Wikipedia:UKCOUNTIES
Wikipedia:WikiProject UK geography/How to write about counties
At the WikiProject UK geography, we believe the counties of the United Kingdom are important subjects. In order to facilitate the development of these subdivisions of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland the following guidance has been put together.
 | This is a WikiProject advice page. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more WikiProjects on Wikipedia or its process, as pertaining to topics within the WikiProject(s) area of interest. This page is not one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community.
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 | This page concerning the structure of Wikipedia articles about the counties of the United Kingdom was developed from extensive discussion and consensus at WikiProject UK geography.
The order of sections is optional, although it is strongly recommended that articles conform to the basic structure outlined below. Where this may not be suitable, editors are advised to come to a consensus that works best for the county in question. References are required for every article. While this page just offers guidance, it does provide a basic framework for a UK county article, as well as useful tips to help in bringing an article up to good article or featured article status. Please ensure that all changes to this page are discussed on the talk page and reflect consensus. |
In the United Kingdom, the meaning of "county" can be confusing. There are several types of official administrative area that are described as counties due to historical modifications of the borders, and because the extent of the "administrative county boundaries" are often not exactly the same as the ceremonial and ancient county boundaries by of the same name; the counties of England and Wales have undergone vast geographic transformation in the last few centuries; the counties of Scotland were officially abolished but their territory (in some cases) exist with a ceremonial role; likewise the counties of Northern Ireland have no administrative role, but are used for geographic demarcation and lieutenancy.
In respect of England, Scotland and Wales, a fundamental part of this guide is to reaffirm the long established position that we do not take the view that the historic/ancient/traditional counties still exist with the former boundaries. Unless (using consensus) a good reason is made not to, the article should describe any administrative and ceremonial changes differences within one article, including any difference in the statistics between them. In England and Wales, where the historic county boundaries are different to modern boundaries the article should discuss these differences, and not be split into new "Historic county of Exampleshire" articles.
Where counties have been abolished or no longer serve any municipal role (such as Middlesex or Ross-shire) these should have their own articles, but maintain that they no longer function as contemporary counties/subdivisions of territory.
As mentioned, there are several types of official administrative area that are described as counties. They differ from each other in significant ways; some have a county council, some are dominated by conurbations, others no longer function with any administrative, municipal or statistical role. Systems also differ between the United Kingdom's home nations. As such, the guidance is split according to type of county.
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NOTE: "Infobox" and "Lead" are not headings in their own right, and should not be included on articles as such. The order of sections is also optional, and sections may be moved around to a different order based on the needs of the county. Editors are strongly encouraged, however, to follow the first five sections outlined here. References are mandatory for any article however. Section titles should generally not start with the word "The" (see WP:HEAD). Infobox*Use Template:Infobox England county.
Lead*Lead (see also WP:LEAD): Include the following
History{{main|History of _}} History: Include the following
Geography{{main|Geography of _}} Geography: Include the following
Governance"Include the following
Demography{{main|Demography of _}} Demography: Include the following only if data is available
Economy{{main|Economy of _}} Economy: Include the following
LandmarksLandmarks: Include the following
TransportTransport: Include the following
Settlements{{main|List of places in _}}
Education{{seealso|List of schools in _}} Religious sitesReligious sites (NOTE: May also use the alternative heading of "Religion" should the content extend to material beyond the places of worship themselves): Include the following
SportsSports (NOTE: May also use the alternative heading of "Sports and recreation"): Include the following
Notable people{{main|List of people from _}}
See alsoSee also (this heading is not mandatory): Include the following:
ReferencesNOTE: Reference sections may follow a number of styles, including separate "Footnote" and "Further reading" sections, please refer to WP:REF for more information.
