A vice-county (also spelled vice county) is a geographical division of the British Isles. It is also called biological vice-county as it is used for purposes of biological recording and other scientific data-gathering, or sometimes called a Watsonian vice-county as vice-counties were introduced by Hewett Cottrell Watson in the third volume of his Cybele Britannica, published in 1852. Watson's vice-counties were based on the ancient counties of Britain, but often subdividing these boundaries to create smaller, more uniform units, and considering exclaves to be part of the surrounding vice-county.
In 1901 Robert Lloyd Praeger introduced a similar system for Ireland and its off-shore islands.
Vice-counties are the "standard geographical area for county based [...] recording". They provide a stable basis for recording using similarly sized units, and, although National Grid-based reporting has grown in popularity, vice-counties remain a useful mapping boundary, employed in many regional surveys, especially county floras and national lists. This allows data collected over long periods of time to be compared easily. The vice-counties remain unchanged by subsequent local government reorganisations, allowing historical and modern data to be more accurately compared.
In 2002, to mark the 150th anniversary of the introduction of the Watsonian vice-county system, the NBN Trust commissioned the digitisation of the 112 vice-county boundaries for England, Scotland and Wales, based on 420 original one-inch to the mile maps annotated by Dandy in 1947, and held at the Natural History Museum, London. The resulting datafiles were much more detailed than anything readily available to recorders up to that point, and were made freely available (as a beta version). Intended for use with modern GIS and biological recording software, a final 'standard' version was released in 2008. Up until that point, county recorders only had general access to a set of two fold-out vice-county maps covering the entirety of Great Britain, published in 1969.
Vice-county systems
The vice-county system was first introduced by Hewett Cottrell Watson in the third volume of his Cybele Britannica published in 1852. He refined the system in later volumes. The geographical area that Watson called "Britain" consisted of the island of Great Britain with all of its offshore islands, plus the Isle of Man, but excluding the Channel Islands. This area was divided into 112 vice-counties with larger counties divided; for example, Devon into the vice-counties of North Devon and South Devon, and Yorkshire into five vice-counties. Each of these 112 vice-counties has a name and a number. Thus Vice-county 38, often abbreviated to "VC38", is called "Warwickshire".
In 1901, Robert Lloyd Praeger extended the system of vice-counties to Ireland and its off-shore islands, based on an earlier suggestion by C. C. Babington in 1859. The Irish vice-counties were based on the historic 32 counties of Ireland, with the six largest being sub-divided; for example, the county of Cork was divided into three vice-counties. This produced a total of 40 vice-counties for Ireland, which were numbered from H1 to H40 ("H" for "Hibernia"). As with the 112 vice-counties of Britain, each vice-county has a name as well as a number. Thus Vice-county (or VC) H3 is "West Cork".
Combining these two systems produces a 152 vice-county system. The exclusion of the Channel Islands from Watson's system for Britain has led to variations between different recording schemes. The geographical area covered by the 152 vice-counties may be described as the "British Isles", as in the 2008 Checklist of Beetles of the British Isles. Other recording schemes regard the "British Isles" as including the Channel Islands. As they are not part of the 152 vice-county system, the Channel Islands may be added as an extra vice-county, making 153 in total, being indicated by letter codes such as "C" or "CI"., inside back cover Less usually, each of the five separate islands may be treated as a vice-county, giving 157 vice-counties in total.
Alternative counts of vice-counties used in different recording schemes are shown in the table below. + Alternative counts of vice-counties Count Originator Descriptions 112 Watson Great Britain (including the Isle of Man) 40 Praeger Ireland 0, 1 or 5 Channel Islands (Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark and Herm) 152, 153 or 157 British Isles, (Great) Britain and Ireland
The vice-counties of Britain alone may be described as "Watsonian vice-counties", or this term may be used for the combined vice-counties of Britain and Ireland, which may also be described as "Watson-Praeger vice-counties". In all cases, the Channel Islands may be excluded or included, so that the count of vice-counties varies, as noted in the table above.
