Traditional counties of England
The traditional Counties (or historic Counties) of England are historical and geographical subdivisions.
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2 Supporters 3 Critics 4 External link |
Some of the traditional counties have subdivisions:
Supporters of the historic Counties maintain that the counties are entities too important for laws simply to redefine.
The existance of the historic Counties after 1974 is confimed by an official government statement at the time, in which the government specifically stated that the traditional counties are not abolished:
"The new county boundaries are administrative areas, and will not alter the traditional boundaries of counties, nor is it intended that the loyalties of people living in them will change, despite the different names adopted by the new administrative counties".
Supporters of historic counties point out that there are many examples of towns and villages which have stated unequivocably their presence in their historic County.
Given frequent confusion regarding the status of historic counties, many societies and lobby groups have been formed in their defence. These include Yorkshire's White Rose Society, the Campaign for real Warwickshire, and the Huntingdonshire Society. The campaigns for Rutland, Peterborough and Herefordshire to be made once more administrative counties did succeed and these areas were made independent of Leicestershire, Cambridgeshire and Hereford and Worcester.
See also: Administrative counties of England, Ceremonial counties of England, Subdivisions of England, Traditional counties of Wales, Traditional counties of Scotland.
The 1974 legislation doesn't use the term 'administrative counties', and just repealed and amended 'counties', although the original defining laws of 1888 do indeed differentiate between the adminitrative and historic entities.
Some critics have also suggested that a person's loyalty to his or her historic County might not be apparent in all cases - pointing especially to the metropolitan counties such as West Midlands and Greater Manchester - people within the urban area could be imagined to have much more in common with each other than they do with those in the rump county. Certainly the majority of councils in such conurbations quote their address as being in the adminstrative area.
Traditional counties
Subdivisions
Supporters
Critics
Some critics have claimed that no such disclaimer was included in previous reorganisations, and so if historic counties are a real existing entity, the administrative counties of London, and East and West Sussex should be included in this definition. Further, they claim that this (and subsequent assurances) was merely a government statement, and thus had no legal effect.External link
