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Appendix C.2 - Historic County Boundaries

1.0  Historic County Boundaries

Notes taken form Ordnance Survey BOUNDARY-LINE Digital Data set and are subject to Crown Copyright

The historic counties dataset has been produced by Ordnance Survey in collaboration with the Department of Communities and Local Government and represents those counties based on historic records / mapping circa 1888 and using the primary sources of the Local Government (England and Wales) Act 1888, the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889 and the Sheriffs Act 1887.

The historic counties dataset shows the county boundaries in place in 1888 in England and Wales and those established a year later in Scotland. The alignments of the counties for England and Wales are d erived from mapping sourced from the National Archives and dating from 1890.  The most recent available mapping dates for Scotland are from 1940.

The content of the relevant legislation is outlined below.

Sheriffs Act 1887

This Act consolidated the Law relating to the office of the Sheriff in England, including their appointment and functions and repealed certain enactments, relating to Sheriffs which ceased to be in force or have become unnecessary.  It defined counties for such purposes.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT (ENGLAND AND WALES) ACT 1888: 51 & 52 Vict C41 (as enacted)

This Act is generally known as the Local Government Act 1888.

This Act changed the style of local governance in England and Wales and created elected county councils to take over the administrative functions of the magistrates of the Quarter Sessions courts, that ten large cities should be "counties of themselves" for the purposes of local government and that each county was to be divided into urban and rural districts, based on existing sanitary districts governed by a district council.

List of counties and county boroughs created in 1889

ENGLAND

    
Historic county Administrative county County boroughs
Bedfordshire Bedfordshire  
Berkshire Berkshire Reading
Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire  
Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire  
  Isle of Ely  
Cheshire Cheshire Birkenhead, Chester, Stockport (part)
Cornwall Cornwall  
Cumberland Cumberland Carlisle
Derbyshire Derbyshire Derby
Devon Devon Devonport, Exeter, Plymouth
Dorset Dorset  
Durham Durham Gateshead, South Shields, Sunderland
Essex Essex West Ham
Gloucestershire Gloucestershire Bristol (part), Gloucester
Hampshire Hampshire † Portsmouth, Southampton
Herefordshire Herefordshire  
Hertfordshire Hertfordshire  
Huntingdonshire Huntingdonshire  
Kent Kent Canterbury
Lancashire Lancashire Barrow, Blackburn, Bolton, Bootle cum Linacre, Burnley, Bury, Liverpool, Manchester, Oldham, Preston, Rochdale, St Helens, Salford, Stockport (part), Wigan
Leicestershire Leicestershire Leicester
Lincolnshire Lincolnshire, Parts of Holland  
  Lincolnshire, Parts of Kesteven  
  Lincolnshire, Parts of Lindsey Lincoln
London London City of London: remained a separate county, but returned members to the London County Council, which exercised some powers within the City.
Middlesex Middlesex  
Monmouthshire Monmouthshire Newport‡
Norfolk Norfolk Norwich, Great Yarmouth (part)
Northamptonshire Northamptonshire Northampton
  Soke of Peterborough  
Northumberland Northumberland Newcastle upon Tyne
Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire Nottingham
Oxfordshire Oxfordshire Oxford
Rutland Rutland  
Shropshire Shropshire  
Somerset Somerset Bath, Bristol (part)
Staffordshire Staffordshire Hanley, Walsall, West Bromwich, Wolverhampton
Suffolk East Suffolk Ipswich, Great Yarmouth (part)
  West Suffolk  
Surrey Surrey Croydon
Sussex East Sussex Brighton, Hastings
  West Sussex  
Warwickshire Warwickshire Birmingham, Coventry
Westmorland Westmorland  
Wiltshire Wiltshire  
Worcestershire Worcestershire Dudley, Worcester
Yorkshire Yorkshire, East Riding Kingston-upon-Hull, York (part)
  Yorkshire, North Riding Middlesbrough, York (part)
  Yorkshire, West Riding Bradford, Halifax, Huddersfield, Leeds, Sheffield, York (part)
     
† From 1 April 1890 the Isle of Wight was separated from the County of Hampshire to form an Administrative County.
‡ Newport became a county borough in 1891  

WALES

    
Geographic county Administrative county County boroughs
Anglesey Anglesey  
Brecknockshire Brecknockshire  
Carnarvonshire Carnarvonshire  
Cardiganshire Cardiganshire  
Carmarthenshire Carmarthenshire  
Denbighshire Denbighshire  
Flintshire Flintshire  
Glamorgan Glamorgan Cardiff, Swansea
Merioneth Merioneth  
Montgomeryshire Montgomeryshire  
Pembrokeshire Pembrokeshire  
Radnorshire Radnorshire  

LOCAL GOVERNMENT (SCOTLAND) ACT 1889: 52 & 53 Vict C50 (as enacted)

The Act provided that a county council should be established in each county, consisting of elected councillors. The county was to be divided into electoral divisions, made up of groupings of parishes, each returning one councillor. In addition police burghs in the county were also regarded as electoral divisions, though the councillors for these areas were co-opted by the members of the burgh's town council.

The chairman of each county council, elected by the members, was given the title “Convenor of the county”.

 

List of counties created in 1890

 

SCOTLAND

Administrative county 1890
Caithness
Sutherland
Ross and Cromarty
Inverness-shire
Nairnshire
County of Moray (also known as Elginshire until 1918)
Banffshire
Aberdeenshire
Kincardineshire
Angus (Forfarshire until 1928)
Perthshire
Argyll
County of Bute
Ayrshire
Renfrewshire
Dunbartonshire
Stirlingshire
Clackmannanshire
Kinross-shire
Fife
East Lothian (Haddingtonshire until 1921)
Midlothian (County of Edinburgh until 1890)
West Lothian (Linlithgowshire until 1924)
Lanarkshire
Peeblesshire
Selkirkshire
Berwickshire
Roxburghshire
Dumfriesshire
Kirkcudbrightshire
Wigtownshire
Zetland (Shetland)
Orkney

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