External linksExternal links should be added only rarely, and in accordance with the guidelines found in WP:EL. Consequently, this section should only rarely be found in most articles. In particular, the use of links as described in WP:SPAM should always be avoided. If any links are deemed appropriate for this section, they should always be accompanied by an appropriate description of (a) what they are, (b) their justification, and (c) the date on which they were added in the form "Accessed: 07 July, 2007" (WP:EL#External links section gives some more information about this.) External links used as a form of verification for facts found in the text of the article should be treated as normal references, e.g., cited by enclosing them in <ref>...</ref> tags and conforming to the style of web-based references, which also includes a "Retrieval date" component. They should not be added to this section (see WP:EL#References and citation.) Wikipedia:Citation templates gives useful information about what should be entered and the order in which the separate components of a web-citation should appear. |
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NOTE: "Infobox" and "Lead" are not headings in their own right, and should not be included on articles as such. The order of sections is also optional, and sections may be moved around to a different order based on the needs of the county. Editors are strongly encouraged, however, to follow the first five sections outlined here. References are mandatory for any article however. Section titles should generally not start with the word "The" (see WP:HEAD). Infobox*Use Template:Infobox England county.
Lead*Lead (see also WP:LEAD): Include the following
History{{main|History of _}} History: Include the following
Geography{{main|Geography of _}} Geography: Include the following
Governance{{main|List of constituencies in _}} ''OR'' {{further|[[_ County Council]]}} Governance: Include the following
Demography{{main|Demography of _}} Demography: Include the following only if data is available
Economy{{main|Economy of _}} Economy: Include the following
Settlements{{main|List of places in _}}
TransportTransport: Include the following
SportsSports (NOTE: May also use the alternative heading of "Sports and recreation"): Include the following
Places of interest
See alsoSee also (this heading is not mandatory): Include the following:
ReferencesNOTE: Reference sections may follow a number of styles, including separate "Footnote" and "Further reading" sections, please refer to WP:REF for more information.
External linksExternal links should be added only rarely, and in accordance with the guidelines found in WP:EL. Consequently, this section should only rarely be found in most articles. In particular, the use of links as described in WP:SPAM should always be avoided. If any links are deemed appropriate for this section, they should always be accompanied by an appropriate description of (a) what they are, (b) their justification, and (c) the date on which they were added in the form "Accessed: 07 July, 2007" (WP:EL#External links section gives some more information about this.) External links used as a form of verification for facts found in the text of the article should be treated as normal references, e.g., cited by enclosing them in <ref>...</ref> tags and conforming to the style of web-based references, which also includes a "Retrieval date" component. They should not be added to this section (see WP:EL#References and citation.) Wikipedia:Citation templates gives useful information about what should be entered and the order in which the separate components of a web-citation should appear. |
Former counties of England (those that no longer function with an administrative role), examples: Avon (county), Westmorland, Middlesex |
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NOTE: "Infobox" and "Lead" are not headings in their own right, and should not be included on articles as such. The order of sections is also optional, and sections may be moved around to a different order based on the needs of the county. Editors are strongly encouraged, however, to follow the first five sections outlined here. References are mandatory for any article however. Section titles should generally not start with the word "The" (see WP:HEAD). Editors must be mindful of fostering and/or introducing anachronism into former county articles. Use language that asserts past tense - We do not take the minority view that the historic counties still exist with the former boundaries. Continued use of the name of the county can be explained in the "Legacy" section. Infobox*Use Template:Infobox historic subdivision (see Westmorland for example) Lead*
History{{main|History of _}} History: Include the following
Physical geography{{main|Geography of _}} Geography: Include the following
PoliticsGovernance: Include the following
DemographyDemography: Include the following only if data is available
IndustriesIndustries: Include the following only if data is available
LandmarksLandmarks: Include the following
LegacyLegacy: Include the following
Notable people{{main|List of people from _}}
See alsoSee also (this heading is not mandatory): Include the following:
ReferencesNOTE: Reference sections may follow a number of styles, including separate "Footnote" and "Further reading" sections, please refer to WP:REF for more information.
