Welcome

The Association of British Counties (ABC) is a society dedicated to promoting awareness of the continuing importance of the 92 historic counties of the United Kingdom.

The ABC believes that the historic counties are an important part of the culture, geography and heritage of The United Kingdom. The ABC contends that Britain needs a fixed popular geography, one divorced from the ever-changing names and areas of local government but, instead, one rooted in history, public understanding and commonly held notions of community and identity. The ABC, therefore, seeks to fully re-establish the use of the historic counties as the standard popular geographical reference frame of Britain and to further encourage their use as a basis for social, sporting and cultural activities.

More information about what the historic counties are and why they matter can be found in our An introduction to the historic counties factsheet.

Featured Articles

The Fight for Rutland

Alicia Kearns, MP for Stamford and Rutland, has launched a Save Rutland campaign and petition. The move is in response to the Government’s English Devolution White Paper, one consequence of which is likely to be the abolition of the current Rutland Council and the inclusion … Continue reading →

Proposed new Strategic Authority to be named ‘Cheshire and Warrington’

As we recently reported, Cheshire East Council, Cheshire West & Chester Council and Warrington Council have submitted a bid to the Government to have a new ‘Strategic Authority’ set up to provide devolved government across their combined area. Whilst ABC has no view about the … Continue reading →

English Devolution white paper signals the end of “county councils” – well, maybe….

The Government’s English Devolution White Paper lays out its intention to create a system of devolved government in England based on a set of ‘Strategic Authorities’, each of which is to eventually have a directly elected mayor. Local government within each Strategic Authority area will … Continue reading →