Trivia: Counties served only by electric trains

[Bevan Price]

Of course they are! The only thing in the whole identity mess that people actually think of as a county! 1,000 years of history is now a "historical anomaly". People should base their identity on "Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole", "Cheshire West and Chester", "Tyne and Wear" and so on!

A lot of people still regard the "post-1974" entities as phony counties, created by Whitehall as bodies of what they regard as some "ideal size", and imposed almost entirely without seeking the opinions of local populations.
"Real" counties are mostly those with first class or second tier cricket teams. And that excludes areas called Greater Manchester, Tyne & Wear, West Midlands, etc. (End of partly OT rant.)

 

[matt_world2004]

Liverpool Street, Moorgate and Fenchurch Street are all in The City I think, but they're all electric.

No takers for my suggestion of Suffolk once all local services are run by 755s then?

Cannon Street is in the city of london

 

[norbitonflyer]

You can add City Thameslink and part of Blackfriars to the list of stations in the Square Mile. All-electric, of course.

 

[oglord]

A lot of people still regard the "post-1974" entities as phony counties, created by Whitehall as bodies of what they regard as some "ideal size", and imposed almost entirely without seeking the opinions of local populations.
"Real" counties are mostly those with first class or second tier cricket teams. And that excludes areas called Greater Manchester, Tyne & Wear, West Midlands, etc. (End of partly OT rant.)

Indeed so, and more people will be coming to that correct conclusion as more and more local government reorganisation continues to rip up the post-1974 administrative map.

 

[InOban]

I could go on a rant here, but basically the above is nonsense. But OT.
Suffice to say that my late sister lived in Newmarket, which claims to be in Suffolk, but is in the Cambridge postcode, reflecting the fact that that is the centre of the local economy. And she actually lived in Cambridgeshire, because the boundary runs the through the modern settlement.
Not saying that the new boundaries are much better. Why does Derbyshire reach almost to Manchester?

 

[oglord]

I could go on a rant here, but basically the above is nonsense.

Which bit is nonsense?

 

[HST43257]

i can’t think of any non-electrics in Essex.....

Marks Tey to Sudbury branch line off the GEML

 

[InOban]

Which bit is nonsense?

That the 'cricketing' county boundaries make any sense, certainly since the economic geography of the country was transformed by industrial revolution and the railway.

 

[jopsuk]

That the 'cricketing' county boundaries make any sense, certainly since the economic geography of the country was transformed by industrial revolution and the railway.

Quite. Newmarket is a prime example (as are some other Suffolk, Essex and Herts towns where the primary travel-to-work destination is Cambridge). Chesterfield is economically and culturally part of a cluster centred on Sheffield, which itself has little connection to York. Peterborough is at the triple point of three "traditional counties".

 

[norbitonflyer]

Not saying that the new boundaries are much better. Why does Derbyshire reach almost to Manchester?

It always did - its boundaries were almost unchanged by the 1974 reforms.

 

[MarkyT]

It always did - its boundaries were almost unchanged by the 1974 reforms.

Derbyshire is even closer to Sheffield. The boundary gets to only around 3 miles away from the city centre near Dronfield. What Sheffield shares with Manchester is that both cities only grew rapidly from small unimportant settlements after the industrial revolution, so their position within surrounding older traditional counties is fairly random.

 

[D365]

i can’t think of any non-electrics in Essex.....

Marks Tey to Sudbury branch line off the GEML

And the Class 170s into Stansted.

 

[oglord]

That the 'cricketing' county boundaries make any sense, certainly since the economic geography of the country was transformed by industrial revolution and the railway.

Different boundaries have different uses - cites, boroughs and parliamentary constituencies have always crossed county boundaries, so they posed no problems for 1,000 years until the Victorians decided to base administrative areas on them. Geographically there is there is a lot of sense using rivers and mountains to define areas that last down the centuries, even if they are not suitable for administrative areas.