please empty your brain below
On 1st April 1986, Tyne and Wear (sort of) ceased to exist. Instead of being abolished, only its council was so the boroughs now function like unitary authorities despite being boroughs.

Anon | 01.04.21 - 7:16 a.m. | #

Very good! It’s like a written version of ‘the unbelievable truth’ - there’s certainly some truths in there as well...

Mike on a bike | 01.04.21 - 7:18 a.m. | #

Bournemouth and Poole were already two separate unitary authorities, both created in the mid-1990s. They were merged and Christchurch added (despite resistance from the latter) to the new BCP Council UA as part of the recent restructuring exercise in Dorset.

Restructuring the remaining two-tier areas into unitaries was meant to be a central tenet of the Government's Devolution White Paper due in October 2020. However, Simon Clarke MP, the local government minister and champion of this particular policy, resigned just beforehand, and so publication of the expected White Paper was put back until this summer. So those of us in two-tier land wait with bated breath to see what policy if any actually emerges later this year.

THC | 01.04.21 - 7:30 a.m. | #

Lovely stuff. You might not be doing boundary changes, but I think my interest in local government (and indeed administrative heritage) can be dated back to April 1st 1974 when. as an eight-year old, I was fascinated by the fact that I was going to bed in East Sussex and waking up in West Sussex. And even then, with no idea why, I mourned the loss of our local urban and rural district councils.

Sarah | Homepage | 01.04.21 - 7:30 a.m. | #

The ceremonial county of Cornwall ictually comprises two unitary authorities, as it includes the Isles of Scilly as well as the UA covering the Cornish mainland.

South and West Yorkshire were not formerly Ridings of Yorkshire - they were both part of the West Riding.

dg writes: fixed, thanks.

The change to Oxfordshire in 1974 should count as a simple boundary change .

timbo | 01.04.21 - 7:35 a.m. | #

Oh God, is none of it an April fool joke? I thought the Northamptonshire realignment had to be a joke.

Mike on a bike | 01.04.21 - 7:43 a.m. | #

Sussex and Suffolk were both split into East and West in 1889. At the same time the County of London was created from parts of Middlesex, Essex and Surrey.

In 1974 East and West Suffolk were combined, but East and West Sussex remained with slightly changed boundaries.

Also in 1974 Cambridgeshire was joined to Huntingdonshire.

Robbob | 01.04.21 - 8:01 a.m. | #

1986 saw all the Metropolitan County Councils scrapped (Merseyside, Greater Manchester, Tyne and Wear, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, West Midlands) with their functions absorbed into the Metropolitan Borough Councils - which are very similar/the same(?) as Unitary Authorities in powers and responsibilities. Although some now have Combined Authorities and Mayors so it gets a little confusing.

Anyway looking forward to the appearance of comments of those who think modern counties are an aberration and that we should use historical countries because the most sensible system of local government is one based on what made sense to William the Conqueror. If you talk counties, they will come...

Andrew Bowden | Homepage | 01.04.21 - 8:09 a.m. | #

Don't mention the eradication of Middlesex, you will summon Russell Grant!

Steve | 01.04.21 - 8:14 a.m. | #

Bedfordshire lost Luton in the 1990s. Isle of Wight lost the 2 districts then as well and became unitary.

Andy V | 01.04.21 - 8:17 a.m. | #

On the day that we learn that there will be glass elevators inside the Battersea chimneys, Johnson has resigned as PM, and our long-closed local Barclays Bank has been repurposed as a Gentlemen's Club.. you post about local government reorganisation? Typical DG

Frank F | 01.04.21 - 8:51 a.m. | #

Alas, I know that using the historical counties for local government is just a pipe-dream, but the ceremonial counties at least could be aligned with the historical counties since these serve no obvious purpose anyway.

Alan | 01.04.21 - 8:53 a.m. | #

Bournemouth and Christchurch were moved from Hampshire to Dorset on 1st April 1974. So Dorset gained a bit of land but a big increase in population.
There is a named roundabout on the A35 on the Poole/Bournemouth boundary called County Gates even though it is now 47 years since it was a county border. Now it is pretty much in the middle of the BCP UA. I doubt that the name will ever be changed.

