Counties of England - Culture

Culture

There is no well established series of official symbols or flags covering all the counties. From 1889 the newly-created county councils could apply to the College of Arms for coats of arms, often incorporating traditional symbols associated with the county. This practice continued as new county councils were created in 1965 and 1974. However these armorial bearings belong to the incorporated body of the county council and not to the geographic area of the counties themselves. As county councils have been abolished, and unitary authorities have been carved out, these symbols become obsolete or effectively no longer represent the whole ceremonial county. A recent series of flags, of varying levels of official adoption, have been established in many of the counties by competition or public poll. County days are a recent innovation in some areas.

There are seventeen first-class county cricket teams that are based on historic English counties. They are Derbyshire, Durham, Essex, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Kent, Lancashire, Leicestershire, Middlesex, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Somerset, Surrey, Sussex, Warwickshire, Worcestershire and Yorkshire. There are also nineteen minor county teams. They are Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Cheshire, Cornwall, Cumberland, Devon, Dorset, Herefordshire, Hertfordshire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Northumberland, Oxfordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Suffolk and Wiltshire. The county football associations are roughly based on English counties, with exceptions such as the combinations of Berkshire and Buckinghamshire and Leicestershire and Rutland.