Traditional counties of England
The traditional Counties (or historic Counties) of England are historical and geographical subdivisions.Advocates of the historic Counties maintain that the counties are entities too important for laws simply to redefine, and furthermore point out that in 1974 at the time of the creation of the administrative counties -- which is what are described above -- the government specifically stated that the traditional counties are not abolished: "The new county boundaries are administrative areas, and will not alter the traditional boundaries of counties, nor is it intended that the loyalties of people living in them will change, despite the different names adopted by the new administrative counties".
Critics point out that no such disclaimer was included in previous reorganisations, and so if historic counties are a real existing entity, the Counties of London, and East and West Sussex must be included in this definition. Further, they point out that this (and subsequent assurances) was merely a government statement, and thus had no legal effect at all. The actual legislation doesn't use the term 'administrative counties', and just repealed and amended counties.
The loyalties of some people have not changed, and advocates of historic counties state that there are many examples of towns and villages which have stated unequivocably their presence in their historic County. However, some critics have also claimed that this is not the situation in all cases - pointing especially to the metropolitan counties such as West Midlands and Greater Manchester - people within the urban area have much more in common with each other than they do with those in the rump county. Certainly most councils quote their address as being in the adminstrative county.
Given the frequent rejection of the historic counties as real existing things, many societies and lobby groups have been formed in their defence. These include Yorkshire's White Rose Society, the Campaign for real Warwickshire, and the Huntingdonshire Society. The campaigns for Rutland and Herefordshire to be made once more administrative counties did succeed and these areas were made independent of Leicestershire and Worcestershire.
See also: Administrative counties of England, Ceremonial counties of England, Subdivisions of England, Traditional counties of Wales, Traditional counties of Scotland.
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2 Subdivisions 3 External link |
Note: in addition to errors in the traditional counties of Scotland as shown on this map, it incorrectly omits Bristol.
Some of the traditional counties have subdivisions:
Traditional counties
Subdivisions
External link
