County Towns as Road Hubs

[Chris Bertram]

Aylesbury seems to fit this criteria as a hub for the county’s road network in Buckinghamshire, perhaps more so before the motorways were built.

However, I’ve always considered the town quite difficult to access from anywhere except London (since the A41 was fully dualled from the M25 to Aylesbury).

Oxfordshire roads also converge at the city of Oxford. Even though the old roads continue into the city centre, the ring road around the outside links pretty much all the radial routes.

In Berkshire, I would not describe the previous county town of Abingdon as a road hub at all. Reading as the modern day county town sort of acted like a road hub in the days prior to motorways, the radial A-roads converged at the town centre. Thankfully, you can largely bypass this if travelling east-west via the M4 now (when it is open!). But north south traffic is restricted to travel through the centre.

Berkshire is, despite the -shire suffix, a county not named for a town. WP suggests that it was named after a wood somewhere near Newbury that may no longer exist. If that seems fanciful, then you might want to look for a town or village called something like Berkeley, but no such place exists within the historic county boundary. So it's a bit of a mystery.

[Big Nick]

The reverse is true of Wigtown in Wigtownshire. The town luminaries had the old town hall rebuilt in 1863 as the County Buildings with a strong view to reinforcing the town as the county seat. It's hardly a road or rail hub being halfway down a peninsula and the old harbour has silted up in the last 400 years.
The whole town has faded from its former Georgian glory days but is making a good restart since becoming Scotland's Book Town.

By 1893 the new Wigtownshire County Council had moved to Stranraer which is a transport hub due to the short ferry crossing to Ireland. It has both road and rail links north to Ayr and Glasgow and east to Newton Stewart (the third county seat), Dumfries, Carlisle and Edinburgh.

[varga]

Westmorland is a county, not "was a historic county". The closest administrative area is indeed Westmorland and Furness, but it is not at all within Cumbria - which no longer exists for any purpose other than lieutenancy.

The 1888-1974 county council of the same name was based in Appleby IIRC.

To be pedantic Westmorland was an administrative entity but now it is not which is why things get so messy. 1974 was the time that Marton-in-Cleveland where I live ceased to be in the North Riding of Yorkshire and was in turn part of the following entities.

County Borough of Teesside
Cleveland (non metropolitan county)
Middlesbrough Borough Council

Having recently received my county tax bill which is £2,895.39 I know this part all too well, seems a bit steep for a 3 bedroom bungalow but there you are. Another downside was that Middlesbrough did its usual trick of encouraging development south of the old boundaries while clearing the old city centre and leaving the area as a wasteland. They left some of the street lights and the old town hall but that was about it.

As for ascribing the notion of a Road Hub to local political entities that is I think a mistake, the most that can be said is new roads encourage more out of town development along them, that used to be called ribbon development and was 'a bad thing'. As they now have reached the boundaries of Middlesbrough they are casting around for a new trick. Pretty much the only undeveloped land left is owned by the National Trust (Ormesby Hall) which is a gem.
https://www.google.com/maps/@54.5434292 ... &entry=ttu

They tried and are still trying to get permission to build on the nature reserve of Mansdale Meadow aka Bluebell Beck but there is very strong opposition.
https://www.wearemiddlesbrough.com/thin ... le-meadow/

In spite of popular opinion,not one 'historic county' was abolished in 1974,none of their boundaries were altered either !
The authors of the L.G.A. 1972 said so:
The new county boundaries are administrative areas, and will not alter the traditional boundaries of counties, nor is it intended that the loyalties of people living in them will change despite the different names adopted by the new administrative counties.
^1974 official govt statement on the matter

Middlesbrough never has ceased to be in the North Riding of Yorkshire! It did with all other parts of the North Riding to be under its county council
No historic counties in the UK have been abolished for over 500 years

[AnOrdinarySABREUser]

Maidstone definitely is, with the A249 and A26 terminating there plus the A20, M20 and A229 going through it.The A274 stops just to the south too.

