Ceremonial counties of England

The Ceremonial counties of England are areas of England that are appointed a Lord Lieutenant, and are defined by the government with reference to administrative counties of England. They are mainly used for ceremonial purposes. They generally include areas that have seceeded in the source county. Exceptions to that include the metropolitan counties and Bristol.

The ceremonial counties first diverged from the traditional counties of England in 1373, when a Lord-Lieutenant of Bristol was created. They diverged much further in 1974 when they were aligned with the administrative counties. Following the reorganisation of the administrative counties in the 1990s, they are no longer aligned with these either.

The lieutenancy areas are

• Bedfordshire, including Luton
• Berkshire
• Bristol
• Buckinghamshire, including Milton Keynes
• Cambridgeshire, including Peterborough
• Cheshire, including Halton and Warrington
• City of London
• Cornwall, including Isles of Scilly
• Cumbria
• Derbyshire, including Derby
• Devon, including Plymouth and Torbay
• Dorset, including Bournemouth and Poole
• Durham, including Darlington, Hartlepool, and Stockton-on-Tees north of the river
• East Riding of Yorkshire, including Kingston-upon-Hull
• East Sussex, including Brighton and Hove
• Essex, including Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock
• Gloucestershire, including South Gloucestershire
• Greater London
• Greater Manchester
• Hampshire, including Southampton and Portsmouth
• Herefordshire
• Hertfordshire
• Isle of Wight
• Kent, including Medway Towns
• Lancashire, including Blackburn with Darwen, and Blackpool
• Leicestershire, including Leicester
• Lincolnshire, including North Lincolnshire, and North East Lincolnshire
• Merseyside
• Norfolk
• North Yorkshire, including York, Middlesbrough, Redcar, Cleveland, and Stockton-on-Tees south of the river
• Northamptonshire
• Northumberland
• Rutland
• Shropshire, including Telford and Wrekin
• Somerset, including Bath and North East Somerset and North Somerset
• South Yorkshire
• Staffordshire, including Stoke-on-Trent
• Suffolk
• Surrey
• Tyne and Wear
• Warwickshire
• West Midlands
• West Sussex
• West Yorkshire
• Wiltshire, including Swindon
• Worcestershire

See also: Ceremonial counties of Wales, Lieutenancy areas of Scotland, Administrative counties of England, Traditional counties of England, UK topics.