Vice-county
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Watsonian vice-counties subdivide the geographical distribution of British Plants into 112 units for the purposes of biological recording and other scientific data-gathering. In 1901 Robert Lloyd Praeger introduced a similar system for Ireland. [1] [2]
The vice-counties are based on the ancient counties of Britain, but often subdividing these boundaries to create smaller, more uniform units, and considering exclaves to be part of the vice county in which they locally lie. They provide a stable basis for recording using similarly-sized units, and, although grid-based reporting has grown in popularity, they remain a standard in the vast majority of ecological surveys, allowing data collected over long periods of time to be compared easily. The vice-counties remain unchanged by subsequent local government reorganisations, allowing historical and modern data to be more accurately compared.
The vice-counties were introduced for Great Britain by Hewett Cottrell Watson who first used them in the third volume of his Cybele Britannica published in 1852.[2] He refined the system in later volumes.[2] Every vice-county in Great Britain (and the Isle of Man) has a name, and additionally, they are numbered from 1 to 112. Vice counties in Ireland are numbered from H1 to H40.[2]
List of vice-counties
Great Britain
|
Ireland
|
Vice counties listed by county
| County | Vice counties |
|---|---|
| Bedfordshire | Bedfordshire |
| Berkshire | Berkshire |
| Buckinghamshire | Buckinghamshire |
| Cambridgeshire, incorporating the Isle of Ely | Cambridgeshire |
| Cheshire | Cheshire |
| Cornwall | West Cornwall with Scilly, East Cornwall |
| Cumberland | Cumberland |
| Derbyshire | Derbyshire |
| Devon | South Devon, North Devon |
| Dorset | Dorset |
| County Durham | Durham |
| Essex | South Essex, North Essex |
| Gloucestershire | East Gloucestershire, West Gloucestershire |
| Hampshire | South Hampshire, North Hampshire, Isle of Wight |
| Herefordshire | Herefordshire |
| Hertfordshire | Hertfordshire |
| Huntingdonshire | Huntingdonshire |
| Kent | East Kent, West Kent |
| Lancashire less Furness | South Lancashire, West Lancashire |
| Leicestershire and Rutland | Leicestershire with Rutland |
| Lincolnshire | South Lincolnshire, North Lincolnshire |
| Middlesex | Middlesex |
| Norfolk | East Norfolk, West Norfolk |
| Northamptonshire, incorporating the Soke of Peterborough | Northamptonshire |
| Northumberland | South Northumberland, North Northumberland (Cheviotland) |
| Nottinghamshire | Nottinghamshire |
| Oxfordshire | Oxfordshire |
| Shropshire | Shropshire |
| Somerset | South Somerset, North Somerset |
| Staffordshire | Staffordshire |
| Suffolk | East Suffolk, West Suffolk |
| Surrey | Surrey |
| Sussex | West Sussex, East Sussex |
| Warwickshire | Warwickshire |
| Westmorland and Furness | Westmoreland with Furness |
| Wiltshire | North Wiltshire, South Wiltshire |
| Worcestershire | Worcestershire |
| Yorkshire | South-east Yorkshire, North-east Yorkshire, South-west Yorkshire, Mid-west Yorkshire, North-west Yorkshire |
| Anglesey | Anglesey |
| Brecknockshire | Brecknockshire |
| Caernarvonshire | Caernarvonshire |
| Cardiganshire | Cardiganshire |
| Carmarthenshire | Carmarthenshire |
| Denbighshire and Maelor | Denbighshire |
| Flintshire less Maelor | Flintshire |
| Glamorgan | Glamorgan |
| Merionethshire | Merionethshire |
| Monmouthshire | Monmouthshire |
| Montgomeryshire | Montgomeryshire |
| Pembrokeshire | Pembrokeshire |
| Radnorshire | Radnorshire |
| Aberdeenshire | South Aberdeenshire, North Aberdeenshire |
| Argyllshire | Main Argyll, Kintyre, Mid Ebudes, South Ebudes |
| Ayrshire | Ayrshire |
| Banffshire | Banffshire |
| Berwickshire | Berwickshire |
| Buteshire | Clyde Isles |
| Caithness | Caithness |
| Dumbartonshire | Dumbartonshire |
| Dumfriesshire | Dumfriesshire |
| Edinburghshire | Edinburghshire |
| Elginshire | Moray |
| Fife and Kinross-shire | Fife |
| Forfarshire | Angus |
| Haddingtonshire | Haddingtonshire |
| Inverness-shire and Nairnshire less Outer Hebrides | Easterness, Westerness, North Ebudes |
| Kincardineshire | Kincardineshire |
| Kirkcudbrightshire | Kirkcudbrightshire |
| Lanarkshire | Lanarkshire |
| Linlithgowshire | Linlithgowshire |
| Orkney | Orkney |
| Peeblesshire | Peeblesshire |
| Perthshire and Clackmannanshire | West Perth, Mid Perth, East Perth |
| Renfrewshire | Renfrewshire |
| Ross and Cromarty less Outer Hebrides | East Ross, West Ross |
| Roxburghshire | Roxburghshire |
| Selkirkshire | Selkirkshire |
| Stirlingshire | Stirlingshire |
| Sutherland | East Sutherland, West Sutherland |
| Wigtownshire | Wigtownshire |
| Zetland | Shetland |
See also
- Subdivisions of England
- Subdivisions of Scotland
- Subdivisions of Wales
- Subdivisions of Northern Ireland
- Counties of Ireland
References
- ^ D. A. Webb, M.R.I.A., School of Botany, Trinity College, Dublin The Biological Vice-Counties of Ireland
- ^ a b c d Peter J. Vincent (1990). "Recording species distributions". A Biogeography of the British Isles: an Introduction. Routledge. pp. 48–73. ISBN 9780415034715.
External links
- Vice-county map from the British Bryological Society
- National Biodiversity Network vice-county browser
- Interactive map which displays vice-counties alongside other boundary types
- OS grid reference to vice-county conversion utility