82-593: Bagber is a hamlet in the county of Dorset in southern England , situated about 2 miles (3.2 km) west and northwest of Sturminster Newton in the Dorset unitary authority . It consists of Bagber, Lower Bagber and Bagber Common, which all lie within Sturminster Newton civil parish . Chapel Row consists of around 10 houses in total, 6 of them being within 300 metres of the main A357. These six date back to
164-460: A county council which also performs the functions of a district, or a district council which also performs the functions of a county. The effect is the same, with only marginal differences in terminology; district councils are elected by wards, county councils by electoral divisions . The local government counties are listed below, with the numbers corresponding to the adjoining map. There have been no county councils since 1986; these are governed by
246-517: A county in terms of local government legislation, Greater London is deemed to comprise two counties for the purposes of lieutenancy: the City of London (covering the 'square mile' at the centre of the conurbation) and a Greater London lieutenancy county covering the rest of the area, being the 32 London boroughs. The Council of the Isles of Scilly was formed in 1890 as a sui generis district council. It
328-492: A former postal county. In guidance to customers it is required that the correct post town and postcode must be included in addresses and a county is not required. As part of a "flexible addressing policy" customers can add a county, which will be ignored in the sorting process. During the 1990s a reform of local government in England caused further changes to the locations in which the former postal counties did not match up to
410-660: A lengthy and well-organised campaign, the Royal Mail agreed to create a postal county of Rutland in 2007. This was achieved in January 2008 by amending the former postal county for all of the Oakham ( LE15 ) post town and part of the Market Harborough (LE16) post town. In contrast, Seaton Delaval residents had unsuccessfully campaigned in 2004 to be removed from the former postal county of Tyne and Wear. In 2009
492-529: A new and updated county data field, reflecting boundary changes. Postcomm found that many respondents objected to the use of obsolete counties. In May 2010 Postcomm decided to advise Royal Mail to "discontinue provision of such information at the earliest opportunity". However, because some existing software included the use of counties, Royal Mail was advised not to implement the change before 2013. The timetable announced by Royal Mail in July 2010 indicated that this
574-492: A poorer postal service for the villages, et cetera, in question or prohibitively heavy additional costs. Examples, usually consisting of small villages near to county boundaries, included: There were additional examples resulting from the 1974 reorganisation of local government: The postal counties were subject to change over time as post towns near to county boundaries were amended. For example, Chinley in Derbyshire had
656-405: A postal address have extended the use of counties to addresses in special post towns, which never needed them. This continued use has caused customers in areas where there is discrepancy between the postal and geographic counties to complain to Royal Mail. Until 2007 the Royal Mail position was that under their current code of practice, changes to county data will not be considered. However, after
738-646: A postal address of Wembley, Middlesex rather than London . Some London boroughs were split between multiple postal counties: for example Barnet had sections in the London postal district (e.g. Golders Green ) and in the Middlesex and Hertfordshire postal counties (e.g. Edgware and East Barnet ); with the NW7 postcode district touching the Greater London boundary to divide the three sections. Sewardstone , in
820-502: A postal address of "Stockport, Cheshire" which was later updated to "High Peak, Derbyshire" when a new post town was created. Second, the London postal district , which formed a special post town , did not conform to any administrative boundaries. The postal district was created in 1858 and has periodically been revised. However, at no point has its boundary coincided with either the metropolis (later County of London ) of 1855–1965, which
902-473: A sheriff or lieutenant; the same person was usually appointed to be lieutenant of both Cumberland and Westmorland until 1876, whilst Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire shared a sheriff until 1965. The counties' role as constituencies effectively ceased following the Reform Act 1832 and the associated Parliamentary Boundaries Act 1832 . Most counties were divided into smaller constituencies, with
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#1732764736486984-439: A union centred on a nearby town, whether or not that town was in the same county. The unions were administered by elected boards of guardians , and formed the basis for the registration districts created in 1837. Each union as a whole was assigned to a registration county , which therefore differed in places from the legal counties. The registration counties were used for census reporting from 1851 to 1911. The unions also formed
