Shire In England !new! Jun 2026

While the old administrative shire councils were largely replaced by larger unitary authorities in 1974 and 1996, the shires have never truly disappeared. They live on in:

It is impossible to discuss the Shire in England without mentioning J.R.R. Tolkien. The author based his fictional "Shire" in The Lord of the Rings on his childhood memories of Worcestershire and the West Midlands. shire in england