Counties

[Chris Pickford]

I am rather too imtimately aware of the niceties of boundary and county 
changes around Birmingham - having gone into it all pretty thoroughly 
for my Birmingham bells survey (long completed but never published) - 
and I'm pretty sure that John is entirely correct on Selly Oak.

More generally, I have a preference for sticking (fairly loosely) to the 
pre-1974 and/or Lieutenancy counties. It's not that I refuse to accept 
change. Nor is it because the earlier groupings are "traditional" or 
long-established (they weren't - and there's been lots of tinkering down 
the centuries).

My reasons for preferring the older boundaries are these:
1. Many of the post-1974 administrative areas have proved to be too 
short-lived to be durable "handles" for description
2. The historic county groupings (however defined) are important in 
sourcing reference materials regarding particular places (e.g. the 
location of documentation as Anne Willis has observed, or even which 
county bell book to refer to)

There is another reason (a bit of a "hobby-horse" of mine) - and that is 
that places which have switched county tend to be overlooked or 
short-changed in "county" reference books. It's a sort-of "X isn't 
really in yyyshire" or "it's in zzzshire now" mentality. As a result, 
I've always felt it doubly important to make sure that these places are 
properly covered in all my surveys (e.g. my Bedfordshire churches books 
which cover every single place that has at any time been in that 
county), and to explain and account for the administrative history that 
lies behind the omissions in other books. Such places often switch 
between dioceses too, and - again - miss out on coverage in those 
sources as well.

As to whether the historic county changes matter in a source like Dove, 
it's a bit of a moot point. As comments on places like Selly Oak and 
Penge have revealed, it's always complicated - and often contentious. It 
gets trickier still with detached portions of counties and parishes 
(e.g. parts of historic Worcestershire dotted around Warwickshire and 
Oxfordshire) and instances where parishes are split across county 
boundaries. On the whole, I'd say it's far too complicated for a simple 
"Anytown, was Blankshire now Newshire" listing. It is important for 
linkage to historical reference materials, but not really for much else.

-- 
Chris Pickford 4 Walmsley Court, High Street, Kinver, DY7 6HG Tel: 01384 
878435 or (mobile) 07811 453525 E-mail: c.j.pickford at kUSawvmBQp62aOSfTlTRquUzWJJFoa5BLix1STteNlhIDBBePyQn68C1k0U7U1xgSEkbR5CKO2sdK_RaWLA.yahoo.invalid or 
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