County of York to Yorkshire?

[XXX]

York was the county town (i.e. administrative centre) of Yorkshire, Yorkshire being the name of the county. Another name you often find used as shorthand for Yorkshire is Yorks.

Yorkshire was the biggest county in England and as such was divided into smaller administrative areas these being the three ridings - East, West and North along with the Ainsty of York and the city of York (riding is an old anglo-saxon word meaning third so the south got left out).

There was a major overhaul of counties in 1974 when Yorkshire was split into several smaller counties. As part of this York did initially become a part of North Yorkshire losing its county town status to Northallerton. It eventually became what is called a unitary authority meaning it became a separate entity from North Yorkshire for administrative purposes.

You will still find the area referred to as Yorkshire by its older inhabitants (like me!).

Not wanting to confuse you further but Saddleworth became part of the county of Greater Manchester in 1974.

Hope this helps.

[majm]

....

You make an interesting point, but I think it is just misleading info on Wikipedia. On this page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yorkshire Wikipedia states 'Yorkshire (/ˈjɔːrkʃər, -ʃɪər/; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York.
.....
The wills range between the years 1676 and 1806.

My confusion is:

All the testators start their wills with the declaration:

'I 'Joe Bloggs' Yeoman of Saddleworth/Halifax in the County of York do...'

So my question is, why do they say the County of York rather than Yorkshire.

In that era, in legal documents eg wills the 'County of York' would have been the FORMAL way of referring to 'Yorkshire'.   'Yorkshire' would have been the INFORMAL way of referring to 'County of York'. 

Brisbane is the FORMAL word,  Brissie is the INFORMAL word, but both refer to the Capital city of the Queensland. 

JM

[barryd]

According to me there are five styles of naming English Counties. One of each listed. Places like Tyne and Wear not included. The latter makes me ill. Good people bad name.

Bedfordshire
County Durham
Cheshire
Dorset
Northumberland

[karen58]

Hi majm

I think you are right, that Yorkshire is 'formally' known as the County of York.

I think my confusion is with the meaning words shire and county. In England shire seems to be synonymous with the word county. Where in Australia shire is a local government area. 

I find Australia land administrative divisions so much simpler.

Cheers Karen

[KGarrad]

Being English, it never occurred to me that "shire" could mean anything else but a county

But not all counties
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shire

[BashLad]

I think my confusion is with the meaning words shire and county. In England shire seems to be synonymous with the word county. Where in Australia shire is a local government area. 

Shire is the Anglo-Saxon word and county is the Norman word but they mean the same thing. Historically they were just local government areas here too but centuries of politicians' piecemeal tinkering has complicated things. Let's see how simple Australia's local government system looks in 1000 years time.