Shire
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Shire is a traditional term for an administrative division of land in Great Britain and some other English-speaking and Commonwealth countries. It is generally synonymous with county. English counties
Three Shire Heads bridge, where three shires in England (Cheshire, Derbyshire and Staffordshire) meet
Three Shire Stones (with smaller interior engraved stones dated to 1736), in Batheaston, marking where the historic counties of Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Somerset (then Somersetshire) meet
Anglo Saxon Chronicle scire
Anglo Saxon Chronicle scira
Counties of England
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The counties of England are a type of subdivision of England. Counties have been used as administrative areas in England since Anglo-Saxon times. There are three definitions of county in England: the
Shire
…in Great Britain and some other English-speaking and Commonwealth countries. It is generally synonymous with county (such as Berkshire and Cheshire). English counties are among the oldest extant national divisions in the world. It was first used in Wessex from the beginning of Anglo-Saxon settlement, and spread to…
Many counties had a central courthouse from which they were administered, which often became the first meeting place for the county councils created in 1889, such as Shire Hall, Stafford.
County flags at Parliament Square, opposite the United Kingdom Parliament in Westminster, London