1066-560: The Local Government Act 1972 which reorganised local government from 1 April 1974 into a two-tier structure of counties and districts across the whole of England apart from the Isles of Scilly and Greater London (which retained its two-tier structure of the Greater London Council and London boroughs which had been introduced in 1965). The administrative counties and county boroughs were all abolished, and
1148-582: The Metropolitan Board of Works since 1856, which covered the City of London and parts of Middlesex , Surrey and Kent . In those counties where the quarter sessions had been held separately for different parts of the county, separate county councils were created for each part. The area controlled by a county council was termed an administrative county . The 1888 Act also adjusted the county boundaries for all other purposes, including judicial functions, sheriffs and lieutenants, to match groups of
1230-546: The counties palatine , the right to appoint sheriffs rested elsewhere; for example with the Bishop of Durham for County Durham , and with the Earl of Chester for Cheshire . A county's magistrates sat four times a year as the quarter sessions . For more serious cases judges visited each county twice a year for the assizes . In some larger counties the practice arose of holding the quarter sessions separately for subdivisions of
1312-606: The 19th century with the chapel now being now no. 6. The poet William Barnes was born in Bagber in 1801. [REDACTED] Media related to Bagber at Wikimedia Commons This Dorset location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . English county The counties of England are a type of subdivision of England . Counties have been used as administrative areas in England since Anglo-Saxon times. There are three definitions of county in England:
1394-445: The 48 ceremonial counties used for the purposes of lieutenancy ; the 84 metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties for local government ; and the 39 historic counties which were used for administration until 1974 . The historic counties of England were mostly formed as shires or divisions of the earlier kingdoms , which gradually united by the 10th century to become England. The counties were initially used primarily for
1476-641: The Epping Forest district of Essex, is the only locality outside Greater London to be included in the London postal district ( E4 ). Third, the Royal Mail adopted some, but not all, of the local government reforms of 1965 and 1974/5. This caused postal counties in some areas to reflect boundary changes, while in other areas they did not. Although the Post Office did not follow the changes of the London Government Act 1963 with respect to
1558-440: The Isles of Scilly. There are six metropolitan counties and 78 non-metropolitan counties. Of the non-metropolitan counties, 21 are governed in a two-tier arrangement with an upper-tier county council and a number of lower-tier district councils , 56 are governed by a unitary authority performing both county and district functions, and one ( Berkshire ) is governed by six unitary authorities whilst remaining legally one county. For
1640-621: The Royal Mail code of practice came up for renewal, and the regulator Postcomm held a public consultation on its future. Consultation guidance from the regulator indicated that although the former postal county data is obsolete, it was the last available data set to be in routine use and was therefore the most likely to be used by corporate customers for their address databases. It was also recognised that residential customers in some areas were not happy with this situation. The Royal Mail reconfirmed its preference for eliminating counties altogether from addressing, but also invited comments on providing
1722-418: The Royal Mail code of practice consultation included discussion of the possible replacement of the currently supplied "alias data" with an up-to-date county information data field . In 2010, the regulator advised Royal Mail to cease supply of county data altogether, and a timetable was put in place for this to occur between 2013 and 2016. In the 19th century and early 20th centuries, the Post Office required
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#17327647364861804-575: The Royal Mail, the former postal county data no longer forms part of postal addresses. It was removed from the Postcode Address File database in 2000 and does not form part of its code of practice for changing addresses. Despite this, county data is routinely sold to companies, ostensibly to let them cleanse their own address data. As the former postal county data was the last to be in routine use, some organisations have continued to use this obsolete data as part of postal addresses. In 2009,
1886-794: The adjoining new town . Four of the non-metropolitan counties established in 1974 were given names that had not previously been used for counties: Avon , Cleveland , Cumbria , and Humberside . Another was a merger of two former counties and combined both their names: Hereford and Worcester . The pre-1974 counties of Cumberland, Rutland, Westmorland, and Huntingdon and Peterborough were considered too small to function efficiently as separate counties, and did not have their names taken forward by new counties. Cumberland and Westmorland were both incorporated into Cumbria (alongside parts of Lancashire and Yorkshire). Huntingdon and Peterborough became lower-tier districts within Cambridgeshire, and Rutland
