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Ceremonial counties of England

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Not to be confused with the historic counties of England.

Counties and areas for the
purposes of the lieutenancies
  • Also known as:
  • ceremonial counties
    lieutenancy areas
CategoryLieutenancy areas
LocationEngland
Number48
Populations8,000–8,167,000[1]
Areas3–8,611 km²
Densities62–4,806/km²

The counties and areas for the purposes of the lieutenancies, also referred to as the lieutenancy areas of England[2] and informally known as ceremonial counties,[3] are areas of England to which lords-lieutenant are appointed. Legally, the areas in England, as well as in Wales and Scotland, are defined by the Lieutenancies Act 1997 as "counties and areas for the purposes of the lieutenancies in Great Britain", in contrast to the areas used for local government. They are also informally known as "geographic counties",[4] to distinguish them from other types of counties of England.

History

Ceremonial counties before the creation of Greater London in 1965 (depicting each county corporate as part of its main county)

The distinction between a county for purposes of the lieutenancy and a county for administrative purposes is not a new one; in some cases, a county corporate that was part of a county appointed its own lieutenant (although the lieutenant of the containing county would often be appointed to this position, as well), and the three Ridings of Yorkshire had been treated as three counties for lieutenancy purposes since the 17th century.

The Local Government Act 1888 established county councils to assume the administrative functions of Quarter Sessions in the counties. It created new entities called "administrative counties".[5] An administrative county comprised all of the county apart from the county boroughs; also, some traditional subdivisions of counties were constituted administrative counties, for instance the Soke of Peterborough in Northamptonshire and the Isle of Ely in Cambridgeshire. The act further stipulated that areas that were part of an administrative county would be part of the county for all purposes. The greatest change was the creation of the County of London, which was made both an administrative county and a "county"; it included parts of the historic counties of Middlesex, Kent, and Surrey. Other differences were small and resulted from the constraint that urban sanitary districts (and later urban districts and municipal boroughs) were not permitted to straddle county boundaries.

Apart from Yorkshire, counties that were subdivided nevertheless continued to exist as ceremonial counties. For example, the administrative counties of East Suffolk and West Suffolk, along with the county borough of Ipswich, 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" is an anachronism; at the time they were shown on Ordnance Survey maps as "counties" or "geographical counties", and were referred to in the Local Government Act 1888 simply as "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 of 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 of the Lord Lieutenant of Huntingdon and Peterborough.

Ceremonial counties from 1974 to 1996 (City of London not shown)

In 1974, administrative counties and county boroughs were abolished, and a major reform was instituted. At this time, lieutenancy was redefined to use the new metropolitan and nonmetropolitan counties directly.

Following a further rearrangement in 1996, 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 geographical 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 before the arrangements coming into effect.[6]

The County of Avon that had been formed in 1974 was mostly split between Gloucestershire and Somerset, but its city of Bristol regained the status of a county in itself, which it had lost upon the formation of Avon. Cleveland was partitioned between North Yorkshire and Durham. Hereford and Worcester was divided into the restored counties of Herefordshire and Worcestershire. Humberside was split between Lincolnshire and a new ceremonial county of East Riding of Yorkshire. Rutland was restored as a ceremonial county. Many county boroughs were re-established as "unitary authorities"; this involved establishing the area as an administrative county, but usually not as a ceremonial county.

Most ceremonial counties are, therefore, entities comprising local authority areas, as they were from 1889 to 1974. The Association of British Counties, a traditional counties lobbying organisation, has suggested that ceremonial counties be restored to their ancient boundaries.

Shrieval counties

The shrieval counties are defined by the Sheriffs Act 1887 as amended, in a similar way to the lieutenancies defined by the Lieutenancies Act 1997. Each has a high sheriff appointed (except the City of London, which has two sheriffs).

