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Curated category

Non-metropolitan counties

  • HertfordshireHertfordshire sits immediately north of London, a county whose name traces back to a deer crossing over a watercourse. The Anglo-Saxon phrase heort ford…
  • SurreySurrey sits in South East England as one of the most densely wooded counties in the country, with 22.4 percent of its land under tree cover compared to a…
  • EssexEssex, the ceremonial county lying east of London, holds a distinction that most English counties cannot claim: its principal town, Colchester, is the oldest…
  • SuffolkSuffolk sits at the eastern edge of England, where the land runs flat toward the North Sea and the rivers cut long, winding estuaries before meeting the sea.
  • West SussexWest Sussex sits at the southern edge of England, where chalk hills meet the English Channel and ancient hillforts share the skyline with one of Britain's…
  • KentKent sits at the edge of England, staring across thirty-four kilometres of water toward France. That narrow gap, the Strait of Dover, is the reason Kent has…
  • WarwickshireWarwickshire sits at the geographic heart of England, a county whose road signs greet visitors with a single declaration: "Shakespeare's County." Born in…
  • DevonThe county of Devon straddles a peninsula, creating a unique geographical situation among English counties. It possesses two separate coastlines: one facing…
  • WorcestershireWorcestershire is a county in the West Midlands of England with a name that has confounded outsiders for centuries and even made it into an animated film.
  • DerbyshireDerbyshire sits at the centre of England, a county of 2,625 square kilometres where the edge of the Peak District drops into the flatlands of the Midlands.
  • LancashireLancashire is a ceremonial county in North West England, and its story begins not with a tidy founding moment but with a striking absence.