County borough

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County borough is a term introduced in 1889 in the United Kingdom (excluding Scotland), to refer to a borough or a city independent of county council control. They were abolished by the Local Government Act 1972 in England and Wales, but continue in use for lieutenancy and shrievalty in Northern Ireland. In the Republic of Ireland they remain in existence but have been renamed cities under the provisions of the Local Government Act 2001. The Local Government (Wales) Act 1994 re-introduced the term for certain "principal areas" in Wales. Scotland did not have county boroughs but instead counties of cities. These were abolished on 16 May 1975. All four Scottish cities of the time were included in this category. There was an additional category of large burgh in the Scottish system, which were responsible for all services apart from police, education and fire.

Origins

When county councils were first created in 1889, it was decided that to let them have authority over large towns or cities would be impractical, and so any large incorporated place would have the right to be a county borough, and thus independent from the administrative county it would otherwise come under. Some cities and towns were already independent counties corporate, and most were to become county boroughs. Originally ten county boroughs were proposed; Bristol, Hull, Newcastle upon Tyne and Nottingham, which were already counties, and Birmingham, Bradford, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, and Sheffield, which were not. The Local Government Act 1888 as eventually passed required a population of over 50,000 except in the case of existing counties corporate. This resulted in 61 county boroughs in England and two in Wales. Several exceptions were allowed, mainly for historic towns: Bath, Dudley and Oxford were all under the 50,000 limit in the 1901 census. Some of the smaller counties corporate — Berwick upon Tweed, Lichfield, Lincoln, Poole, Carmarthen and Haverfordwest — did not become county boroughs, although Canterbury, with a population under 25,000, did.

England

This table shows those county boroughs that existed in England and Wales between the Local Government Acts of 1888 (that created them) and 1972 (that abolished them from 1974).

