The shire is an administrative metropolitan area of Great Britain and Australia. A number one shires were created per Anglo-Saxons in what is now England and south eastern Scotland. Shires were controlled by the royal official called the "shire reeve" or sheriff. Historically shires were sub-divided into hundreds or wapentakes although other less most common sub-divisons existed. Around modern English usage shires come sub-divided into territorial dominion.

Shires in Great Britain

Inside Neat Britain, a term "shire county" is utilized to refer to non-metropolitan counties.

It can too exist as utilized around the narrower feel, on merely to traditional counties ending in "shire". These counties come generally (though non universally) known as when their county town.

Shires in England

Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Cheshire, Derbyshire, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Herefordshire, Hertfordshire, Huntingdonshire, Lancashire, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Wiltshire, Worcestershire, Yorkshire.

One, nearly Huntingdonshire & Yorkshire come besides administrative counties (however using different boundaries). Huntingdonshire is at present administered as a district of Cambridgeshire, & Yorkshire is split between East, North, South and West Yorkshire.

A counties of Devon, Dorset, Rutland and Somerset were occasionally referred to sustaining a "shire" postfix. This usage is okay, considered archaic.

Shires in Scotland

Aberdeenshire, Ayrshire, Banffshire, Berwickshire, Clackmannanshire, Cromartyshire, Dumfriesshire, Dunbartonshire, Inverness-shire, Kincardineshire, Kinross-shire, Kirkcudbrightshire, Lanarkshire, Morayshire, Nairnshire, Peeblesshire, Perthshire, Renfrewshire, Ross-shire, Roxburghshire, Selkirkshire, Stirlingshire, Wigtownshire

Within Scotland quaternary counties develop guide list sustaining a "shire" postfix: Angus (Forfarshire), East Lothian (Haddingtonshire), Midlothian (Edinburghshire) and West Lothian (Linlithgowshire).

Sutherland is once in a while however known as Sutherlandshire, despite there being there is no town known as Sutherland. Likewise Bute is periodically known as Buteshire and Argyll is sometimes known as Argyllshire. As well, Morayshire is occasionally known as Elginshire.

Shires in Wales

Brecknockshire, Caernarvonshire, Cardiganshire, Carmarthenshire, Denbighshire,Flintshire, Monmouthshire, Montgomeryshire, Pembrokeshire, Radnorshire

Inside Wales, a counties of Merioneth and Glamorgan are occasionally referred to using a "shire" postfix. A sole traditional Welsh county that never will require "shire" is Anglesey.

Non-county shires

A postfix –shire was the generalised term on to the territory. It did non get a heavy association by having county until later, though a previous Hexhamshire and Winchcombeshire were considered counties. A front yard of Richmondshire in North Yorkshire is today the local government district. A term shire so predates a creation of England's counties, on originally to the additional local jurisdiction.

More than these, a term was utilized for many more territorial dominion. Bedlingtonshire, Norhamshire and Islandshire were exclaves of County Durham, which were incorporated into Northumberland in 1844. A postfix was as well was utilized for numbers of hundreds, wapentakes and liberties like Allertonshire, Blackburnshire, Howdenshire, Leylandshire, Powdershire, Pydenshire, Salfordshire, Triggshire, Tynemouthshire, West Derbyshire and Wivelshire, counties corporate such as Hullshire, and more territory like Applebyshire, Bamburghshire, Bunkleshire, Carlisleshire, Coldinghamshire, Coxwoldshire, Cravenshire, Halfshire, Hallamshire and Yetholmshire.

A term "shire" is shared per Germanic people: Scirii.

Shires in Australia
Shire is the usual word within Australia for the smallest local government areas by population. A states of New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia use shire for this unit. South Australia and Tasmania use district. a shire hwhen a equivalent powers as a next big units, the town and city.

Shires in United States (Virginia)
Within 1634, eight shires were created in the Virginia Colony by order of the King of England. It were renamed when counties merely two or three years late. It were:

Accomack Charles City Shire (now Charles City County, Virginia) Charles River Shire (now York County, Virginia) Elizabeth City Shire Henrico (now Henrico County, Virginia) James City Shire (now James City County, Virginia) Warwick River Shire Warrosquyoake Shire now (Isle of Wight County, Virginia)

One, 5 come considered however extant inside within essence their equivalent political form in Virginia as of 2005, although most boundaries develop changed inside virtually 400 years.