This is a very complex question and you have to separate out the
differences between geography and administrative jurisdiction.
From the Saxon period onwards one had two quite different administrative
systems - the county and the parish. The County was a top down concern
with justices and sheriffs appointed by the King to administer his
justice and enforce his laws. County areas were only generally
contiguous, for example Wokingham was part of Wiltshire not Berkshire.
Parishes on the other hand were an ecclesiastical concern and were
defined in the 10th century by the need to decide to which church the
tithes should be paid.
The county system was further subdivided into hundreds and manors and
there was only a very rough correlation between manor and parish so that
you could get a parish with several manors or a manor with several
parishes. The borders of parishes were rarely changed but manorial
boundaries and therefore hundred and county boundaries could be changed
by the payment of a fine - you can see some of the transactions in the
Fine and Patent rolls.
In the early 19th century parishes were grouped together to form unions
to administer the Poor law and also grouped to form sanitary districts -
in general these coincided and from them emerged the urban and rural
districts. Other towns and cities received charters which exempted them
from superior jurisdictions and these evolved into county boroughs and
municipal boroughs.
Some order was brought into the system in 1888 when the County Council
was born - these defined administrative areas and usually included urban
and rural districts and municipal boroughs within a contiguous area
regardless of which county they were in previously. County boroughs had
the same status as counties even though they were entirely within the
county geographical area.
In 1894 Parish Councils were formed by splitting the functions of the
old ecclesiastical parishes into civil and ecclesiastical - the latter
being now governed by a Parochial Church Council. There were many
changes to civil parish boundaries in the 1890s as anomalies were
resolved - for example the parts of Whitchurch on Thames parish south of
the Thames which had been governed by the Oxfordshire Justices rather
than the Berkshire ones were transferred to Purley and hence back to
Berkshire. This was done effectively by Orders in Council not statute.
Since then there have been many changes to civil and ecclesiastical
parish boundaries and they now bear only a vague resemblance to each
other even when bearing the same parish name.
The local government act of 1972 rearranged administrative areas into a
two or three tier hierarchy of Civil Parish, District and County but
these were for administration purposes only - hence for example many
parishes in northern Berkshire were transferred to the administration of
Oxfordshire County Council but were technically left in Berkshire as far
as Lieutenancy and Archdeaconary were concerned. The Post Office then
got into the act and included some of the new county administrative
areas in their definitions of postal delivery areas Thus Abingdon for
example while still technically part of Berkshire but administered by
Oxfordshire County Council got an OX post code and memories being
relatively short everyone now thinks of it as being in Oxfordshire.
Areas like Herefordshire and Rutland managed to hang onto their identity
much better even though technically part of Worcestershire and
Leicestershire County Council's administrative areas. Both have now
recovered their independence as have most of the great cities and former
county Boroughs.
However regardless of all the local government acts and changes in
administrative areas there have been no changes to geographical county
boundaries since 1888. Counties like Middlesex and Berkshire still exist
even though they no longer have County Councils and ersatz counties like
Avon, South Yorkshire and West Midlands also exist as post office
addresses although more and more residents are avoiding their use.
Regards
John
In message <[log in to unmask]>, Chris Salter
<[log in to unmask]> writes
>Frank,
> I believe that some Devon parishes had bits in Cornwall (west of the
>Tamar) in the 19th century. I think that Maker (across the river from
>Stonehouse (now part of Plymouth) was one of these, and there was
>another north of Gunnislake. Sorry the memory is so hazy, but it is a
>very very long time since I last looked at the relevant maps. So that is
>a region that where you might look to see what exactly happened and why
>in this context.
>
>Frank Sharman wrote:
>
>> Does anyone know if any county boundaries changed in the early 19th
>> century?
>>
>> I get the impression that county boundaries never changed. Parish
>> boundaries did and you could end up with a parish split between two
>> counties.
>>
>> I cannot think of any mechanism for changing county boundaries other than
>> by statute. (The use of the royal prerogative would, surely, have been
>> unacceptable by the 19th century). I can think of enclosure Acts which
>> changed parish boundaries but I have never heard of one changing county
>> boundaries. And I can find no general legislation doing it. In any event,
>> I strongly suspect that in the early 19th century the county was not
>> sufficiently important for anyone to worry about their boundaries. I would
>> guess that the first time anyone did anything was when county councils were
>> set up in 1888.
>>
>> Nevertheless Ivor Noel Hume tells me, in a current email correspondence,
>> that the 1851 census refers to Alveley in Staffordshire, when everyone
>> knows it is, and always has been, in Shropshire. Is it likely that the
>> local inhabitants, and the census taker, were mistaken about what county
>> they were in? Or did the boundaries in fact change?
>>
>> All advice and suggestions would be happily received. (The reason we want
>> to know about this is that Noel is trying to get details of a large jug,
>> made by a previously unknown maker in Bradley, near Bilston, and inscribed
>> to another John Bacon, who appears to live in Alveley. Trying to track
>> down this man when it is unclear where Alveley is, is proving tricky).
>>
>> With thanks and best wishes to all,
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Frank Sharman
>> Wolverhampton
>> 01902 763246
>>
>>
>
>--
>Chris Salter,
>Oxford Materials Characterisation Service,
>&
>Material Science-based Archaeology Group,
>&
>Electron Microscopy Research Support Group,
>Oxford University Begbroke Science Park,
>Sandy Lane, Yarnton, Oxford, OX5 1PF
>Tel 01865 283722, EPMA 283741, Mobile 07776031608
--
John Chapman
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