County borough	From	Associated county	1971 census pop	Successors in 1974
Barnsley	1913	Yorkshire, West Riding	75,439	Barnsley MB (part)	South Yorkshire
Barrow-in-Furness	1889	Lancashire	64,039	Barrow (part)	Cumbria
Bath	1889	Somerset	84,686	Bath	Avon
Birkenhead	1889	Cheshire	137,889	Wirral MB (part)	Merseyside
Birmingham	1889	Warwickshire	1,014,773	Birmingham MD (part)	West Midlands
Blackburn	1889	Lancashire	101,802	Blackburn (part)	Lancashire
Blackpool	1904	Lancashire	151,871	Blackpool	Lancashire
Bolton	1889	Lancashire	154,223	Bolton MB (part)	Greater Manchester
Bootle	1889	Lancashire	74,304	Sefton MB (part)	Merseyside
Bournemouth	1900	Hampshire	153,861	Bournemouth	Dorset
Bradford	1889	Yorkshire, West Riding	294,164	Bradford MB (part)	West Yorkshire
Brighton	1889	Sussex	161,350	Brighton	East Sussex
Bristol	1889	Gloucestershire	426,653	Bristol	Avon
Burnley	1889	Lancashire	76,489	Burnley (part)	Lancashire
Burton upon Trent	1901	Staffordshire	50,211	East Staffordshire (part)	Staffordshire
Bury	1889	Lancashire	67,870	Bury MB (part)	Greater Manchester
Canterbury	1889	Kent‡
Carlisle	1915	Cumberland	71,580	Carlisle (part)	Cumbria
Chester	1889	Cheshire	62,923	Chester (part)	Cheshire
Coventry	1889	Warwickshire	335,260	Coventry MB (part)	West Midlands
Darlington	1915	Durham	85,916	Darlington (part)	Durham
Derby	1889	Derbyshire	219,578	Derby	Derbyshire
Dewsbury	1913	Yorkshire, West Riding	51,354	Kirklees (part)	West Yorkshire
Doncaster	1927	Yorkshire, West Riding	82,671	Doncaster MB (part)	South Yorkshire
Dudley	1889	Worcestershire to 1966 then Staffordshire	185,592	Dudley MB (part)	West Midlands
Eastbourne	1911	Sussex	70,949	Eastbourne	East Sussex
Exeter	1889	Devon	95,711	Exeter	Devon
Gateshead	1889	Durham	94,464	Gateshead MB (part)	Tyne and Wear
Gloucester	1889	Gloucestershire	90,223	Gloucester	Gloucestershire
Grimsby	1891	Lincolnshire	95,502	Grimsby	Humberside
Halifax	1889	Yorkshire, West Riding	91,263	Calderdale (part)	West Yorkshire
Hartlepool	1967	Durham	97,082	Hartlepool (part)	Cleveland
Hastings	1889	Sussex	72,414	Hastings	East Sussex
Huddersfield	1889	Yorkshire, West Riding	131,188	Kirklees (part)	West Yorkshire
Ipswich	1889	Suffolk	123,297	Ipswich	Suffolk
Kingston upon Hull	1889	Yorkshire, East Riding	285,965	Kingston upon Hull	Humberside
Leeds	1889	Yorkshire, West Riding	496,036	Leeds MB (part)	West Yorkshire
Leicester	1889	Leicestershire	284,208	Leicester	Leicestershire
Lincoln	1889	Lincolnshire	77,077 (1961)	Lincoln	Lincolnshire
Liverpool	1889	Lancashire	610,114	Liverpool	Merseyside
Luton	1964	Bedfordshire	161,400	Luton	Bedfordshire
Manchester	1889	Lancashire	543,741	Manchester MB (part)	Greater Manchester
Newcastle upon Tyne	1889	Northumberland	222,172	Newcastle upon Tyne MB (part)	Tyne and Wear
Northampton	1889	Northamptonshire	126,597	Northampton (part)	Northamptonshire
Nottingham	1889	Nottinghamshire	300,675	Nottingham	Nottinghamshire
Norwich	1889	Norfolk	122,093	Norwich	Norfolk
Oldham	1889	Lancashire	105,922	Oldham MB (part)	Greater Manchester
Oxford	1889	Oxfordshire	108,834	Oxford	Oxfordshire
Plymouth	1889	Devon	239,467	Plymouth	Devon
Portsmouth	1889	Hampshire	197,453	Portsmouth	Hampshire
Preston	1889	Lancashire	98,091	Preston (part)	Lancashire
Reading	1889	Berkshire	132,978	Reading	Berkshire
Rochdale	1889	Lancashire	91,461	Rochdale MB (part)	Greater Manchester
Rotherham	1902	Yorkshire, West Riding	84,800	Rotherham MB (part)	South Yorkshire
St Helens	1889	Lancashire	104,326	St Helens MB (part)	Merseyside
Salford	1889	Lancashire	131,006	Salford MB (part)	Greater Manchester
Sheffield	1889	Yorkshire, West Riding	520,308	Sheffield MB (part)	South Yorkshire
Solihull	1964	Warwickshire	107,086	Solihull MB (part)	West Midlands
Southampton	1889	Hampshire ‡	215,131	Southampton	Hampshire
Southend-on-Sea	1914	Essex	162,735	Southend-on-Sea	Essex
Southport	1905	Lancashire	84,524	Metropolitan Borough of Sefton (part)	Merseyside
South Shields	1889	Durham	100,676	South Tyneside (part)	Tyne and Wear
Stockport	1889	Cheshire	139,598	Metropolitan Borough of Stockport (part)	Greater Manchester
Stoke on Trent	1910	Staffordshire	265,258	Stoke-on-Trent	Staffordshire
Sunderland	1889	Durham	217,075	Sunderland MB (part)	Tyne and Wear
Teesside	1968	Yorkshire, North Riding	396,233	Middlesbrough (part) Stockton (part) Langbaurgh (part)	Cleveland
Torbay	1968	Devon	109,260	Torbay	Devon
Tynemouth	1904	Northumberland	69,339	North Tyneside (part)	Tyne and Wear
Wakefield	1915	Yorkshire, West Riding	59,591	Wakefield MB (part)	West Yorkshire
Wallasey	1913	Cheshire	97,216	Wirral MB (part)	Merseyside
Walsall	1889	Staffordshire	184,734	Walsall MB (part)	West Midlands
Warley	1966	Worcestershire	163,567	[[Sandwell] (part)	West Midlands
Warrington	1900	Lancashire	68,322	Warrington (part)	Cheshire
West Bromwich	1889	Staffordshire	166,592	Sandwell (part)	West Midlands
Wigan	1889	Lancashire	81,144	Wigan MB (part)	Greater Manchester
Wolverhampton	1889	Staffordshire	269,112	Wolverhampton MB	West Midlands
Worcester	1889	Worcestershire ‡	73,454	Worcester (part)	Hereford and Worcester
Great Yarmouth	1889	Norfolk	50,236	Great Yarmouth (part)	Norfolk
York	1889	Yorkshire, West Riding ‡	104,783	York	North Yorkshire

