England
The whole of England is divided into 48 ceremonial counties, which are also known as geographic counties. Many of these counties have their origins in antiquity, although some were established as recently as 1974. Outside Greater London and the Isles of Scilly, England is also divided into 83 metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties. These correspond to areas used for the purposes of local government and may consist of a single district or be divided into several. As of April 2009, 27 such counties are divided into districts and have a county council. Most ceremonial counties correspond to a metropolitan or non-metropolitan county of the same name, but often with reduced boundaries. The current arrangement is the result of incremental reform; from 1974 to 1996 the metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties corresponded directly with the ceremonial counties. From 1889 to 1974 areas with county councils were known as administrative counties and ceremonial counties were defined separately.
Read more about this topic: Counties Of The United Kingdom
Famous quotes containing the word england:
“It’s easy to understand why the most beautiful poems about England in the spring were written by poets living in Italy at the time.”
—Philip Dunne (1908–1992)
“The instincts of merry England lingered on here with exceptional vitality, and the symbolic customs which tradition has attached to each season of the year were yet a reality on Egdon. Indeed, the impulses of all such outlandish hamlets are pagan still: in these spots homage to nature, self-adoration, frantic gaieties, fragments of Teutonic rites to divinities whose names are forgotten, seem in some way or other to have survived mediaeval doctrine.”
—Thomas Hardy (1840–1928)
“New England is the home of all that is good and noble with all her sternness and uncompromising opinions.”
—Ellen Henrietta Swallow Richards (1842–1911)