Actually it was 1965 when the county councils of Huntingdonshire and the Soke of Peterborough merged

Counties can exist as cultural entities even when it is no longer viable to have them as administrative units.

Counties can live on as cultural entities even when it is no longer viable to have them as administrative units.

Born in Buckinghamshire but within months they moved the ancient Thames River borders to suit modern geographical conditions that have caused decades of decline of towns moved borders without logical reasons in the name of ‘modernism’ progress a total reversal our ancestral British heritage leading to carnage for decades ahead to this very day.

@@ts6070 Logically I can't see why moving the boundaries to suit modern criteria would cause carnage. The only downside is the cultural aspect, but culture doesn't live in an Act of Parliament, it lives in the hearts and minds of the people.

Kent where I live was a Kingdom, and there was apparently even a Queen of Canterbury who helped St. Augustine to bring Protestant Christian churches to Britain.

@@brusselssprouts560 I think that you have completely mixed up your dates here. Kent was a one time kingdom post-Roman Britain with its centre at Canterbury but by the time of the Norman invasion in 1066, 600 years later was firmly part of England. The current Canterbury Cathedral post dates that Norman invasion. Protestant religion did not come to Britain until essentially 1533, when Henry VIII made himself the first head of the Church of England, nearly a full 1000 years after Canterbury Cathedral was created by St Augustine.

​@@brusselssprouts560 St Augustine was certainly not a protestant that term did not exist until the 16th century

Thanks for the kind words!

That's kind of you to say, thanks!

I still think of Peterborough as being in Northants. What happened to the Soke of Peterborough (no, it was not a local drunkard)?

Thanks, I appreciate it!

Thank you!

Thanks for the kind words!

Thanks for the kind words!

Thanks for the kind words!

A good question! The one that appears at the end of the video was between Ramsey and Chatteris, the latter being in the Fenland district of Cambridgeshire, but as for original signage of the historic counties, that would be quite a find.

The oldest one I know of is the three counties boundary stone near hargrave on the B645

Thank you! Yeah, it's humbling to think of all the centuries of people who've called it (and other towns) home before us.

Thank you!

Cheers, I appreciate it!

Thanks, and yeah some places can have that effect!

Indeed, this country's full of surprises!

@AlexinGreatBritain Alex, hopefully someday you will do a video of Staffordshire. My maternal grandmother's ancestors were from [possibly Burslem], migrating with the Quakers to Pennsylvania in 1682, then New Jersey, about 1700.

@@annodnosinut3485 Yeah, I'll certainly do a video about Staffordshire at some point, all going to plan!

Well, good weather certainly doesn't hurt! And thanks.

No problem, thanks for the kind words!

Ah nice, thanks for the kind words! And if you get the chance, consider walking to Godmanchester from Huntingdon as it's just across the river. :)

Thanks Dianne, always appreciated! :)

Hmm, I always assumed the Ramsay clan was unrelated due to the different spellings, but you may be onto something there!

Ah, that's a nice touch!

Thanks! For me, Godmanchester's prettier than Huntingdon, but they're within walking distance of each other, so possible to kill two birds with one stone there.

I can't answer that myself I'm afraid, but thanks for the kind words, I appreciate it!

Thank you!

There's a place called St Ives in West Yorkshire too.

It is indeed!

@@AlexinGreatBritain I thought I recognised it ! As you leave Chatteris on the Huntingdon Road ?There used to be a sharp corner there in the 70s ,but then the road was diverted to give the smooth curve we see here, in your video ( the old curve has been left as a lay by /park up /Burger van truckers stop !) . Also in the early 70s ,here ,where the Welcome To Huntingdonshire sign is , but on the opposite side going the other way ,heading into Chatteris was an old sign saying " Welcome to the Isle of Ely " (A bit bent and battered it was .as I remember ! Like a truck had hit it and it had been but back after being repaired !)

