History of Lancashire

Lancashire is a county of England, in the northwest of the country. The county did not exist in 1086, for the Domesday Book, and was apparently first created in 1182 making it one of the youngest of the traditional counties. In 1974 Lancashire was administratively divided into Greater Manchester, Merseyside and the new ceremonial county of Lancashire; since then, Preston has served as the seat of the county council. Throughout these changes, historic Lancashire still continues to be recognized as a geographical and cultural area by the British Government. The historic county palatine boundaries are also still recognized and unmoved with Lancaster still being recognised as the county town. Traditional borders are still followed by organisations such as the Lancashire FA.

The historic county consisted of two separate parts. The main part runs along the northwestern coast of England. When it included Manchester and Liverpool it had a greatest length of 76 miles, and breadth of 45 miles, and an area of 1,208,154 acres. The northern detached part of the old county palatine, consisting of Furness and Cartmell was 25 miles in length, 23 miles in breadth and was separated from the main portion of Lancashire by Morecambe Bay and the Kendal district of Westmorland. Administratively it has now joined Westmorland as part of modern Cumbria. This district reaches a peak height of 2633 ft at Old Man of Coniston, the highest in England.

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