Practical Regionalism in England and Wales

Abstract

MORE than twenty years have passed since Professor C. B. Fawcett read a paper to the Royal Geographical Society on Natural divisions of (Geogr. J. 49 (1917) 125-44) (Fig. 2). This paper, which was later expanded into a book ('The provinces of England/ 1919), was an attempt to divide England into entirely new administrative areas which were not only larger but also more consonant with the facts of geography of the present day than the ancient counties. As will be seen from the maps, the two schemes of 1917 and 1919 differ from each other in several important details (cf. Figs. 2, 3). Professor Fawcett was not alone in suggesting such a radical change of our administrative system. Among other writers, Mr. G. D. H. Cole, in his book 'The future of local government' (1921), advocated a somewhat similar scheme to that proposed by Professor Fawcett (Fig. 4). Mr. Cole's arguments in favour of the changes he suggested were based largely on political and economic reasons, and his divisions were not designed to be so strictly in accordance with geography as those of Professor Fawcett. Another interest? ing scheme appeared in Housing, a publication of the Ministry of Health, in 1920. This combined a division into fifteen ''provinces with a subdivision into fifty-nine regions. The smaller units were in fact considered to be of greater importance than the larger areas (Fig. 5). Since the paper on this subject was read to the Society, some remarkable but rather haphazard practical advances have been made towards the goal indicated by Professor Fawcett, and the time is ripe for another survey of this most important issue. In 1919 theory was ahead of practice, but at the present time practice is getting too far away from theory.1 The administrative divisions of this country may be grouped into three orders. First there are the Civil Parishes, the smallest units, while the second class consists of Rural Districts which are matched by Urban Districts or Non-County Boroughs. The districts are a modern creation, but in earlier times groups of parishes were organized as Hundreds. The third and most important units in the administrative hierarchy are the Counties with their urban counterparts, the County Boroughs. This triple system of Parish, District, County and Borough is a very ancient one and it has become unsatisfactory in several ways, but chiefly because it divorces the rural areas from the large boroughs and cities. Further, the boundaries of the counties in many places have remained unaltered for the past thousand years, and have received only slight modifications in spite of the changes in distribution of population that have taken place since the Industrial Revolution. The counties, for purposes of administration, consist of those portions of their areas that are left after the county boroughs have taken over important parts of the county's original extent. For the counties there remain the rural areas, the smaller towns, and the suburban districts that grow up immediately outside the boundaries of great cities.