Only four districts with more than one county borough were formed: Wirral, Sandwell, Sefton and Kirklees. Elsewhere, county boroughs usually formed the core or all of a district named after the county borough - with the exceptions of Halifax, whose metropolitan district was named Calderdale, Burton upon Trent, which became part of the East Staffordshire district, and Teesside, which was split up between three non-metropolitan districts.

Previous county boroughs

County boroughs to be abolished prior to 1974 were:

County borough	County	Created	Abolished	Successor
Croydon	Surrey	1889	1965	Greater London: London Borough of Croydon
Devonport	Devon	1889	1914	Plymouth
East Ham	Essex	1915	1965	Greater London: London Borough of Newham
Hanley	Staffordshire	1889	1910	Stoke on Trent
Middlesbrough	Yorkshire, North Riding	1889	1968	Teesside
Smethwick	Staffordshire	1907	1966	Warley
West Ham	Essex	1889	1965	Greater London: London Borough of Newham
West Hartlepool	Durham	1902	1967	Hartlepool

Wales

Cardiff	1889	Glamorgan	279,046	Cardiff (part)	South Glamorgan
Merthyr Tydfil	1908	Glamorgan	55,283	Merthyr Tydfil	Mid Glamorgan
Newport	1891	Monmouthshire	112,298	Newport	Gwent
Swansea	1889	Glamorgan	173,355	Swansea (part)	West Glamorgan

In Wales, several principal areas are now county boroughs:

• Newport (acquired city status in 2002)
• Merthyr Tydfil
• Caerphilly
• Blaenau Gwent
• Torfaen
• Vale of Glamorgan
• Bridgend
• Rhondda Cynon Taf
• Neath Port Talbot
• Wrexham
• Conwy

For all practical purposes, county boroughs are exactly the same as the other principal areas of Wales called "counties", as all these areas are run by unitary authorities (i.e.: have the functions of both boroughs and counties). Although unitary authorities are functionally equivalent to county boroughs, only in Wales is the title given official recognition by Act of Parliament.

Northern Ireland

The county boroughs of Belfast and Londonderry were created by the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898. For administrative purposes they were replaced with two larger districts (Belfast and Londonderry, subsequently renamed Derry).

Republic of Ireland

The Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898 created county boroughs in Ireland. Under the Act, four former counties corporate (Cork, Dublin, Limerick and Waterford) became county boroughs. Galway became a county borough in 1986.

Under the Local Government Act 2001 (which replaced most existing local government legislation in Ireland), the term "County Borough" was abolished and replaced with "City" (and hence, "Corporation" with "City Council"). However Kilkenny, while a city, is instead administered as a town (and part of the county council area) for local government purposes. It is allowed to use the title "Borough Council" instead of "Town Council" however.

See also

• Metropolitan borough