Chris W | 01.04.21 - 9:16 a.m. | #

You nearly had me fooled into believing all this and then I realised no one would be daft enough to break up counties like that.

Brian | 01.04.21 - 9:18 a.m. | #

Avon actually broke into 4 areas, all effectively UAs:

Bristol
South Gloucestershire
North Somerset
Bath and North East Somerset

dg writes: tweaked, thanks.

Bruce Tenmile | 01.04.21 - 9:19 a.m. | #

Why do organisations think 1 April is a good day to do things like this? It's not even the start of the week or an accounting period.

In what I assume is an attempt to show it's a merger of Districts and County rather than a takeover, the new Buckinghamshire council dropped the word County from its title despite covering the county-shaped area of the old County Council.

Andrew S | 01.04.21 - 9:34 a.m. | #

Andrew Bowden, I'm here!
William the Conqueror set up his counties in the way that maximised his political advantage.
Whereas today, of course, central government sets them up in the way to maximise administrative efficiency....

Roger Button | 01.04.21 - 9:36 a.m. | #

I don't see why they chose West and North for Northamptonshire. East would have been more accurate and less of a mouthfull.

kev | 01.04.21 - 9:46 a.m. | #

Is this a good time to mention the pre-1974 county boroughs, UAs in all but name?

Jonathan Wadman | 01.04.21 - 9:58 a.m. | #

Brillian - exactly the sort of thing I visit the DG Blog for! Just for consistency the Isle of Wight became a Unitary Authority (the first in England) on 1st April 1995. Previously there were two district councils in addition to the County Council, namely Medina and South Wight. In other news, I find it sad the Peterborough has somehow been airbrushed out of Northamptonshire's history.

cau1khead | 01.04.21 - 10:09 a.m. | #

An interesting post DG.
Regarding Bournemouth you have listed the 2019 change but there were two earlier ones. It was originally part of Hampshire but in 1974 transferred to Dorset. Then in 1997 it became a UA which was later enlarged in 2019 as you say.
All dates as per Wikipedia.

dg repeats: Only the most recent significant adjustment is included.

Martin | 01.04.21 - 10:30 a.m. | #

I was immediately suspicious but it all sounded quite plausible to me who is Downunder.

Andrew | Homepage | 01.04.21 - 10:59 a.m. | #

Kev: They had to go with North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire because (as DG says) East Northamptonshire and South Northamptonshire previously existed as districts and keeping either name would have led to confusion. It's much clearer now that South Northamptonshire is part of West Northamptonshire (which is the South West part of the old Northamptonshire) and East Northamptonshire is part of North Northamptonshire (which is the North East part of the old Northamptonshire).

MKIan | 01.04.21 - 11:10 a.m. | #

Wait, that's actually true ?

Thorum | 01.04.21 - 12:27 p.m. | #

I always think the one that must puzzle people the most is the old pre-1974 Holland County Council.

I've found a signpost on Streetview.

michaelH | 01.04.21 - 12:41 p.m. | #

Brighton and Hove UA was created from two councils - Brighton in East Sussex, and Hove in West Sussex, so it did not "cede" solely from East Sussex.

dg writes: Hove has never been in West Sussex.

Man of Kent | 01.04.21 - 12:44 p.m. | #

Why 1 April? It is the start of the government's fiscal year, just a shade more convenient than the tax year starting on 6 April.

DG has discussed this before, but it comes from the adjustments in 1752 when we shifted from the previous civil calendar starting on 25 March, which comes from Lady Day, or the date of the crucifixion, or the vernal equinox, or the start of the Roman year, or some combination.

Most other countries align the fiscal year with the calendar year.

Andrew | 01.04.21 - 12:56 p.m. | #

All things considered, Buckinghamshire is infinitely better off without Milton Keynes. Like having an embarrassing shambolic uncle in the family pass away, everyone secretly breathed a sigh of relief. The next step is to somehow get it towed away completely to an offshore site.

