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Home > Traditional counties of England

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The traditional counties of England are historic subdivisions of the country into around 40 regions. They are also known as the historic counties, or archaically as the ancient or geographical counties.

The traditional counties were used for administrative purposes for hundreds of years, and over time became established as a geographic reference frame. The establishment of the usually accepted set of counties began in the 12th century, although it did not become finalised until the 16th century.

After local government reform in the late 19th century, the traditional counties are no longer in general use for official geographic purposes (in favour of ceremonial counties or administrative counties), but the system in use is partially based on them, and the postal counties often still follow them. (See Counties of England for an overview of how the different types of county compare.)

Various groups exist to promote their continued use, and people engaged in genealogy, family history and local history tend to follow the names used at the time being researched.

1 The counties


  1. Bedfordshire
  2. Berkshire
  3. Buckinghamshire
  4. CambridgeshireCambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs is a county in England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the northeast, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the west. The county town is Cambr
  5. CheshireThis article is about the English county. For other uses see Cheshire (disambiguation Cheshire (or archaically the County of Chester is a palatine county in North West England. Its county town is the city of Chester. It borders the ceremonial counties of *
  6. CornwallCornwall ( Cornish: Kernow is the part of Great Britain's south-west peninsula that is west of the River Tamar. It is generally regarded as a county of, and a part of England, although advocates of Cornish independence regard it as a separate nation, and
  7. CumberlandCumberland is one of the 39 traditional counties of England. In 1974, the area also became part of the new administrative county of Cumbria, along with Westmorland and parts of Lancashire and Yorkshire. The traditional county town is Carlisle, and the cou
  8. DerbyshireDerbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England, which boasts some of England's most attractive hill and mountain scenery. A substantial portion of the Peak District National Park lies within Derbyshire. The northern part of Derbyshire overlaps wit
  9. DevonThis page is about the English county, for alternative meanings see Devon (disambiguation). Devon is a county in South West England, bordering on Cornwall to the west, Dorset and Somerset to the east. The name Devonshire was common but is no longer used,
  10. DorsetThis page is about the county of Dorset in England. See Dorset (disambiguation) for other places called Dorset Dorset (pronounced 'Dorsit', sometimes in the past called Dorsetshire is a county in the southwest of England. The county town is Dorchester.
  11. County DurhamCounty Durham is a county in north-east England. Its county town is Durham. It is a county of contrasts: the remote and sparsely populated dales and moors of the Pennines characterise the interior; while nearer the coast the county is highly urbanised, an *
  12. Essex
  13. Gloucestershire
  14. Hampshire †
  15. Herefordshire
  16. Hertfordshire
  17. Huntingdonshire
  18. Kent
  19. Lancashire *
  20. Leicestershire

  1. Lincolnshire
  2. Middlesex
  3. Norfolk
  4. Northamptonshire
  5. Northumberland
  6. Nottinghamshire
  7. Oxfordshire
  8. Rutland
  9. Shropshire
  10. Somerset
  11. Staffordshire
  12. Suffolk
  13. Surrey
  14. Sussex
  15. Warwickshire
  16. Westmorland
  17. Wiltshire
  18. Worcestershire
  19. Yorkshire
* county palatine
† formally known as Southamptonshire until 1959


The map omits all exclaves (detached parts) apart from the Furness part of Lancashire south of Cumberland and Westmorland.

Monmouthshire was previously usually considered to be a county of England, but is now generally accepted to be part of Wales.

Counties named after towns were often legally known as the "County of" followed by the name of the town — so, for example, Yorkshire would be referred to as "County of York". The modern usage is to use the suffix "-shire" only for counties named after towns, and for those which would otherwise have only one syllable. In the past, usages such as "Devonshire", "Dorsetshire" and "Somersetshire" was frequent. (There is still a Duke of Devonshire, who is not properly called the Duke of Devon.) Kent was a former kingdom of the Jutes, so "Kentshire" was never used. The name of County Durham is anomalous. The expected form would be "Durhamshire", but it is never used. This is ascribed to that county's history as a county palatine ruled by the Bishop of Durham.

Customary abbreviations exist for many of the counties. In most cases these consist of simple truncation, usually with an "s" at the end, such as "Berks." for Berkshire and "Bucks." for Buckinghamshire. Some abbreviations are not obvious, such as "Salop" for Shropshire, "Oxon" for Oxfordshire or "Hants" and "Northants" for Hampshire and Northamptonshire, respectively.



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