1968-448: The administration of justice, overseen by a sheriff . They subsequently gained other roles, notably serving as constituencies and as areas for organising the militia , which was the responsibility of the lord-lieutenant . The county magistrates also gradually took on some administrative functions. Elected county councils were created in 1889, taking over the administrative functions of the magistrates. The functions and territories of
2050-449: The administrative counties and county boroughs. As such, Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Suffolk and Sussex retained a single sheriff and lieutenant each, despite being split between multiple administrative counties. Yorkshire kept a single sheriff, whilst each of its ridings retained a separate lieutenant and formed their own administrative counties. In 1890 the Isle of Wight
2132-690: The administrative county map of England and Wales outside Greater London. The Post Office was considering its policy in January 1973, and in November 1973 noted that "Greater Manchester" would be unlikely to be adopted because of confusion of the Manchester post town , but that Avon was likely to be introduced. When the local government changes came into force, the Post Office announced that the new counties would form part of postal addresses from 1 July 1974, and should be used as "soon as possible". Old counties could, however, still be used until 1 July 1975. It
2214-407: The administrative functions of the quarter sessions. Some towns and cities were considered large enough to run their own county-level services and so were made county boroughs , independent from the new county councils. Urban sanitary districts which straddled county boundaries were placed entirely in one county. A new County of London was created covering the area which had been administered by
2296-701: The approximately 1,500 post towns straddled county boundaries, and the postal addresses of all places in such areas included the postal county of the post town, regardless of their actual location. In a written answer in the House of Lords in 1963, Lord Chesham , Parliamentary Secretary at the Ministry of Transport estimated that about 7% of towns and villages with a post office lay in a postal county different from their geographical county. He went to explain that: Postal addresses are in effect routing instructions for Post Office sorters and, in settling what they should be,
2378-558: The basis for the sanitary districts created in 1872, which took on various local government functions. The county of Westmorland was formed in 1227. From then until 1889 there were generally agreed to be 39 counties in England, although there were some liberties such as the Liberty of Ripon which were independent from their host counties for judicial purposes. The Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542 formally absorbed Wales into
2460-414: The boundaries between Gloucestershire, Warwickshire, and Worcestershire were adjusted to transfer 26 parishes between the three counties, largely to eliminate the remaining exclaves not addressed in 1844. The functions of county councils gradually grew. Notable expansions in their responsibilities included taking over education from the abolished school boards in 1902, and taking over the assistance of
2542-639: The boundaries were. Boundaries were recorded by the Ordnance Survey gradually in a process which started in 1841 and was not fully completed until 1888. Many counties had detached exclaves , away from the main body of the county. Most exclaves were eliminated by boundary adjustments under the Counties (Detached Parts) Act 1844 . The Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 created poor law unions , which were defined as groups of parishes and frequently crossed county boundaries. Parishes were typically assigned to
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2624-427: The counties as had been adjusted for all other purposes. This lasted until the constituencies were next reviewed in 1918 , when they were realigned to nest within the newer versions of the counties. The 1888 Act used the term 'entire county' to refer to the wider version of the county, including any associated county boroughs or parts which had been made administrative counties. The informal term 'geographical county'
2706-524: The counties have evolved since then, with significant amendments on several occasions, notably in 1889, 1965 and 1974. Following the 1974 reforms, England (outside Greater London and the Isles of Scilly ) had a two-tier structure of upper-tier county councils and lower-tier district councils, with each county being designated as either a metropolitan county or a non-metropolitan county . From 1995 onwards numerous unitary authorities have been established in
2788-561: The county, including the Ridings of Yorkshire , the Parts of Lincolnshire and the Eastern and Western divisions of Sussex . The quarter sessions were also gradually given various civil functions, such as providing asylums, maintaining main roads and bridges, and the regulation of alehouses. When parliaments began to be called from the 13th century onwards, the counties formed part of
2870-518: The existing counties and districts and having most local government functions exercised by all-purpose unitary authorities. Following the change in government at the 1970 general election , the incoming Conservative administration of Edward Heath abandoned the Redcliffe-Maud proposals, having campaigned against them as part of their election manifesto. Instead, the Heath government produced
