Yorkshire, formally known as the County of York, is a historic county of Northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison with other English counties, functions have been undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform. Throughout these changes, Yorkshire has continued to be recognised as a geographic territory and cultural region. The name is familiar and well understood across the United Kingdom and is in common use in the media and the military, and also features in the titles of current areas of civil administration such as North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire and the East Riding of Yorkshire.
South Yorkshire is a ceremonial and metropolitan county as well as a mayoralty in England. It had a population of 1.34 million in 2011 and has an area of 1,552 square kilometres (599 sq mi). The county has four metropolitan boroughs; Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield.
The East Riding of Yorkshire, or simply East Riding or East Yorkshire, is a county in Northern England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and west and North Lincolnshire to the south. The coastal towns of Bridlington and Hornsea are popular with tourists from inland areas, and the port city of Kingston upon Hull is an economic, transport and tourism centre which also receives much sea freight from around the world. The current East Riding of Yorkshire came into existence in 1996 after the abolition of the County of Humberside. The county's administration is in The ancient market town of Beverley. The landscape is mainly rural, consisting of rolling hills, valleys and flat plains with many small villages and some towns scattered amid the Yorkshire Wolds. Major settlements include Kingston upon Hull, Beverley, Bridlington and Goole. At the 2011 United Kingdom census, its population was 334,179.
Humberside was a non-metropolitan and ceremonial county in Northern England from 1 April 1974 until 1 April 1996. It was composed of land from either side of the Humber Estuary, created from portions of the East Riding of Yorkshire, West Riding of Yorkshire, and the northern part of Lindsey, Lincolnshire. The county council's headquarters was County Hall at Beverley, inherited from East Riding County Council. Its largest settlement and only city was Kingston upon Hull. Other notable towns included Goole, Beverley, Scunthorpe, Grimsby, Cleethorpes and Bridlington. The county stretched from Wold Newton in its northern tip to a different Wold Newton at its most southern point.
The counties and areas for the purposes of the lieutenancies, also referred to as the lieutenancy areas of England and informally known as ceremonial counties, are areas of England to which lords-lieutenant are appointed. Legally, the areas in England, as well as in Wales and Scotland, are defined by the Lieutenancies Act 1997 as "counties and areas for the purposes of the lieutenancies in Great Britain", in contrast to the areas used for local government. They are also informally known as "geographic counties", to distinguish them from other types of counties of England.
The South Midlands is an area of England which includes Northamptonshire, the northern parts of Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire and the western part of Bedfordshire. It is not one of the NUTS statistical regions of the United Kingdom like the East Midlands or West Midlands.
The Hull Barnsley & West Riding Junction Railway and Dock Company (HB&WRJR&DCo.) was opened on 20 July 1885. It had a total projected length of 66 miles but never reached Barnsley, stopping a few miles short at Stairfoot. The name was changed to The Hull and Barnsley Railway (H&BR) in 1905. Its Alexandra Dock in Hull opened 16 July 1885.
The North Midlands is a loosely defined area of England. It is not one of the ITL regions like the East Midlands or the West Midlands.
The regional policy of the European Union (EU), also referred as Cohesion Policy, is a policy with the stated aim of improving the economic well-being of regions in the European Union and also to avoid regional disparities. More than one third of the EU's budget is devoted to this policy, which aims to remove economic, social and territorial disparities across the EU, restructure declining industrial areas and diversify rural areas which have declining agriculture. In doing so, EU regional policy is geared towards making regions more competitive, fostering economic growth and creating new jobs. The policy also has a role to play in wider challenges for the future, including climate change, energy supply and globalisation.
Metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties are one of the four levels of subdivisions of England used for the purposes of local government outside Greater London and the Isles of Scilly. As originally constituted, the metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties each consisted of multiple districts, had a county council and were also the counties for the purposes of Lieutenancies. Later changes in legislation during the 1980s and 1990s have resulted in counties with no county council and 'unitary authority' counties with no districts. Counties for the purposes of Lieutenancies are now defined separately, based on the metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties.
The National Bus Company (NBC) was a nationalised bus company that operated in England and Wales between 1969 and 1988. NBC did not run buses itself, but was the owner of a number of regional subsidiary bus operating companies.
The Eastern Region was a region of British Railways from 1948, whose operating area could be identified from the dark blue signs and colour schemes that adorned its station and other railway buildings. Together with the North Eastern Region, it covered most lines of the former London and North Eastern Railway, except in Scotland. By 1988 the Eastern Region had been divided again into the Eastern Region and the new Anglia Region, with the boundary points being between Peterborough and Whittlesea, and between Royston and Meldreth. The region ceased to be an operating unit in its own right in the 1980s and was wound up at the end of 1992.
England is divided by a number of different regional schemes for various purposes. Since the creation of the Government Office Regions in 1994 and their adoption for statistical purposes in 1999, some historical regional schemes have become obsolete. However, many alternative regional designations also exist and continue to be widely used.
The Local Government Commission for England was established by the Local Government Act 1958 to review the organisation of local government, and make "such proposals as are hereinafter authorised for effecting changes appearing to the Commissions desirable in the interests of effective and convenient local government". Most of the commission's proposals failed to reach consensus and were not implemented, and the body was dissolved in 1967.
The West Riding and Grimsby Railway was a railway company that promoted a line between Wakefield and Doncaster, in Yorkshire, England. There was also a branch line connection from Adwick le Street to Stainforth, which gave access towards Grimsby. The company was promoted independently, but it was sponsored by the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway and the Great Northern Railway, and became jointly owned by them.
BBC English Regions is the division of the BBC responsible for local and regional television, radio, web, and teletext services in England, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands. It is one of the BBC's four "nations" – the others being BBC Cymru Wales, BBC Northern Ireland, and BBC Scotland.
"Big Four" was a name used to describe the four largest railway companies in the United Kingdom in the period 1923–1947. The name was coined by The Railway Magazine in its issue of February 1923: "The Big Four of the New Railway Era".
The York, Hull and East and West Yorkshire Junction Railway was a proposed railway line, promoted in the mid 1840s, intended to connect York to the East Riding of Yorkshire, England.
The Shipley Great Northern Railway branch line was a railway line that ran east, south and then westwards from Shipley to Bradford in West Yorkshire. The route was opened in 1874 to goods traffic and then to passengers in 1875 by the Great Northern Railway (GNR) and looped around the eastern edge of Bradford. The GNR arrived after other railways had been established in the West Yorkshire area and many of their lines were heavily reliant on tunnels and grand viaducts, the Shipley and Windhill line being an exception to this, although it did have some steep gradients. The branch extended for 8.5 miles (13.7 km) between the two termini of Shipley Windhill and Bradford Exchange. The route as built from Laisterdyke to Shipley was actually only 6.5 miles (10.5 km) as the initial section from Bradford Exchange to Laisterdyke was already in existence as part of the Great Northern Railway's line to Leeds.