List of vice-counties Southern England VCVice county West Cornwall with Scilly East Cornwall South Devon North Devon South Somerset North Somerset North Wiltshire South Wiltshire Dorset Isle of Wight South Hampshire North Hampshire West Sussex East Sussex East Kent West Kent Surrey South Essex North Essex Hertfordshire Middlesex Berkshire Oxfordshire Buckinghamshire East Suffolk West Suffolk East Norfolk West Norfolk Cambridgeshire Bedfordshire Huntingdonshire Northamptonshire East Gloucestershire West GloucestershireNorthern England, Wales VCVice county Monmouthshire Herefordshire Worcestershire Warwickshire Staffordshire Shropshire Glamorganshire Breconshire Radnorshire Carmarthenshire Pembrokeshire Cardiganshire Montgomeryshire Merionethshire Caernarvonshire Denbighshire Flintshire Anglesey South Lincolnshire North Lincolnshire Leicestershire with Rutland Nottinghamshire Derbyshire Cheshire South Lancashire West Lancashire South-east Yorkshire North-east Yorkshire South-west Yorkshire Mid-west Yorkshire North-west Yorkshire County Durham South Northumberland North Northumberland Westmorland with Furness CumberlandScotland, Isle of Man VCVice county Isle of Man Dumfriesshire Kirkcudbrightshire Wigtownshire Ayrshire Renfrewshire Lanarkshire Peeblesshire Selkirkshire Roxburghshire Berwickshire East Lothian Midlothian West Lothian Fifeshire Stirlingshire West Perthshire Mid Perthshire East Perthshire Angus Kincardineshire South Aberdeenshire North Aberdeenshire Banffshire Moray East Inverness-shire West Inverness-shire Argyllshire Dunbartonshire Clyde Isles Kintyre South Ebudes Mid Ebudes North Ebudes West Ross & Cromarty East Ross & Cromarty East Sutherland West Sutherland Caithness Outer Hebrides Orkney ShetlandIreland VCVice county South Kerry North Kerry West Cork Mid-Cork East Cork Waterford South Tipperary Limerick Clare North Tipperary Kilkenny Wexford Carlow Laois South-east Galway West Galway North-east Galway Offaly Kildare Wicklow Dublin Meath Westmeath Longford Roscommon East Mayo West Mayo Sligo Leitrim Cavan Louth Monaghan Fermanagh East Donegal West Donegal Tyrone Armagh Down Antrim Londonderry
Vice-counties of Ireland listed by county, province and jurisdiction Praeger's fieldwork mostly predates and ignores the county boundary changes made in 1899 under the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898. Divergences from the pre-1899 boundaries are noted below.
+Vice-counties of IrelandVCVice countyCountyProvinceJurisdiction South Kerry Kerry Munster Republic of Ireland North Kerry Kerry Munster Republic of Ireland West Cork Cork Munster Republic of Ireland Mid-Cork Cork Munster Republic of Ireland East Cork Cork Munster Republic of Ireland Waterford Waterford Munster Republic of Ireland South Tipperary Tipperary Munster Republic of Ireland Limerick Limerick Munster Republic of Ireland Clare Clare Munster Republic of Ireland North Tipperary Tipperary Munster Republic of Ireland Kilkenny Kilkenny Leinster Republic of Ireland Wexford Wexford Leinster Republic of Ireland Carlow Carlow Leinster Republic of Ireland Queen's County Laois Leinster Republic of Ireland South-east Galway Galway Connacht Republic of Ireland West Galway Galway Connacht Republic of Ireland North-east Galway Galway Connacht Republic of Ireland King's County Offaly Leinster Republic of Ireland Kildare Kildare Leinster Republic of Ireland Wicklow Wicklow Leinster Republic of Ireland Dublin Dublin Leinster Republic of Ireland Meath Meath Leinster Republic of Ireland Westmeath Westmeath Leinster Republic of Ireland Longford Longford Leinster Republic of Ireland Roscommon Roscommon Connacht Republic of Ireland East Mayo Mayo Connacht Republic of Ireland West Mayo Mayo Connacht Republic of Ireland Sligo Sligo Connacht Republic of Ireland Leitrim Leitrim Connacht Republic of Ireland Cavan Cavan Ulster Republic of Ireland Louth Louth Leinster Republic of Ireland Monaghan Monaghan Ulster Republic of Ireland Fermanagh Fermanagh Ulster Northern Ireland East Donegal Donegal Ulster Republic of Ireland West Donegal Donegal Ulster Republic of Ireland Tyrone Tyrone Ulster Northern Ireland Armagh Armagh Ulster Northern Ireland Down Down Ulster Northern Ireland Antrim Antrim Ulster Northern Ireland Londonderry Londonderry Ulster Northern Ireland
See also Subdivisions of England Subdivisions of Scotland Subdivisions of Wales Local government in Northern Ireland Counties of Ireland
Notes
References
External links Vice-county map from the British Bryological Society OS grid reference to vice-county conversion utility Digital download page for Watsonian Vice-County Boundaries NBN Metadata on Watsonian Vice-county digitisation BSBI Vice-County Census Catalogue