The Association of British Counties (ABC) promotes the importance of the historic counties of the UK to our history, heritage and culture. The biggest challenge facing the identities of the historic counties in England is the continued confusion of the historic counties with local government … Continue reading
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Leicestershire Flag Competition – Time to Press ‘Pause’
Leicestershire is the only historic county of England which does not yet have a flag registered with the Flag Institute. We were delighted, therefore, when BBC Radio Leicester agreed to run a Flag of Leicestershire competition, endorsed by the Flag Institute, to select a flag … Continue reading
29 November 2020
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Caernarfonshire Day – 28th Nov
Caernarfonshire (Sir Gaernarfon) is a maritime county in north Wales. A large proportion of the population is Welsh-speaking. The county may be reckoned to have three distinctive areas: the coastal lands (Arfon and the coast to the River Conwy), Snowdonia and the Llŷn Peninsula. The … Continue reading
28 November 2020
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Bedfordshire Day 28th Nov
Bedfordshire is an inland county in the south-eastern Midlands of England. The southern end of the county is swept by the chalk ridge of the Chiltern Hills. The rest of the shire is part of the broad drainage basin of the River Great Ouse and … Continue reading
28 November 2020
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Westmorland Day 2020
Both Westmorland Dales Day and the Westmorland County Show had to be cancelled in 2020. All the more reason to celebrate this year’s Westmorland Day on Tuesday 29th September 2020. On this day in 1397, Ralph Neville was created the first Earl of Westmorland by … Continue reading
28 September 2020
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Wiltshire Day – 5th June
The lockdown has done nothing to dampen the celebration of county days this year. Although celebrations have been restricted to being on social media, the year on year growth in their popularity continues. On 23rd February we celebrated Shropshire Day. In March we celebrated Cornwall … Continue reading
4 June 2020
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More “county councils” to go – to the huge benefit of our historic counties
Upcoming local government changes continue the trend which will eventually clear-up the confusion in the public mind between the historic counties and local government – to the huge benefit of both. A core aim of ABC is to see a clear line drawn between the … Continue reading
27 February 2020
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Shropshire Day – Sun 23rd Feb
Shropshire has the privilege of kicking off the county day season for 2020. Sunday 23rd February 2020 is Shropshire Day, a day to celebrate everything we love about this beautiful shire. And there is much to love. The Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, … Continue reading
22 February 2020
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Gazetteer Gets An Upgrade
We’ve spent the last few months giving the Gazetteer of British Place Names (http://www.gazetteer.org.uk) a major upgrade. We first published the Gazetteer back in 1997 and it quickly became the standard reference work for the geography of Great Britain. Since then it has been hugely … Continue reading
11 February 2020
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Westmorland Day – Sunday 29th September 2019
Sunday 29th September is the day to celebrate everything we love about the beautiful historic county of Westmorland. From Kirkby Lonsdale to Newbiggin, from Ambleside to Kirkby Stephen, from the top of Helvellyn to the waters of Windermere, it is a day to celebrate the … Continue reading
28 September 2019
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