Old English counties

[Dave]

Is Coniston and Coniston water in Westmoreland, or Cumbria?

In the case of the new unitarian political counties, where is it now?

TIA

Dave

[Dave Liquorice]

Well as Westmoorland (note spelling) hasn't existed as a County since

1974, Coniston is in South Lakland, Cumbria.

[Tim Streater]

I think it's Cumbria. IIRC, Cumberland and Westmoreland were merged in

1974.

[hugh]

In message , Dave writes

Cumbria - and the old name was Cumberland.

[chris French]

In message , Dave writes

Presumably, by Cumbria you are referring to the old county of Cumberland. Cumbria is the modern administrative county

In answer to you question, Coniston and it's Water was in neither. It was in the Furness region of Lanacahsire - detached from the rest of the county. You can see an old map of the county on this page:

It's not a unitary authority, it's in South Lakeland Distict Council, Cumbria County Council areas

[Dave]

I was trying to go back to the old counties.

Dave

[Dave Liquorice]

Coniston was in Westmorland (sorry I got it wrong earlier as well with oo not o but I knew the e wasn't right), Cumberland was a different county.

Cumbria is not the old Cumberland.

Wikipedia:

"The county of Cumbria was created in 1974 from the traditional counties of Cumberland and Westmorland, the Cumberland County Borough of Carlisle, along with the North Lonsdale or Furness part of Lancashire, usually referred to as "Lancashire North of the Sands", (including the county borough of Barrow-in-Furness) and, from the West Riding of Yorkshire, the Sedbergh Rural District."

[The Natural Philosopher]

Westmorland and Lakeland (sp)

[Frank Erskine]

Lakeland?

I have many ancestors from Westmorland so I still prefer to differentiate Westmorland from Cumberland for my family tree.

[Andy Dingley]

Lancashire until 1973, then Cumbria since.

[jgharston]

Nice maps. What are the coloured regions? The commentaries suggest they are Parliamentary Constituencies from 1885, but

labels "Hallamshire" as being what've been usually called "Sheffield Hillsborough" or the southern half of "Penistone & Stocksbridge", and the Handsworth bit is way too small to have suffient population to make up a Parliamentary Constituency, plus Sheffield had seven constituencies in the 1880s.

JGH

[Dave]

Rather than reply to the many posters, I am going to answer my own post.

A very many thanks to all who answered what I thought would be a simple question. It looks like it turned out to be a lot more complex than I thought.

Many thanks again.

Dave

[chris French]

Don't know.

Maybe old Metropolitan Boroughs?

[Hugo Nebula]

No, it turned out to be a poorly-worded question. "Which historic (i.e., pre-1974) county _were_ Coniston and Coniston Water in? Was it Westmorland, Cumberland, Lancashire or Yorkshire? Following Local Government reorganisation of the last two decades, are they in a Unitary Authority or a County, and which one?"

Or you could have spent thirty seconds on Wikipedia.

[Dave]

More than 30 seconds on wiki told me absolutely nothing. The posters that did reply without scorn, have filled me in with all the details.

It's a matter of history.

Dave

[The Other Mike]

Handsworth is presumably "Sheffield Attercliffe" (1885-2010) but it doesn't explain the absence of the other constituencies.

Looking at your quoted map and other maps in Yorkshire backs up your

1885 date but at that time some constituencies ceased to exist and other were created so the map seems to have errors

parliamentary constituencies:

Whitby ceased to be a parliamentary constituency in 1885 (becoming Scarborough and Whitby) Howdenshire and Buckrose existed until 1950 Osgoldcross ceased to exist in 1918

Sowerby existed from 1885-1983 Holmfirth existed from 1885-1918

Transport links: The Woodhead tunnel, presumeably singular is shown so its post 1845 The New Junction Canal isn't shown so its pre 1905

There may be other clues in road, rail or canal networks.

"German Ocean" instead of North Sea, a name deprecated in the towards the end of the 19th Century.

[jgharston]

That's the puzzle, in the currency of the map Handworth had nowhere near enough population to be a constituency, and the County Borough of Sheffield had five constituencies within its boundaries, Sheffield Attercliffe, Sheffield Brightside, Sheffield Central, Sheffield Ecclesall and Sheffield Hallam, more-or-less each of the townships in

Hallam and Ecclesall continuing westwards to the city boundary.

JGH

[The Other Mike]

What I was trying to indicate in my previous posting is that it's showing an almost impossible picture elsewhere in the county. It's pre 1885 and post 1885 on a random basis. The mapmaker implements some changes but either doesn't know or can't be arsed about including other changes so it could have nothing to do with constituencies.

Some other remote possibilities:

Could it have some basis in the structure of the courts and legal system or even the church?