Lost counties
Rutland is to be abolished for the second time, having first been taken off the map in 1974 but then reinstated in the mid-1990s. Some other lost counties of England:
Middlesex: Abolished in 1965 and subsumed into Greater London.
Huntingdonshire: Merged with Peterborough in 1965 and then subsumed into Cambridgeshire in 1974, though it lives on as the name of a district.
Soke of Peterborough: Semi-detached part of Northamptonshire with its own county council until merged with Huntingdonshire.
Winchcombeshire: Area of what is now Gloucestershire, abolished shortly before the Norman Conquest.
Hallamshire: Area centred on Sheffield which was taken into Yorkshire.
Hullshire: Became the borough of Kingston upon Hull before becoming Humberside in 1974.
Craven: Large area of the Pennines between Keighley and Sedburgh. Later revived as the name of a district.
Inter Ripam and Mersam: Area between the Ribble and Mersey named in the Domesday Book.
40 years of hurt
Andy Burnham blamed the cost of living on ‘40 years of neoliberalism’. What was life like in the 1970s, before he believes neoliberalism took hold?
– In 1976, the median weekly wage for men was £65.80 and for women £42.40. At 2026 prices, this would be £456 and £279 respectively. The latest figures show that the median male wage is now £814.60 and median female wage £709.60.
– What about the low-paid? For people at the 10th percentile, the median wage in 1976 was £44.50 for men and £28 for women. At today’s prices this would be £308 and £194. Current wages for workers at the 10th percentile are £513 and £477.20.
Rough estimate
Andy Burnham declared that his first priority as PM was to end rough sleeping. He made a similar promise when he became mayor of Greater Manchester, when he said that he would end rough sleeping by 2020. How did that go?
Rough sleepers in Greater Manchester from annual autumn shapshot:
2017 268
2018 241
2019 151
2020 125
2021 90
2022 102
2023 149
2024 154
2025 197
Across England, rough sleeping has followed a similar pattern, falling from 4,751 in 2017 to a low of 2,443 in 2021 then rebounding to 4,793 in 2025.
Comments