title: Historical and alternative regions of England
text: 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.
  
  Alternative
  
  Cultural
  Informal and overlapping regional designations are often used to describe areas of England. They include:
  Midlands, often considered interchangeable with Mercia
  
  Welsh Marches
  Staffordshire Potteries
  Three Counties
  Northern England
  Scottish Marches
  Southern England
  Home Counties
  M4 corridor
  Thames Valley
   Cinque Ports
  West Country, often considered interchangeable with Wessex
  
  Heptarchy
  Heptarchy, former kingdom names which did not become counties have continued to be recognised by organisations as regions:
   , generally interchangeable the West Country excluding Cornwall
   
  , often considered interchangeable with the Midlands
   , associated mainly with the Viking age rump kingdom of Northumbria (the counties of Durham and Northumberland) however can be considered interchangeable with Northern England
  
  Counties 
  Historic counties and the Yorkshire Ridings are no longer used as units for administrative or ceremonial purposes. These have continued to be recognised in sport and used by organisations as regional units.
  
   (historic)
  
  National parks
  National parks include:
  Peak District
  Lake District
  Dartmoor
   Exmoor
  North York Moors
  Northumberland National Park
  The Broads
  New Forest
  Yorkshire Dales
  South Downs
  
  Britain in Bloom regions
  Britain in Bloom divides England into 12 regions. Mixture of government regions with some altered names. It also includes Cumbria, Thames-and-Chilterns (Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire) and part of south east and south west as South-and-South-West.
  
  National Trust
  The National Trust has 10 regional offices in England.  These are
  Devon and Cornwall – part of the official South West region
  East of England – as region
  East Midlands – as region
  North East England – North East England and Yorkshire and the Humber
  North West England – as region
  Thames and Solent – Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, London, Oxfordshire, Hampshire
  South East England – East Sussex, Kent, Surrey, West Sussex
  West Midlands – as region
  Wessex – South West England without Devon and Cornwall
  
  Historical
  
  500–1066
  
  After the end of the Roman occupation of Britain, the area now known as England became divided into seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms: Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, Essex, Kent, Sussex and Wessex. A number of other smaller political divisions and sub-kingdoms existed. The kingdoms were eventually united into the Kingdom of England in a process beginning with Egbert of Wessex in 829 and completed by King Edred in 954.
  
  1655–1657
  
  During  The Protectorate, Oliver Cromwell experimented with the Rule of the Major-Generals. There were ten regional associations covering England and Wales administered by majors-general. Ireland under Major-General Henry Cromwell, and Scotland under Major-General George Monck were in administrations already agreed upon and were not part of the scheme.
  
  World War II
  {|
  | In the Second World War, England was divided into ten civil defence regions:
  Northern: Durham, Northumberland, Yorkshire, North Riding
  North Eastern: Yorkshire, East and West Riding
  North Midland: Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Rutland
  Eastern: Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Huntingdonshire, Norfolk, Suffolk
  London: larger area than County of London/Middlesex, possibly same as Metropolitan Police District
  Southern: Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Dorset, Hampshire, Oxfordshire
  South Western: Cornwall, Devon, Gloucestershire, Somerset, Wiltshire
  Midland: Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire
  North Western: Cheshire, Cumberland, Lancashire and Westmorland
  South Eastern: Kent, Surrey and Sussex
  |}
  
  1945–1994
  
  Economic planning regions
  Eight economic planning regions were named by the Secretary of State for Economic Affairs, George Brown in December 1964.  These were:
  
   Northern – Cumberland, Durham, North Riding of Yorkshire, Northumberland, Westmorland
   North-West – Cheshire, Lancashire, High Peak area of Derbyshire
   Yorkshire and Humberside – East Riding of Yorkshire, West Riding of Yorkshire – Lincolnshire, Parts of Lindsey
   East Midlands – Derbyshire (minus High Peak), Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Parts of Holland, Lincolnshire, Parts of Kesteven, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Rutland
   West Midlands – Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire
   South West – Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Somerset, Wiltshire
   South East – Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Essex, Greater London, Hampshire, Kent, Oxfordshire, Hertfordshire, Surrey, Sussex
   East Anglia – Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Isle of Ely, Huntingdon and Peterborough
  
  Standard statistical regions
  Before the adoption of the government office regions for statistics, there were eight 'standard statistical regions':
  
   North – current North East plus Cumbria
   North West – current North West less Cumbria
   Yorkshire and Humberside – as current Yorkshire and The Humber
   West Midlands – as now
   East Midlands – as now
   East Anglia – Norfolk, Suffolk, and Cambridgeshire
   South West – as now
   South East – as now, plus Greater London, Bedfordshire, Essex, and Hertfordshire
  
  Civil defence regions
  The present government office regions closely resemble Civil Defence Regions.  During the latter part of the Cold War, the United Kingdom was divided into 11 such regions, most of which were divided themselves into sub-regions.  The regions were numbered as shown in the list, numbers for sub-regions were of the form 11.
  
  The regions were based on pre-Second World War regions, but were substantially altered in the 1970s, with the merger of South East and Southern regions, and alterations in the north.  They were again altered in 1984, to merge the English regions 1 and 2 to become a single North East region, and Scotland's two southern regions (East and West Zones) becoming a single South Zone.
  
  1980s
  From the mid-1980s, the eight English Civil Defence Regions were as follows (using 1974/1975 boundaries):
  
  North East England
  (North East England) – Cleveland/Durham/Northumberland/Tyne and Wear
  (Yorkshire and the Humber) – Humberside/North Yorkshire/South Yorkshire/West Yorkshire
  East Midlands
  Derbyshire/Lincolnshire/Nottinghamshire
  Leicestershire/Northamptonshire
  East of England
  (East Anglia) – Cambridgeshire/Norfolk/Suffolk
  Bedfordshire/Essex/Hertfordshire
  Greater London – see Civil defence centres in London for sub-regions
  South East England
  East Sussex/Kent/Surrey/West Sussex
  Berkshire/Buckinghamshire/Hampshire/Isle of Wight/Oxfordshire
  South West England
  Avon/Dorset/Gloucestershire/Somerset/Wiltshire
  Cornwall/Devon
  West Midlands
  Staffordshire/Warwickshire/West Midlands
  Hereford and Worcester/Shropshire
  North West England
  Cumbria/Lancashire
  Cheshire/Greater Manchester/Merseyside
  
  Redcliffe-Maud provinces
  
  The Redcliffe-Maud Report produced by the Royal Commission on local government reform in 1969 recommended the creation of eight provinces.  In approximate terms, these were to be:
  
   North East – per North East England
   Yorkshire – per Yorkshire and the Humber
   North West – per North West England, excluding southern Cheshire
   West Midlands – per West Midlands, including southern Cheshire
   East Midlands – per East Midlands, less Northamptonshire and mid Lincolnshire
   South West – per South West England
   East Anglia – Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, northern Essex, southern Lincolnshire
   South East – South East England and Greater London with Northamptonshire, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, southern Essex
  
  See also
  List of ITV regions
  BBC English Regions
  International Territorial Level
  Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics
  The United States of Europe, A Eurotopia?
  
  References
  
  .
  .
  Types of subdivision in the United Kingdom