External linksExternal links should be added only rarely, and in accordance with the guidelines found in WP:EL. Consequently, this section should only rarely be found in most articles. In particular, the use of links as described in WP:SPAM should always be avoided. If any links are deemed appropriate for this section, they should always be accompanied by an appropriate description of (a) what they are, (b) their justification, and (c) the date on which they were added in the form "Accessed: 07 July, 2007" (WP:EL#External links section gives some more information about this.) External links used as a form of verification for facts found in the text of the article should be treated as normal references, e.g., cited by enclosing them in <ref>...</ref> tags and conforming to the style of web-based references, which also includes a "Retrieval date" component. They should not be added to this section (see WP:EL#References and citation.) Wikipedia:Citation templates gives useful information about what should be entered and the order in which the separate components of a web-citation should appear. |
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NOTE: "Infobox" and "Lead" are not headings in their own right, and should not be included on articles as such. The order of sections is also optional, and sections may be moved around to a different order based on the needs of the county. Editors are strongly encouraged, however, to follow the first five sections outlined here. References are mandatory for any article however. Section titles should generally not start with the word "The" (see WP:HEAD). Editors must be mindful of fostering and/or introducing anachronism into former county articles. Use language that asserts past tense - We do not take the minority view that the historic counties still exist with the former boundaries. Continued use of the name of the county can be explained in the "Legacy" section. Infobox*Use Template:infobox Scotland county. Lead*
History{{main|History of _}} History: Include the following
Physical geography{{main|Geography of _}} Geography: Include the following
Settlements
PoliticsPolitics: Include the following
DemographyDemography: Include the following only if data is available
IndustriesIndustries: Include the following only if data is available
LandmarksLandmarks: Include the following
LegacyLegacy: Include the following
Notable people{{main|List of people from _}}
See alsoSee also (this heading is not mandatory): Include the following:
ReferencesNOTE: Reference sections may follow a number of styles, including separate "Footnote" and "Further reading" sections, please refer to WP:REF for more information.
External linksExternal links should be added only rarely, and in accordance with the guidelines found in WP:EL. Consequently, this section should only rarely be found in most articles. In particular, the use of links as described in WP:SPAM should always be avoided. If any links are deemed appropriate for this section, they should always be accompanied by an appropriate description of (a) what they are, (b) their justification, and (c) the date on which they were added in the form "Accessed: 07 July, 2007" (WP:EL#External links section gives some more information about this.) External links used as a form of verification for facts found in the text of the article should be treated as normal references, e.g., cited by enclosing them in <ref>...</ref> tags and conforming to the style of web-based references, which also includes a "Retrieval date" component. They should not be added to this section (see WP:EL#References and citation.) Wikipedia:Citation templates gives useful information about what should be entered and the order in which the separate components of a web-citation should appear. |
Former counties of Wales (those that no longer function with an administrative role), examples: Glamorgan, Denbighshire (historic) |
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NOTE: "Infobox" and "Lead" are not headings in their own right, and should not be included on articles as such. The order of sections is also optional, and sections may be moved around to a different order based on the needs of the county. Editors are strongly encouraged, however, to follow the first five sections outlined here. References are mandatory for any article however. Section titles should generally not start with the word "The" (see WP:HEAD). Editors must be mindful of fostering and/or introducing anachronism into former county articles. Use language that asserts past tense - We do not take the minority view that the historic counties still exist with the former boundaries. Continued use of the name of the county can be explained in the "Legacy" section. Infobox*Lead*
History{{main|History of _}} History: Include the following
Physical geography{{main|Geography of _}} Geography: Include the following
PoliticsPolitics: Include the following
DemographyDemography: Include the following only if data is available
IndustriesIndustries: Include the following only if data is available
LandmarksLandmarks: Include the following
LegacyLegacy: Include the following
Notable people{{main|List of people from _}}
See alsoSee also (this heading is not mandatory): Include the following:
ReferencesNOTE: Reference sections may follow a number of styles, including separate "Footnote" and "Further reading" sections, please refer to WP:REF for more information.
