Throughout this site we have used the county names applicable to the period 1840 to 1940. This is because there have been several changes to names and boundaries since the 1970’s and this can be confusing.
An excellent map of the old counties which is produced by the Association of British Counties is available at http://www.gazetteer.co.uk/gazmap1.htm. They also sell an excellent gazetteer in Excel format of UK cities, towns and villages and their related county names.
A list of ‘old’ counties is shown below:
ENGLAND
Bedfordshire
Berkshire
Buckinghamshire
Cambridgeshire
Cheshire
Cornwall
Cumberland
Derbyshire
Devon
Dorset
Durham
Essex
Gloucestershire
Hampshire
Herefordshire
Hertfordshire
Huntingdonshire
Isles of Scilly
Kent
Lancashire
Leicestershire
Lincolnshire
Middlesex
Norfolk
Northamptonshire
Northumberland
Nottinghamshire
Oxfordshire
Rutland
Shropshire
Somerset
Staffordshire
Suffolk
Surrey
Sussex
Warwickshire
Westmorland
Wiltshire
Worcestershire
Yorkshire, East Riding
Yorkshire, North Riding
Yorkshire, West Riding
SCOTLAND
Aberdeenshire
Angus
Argyllshire
Ayrshire
Banffshire
Berwickshire
Buteshire
Caithness
Clackmannanshire
Cromartyshire
Dumfriesshire
Dunbartonshire
East Lothian
Fife
Inverness-shire
Kincardineshire
Kirkcudbrightshire
Lanarkshire
Midlothian
Morayshire
Nairnshire
Orkney
Peeblesshire
Perthshire
Renfrewshire
Ross-shire
Roxburghshire
Selkirkshire
Shetland
Stirlingshire
Sutherland
West Lothian
Wigtownshire
WALES
Anglesey
Brecknockshire
Caernarfonshire
Cardiganshire
Carmarthenshire
Denbighshire
Flintshire
Glamorgan
Merioneth
Monmouthshire
Montgomeryshire
Pembrokeshire
Radnorshire