the counties of Herefordshire and Worcestershire
- Humberside from the East Riding of Yorkshire and north Lincolnshire
- Further changes
- Huntingdon and Peterborough came to Cambridgeshire
- Rutland became a district of Leicestershire
- The District Vale of White Horse came to Oxfordshire from Berkshire
In 1986, the Margaret Thatcher government abolished county councils in metropolitan counties. These were preserved as such; The Metropolitan Boroughs have been performing their administrative tasks since then .
Metropolitan and Non-Metropolitan Counties of England from 1974 to 1996
- Northumberland
- Tyne and Wear
- County Durham
- Cleveland
- North Yorkshire
- Cumbria
- Lancashire
- Merseyside
- Greater Manchester
- West Yorkshire
- South Yorkshire
- Humberside
- Lincolnshire
- Nottinghamshire
- Derbyshire
- Cheshire
- Shropshire
- Staffordshire
- West Midlands
- Warwickshire
- Leicestershire
- Northamptonshire
- Cambridgeshire
- Norfolk
- Suffolk
- Essex
- Hertfordshire
- Bedfordshire
- Buckinghamshire
- Oxfordshire
- Gloucestershire
- Hereford and Worcester
- Avon
- Wiltshire
- Berkshire
- Greater London 1
- Kent
- East Sussex
- West Sussex
- Surrey
- Hampshire
- Isle of Wight
- Dorset
- Somerset
- Devon
- Cornwall
Administrative and territorial reforms between 1995 and 2020
In the 1990s, the county boroughs , which were abolished with the 1974 local government reform, were reintroduced in the form of the Unitary Authorities . As a result, the administrative landscape changed considerably in several steps:
On April 1, 1995, the Isle of Wight became a Unitary Authority. Until then, there was a two-tier system consisting of the Isle of Wight County Council and the Boroughs of Medina and South Wight . At the same time, two small areas of Surrey and Buckinghamshire came to Berkshire , which has since bordered Greater London .
On April 1, 1996, the 1974 newly formed counties of Avon , Humberside and Cleveland were abolished. Their previous districts became unitary authorities. At the same time, the area of the City of York was expanded, made a unitary authority and administratively detached from North Yorkshire .
On April 1, 1997, the districts of Bournemouth , Darlington , Derby , Leicester , Luton , Milton Keynes , Poole , Portsmouth , Rutland and Southampton became Unitary Authorities. The districts of Brighton and Hove were combined to form the new Brighton and Hove Unitary Authority .
On April 1, 1998, the districts of Blackpool , Blackburn with Darwen , Halton , Medway , Nottingham , Peterborough , Plymouth , Swindon , Stoke-on-Trent , Southend-on-Sea , Telford and Wrekin , Torbay , Thurrock and Warrington became Unitary Authorities . Hereford and Worcester was dissolved and replaced by the Unitary Authority of Herefordshire and the county of Worcestershire . Berkshire was divided into six Unitary Authorities and its county council was abolished, but it was formally dissolved as a county.
2000, the administrative organization of was Greater London with the establishment of the Greater London Authority revised.
On April 1, 2009, the old districts were abolished in Bedfordshire , Cheshire , Cornwall , Durham , Northumberland , Shropshire and Wiltshire and Unitary Authorities were established across the board, so that there is now only a single-level administrative division in these counties.
On April 1, 2019, the old districts in Dorset were repealed and Unitary Authorities were established across the board. At the same time, several districts were merged in Somerset and Suffolk .
Buckinghamshire Unitary Authority was formed on April 1, 2020 when the districts of Aylesbury Vale , Chiltern , South Bucks and Wycombe merged.
The administrative structure of England since 2020
Non-Metropolitan Counties
The non-metropolitan counties in England have a county council and are divided into districts . A common name for these counties is Shire Counties , although the ending -shire does not appear in all names. As of 2020 there are 25 non-metropolitan counties in England:
Sometimes Berkshire is also counted among the non-metropolitan counties. Berkshire has no administration at the county level and is divided into six Unitary Authorities, but they do not have county status.
Metropolitan Counties
Since the abolition of the Metropolitan County Councils in 1986, the six Metropolitan Counties are no longer administrative counties in the strict sense and are subdivided into Metropolitan Boroughs .
| Surname | Metropolitan Boroughs |
|---|---|
| Greater Manchester | Manchester , Bolton , Bury , Oldham , Rochdale , Salford , Stockport , Tameside , Trafford , Wigan |
| Merseyside | Liverpool , Knowsley , Sefton , St Helens , Wirral |
| South Yorkshire | Sheffield , Barnsley , Doncaster , Rotherham |
| Tyne and Wear | Newcastle-upon-Tyne , Gateshead , South Tyneside , North Tyneside , Sunderland |
| West Midlands | Birmingham , Coventry , Dudley , Sandwell , Solihull , Walsall , Wolverhampton |
| West Yorkshire | Leeds , Bradford , Calderdale , Kirklees , Wakefield |
Unitary Authorities
Unitary Authorities are administrative units in which the tasks of a non-metropolitan county and a district are combined in one local authority. In England there are 50 unitary authorities with county status:
Bath and North East Somerset , Bedford , Blackburn with Darwen , Blackpool , Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole , Brighton and Hove , Bristol , Buckinghamshire , Central Bedfordshire , Cheshire East , Cheshire West and Chester , Cornwall , Dorset , County Durham , County of Herefordshire , Derby , Darlington , East Riding of Yorkshire , Halton , Hartlepool , Isle of Wight , Kingston upon Hull , Leicester , Luton , Medway , Middlesbrough , Milton Keynes , North East Lincolnshire , North Lincolnshire , North Somerset , Northumberland , Nottingham , Peterborough , Plymouth , Portsmouth , Redcar and Cleveland , Rutland , Shropshire , Southampton , Southend-on-Sea , South Gloucestershire , Stockton , Stoke-on-Trent , Swindon , Telford and Wrekin , Thurrock , Torbay , Warrington , Wiltshire and York
The six districts in Berkshire ( West Berkshire , Reading , Wokingham , Bracknell Forest , Windsor and Maidenhead and Slough ) and the Isles of Scilly are also Unitary Authorities, but do not have county status.
Web links
- United Kingdom: Counties and Unitary Authorities. (PDF; 3.5 MB) Office for National Statistics, 2011, accessed January 1, 2013 (overview map).
Individual evidence
- ^ Local Government Law. Law on the web, 2012, archived from the original on February 16, 2013 ; accessed on January 1, 2013 .
