Which is the smallest county in England?

mochyn

rutland Dec 20 03, 2:37 PM

Baloo55th

Depends whether you count Unitary Authorities as counties. Strictly a county contains lower level boroughs/districts, which a UA doesn't. I'd go for Bedfordshire or Berkshire or one that sort of size. Dec 20 03, 2:41 PM

Siskin

21 websites (so far) say Rutland http://www.bigcats.org.uk/world-visitors.html Dec 20 03, 3:34 PM

Baloo55th

According to http://en2.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_unitary_district Rutland is a Unitary District. Mind you, Berkshire is a sort of funny case: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkshire_unitary_district. I still say a county must have lower level authorities under the present rules. Previously, there were County Boroughs which were rather like the current UAs and everything else was in a county. Bristol was both a City and a County at the same time and so was the exception to the rule. Dec 20 03, 4:14 PM

bloomsby

Bristol wasn't the only exception. Norwich was also an exception till from medieval times till 1974. York claimed that it didn't belong to any of the three Ridings of Yorkshire and therefore enjoyed county status ... Moreover, the City of London has claimed that it was never part of Middlesex as it predated the formation of the county - and to it goes on. Dec 21 03, 9:55 PM