The only issue is that connections between north and south Kent, which Maidstone coincidentally centres on, are subpar. One example would be the A26/A228 multiplex, which has an AADTF of 24k. [link] To compare, the A2 northeast of Dover has an AADTF of 17k. [link] In all fairness, the A26 and A228 diverge for quite some distance so traffic is evenly distributed across the routes. Interestingly, the higher standard A228 is secondary whereas the A26 is primary. You also have the problem of the overloaded A25 between Maidstone and Sevenoaks, no thanks to the lack of junctions on the M26 and M25 J5 being restricted access.

[Vierwielen]

In spite of popular opinion,not one 'historic county' was abolished in 1974,none of their boundaries were altered either !
The authors of the L.G.A. 1972 said so:
The new county boundaries are administrative areas, and will not alter the traditional boundaries of counties, nor is it intended that the loyalties of people living in them will change despite the different names adopted by the new administrative counties.
^1974 official govt statement on the matter

Written no doubt by Sir Humphrey.

[Vierwielen]

In spite of popular opinion,not one 'historic county' was abolished in 1974,none of their boundaries were altered either !
The authors of the L.G.A. 1972 said so:
The new county boundaries are administrative areas, and will not alter the traditional boundaries of counties, nor is it intended that the loyalties of people living in them will change despite the different names adopted by the new administrative counties.
^1974 official govt statement on the matter

If one walked westwards along the Bournemouth promenade in the late 1980's, one came to a 10-metre or so unmade section after which one was on the Poole promenade. Historically, that was the Dorset/Hampshire border, but in 1974 both sections were in Dorset. The two sectins have since been joined and are now under the BCP council.

[Steven]

Historically, that was the Dorset/Hampshire border, but in 1974 both sections were in Dorset. The two sectins have since been joined and are now under the BCP council.

Which wasn't relevant to administrative services after 1900 as Bournemouth was a county borough from that date. Hampshire County Council had no powers there.

Hence, the actual accurate statement for administrative purposes is that it was the Bournemouth CB/Dorset CC boundary, but after 1974 both bodies were abolished and the new Dorset County Council administered both before later changes. It is still the location of the Hampshire / Dorset boundary as council areas and counties are not the same.

[exiled]

The Revolution is generally agreed to have ended with the Coup of 18 brumaire year VIII (9th Nov 1799), though the Napoleonic imperial system would embed slowly. The official name of the state remained République Française for a while after Nap declared himself hereditary emperor.

It can also be argued that French history from then on through the 19th C was the Revolution's spin offs.

Got a good one, courtesy of Napoleonic Wars specialist Michael Broers:

"Napoleon was the French Revolution on horseback."

There is so much about the UK that would have benefited from the administrative impact of the French Revolution...

I have been listening to Jonn Elledge's 'History Of The World in 47 Borders' and it is a fascinating over view of the subject, how some borders have been fossilised for centuries, how others change every second Thursday, and how colonial borders often have little to do with natural features just a line drawn on the map.

The French departements turned up, both the equal sized rejected plan, and the system still enforce today. One thing he mentioned was how the departements do often share the boundaries of the former provinces or shadow them. Brittany and Normandy are still recognisable on a French map even without the current regions of the name. In part because their borders were ideal borders, hills, rivers and so on, to build the system of departements out of. Though the names were deliberately chosen to avoid the links. Most being rivers, though some like Calvados are a series of small rocks in the sea, and Manche is the Channel.

[Steven]

One thing he mentioned was how the departements do often share the boundaries of the former provinces or shadow them.

It's amazing how often this happens over here too if you look into things closely enough.

As an example, the current western border of Cannock Chase District Council around the A5 is in the exact same location as the eastern boundary of Wolverhampton as laid out in the foundation charter back in 985, and the later Royal Peculiar and Parish boundary.