2952-417: The existing postal county boundaries was explained as largely due to cost reasons. The Times pointed out that this might cause confusion, noting that in future "children will no doubt wonder why their address should refer to a county in which they have never lived", but that "some people […] want the name of Middlesex preserved because of its historical associations". The Local Government Act 1972 redrew
3034-472: The former postal county data was not updated to reflect these changes. Despite Royal Mail stipulating that counties no longer form part of addresses, many organisations have continued routinely to include them as part of postal addressing, often simply combining Postcode Address File data with the data from the Alias File. Some organisations using software which requires a county to be included as part of
3116-411: The functions of the abolished councils, with some functions (such as emergency services, civil defence and public transport) being delivered through joint committees. Further reform in the 1990s allowed the creation of non-metropolitan counties containing a single district, where one council performed both county and district functions. These became informally known as unitary authorities . The first
3198-418: The geographic counties. Avon, Cleveland and Humberside were abolished as geographic counties and Rutland was reconstituted. This had the following effects on the relationship between the geographic and postal counties: Hereford and Worcester was abolished and reconstituted as two separate counties once more, broadly matching the former postal counties. Greater London and Greater Manchester remained unaffected by
3280-633: The group of constituencies within each county being termed the 'parliamentary county'. County boundaries were sometimes adjusted, for example by some of the Inclosure Acts of the 18th and 19th centuries. County and other boundaries were not centrally recorded with any accuracy before the 19th century, but were instead known by local knowledge and custom. When the Ordnance Survey started producing large scale maps, they had to undertake extensive research with locals to establish where exactly
3362-952: The kingdom of England and completed its division into 13 counties on the English model. Contemporary lists after that sometimes included Monmouthshire as a 40th English county, on account of its assizes being included in the Oxford circuit rather than one of the Welsh circuits . The 39 historic counties were: By the late 19th century, there was increasing pressure to reform the structure of English counties; borough councils and boards of guardians were elected, but there were no elections for county-level authorities. Some urban areas had also grown across county boundaries, creating problems in how they were administered. The Local Government Act 1888 sought to address these issues. It established elected county councils, which came into being in 1889 and took over
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3444-530: The loss of judicial functions in 1972, the counties' roles were the administrative functions of local government, plus the limited ceremonial roles of the sheriffs and lieutenants. As part of the reforms under the Local Government Act 1972 the post of sheriff was renamed ' high sheriff ', and both they and the lieutenants were appointed to the new counties created in 1974. Whilst the administrative counties and county boroughs were abolished in 1974,
3526-476: The lower tier of district councils was reorganised. The Heath government also reformed the judicial functions which had been organised by geographical counties; the Courts Act 1971 abolished the quarter sessions and assizes with effect from 1972. The sheriffs and lieutenants continued to exist, but both roles had lost powers to become largely ceremonial by the time of the 1970s reforms. As such, following
3608-489: The main concern is to ensure a quick and efficient service at reasonable cost. The general aim is to align postal boundaries with those of the counties and where this has not been done it is usually because road and rail communications are such that mail can be got more quickly and efficiently to and from certain villages, et cetera, via a neighbouring county than via the county in which they are situated. Alignment of postal and county boundaries in these instances would mean either
3690-440: The metropolitan borough councils with some joint committees. Most now form part or all of a combined authority . Upper-tier county council and multiple lower-tier district councils: County council serving as unitary authority: District council serving as unitary authority: No county council but multiple districts serving as unitary authorities: Greater London and the Isles of Scilly do not form part of any county for
3772-425: The name of the county in which the post town lay should be included in most cases, with the exception of certain large towns and cities and those which gave their name to the county. As the name of the county to be used in the postal address was derived from the post town, there were various scenarios where there were differences between the postal county and the geographic or administrative counties: First, many of
3854-477: The name of the county was derived from the town. Following the Local Government Act 1972, addresses in these post towns required the new postal county. Postal counties broadly matched the county boundaries established in 1974, unless noted otherwise under "geographic coverage". The postal counties of Scotland broadly followed the boundaries of the civil counties on the mainland. Offshore islands, however, were regarded as distinct counties for postal purposes. There
