The Interesting History Of Staffordshire

Staffordshire is an inland county, which is situated in the West Midland areas of England whose county town is Stafford. A region of the National Forest is in its boundaries. It is attached to the ceremonial counties of Derbyshire, West Midlands, Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Cheshire, Shropshire and Leicestershire.

The biggest city in the county is Stoke on Trent. Lichfield has gained city status, although by an old definition as it has a cathedral and is little smaller. Other major towns include Burton upon Trent, Cannock, Tamworth and Newcastle under Lyme. Several districts excists in Staffordshire such as the Borough of Stafford, East Staffordshire, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Lichfield, South Staffordshire, Cannock Chase, Staffordshire Moorlands and Tamworth. Stoke on Trent functions as a free unitary authority.

Historically, Staffordshire was divided into the five hundreds of Cuttlestone, Offlow, Pirehill, Seisdon, and Totmonslow. An executive county of Staffordshire was created in 1889 from the Local Government Act 1888. It covered the county except the county boroughs of Walsall, Wolverhampton and West Bromwich in south also known as the Black Country and Hanley in the north. The Act also made the cities of Burton upon Trent, partly in Derbyshire and Tamworth, partly in Warwickshire stand united in Staffordshire.

In the early 20th century, Handsworth and Perry Barr came under the county borough of Birmingham and stands combined with Warwickshire. In the east, Burton, became a county borough in 1901 and in 1907 was followed by Smethwick, another Black Country city. In 1910 the six towns of the Staffordshire Potteries, became a single county borough of Stoke on Trent.

In 1966, under the suggestion of the Local Government Commission for England, a major readjustment in the Black Country, led in establishing of an area of uninterrupted county boroughs. Various boroughs were moved and this retaliated to Staffordshire having a thin region that passed between the county boroughs in the east and Shropshire, in the west, thus sharing a very short border of Worcestershire.

A new metropolitan county of West Midlands was created on April 1, 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, after the Staffordshire urban district of Aldridge Brownhills and the county boroughs of the Black Country united, along with Birmingham, Coventry, Solihull and some other districts, forming a new metropolitan county of West Midlands.

County boroughs were ceased, with Stoke promoted to a non metropolitan district in Staffordshire, and Burton became an un-parished region in the district of East Staffordshire. After a reference of the Banham Commission on April 1, 1997, Stoke on Trent became a unitary authority free of Staffordshire again.