This road also in the 70s also , starting from where you were filming , and behind you, was also know for a long line of trees down each side of the road as you head into Chatteris . There was a long straight section of road just before Chatteris ,and each side was line with many trees . I think Popular trees ? Very tall and thin .It was a local landmark ! Until cut down in the 80s /90s ? The excuse was the road need widening !

Ah very interesting, thanks. And I see you've got some good reviews on Amazon!

Thanks Alex, you’d be surprised how many people think that Huntingdonshire doesn’t exist. @@AlexinGreatBritain

Thanks for the kind words! And yeah, I guess we might never know the true motivations of the bureaucrats.

Cheers! I'm from Lincolnshire.

Bluntisham and Somersham, both villages near to St Ives.

Hard to say. Herefordshire's home to an ancient cathedral city, so it follows that it shouldn't have to share with Worcestershire, as it were. Rutland becoming a ceremonial county was certainly an interesting decision, especially as it's a good deal smaller than Huntingdonshire in both size and population.

No, Huntingdonshire merged with the Soke of Peterborough in 1965 to form Huntingdon & Peterborough which survived until 1974. Possibly the reason it has not been reformed as a unitary authority is lack of any demand for it, and perhaps lack of viability, as it is a small rural district with only small towns.

You made a really excellent video, congratulations. A very good intro to the county. I'm a Rutlander and I put our strong sense of identity down to the extensive local nobility. Rutland was a gift to Edward the Confessor's Queen, Edith, introducing a royal connection which distinguished it from the rest of Northamptonshire. The Norman Oakham Castle was a major Plantagenet demesne, upkeeping this royal connection. Leighfield Forest was a royal hunt. Rutland contained lands belonging to the Earls of Gainsborough at Exton, the Marquesses of Exeter (Burghley House, Stamford), the Earls of Ancaster (Normanton Hall), the Earl of Winchilsea (Burley on the Hill) and the Earls of Lonsdale (Barleythorpe). All this nobility gave the county a royal hunt (the Cottesmore) and two well endowed grammar schools (Uppingham and Oakham). The county motto is "Multum in Parvo" - lots of knobs in high concentration. By contrast, Huntingdonshire's Scottish connection probably made it suspect - just a theory. @@AlexinGreatBritain

@@1258-Eckhart Thanks for the kind words! I may well do a video about Rutland at some point down the line as it's also a fascinating place.

@@AlexinGreatBritainI seem to vaguely recall from the stories of now dead elders that it was just something people really wanted so they battled hard. I’m not sure why apart from the general stubborn refusal to accept any change present in the very high church high Tory richer county set… can’t help but suspect someone who once had a posh chain and a special procession with a mace every now and then no longer got to have it and their long and hard brooding fed a campaign. Growing up there the county town defo feels like Leicester because that’s where lots go to do A Levels and where you go for a night out

Married their partner😂🎩

I think that may be an old-school way of saying it, but they might have since given up on trying to outdo Leominster on the ridiculous pronunciation front! But if anyone's local, correct me if I'm wrong.

I think historically yes it's pronounced "Gumster", but I've lived there my whole life and no-one ever calls it that now!

Very true .. there isn't one

What are you taking about

Could you cite a law that created it?

Don't need to. You'll have heard of "time immemorial" a legal concept used to define that which has existed seemingly "forever" and therefore is accepted as being an extant, legal entity. Time immemorial is fixed at 1189 AD. Huntingdonshire was extant before then.

Ok but what are you talking about

It has a district council. Prior to 1965 it was a county. He states this in the video, if you watched it.

@@IndigoJo No I have got that pleasure to come, that is interesting 1965 that's when I was living in the family home our area was in the County of Essex and a lot of services was supplied by Essex County Council including Education all though we retain county states for Address purposes we became one of the London Boroughs and of course poor old Middlesex disappeared as a county for good.🧐

Haha nice! And not too far from Corby, a.k.a. Little Scotland.

Yeah but the Scot’s were from Ireland and they were not a Briton back then - them bloody foreigners 😂