3936-400: The name of the post town to be included in addresses, but advised against including the name of the county. The exception was if a post town's name was not unique, in which case the county name was to be included in the address in order to distinguish between post towns of the same name. Sometime between 1920 and 1934 the Post Office changed its advice on counties. It recommended instead that
4018-421: The names of historic counties and were defined by reference to the administrative and geographical counties which preceded them, retaining the same or similar boundaries where practicable. Whilst the Heath government had rejected the more radical Radcliffe-Maud proposals, they did still make adjustments to boundaries where they concluded they were necessary to better align with functional economic areas. For example,
4100-480: The non-metropolitan counties, usually by creating a non-metropolitan county containing a single district and having one council perform both county and district functions. Since 1996 there have been two legal definitions of county: the counties as defined in local government legislation, and the counties for the purposes of lieutenancy (the latter being informally known as ceremonial counties). The local government counties today cover England except for Greater London and
4182-642: The non-metropolitan counties. Since the most recent changes in 2023, England outside Greater London and the Isles of Scilly has been divided into 84 metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties for local government purposes. The 48 ceremonial counties used for the purposes of lieutenancy have been unchanged since 1998. Since the latest changes in 2023 there have been 84 counties for local government purposes, which are categorised as metropolitan or non-metropolitan counties. The non-metropolitan counties may governed by one or two tiers of councils. Those which are governed by one tier (unitary authorities) may either be governed by
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#17327647364864264-478: The north-western part of Berkshire was transferred to Oxfordshire on account of being separated from the rest of Berkshire by the Berkshire Downs hills and having better connections to the city of Oxford than to Berkshire's largest town and administrative centre of Reading . Similarly, Gatwick Airport was transferred from Surrey to West Sussex so that it could be in the same county as Crawley ,
4346-469: The outer London suburbs, it did reflect the move of Potters Bar from Middlesex to Hertfordshire. In contrast, Middlesex remained part of the postal address for Staines, Sunbury and Ashford, which had transferred to Surrey. The 1960s saw an increase in the number of addresses the Post Office delivered to, but a decrease in the volume of mail sent, which caused a significant drop in revenue and a proportionate increase in operational costs. Furthermore, retaining
4428-468: The outward code (first half) of the postcode is used to differentiate between like-sounding post towns. In 2000 the postal county data was removed from the Postcode Address File database and was added to the Alias File, which is used to cleanse data of local, colloquial and "postally-not-required" details that have been added to addresses. According to Royal Mail policy the field is not updated and where new post towns are created they will not be assigned to
4510-425: The poor from the abolished boards of guardians in 1930. A Local Government Boundary Commission was set up in 1945 which reviewed the structure of local government and recommended a significant overhaul, including extensive changes to counties and county boroughs. The commission was wound up in 1949 when the government decided not to pursue these proposals. A Royal Commission on Local Government in Greater London
4592-479: The postcode should be shown. Addresses in Greater London are also unchanged as are addresses in any place where the new county bears the same name as the former one." The postal counties listed in 1961 that did not continue after the reforms were Cumberland, Rutland, Sussex, Westmorland and Yorkshire. In Scotland , counties were entirely abolished for local government purposes in May 1975. The matter of postal counties
4674-425: The pre-1974 powers in such cases. Whilst these unitary authorities are legally all non-metropolitan counties, they are rarely referred to as counties other than in the context of local government law. The pre-1974 counties of Rutland, Herefordshire and Worcestershire also regained their independence. Rutland was made a unitary authority in 1997, and in 1998 Herefordshire was made a unitary authority and Worcestershire
4756-427: The purposes of lieutenancy England (including Greater London and the Isles of Scilly) is divided into 48 counties, which are defined as groups of one or more local government counties. Counties are also frequently used for non-administrative purposes, including culture, tourism and sport, with many organisations, clubs and leagues being organised on a county basis. For the purpose of sorting and delivering mail, England
