I've only just seen this, having been away from base all last week.
Al Margary mentioned the Association of British Counties (ABC)
Gazeteer. As far as I can determine, the counties they use are the same
as we (Roger Kain & I) used at Exeter for our pre-1850 parish
boundaries project, published a couple of years ago. However, the
method by which the ABC determined that this was the 'correct'
solution was quite different from that which we used at Exeter,
which is offered not as a 'correct' solution but rather as a
workable one. These counties are effectively those in use immediately
prior to the changes in admin county boundaries as a result of the 1888
Local Government Act, but subsequent to the 1844 Act which effectively
abolished most detached parts of counties, and are those which appear
on the 1st edition of the Ordnance Survey 6-inch and 1:2500. The
counties are therefore usable for the 1851 census data and associated
list of 'census parishes' which we used as a checklist when compiling
our database. They have the advantage of appearing 'conventional', in
that they include Rutland, and Holy Island, etc, as part of
Northumberland, and 'historic' in that they exclude either the
county of London (1888-1965) or Greater London, but the disadvantage
that they do not take account of pre-1844 changes in boundaries.
However, I think the 'Exeter' solution is the best for anyone needing s
set of fixed county boundaries. A hard copy was published, and sould be
still in print, as Roger J.P.Kain and Richard R. Oliver, Historic
parishes of England & Wales: electronic map - Gazeteer - metadata,
Colchester, History Data Service, 2001, ISBN 0-9540032-0-9: contact
http//hds.essex.ac.uk. (About 12.95 pounds, I think.) This lists all
parishes, hamlets and townships with a 6-figure National Grid centroid.
References to 'pre-1974' county boundaries seem to me hardly more
intellectually or academically reputable than those to 'way back when'
or 'yesteryear', as they often involve references to Greater London
(created 1965 and unaffected,I believe, in 1974), and Huntingdon and
Peterborough, which only came into being in 1965. Fine for anyone with
a set of late states of the OS 1-inch 7th Series, but otherwise pretty
questionable!
Richard Oliver
(Not on royalties...)
-------------------
Richard Oliver, B.A., D.Phil., F.B.Cart.S.,
School of Geography & Archaeology
University of Exeter
Exeter, EX4 4RJ
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