Arlu | 01.04.21 - 12:58 p.m. | #

Glad to see DG's confirmation that Hove was never in West Sussex. My memory is of the East-West boundary being between Portslade and Southwick, but have not been able to find any documentary evidence on-line.

cau1khead | 01.04.21 - 1:03 p.m. | #

It would be interesting to survey what long-term residents of those places think. I know some people from Bournemouth who still like to think themselves Hampshire residents.

James | 01.04.21 - 1:07 p.m. | #

Another 1st April 1974 change was the creation of Lincolnshire County Council from the previously autonomous areas of Lindsey, Holland and Kesteven.

Man of Kent | 01.04.21 - 1:07 p.m. | #

Alan - I suspect the reason ceremonial counties don't match up to historical counties is because in some cases it would make life confusing for what little role they have - especially for the metropolitan counties.

Take Greater Manchester. It was created using big chunks of Cheshire and Lancashire, but also took land from Yorkshire (this seemingly being the most controversial with certain people in Saddleworth) and Derbyshire.

Probably a lot easier to simply base them on the existing county boundaries rather than having to define a completely different set of boundaries.

Andrew Bowden | Homepage | 01.04.21 - 1:21 p.m. | #

There is something inherently strange in the way that Royal Mail still insists on using pre-1965 boundaries.

Eric | 01.04.21 - 1:23 p.m. | #

Eric - the thing about Postal Counties is that they were only ever created for one thing - for Royal Mail's own operational reasons. A lot of people seem to put a lot more on them than they actually are. Last year there were many stories about pubs in Greater Manchester being forced to close due to Covid restrictions, who then cried to the local papers going "We're not in Greater Manchester! Our postal address says Cheshire/Warrington/Whatever!"

As it happens though, Royal Mail hasn't used postal counties for directing mail since 1996. Any county put is ignored by them.

Andrew Bowden | Homepage | 01.04.21 - 1:30 p.m. | #

Well I was convinced this was an April Fool!!
Makes no odds to me though, because as a genealogist my county boundaries are firmly stuck in the 1800s anyway!

Cornish Cockney | 01.04.21 - 2:13 p.m. | #

East and West Sussex County Councils date back to 1889, not 1974.

dg writes: updated, thanks.

Vectisian | 01.04.21 - 3:16 p.m. | #

My mapreading skills, in particular distinguishing between borough and county boundaries, are clearly not up to scratch.

Man of Kent | 01.04.21 - 3:26 p.m. | #

In fairness to depleted Lancashire, it did gain some land from the former West Riding of Yorkshire in 1974.

cau1khead | 01.04.21 - 4:05 p.m. | #

There is a place, then, for ceremonial counties, given that postal and administrative counties are so unreliable. Everyone needs a county! One of my fun ways of passing the time is to work out what county major cities are in.

Sarah | Homepage | 01.04.21 - 7:11 p.m. | #

Interesting to note the big gap between 1974 and 1996 when no one in authority felt it necessary to fiddle about.

dg writes: See Andrew's comment at 8.09am.

Agent X | 01.04.21 - 7:45 p.m. | #

One odd County Council (it was never an Anglo-Saxon or Danelaw Shire and it was they who were the originators of local government in England, not William the Bastard who knew a good idea when he saw it) was the Isle of Ely County Council. This had been a County Palatine under the Bishop of Ely but was absorbed into Cambridgeshire in 1535/6. In 1889 it became a new County Council. It was almost reabsorbed in 1947 (but the local MP fought it off) only to vanish into what was known as Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely in 1965.

Alan JS | 01.04.21 - 8:47 p.m. | #

What about the Soke of Peterborough, amalgamated with Huntingdonshire in 1965?

Betterbee | 02.04.21 - 8:56 a.m. | #

1. The County Gates Gyratory takes its name from the former traffic light crossroads where Prince of Wales Road in Bournemouth and The Avenue in Poole met the A35 Poole Road which links Bournemouth and Poole.

2. I believe there is still a boundary marker on the B1165 showing Holland on one side and Isle of Ely on the other. The name Holland also survives in the South Holland district, based in Spalding.

Ian | 02.04.21 - 9:09 a.m. | #











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