4838-609: The purposes of local government legislation. Greater London was created in 1965 by the London Government Act 1963 as a sui generis administrative area, with the Greater London Council functioning as an upper-tier authority. It consists of the City of London plus 32 London boroughs . It was left unaltered by the 1972 Act. The Greater London Council was abolished along with the metropolitan county councils in 1986. Since 2000, Greater London has had an elected Assembly and Mayor responsible for strategic local government. Whilst not
4920-419: The reform. Local government was also reorganised in 1996 in both Scotland ( Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994 ) and Wales ( Local Government (Wales) Act 1994 ), such that in some places counties reverted to the historic names once again (e.g. Pembrokeshire ), but in others the post-1974 names were retained (e.g. Powys and Gwynedd ). As the Royal Mail had also declared postal counties redundant in 1996,
5002-484: The sheriff. Some larger towns and cities were made self-governing counties corporate , starting with London in c. 1132 , with the right to hold their own courts and appoint their own sheriffs. The counties corporate continued to be deemed part of the wider county for the purposes of lieutenancy, with the exception of London which had its own lieutenants. The Ridings of Yorkshire had their own lieutenants from 1660 onwards. Sometimes smaller counties shared either
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#17327647364865084-428: The subject of advice issued by the Post Office. The postal county was omitted for addresses within 110 post towns. These were mainly either larger towns and cities or places where the county name was derived from the post town. These post towns were: The post towns of BRECON, CAERNARVON, CARDIGAN, CARMARTHEN, DENBIGH, FLINT, HUNTINGDON, MONMOUTH, MONTGOMERY and PEMBROKE also qualified as special post towns until 1974 as
5166-467: The system for electing members of parliament . Certain towns and cities were parliamentary boroughs sending their own representatives, and the remainder of each county served as a county constituency , with the MPs for such constituencies being known as knights of the shire . From Tudor times onwards a lord-lieutenant was appointed to oversee the militia, taking some of the functions previously held by
5248-415: The wider geographical or historic counties were not explicitly abolished by the 1972 Act, albeit they were left with no administrative or ceremonial functions. Following the 1974 reforms there were 45 counties, six of which were classed as metropolitan counties, covering the larger urban areas: The other 39 counties were classed as non-metropolitan counties: Most of the non-metropolitan counties retained
5330-625: Was also used on Ordnance Survey maps to distinguish the wider version of the county from the administrative counties. There were various adjustments to county boundaries after 1889. There were numerous changes following the Local Government Act 1894 , which converted rural sanitary districts into rural districts and established parish councils , but said that districts and parishes were no longer allowed to straddle county boundaries. The number of county boroughs gradually increased, and boundaries were occasionally adjusted to accommodate urban areas which were developing across county boundaries. In 1931
5412-679: Was deemed to be two lieutenancy counties (the City of London and the rest of Greater London) under the Administration of Justice Act 1964 . Postal counties of the United Kingdom The postal counties of the United Kingdom, now known as former postal counties , were postal subdivisions in routine use by the Royal Mail until 1996. The purpose of the postal county – as opposed to any other kind of county –
5494-407: Was divided into postal counties until 1996; they were then abandoned by Royal Mail in favour of postcodes . Most of the historic English counties were established between the 7th and 11th centuries. Counties were initially used for the administration of justice and organisation of the militia, all overseen by a sheriff. The sheriff was usually appointed by the monarch but in some cases, known as
5576-541: Was established in 1957 and a Local Government Commission for England in 1958 to recommend new local government structures. The major outcomes of the work of the commissions came in 1965. The County of London was abolished and was replaced by the Greater London administrative area, which also included most of the remaining part of Middlesex (which was abolished as an administrative county) and areas formerly part of Surrey, Kent, Essex and Hertfordshire. Huntingdonshire
5658-475: Was given the "powers, duties and liabilities" of a county council in 1930. Some functions, such as health and economic development, are shared with Cornwall Council . For lieutenancy purposes the islands form part of the ceremonial county of Cornwall. From 1974 to 1996 the local government counties were also used for the purposes of lieutenancy, with the exceptions that the Isles of Scilly were deemed part of Cornwall for lieutenancy purposes, and Greater London
5740-664: Was legally a new non-metropolitan county and a district covering the same area, with the district council also performing county functions. Rather than appoint lieutenants and high sheriffs for these new counties created in 1996, it was decided to resurrect the pre-1974 practice of defining counties for the purposes of lieutenancy and shrievalty separately from the local government counties. Several other unitary authorities were created between 1996 and 1998. Many of these were districts based on larger towns and cities, including several places that had been county boroughs prior to 1974. Being made unitary authorities therefore effectively restored