External linksExternal links should be added only rarely, and in accordance with the guidelines found in WP:EL. Consequently, this section should only rarely be found in most articles. In particular, the use of links as described in WP:SPAM should always be avoided. If any links are deemed appropriate for this section, they should always be accompanied by an appropriate description of (a) what they are, (b) their justification, and (c) the date on which they were added in the form "Accessed: 07 July, 2007" (WP:EL#External links section gives some more information about this.) External links used as a form of verification for facts found in the text of the article should be treated as normal references, e.g., cited by enclosing them in <ref>...</ref> tags and conforming to the style of web-based references, which also includes a "Retrieval date" component. They should not be added to this section (see WP:EL#References and citation.) Wikipedia:Citation templates gives useful information about what should be entered and the order in which the separate components of a web-citation should appear. |
- Notable people – two or three paragraphs mentioning some of the notable current and former residents of the county and what they are notable for. This should preferably be prose, not a list. An alternative to this section is spread information about notable people throughout the article in other sections: historical figures in History, politicians in Politics, artists in Culture, etc.
- Culture – theatre, fine art, music, dance, architecture, food originating from the county, festivals, carnivals, etc
- The county should come with a page List of places in Exampleshire which lists all of the settlements in the county, and in a separate section lists places of interest, such as tourist attractions. The list may additionally include a section listing other sub-divisions, such as districts and parliamentary constituencies). These pages should not be used for counties with no contemporary municipal, administrative or statistical role (i.e. former counties).
- The county should come with a page at WikiMedia Commons containing media (e.g. photographs, diagrams) relating to the county. This is linked with {{commons}} in the external links section.
- Per WP:TRIVIA, do not use a "trivia", "miscellaneous" or "other facts" section.
- Per WP:LIST, avoid using lists wherever possible (particularly for "notable people" or "subdivisions"), consider using tables, diagrams or prose.
- Per WP:DATE and WP:CONTEXT, do not link standalone years. Only link full dates or dates with a day and a month. The same applies to dates in the footnotes.
- Avoid describing named-areas that are verifiably part of a wider settlement as "districts" or "suburbs", unless citation supports this. Whilst these two terms have common usages, they also indicate a specific and technical geographic term to which an area may not actually conform.
- Per WP:EL and WP:SPAM, be reluctant to add external links unless they are essential, and always restrict them to the "External links" section, or to within an appropriately tagged reference.
- The lead needs to adequately summarize the content of the article.
- There should not be anything in the lead not mentioned in the rest of the article.
- Only make wikilinks that are relevant to the context. Common words do not need wikilinking.
- A word only needs to be wikilinked once within each section.
- It is not recommended to specify the size of images. The sizes should be what readers have specified in their user preferences.
- Text should not be sandwiched between two adjacent images.
- All fair-use images need a fair use rationale.
- Image captions should not end with a full-stop if the caption does not form a complete sentence.
- Book references need the author, publisher, publishing date and page number.
- Web references need the author, publisher, publishing date, access date, language (if not English) and format (if a PDF file).
- Blogs and personal websites are not reliable sources.
- Inline citations belong immediately after punctuation marks.
- Each "notable resident" needs a reference.
- Portal links belong in the "see also" section.
- "Further info" links belong at the top of sections.
- Include lists only if they cannot be made into prose or their own article.
- Lists within prose should be avoided.
- Unspaced en dashes are used for ranges. Unspaced em dashes or spaced en dashes are used for punctuation. The same applies to dashes in the footnotes. See WP:MOS#Dashes.
- "
" (non-breaking space) should be typed between numbers and units. - Imperial measurements should be accompanied by the metric equivalent in brackets, and vice versa. If possible, use a conversion template, e.g. {{convert|5|mi|km|0}}.
- Whole numbers under ten should be spelled out as words, except when in lists, tables or infoboxes.
- Sentences should not start with a numeral. Either recast the sentence or spell the number out.
- Usually, only the first word in a section heading needs a capital letter.
- Short sections and paragraphs are discouraged.
- The words "current", "recent" & "to date" should be avoided as they become outdated.
- Ampersands should not be used, except when in a name, e.g., Marks & Spencer.
- Southeast is one word (and may or may not be hyphenated). This does not apply when it is the name of an area, e.g. South East England.
- In longer sentences, a comma may be needed before "and", "due to", "such as", "including", "as", "because" or "but".
- "Past few years" has a different meaning to "last few years".
- "Within" has a different meaning to "in".
- Full-stops are needed after each initial in someone's name.
