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A series of local government reforms from the 19th century onwards has left the exact definition of the term 'county' slightly ambiguous.
Main article: Historic counties of England
The accepted system of the 39 traditional counties arose from the 12th to the 16th centuries, though many of the specific areas are much older. They became established as a geographic reference frame over time. There is some dispute as to whether an Act passed in 1844 to simplify the counties by reducing the many exclaves should be accepted or not.
Main article: Administrative counties of England
Elected County councils were set up in England in 1888, taking over many of the administrative functions of the Quarter Sessions courts, as well as being given other powers over the years. For political purposes, these covered newly established areas known as 'administrative counties', which included such entities as the County of LondonGreater London area, to show the difference in size with post- 1965 Borough boundaries The County of London was an administrative county of England from 1888 to 1965. It bordered Middlesex to the north and west, Essex to the north-east, Kent to the south-, covering parts of historic KentThis article is about the English county of Kent. See also Kent (disambiguation). Kent is a county in England, south-east of London. The county town is Maidstone. Kent has land borders with East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London, and a defined boundary wi, Middlesextraditional county. administrative county before the creation of Greater London. Middlesex is an area in England, mostly covered by Greater London. It is one of the 39 historical counties of England. It includes the City of London, which was self-governin and SurreyThis is about Surrey, England. There are also articles about other uses of the name Surrey. Surrey is a county in southern England, one of the Home Counties'. It is divided into a number of districts Elmbridge, Epsom and Ewell, Guildford, Mole Valley, Rei, and the historic counties were not formally abolished. The administrative counties did not cover the independent county boroughCounty borough was a term introduced in 1889 in the United Kingdom to refer to a borough or a city independent of county administration. History When the first county councils were created, it was decided that to let them have authority over the large tows; and many historic counties were covered by two ( SuffolkThis article is about the English county. For other uses, see Suffolk (disambiguation). Suffolk (pronounced 'suffuk') is a large, low-lying county in East Anglia in eastern England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and, SussexThis article refers to the county in England. traditional county. Sussex is a traditional county in southern England, divided for administrative purposes into the two counties of West Sussex and East Sussex and the city of Brighton and Hove. It correspond, NorthamptonshireNorthamptonshire (abbreviated Northants is a county in central England with a population of 629,676 ( 2001 census). It has borders with Warwickshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, Cambridgeshire (inc. Peterborough), Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire (inc. Milton K, Hampshire, Cambridgeshire) or three ( Yorkshire, Lincolnshire) administrative counties.
1965 saw a minor change as the original County of London became instead the 'administrative area' of Greater London, in the process absorbing most of the remaining part of Middlesex; Huntingdonshire merged with the Soke of Peterborough to form Huntingdon and Peterborough, and the original Cambridgeshire administrative county merged with the Isle of Ely (historically the north of Cambridgeshire, around Ely) to form Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely.In 1974 the Local Government Act came into force. This abolished the existing local government structure. The county council areas were not called 'administrative counties' but simply 'counties' in the new legislation. Many new counties were created, such as Avon, Cleveland, Cumbria, Humberside along with the new metropolitan counties of Greater Manchester, Merseyside, South Yorkshire, Tyne and Wear, West Midlands, and West Yorkshire. The counties of Cumberland, Herefordshire, Rutland, Westmorland and Worcestershire vanished from the administrative map, as did the county boroughs.
Local government reforms in the 1990s have left the administrative counties rather odd, with many small unitary authorities possessing county status, but restored Herefordshire, Rutland and Worcestershire as administrative entities.There are now exactly 81 administrative counties, excluding Greater London. Of these, 34 are 'shire counties' with county councils and district councils, and 40 are unitary authorities. Six are metropolitan counties. The remaining one is Berkshire, whose county council has been abolished and its districts have become unitary authorities.
A proposed local government reform involving the creation of elected regional assemblies may lead to another round of changes to the administrative counties in 2005 or 2006.
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