Talk:Counties of England
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[edit] Postal counties
It might be a thought to throw in a mention of the "Postal Counties". Although the Post Office now no longer (since 1996) formally requires a county to be included on an address, they do organise on a county basis but don't always follow either traditional or administrative boundaries - for example Denham is in the postal county of Middlesex but the traditional and administrative county of Buckinghamshire. Even without the formal requirement, many given addresses still include the county, whilst a lot of forms for postal addresses have a clear section for a "County" and many people will decide what county a place is in on the basis of what would be in that section, irrespective of what the traditional or administrative boundaries are. It's not that different from people in London saying they live in, say, "W1". -- Timrollpickering 22:39, Feb 9, 2004 UTC.
- Go for it. Ideally we would have a list of postal counties and the post towns they correspond to, but even a pention of the concept would be useful. Morwen 22:30, Feb 9, 2004 (UTC)
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- Okay how's that for a start? -- Timrollpickering 22:52, Feb 9, 2004 UTC.
[edit] Article title
I think that this would make more sense at county (England), since it is about what a county is, in England. What do other people think? -- Oliver P.
- There is a precedent of county_(United_States) so that may be a good idea. -- Segye
Er why? G-Man 20:16, 1 August 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Intro rewrite, April 2006
I've just rewritten the intro of this page and am looking for feedback and comments. When I looked at it earlier, it struck me that it didn't really define what the "counties of England" were (as much as one can anyway), so I've tried to correct that. I've also tried to give a sense of the ambiguity this term has when used in the strictest sense.
I imagine this article would be the one most readers would look at first if they were interested in the development of England's county structure, so it's important to get it spot on.
I look forward to seeing what people have to say! Aquilina 17:02, 23 April 2006 (UTC)
[edit] basic reference
I came to this article looking for a list of the current counties of England. It is not clear on first glance what is what today. I'd expect to be given a list of each county linking to an individual page and the number of counties in current existence given.Ashfan83 20:51, 3 June 2006 (UTC)
- The lists of counties are on the subpages based on which kind of county you're looking for. With the exception of the administrative counties they could all be considered "current" Kmusser 17:38, 2 August 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Usage
Been searching through The Times archive looking for usage. The term "geographical county" seems to pop up first in 1888. Tracking down usages which actually show the precise sense it is being used in is tricky - especially regarding county boroughs.
I note that a report in the 1901 Middlesex census (The Census Of Middlesex, on August 25, 1902), contrasts "geographical county of Middlesex" with the "ancient county of Middlesex" (which included bits of the county of London). There's a reference in 1904 to the "geographic county of London". A reference in 1932 says that the administrative county of Essex is the "geographical county of Essex exclusive of the county boroughs of West Ham, East Ham and Southend". A 1945 report outright says that geographical county=administrative county+county boroughs. Morwen - Talk 18:22, 10 October 2006 (UTC)