- Hyphens should not be placed after words ending in ly, e.g. widely-used phrase (except if the ly word could also describe the noun, e.g. friendly-looking man)
- Do not use contractions, such as "can't" and "they're".
- "While" should only be used when emphasising that two events occur at the same time, or when emphasising contrast. It should not be used as an additive link.
- Using "with" as an additive link can lead to wordy and awkward prose, e.g. the town has ten councillors, with one being the district mayor → the town has ten councillors; one is the district mayor
- Beginning a sentence with "there", when it does not stand for anything, leads to wordy prose, e.g. There are ten houses in the village → The village has ten houses. The same applies to "it".
- Avoid weasel words, such as "it is believed that", "is widely regarded as", "some have claimed".
- Avoid peacock terms, such as "beautiful", "famous", "popular", "well-known", "significant", "important" and "obvious".
- Avoid informal or words, such as "carry out" and "pub".
- Avoid overly-formal or archaic words, such as "circa", "utilise", "whilst", "upon", "commence" and "prior".
- Avoid wordy terms, such as "the majority of" and "a number of".
- Avoid vague words, such as "various", "many", "several", "long" and "almost"
- Avoid phrases with redundant words, such as "is located in", "the two are both", "they brought along", "they have plans to", "they were all part of", "the last ones to form", "both the towns", "outside of the town", "all of the towns", "received some donations", "still exists today", "it also includes others", "many different towns", "available records show" and "in the year 2007".
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- Infoboxes may contain image collages, but they should consist of no more than four images in no more than three rows. These limits may be exceeded only if there is a compelling reason to do so, subject to local consensus. The images should be captioned beneath the collage.
- The images selected for the collage should represent the county thematically, for example by including prominent cultural, historic, or natural landmarks. It is desirable for at least one major settlement to be represented. Images should be carefully selected to ensure they are legible at small size, and where possible they should form a coherent whole.
- The example is taken from Devon. It shows two natural features, a landmark in a major city, and a distinctive breed of pony, therefore giving an overview of the county. The images are arranged so that they can be seen clearly and their colours complement each other.
When a council becomes a unitary authority like Somerset Council but keeps the same boundaries it should be covered in a single article even if like Buckinghamshire Council the council was abolished and reformed with the same boundaries. If like Dorset County Council/Dorset Council (UK) there were boundary changes it should be considered on a case by case basis if separate articles should exist with the default to having separate articles. Factors that may also be taken into account if separate articles are needed or not as well as the difference in boundaries include the time gap between abolishment and formation, if one council was a 2 tier and the other was a unitary and if the names of the councils are identical of merely similar.[1] When a council like Lancashire County Council was reformed in 1974 (1973 in Northern Ireland and 1975 in Scotland) with the same name it should not be split into separate articles for pre 1974 and post 1974. This applies even if there were boundary changes.
- Statistics: Office for National Statistics, Census related resources, Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA), Neighbourhood statistics (Parish data etc.)
- Population data (see below for England): Ayrshire, East (PDF), Falkirk, Moray, Lanarkshire, North
- 1997-2011 economic data, which includes gross value added (GVA) down to NUTS3 level as well as their industry sectors.
- Church of England Resources, publications, and data including parish-level census and deprivation information.
- Maps:
- Multimap (can't copy)
- Ordnance Survey: OS Get a map (can't copy) | Ordnance Survey OpenData | OS Maps of Scotland (and England) | Ordnance Survey for Northern Ireland (can't copy) | OS (Out of copyright) (open licensed!)
- OpenStreetMap (open licensed!) Community built maps which are incomplete, but good coverage of some areas/cities. See wikiproject
- out of copyright ordnance survey scans. Commercial restriction for direct image copying.
- Ordnance Survey® Election Maps–boundaries of civil parishes, wards, boroughs etc., up to street map scale. The draconian terms and conditions don't seem to prevent GFDL licensing of research by Wikipedia editors, as long as the editors themselves don't use the information for financial gain, and no-one copies actual extracts, mapping data or layers from the maps (so... can't copy)
- Books: There is a list of UK geography books and the Wikipedians who own them at Wikipedia:Library/Places#UK. You can request info from the owners of the relevant books. archive.org texts is a good source for copyright expired material.