Definition

The Lieutenancies Act 1997 defines counties for the purposes of lieutenancies in terms of metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties (created by the Local Government Act 1972, as amended) as well as Greater London and the Isles of Scilly (which lie outside the 1972 Act's new system). Although the term is not used in the act, these counties are sometimes known as "ceremonial counties". The counties are defined in Schedule 1, paragraphs 2–5[2] as amended[7] (most recently in 2009[8] and 2019[9]) — these amendments have not altered the actual areas covered by the counties as set out in 1997, only their composition in terms of local government areas, as a result of structural changes in local government.[note 1]

Lieutenancy areas since 1997

These are the 48 counties for the purposes of the lieutenancies in England, as currently defined:

County for the purposes
of the lieutenancies 		Population
(2018)[10][11] 		Area Density Composition
Metropolitan and non-metropolitan
counties or unitary authority areas
No. Rank (km2) (sq mi) Rank (/km2) (/sq mi) Rank
Bedfordshire 715,940 36th 1,235 477 41st 580 1,500 13th Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Luton
Berkshire 958,803 23rd 1,262 487 40th 760 2,000 10th Bracknell Forest, Reading, Slough, West Berkshire, Windsor and Maidenhead and Wokingham
Bristol 479,024 43rd 110 42 47th 4,368 11,310 2nd Bristol
Buckinghamshire 852,589 29th 1,874 724 32nd 455 1,180 22nd Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes
Cambridgeshire 906,814 26th 3,390 1,310 15th 268 690 34th Cambridgeshire and Peterborough
Cheshire 1,108,765 18th 2,346 906 25th 473 1,230 20th Cheshire East, Cheshire West and Chester, Halton, and Warrington
City of London[note 2] 10,847 48th 2.89 1.12 48th 3,753 9,720 3rd City of London
Cornwall 577,694 40th 3,562 1,375 12th 162 420 41st Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly
Cumbria 503,033 42nd 6,768 2,613 3rd 74 190 47th Cumbria
Derbyshire 1,066,954 21st 2,625 1,014 21st 406 1,050 25th Derbyshire and Derby
Devon 1,232,660 11th 6,707 2,590 4th 184 480 39th Devon, Plymouth and Torbay
Dorset 785,172 32nd 2,653 1,024 20th 296 770 32nd Dorset and Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole[9]
Durham 872,075 28th 2,676 1,033 19th 326 840 29th County Durham, Darlington, Hartlepool and that part of Stockton-on-Tees north of the centre line of the River Tees
East Riding of Yorkshire 615,161 37th 2,475 956 23rd 249 640 35th East Riding of Yorkshire and Kingston-upon-Hull
East Sussex 828,685 30th 1,791 692 33rd 463 1,200 21st East Sussex and Brighton and Hove
Essex 1,877,301 6th 3,664 1,415 11th 512 1,330 15th Essex, Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock
Gloucestershire 947,174 24th 3,150 1,220 16th 301 780 31st Gloucestershire and South Gloucestershire
Greater London 8,855,333 1st 1,569 606 37th 5,643 14,620 1st The London boroughs
Greater Manchester 2,911,744 3rd 1,276 493 39th 2,282 5,910 5th Greater Manchester
Hampshire 1,877,917 5th 3,769 1,455 9th 498 1,290 19th Hampshire, Portsmouth and Southampton
Herefordshire 188,719 45th 2,180 840 26th 87 230 46th Herefordshire
Hertfordshire 1,204,588 13th 1,643 634 36th 733 1,900 11th Hertfordshire
Isle of Wight 140,794 46th 380 150 46th 371 960 26th Isle of Wight
Kent 1,875,893 7th 3,738 1,443 10th 502 1,300 18th Kent and Medway
Lancashire 1,550,490 8th 3,066 1,184 17th 506 1,310 17th Blackburn with Darwen, Blackpool and Lancashire
Leicestershire 1,095,554 20th 2,156 832 28th 508 1,320 16th Leicestershire and Leicester
Lincolnshire 1,103,320 19th 6,977 2,694 2nd 158 410 42nd Lincolnshire, North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire
Merseyside 1,442,081 9th 652 252 43rd 2,211 5,730 6th Merseyside
Norfolk 925,299 25th 5,384 2,079 5th 172 450 40th Norfolk
North Yorkshire 1,172,860 14th 8,654 3,341 1st 136 350 44th Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, Redcar and Cleveland, York and that part of Stockton-on-Tees south of the centre line of the River Tees
Northamptonshire 792,421 31st 2,364 913 24th 335 870 28th Northamptonshire
Northumberland 324,362 44th 5,020 1,940 6th 65 170 48th Northumberland
Nottinghamshire 1,163,335 15th 2,159 834 27th 539 1,400 14th Nottinghamshire and Nottingham
Oxfordshire 738,276 35th 2,605 1,006 22nd 283 730 33rd Oxfordshire
Rutland 41,151 47th 382 147 45th 108 280 45th Rutland
Shropshire 516,049 41st 3,488 1,347 13th 148 380 43rd Shropshire and Telford and Wrekin
Somerset 991,615 22nd 4,170 1,610 7th 238 620 36th Bath and North East Somerset, North Somerset and Somerset
South Yorkshire 1,392,105 10th 1,552 599 38th 897 2,320 9th South Yorkshire
Staffordshire 1,146,249 16th 2,714 1,048 18th 422 1,090 24th Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent
Suffolk 768,555 33rd 3,800 1,500 8th 202 520 38th Suffolk
Surrey 1,214,540 12th 1,663 642 35th 731 1,890 12th Surrey
Tyne and Wear 1,141,795 17th 540 210 44th 2,115 5,480 7th Tyne and Wear
Warwickshire 607,604 39th 1,975 763 31st 308 800 30th Warwickshire
West Midlands 2,953,816 2nd 902 348 42nd 3,276 8,480 4th West Midlands
West Sussex 892,336 27th 1,991 769 30th 448 1,160 23rd West Sussex
West Yorkshire 2,378,148 4th 2,029 783 29th 1,172 3,040 8th West Yorkshire
Wiltshire 751,542 34th 3,485 1,346 14th 216 560 37th Swindon and Wiltshire
Worcestershire 609,216 38th 1,741 672 34th 350 910 27th Worcestershire