5822-437: Was likely to happen between 2013 and 2016. In 2013 Felicity MacFarlane stated the Royal Mail position: As we have stressed for a number of years, Royal Mail's Postcode Address File does not contain county names as they are not required for postal purposes. However, we do make a list of historical county names available to customers to reference if they wish though we don't encourage external organisations to use or rely on
5904-445: Was made a district of Leicestershire. The metropolitan county councils were abolished in 1986 after just 12 years in operation. The Greater London Council was abolished at the same time. The metropolitan counties and Greater London continued to legally exist as geographic areas and retained their high sheriffs and lieutenants despite the loss of their upper-tier councils. The lower-tier metropolitan boroughs and London boroughs took on
5986-402: Was made an administrative county whilst remaining part of Hampshire for other purposes. Constituencies were not changed by the 1888 Act and so the parliamentary counties continued to be defined as they had been when the constituencies were last reviewed in 1885 , by reference to the counties as they had then existed. This led to a mismatch in some areas between the parliamentary counties and
6068-547: Was merged with the Soke of Peterborough to form Huntingdon and Peterborough , and the original administrative county of Cambridgeshire was merged with the Isle of Ely to form Cambridgeshire and Isle of Ely . A Royal Commission on Local Government in England was set up in 1966 and produced the Redcliffe-Maud Report in 1969, which recommended the complete redrawing of local government areas in England, replacing
6150-549: Was no postal county of Buteshire , which was instead divided between the Isles of Arran, Bute and Cumbrae. Normally, counties in Northern Ireland are named with the word 'County', and not simply the county name, perhaps to avoid confusion with the towns of the same name. The Royal Mail ceased to use postal counties as a means of sorting mail following the modernisation of their optical character recognition equipment in 1996. Instead, using postcode defined circulation,
6232-648: Was raised in the House of Lords in April 1975. Lord Beswick , Minister of State at the Department of Industry, stated that "the Post Office is consulting its customers in Scotland about the possible use of new postal addresses for Scotland based on the new local government Regions and Island Areas". In the event, the postal counties were not changed. Thus Alva, despite being in the Central Region after 1975,
6314-422: Was re-established as a two-tier county. Berkshire County Council was abolished in 1998 and the county's six districts became unitary authorities, but unusually the non-metropolitan county of Berkshire was not abolished. The six Berkshire unitary authorities are the only ones not to also be non-metropolitan counties. Further reforms in 2009 and between 2019 and 2023 saw more unitary authorities created within
6396-429: Was somewhat smaller, or the Greater London area created in 1965, which was much bigger. Addresses in the London post town, an area of 241 square miles (620 km ) (or 40% of Greater London), did not include a county; however, the rest of Greater London (60% of its area) formed parts of other post towns in the postal counties of Surrey , Kent, Essex , Middlesex and Hertfordshire . For example, Wembley Stadium had
6478-486: Was stated that the rule applied to: "...addresses throughout England and Wales outside Greater London with the exception of Greater Manchester and Hereford and Worcester where addresses remain unchanged. In Humberside it is necessary to show whether an address is in North Humberside or South Humberside. Addresses in certain post-towns have not, in the past, included a county name; these addresses are unchanged, but
6560-591: Was still postally in Clackmannanshire . Gordon Oakes , Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of the Environment , explained the policy in a written answer to a question in parliament, shortly after the changes were brought in: Postal addresses are routing instructions, not geographical descriptions, and the extent to which the new county names are being adopted for mail has been
6642-474: Was the Isle of Wight, where the two districts were abolished and the county council took over their functions in 1995. In 1996, Avon, Cleveland and Humberside were abolished after just 22 years in existence. None of those three had attracted much public loyalty, and there had been campaigns to abolish them, especially in the case of Humberside. Those three counties were split into unitary authorities, each of which
6724-471: Was to aid the sorting of mail by differentiating between similar post towns . Since 1996 this has been done by using the outward code (first half) of the postcode instead. For operational reasons, the former postal counties, although broadly based on the counties of the United Kingdom, did not match up with their boundaries; in some cases there were significant differences. The boundaries changed over time as post towns were created or amended. According to
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