- Websites: 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica , Historical Directories A Vision of Britain through Time OpenGeoscience (Geological data) NERC Soil Portal National Heritage Listed Buildings
- Photos
- Geograph British Isles project
- Geolocation.ws - Geotagged creative commons images from Wikimedia Commons, Panoramio, Picasa, Flickr
- Distance : GENUK&I distance gazetteer, Postcode distance calculator
- Archaeology: English Heritage Gateway 49 resources on England's historic sites and buildings. See also: Archaeological Data Services Search
| England | |
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| Bedfordshire | Bedfordshire facts & figures |
| · Luton | |
| Berkshire | West Berkshire 2001 Census data |
| Bristol | Ward finder |
| Buckinghamshire | |
| · Milton Keynes | |
| Cambridgeshire | |
| · Peterborough | 2001 Census Profile of Peterborough Cambridgeshire County Council, June 2003 |
| Cheshire | *George Ormerod, The History of the County Palatine and City of Chester, Vol. 1 2 3, (1819) (Historical & census) |
| · Halton | |
| · Warrington | |
| Cornwall | Parish population data |
| · Isles of Scilly | |
| Cumbria | Census 2001 |
| Derbyshire | |
| · Derby | |
| Devon | See the Devon WikiProject list of resources. |
| · Plymouth | |
| · Torbay | |
| Dorset | Parish population data (import should be complete) |
| · Bournemouth | |
| · Poole | |
| County Durham | Durham County Council 2001 Census data |
| · Darlington | |
| · Hartlepool | |
| · Stockton-on-Tees | |
| East Riding of Yorkshire | |
| · Kingston-upon-Hull | |
| East Sussex | |
| · Brighton and Hove | |
| Essex | Epping Forest census data (includes 1961-2001) |
| · Southend-on-Sea | |
| · Thurrock | |
| Gloucestershire | |
| · South Gloucestershire | |
| Greater London | |
| Greater Manchester | |
| Hampshire | 2001 census |
| · Southampton | |
| · Portsmouth | |
| Herefordshire | 2001 census Population and demographics Excel sheet of Parish population histories |
| Hertfordshire | Population and census data |
| Isle of Wight | |
| Kent | 2001 Census Area Profiles |
| · Medway | |
| Lancashire | |
| · Blackburn with Darwen | |
| · Blackpool | |
| Leicestershire | Census 2001 |
| · Leicester | |
| Lincolnshire | Parish population profiles |
| · North Lincolnshire | |
| · North East Lincolnshire | |
| Merseyside | |
| Norfolk | Census population (Excel speadsheet) South Norfolk: parish data and ward data Links to parish websites in Breckland Breckland further data |
| North Yorkshire | |
| · York | |
| · Middlesbrough | |
| · Redcar and Cleveland | |
| · Stockton-on-Tees | |
| · Northamptonshire | |
| Northumberland | Tynedale population data (PDF) |
| Nottinghamshire | |
| · Nottingham | |
| Oxfordshire | |
| Rutland | |
| Shropshire | |
| · Telford and Wrekin | |
| Somerset | Parish population data |
| · Bath and North East Somerset | Census Data |
| · North Somerset | Census Information |
| South Yorkshire | |
| Staffordshire | Local government history |
| · Stoke-on-Trent | |
| Suffolk | |
| Surrey | |
| Tyne and Wear | |
| Warwickshire | |
| West Midlands | |
| West Sussex | Ward profiles |
| West Yorkshire | |
| Wiltshire | Wiltshire Community History from Wiltshire County Council giving brief historical information and references for settlements including old maps and Population by community 1801–2001 census data |
| · Swindon | Population by community 1801–2001 census data at Wiltshire Community History from Wiltshire County Council |
| Worcestershire | |
- In this context "identical" name means exactly the same name such as "Northumberland County Council" (2 tier) and "Northumberland County Council", "North Yorkshire Council" v "North Yorkshire Council" and "North Riding County Council" don't count as "identical".