Lieutenancy areas in 1890

See also

Notes

  1. ^ For example, Cheshire was prior to the 2009 structural changes to local government defined as the non-metropolitan counties of Cheshire, Halton & Warrington; the non-metropolitan county of Cheshire on 1 April that year split into the non-metropolitan counties of Cheshire East, Cheshire West and Chester, and Schedule 1 of the Lieutenancies Act 1997 was duly amended to take into account these changes to local government within the ceremonial county.
  2. ^ Because the City of London has a Commission of Lieutenancy rather than a single lord-lieutenant, it is treated as a county for some purposes of the Lieutenancy Act. (Schedule 1 paragraph 4)

References

  1. ^ Table 2 2011 Census: Usual resident population and population density, local authorities in the United Kingdom UK Census 2011 UK usual resident population Greater London excluding City of London
  2. ^ a b Text of the Lieutenancies Act 1997 – Schedule 1: Counties and areas for the purposes of the lieutenancies in Great Britain as in force today (including any amendments) within the United Kingdom, from legislation.gov.uk. Retrieved 2011-05-03.
  3. ^ "Ceremonial and Historic county boundary data added to OS OpenData". www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk.
  4. ^ England - Geographic counties. {{cite encyclopedia}}: |work= ignored (help)
  5. ^ "Local Government Act 1888 s.1" (PDF). Her Majesty's Stationery Office. Retrieved 30 April 2012.
  6. ^ House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 29 Feb 1996 (pt 8) Archived March 3, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
  7. ^ Text of the Lord-Lieutenants – The Local Government Changes for England (Lord-Lieutenants and Sheriffs) Order 1997 as originally enacted or made within the United Kingdom, from legislation.gov.uk. Retrieved 2011-05-03.
  8. ^ Text of The Local Government (Structural Changes) (Miscellaneous Amendments and Other Provision) Order 2009 (SI 2009/837) as originally enacted or made within the United Kingdom, from legislation.gov.uk. Retrieved 2011-05-03.
  9. ^ a b "The Local Government (Structural and Boundary Changes) (Supplementary Provision and Miscellaneous Amendments) Order 2019".
  10. ^ "Mid-Year Population Estimates, UK, June 2022". Office for National Statistics. 26 March 2024. Retrieved 3 May 2024.
  11. ^ "Mid-Year Population Estimates, UK, June 2022". Office for National Statistics. 26 March 2024. Retrieved 3 May 2024.
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