Ceremonial counties of England

From Free net encyclopedia

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.

1 Map
2 History
3 Definition
4 Lieutenancy areas in 1890
5 See also
6 External link

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Map

East Riding of Yorkshire

Image:EnglandCountiesCere.png

Not shown: City of London

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History

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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.

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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. [1]

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.

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