The Journal

Over many, hundreds of years the United Kingdom has been divided and re-divided into a series of counties. In England, it was during the Anglo-Saxon period that the country was split into “shires” for administrative purposes. These shires were administered by “shire reeves” (sheriffs) and these original divisions were solidified after 1066 by the Normans. The famous Domesday Book, held in the National Archives in Kew, London, charts these county boundaries. Much later on, in the later part of the 19th century, local councils began to formalise counties in the process of modernising governance across the country. Across the United Kingdom, counties have been subject to changing political and social needs, and their development over the years gestures towards the country’s complex and interesting history.