Regions of Scotland

[Smartie]

I thought about making this point on the "coronavirus" thread but it's not really of relevance there so I've started this one here.

When I was at school I was pretty good at geography (in the sense of knowing where places were) and then totally lost interest and focussed on other things at school once it turned into all that clouds and rivers stuff.

At that time the map of Scotland was quite simple, and had regions like Tayside, Strathclyde, Central and Lothian. Before that I'm aware that there were "counties".

This has since been changed and it looks like these previously large areas or "regions" have been split up into various subdivisions. I've also seen "local councils" referred to on the coronavirus thread. Some of it seems a bit moie similar to what the counties once were, although clearly a bit different.

Apologies for being a bit thick but what does all of this mean? Is it something to do with local government? When did it all change? I read the lists of council areas and realise that I don't know where places like "East Renfrewshire" are, only having football references to stuff like the Renfrewshire derby as some sort of reference. When I saw this map earlier I realised that I don't have the first idea where some of these places are - even having a bit of a battle to figure out the bit where I have lived for the past 16 years - ie Edinburgh, Midlothian etc, which I always just knew collectively as "Lothian".


https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/10/levels-nsip.png

[Killiehibbie]

Early 70's we got regional councils, Strathclyde, Lothian, Tayside, etc. They all had District Councils. Regional was then done away with.
East Renfrewshire is Newton Means, Clarkson area.

[lapsedhibee]

So long as you remember that Kincardine isn't in Kincardineshire you can't go far wrong.

[JeMeSouviens]

I thought about making this point on the "coronavirus" thread but it's not really of relevance there so I've started this one here.

When I was at school I was pretty good at geography (in the sense of knowing where places were) and then totally lost interest and focussed on other things at school once it turned into all that clouds and rivers stuff.

At that time the map of Scotland was quite simple, and had regions like Tayside, Strathclyde, Central and Lothian. Before that I'm aware that there were "counties".

This has since been changed and it looks like these previously large areas or "regions" have been split up into various subdivisions. I've also seen "local councils" referred to on the coronavirus thread. Some of it seems a bit moie similar to what the counties once were, although clearly a bit different.

Apologies for being a bit thick but what does all of this mean? Is it something to do with local government? When did it all change? I read the lists of council areas and realise that I don't know where places like "East Renfrewshire" are, only having football references to stuff like the Renfrewshire derby as some sort of reference. When I saw this map earlier I realised that I don't have the first idea where some of these places are - even having a bit of a battle to figure out the bit where I have lived for the past 16 years - ie Edinburgh, Midlothian etc, which I always just knew collectively as "Lothian".


https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/10/levels-nsip.png



In the mists of time, we had counties, usually based around county towns. (So, on very old maps you'll see E Lothian as "Haddingtonshire" and W Lothian as "Linlithgowshire"). Edinburgh was in Midlothian, Glasgow mostly Lanarkshire but sprawled off into Dunbartonshire, Renfreshire etc. Strangely, these old counties are still the correct postal addresses. So where I grew up in Currie, the postal address is "Currie, Midlothian" even though Currie hasn't been in the Midlothian council area for 45 years!

This all changed in 1974 (I think), when Scotland was reorganised into a 2 level local government: regional and district. The regions are the ones you remember; Lothian, Strathclyde, Tayside etc and the districts for Lothian were E/W/Mid but also Edinburgh district. And the districts didn't necessarily line up with the old historic counties.

It all changed again in the early 90s when we went back to a single level of local government with yet another new set of boundaries. Lothian stuck with the 4 districts, Edinburgh and E/W/Mid. There are 30+ of these unitary authorities.

[Keith_M]

In 1975, the previous counties of Scotland, that had been in existence since 1929, were abolished and a two tier system of Local Government was introduced.

There were Regions, like Lothian, Strathclyde, The Borders, Central, etc. Each region was sub-divided into Local Council areas, e.g. Lothian Region had West Lothian, Midlothian, East Lothian and Edinburgh.

The Local Authority areas were in some cases almost exactly the same as the previous Council areas but a lot of new ones were introduced, and borders re-drawn (e.g. Musselburgh moved from Midlothian to East Lothian).


Then in 1996, the current system (https://electricscotland.com/council/images/Scotland_Administrative_Map_2009.png) was brought in, where we returned to a single tier system, with the 'Unitary Authorities' (what a stupid name) that we have now.

[Mibbes Aye]

32 local authorities which have statutory responsibility for all manner of things.

31 integration authorities which cover health and social care. The reason there are 31 is because Stirling and Clackmannanshire combined.

14 regional or territorial health boards that roughly fit with with the old regional councils and cover some or a number of integration authorities. Sometimes they are coterminous though, as in Fife, Scottish Borders and Dumfries and Galloway, plus the three island boards/authorities.

[Renfrew_Hibby]

Was it not around 25 years ago it all changed? So you haven't noticed that your local authority is no longer Lothian and hasn't been for that period of time?!!!

East Renfrewshire is the affluent suburbs to the south of Glasgow, where there is a large Jewish population, a very wealthy area indeed. I live in the middle portion of the ancient county of Renfrewshire, Paisley, Erskine, Linwood ect. This local authority is just Renfrewshire although i think it should be named Mid Renfrewshire.
As for the west of the county, the area including Greenock, Gourock ect well that for some reason is named Inverclyde and not West Renfrewshire!

The old Strathclyde was a corrupt monster of an authority with around 50% of Scotlands population. Glasgow city chambers would just suck up everything from Ayrshire or Lanarkshire, from Campbelltown to Girvan to Lanark, everywhere suffered and paid for Glasgows big events like the Garden Festival or the year of culture. It was a complete corrupt **** show.

I was delighted when Strathclyde was dismantled and Glasgow lost all those wealthy tax payers from East Renfrewshire and East Dunbartonshire, places like Bearsden and Milngavie.

[pollution]

These changes happened in 1975 or 76.

For some reason Edinburgh is considered to be in Midlothian when entering my address on eg online orders.

It hasn't been in Midlothian for 45 years !

[overdrive]

These changes happened in 1975 or 76.

For some reason Edinburgh is considered to be in Midlothian when entering my address on eg online orders.

It hasn't been in Midlothian for 45 years !

It’s a lottery what you need to put in as a county/region in drop down lists when it is an Edinburgh address.... Lothian, Midlothian, City of Edinburgh, Edinburgh and “Edinburgh, City of” seem to be the various options.

[overdrive]

Was it not around 25 years ago it all changed? So you haven't noticed that your local authority is no longer Lothian and hasn't been for that period of time?!!!

East Renfrewshire is the affluent suburbs to the south of Glasgow, where there is a large Jewish population, a very wealthy area indeed. I live in the middle portion of the ancient county of Renfrewshire, Paisley, Erskine, Linwood ect. This local authority is just Renfrewshire although i think it should be named Mid Renfrewshire.
As for the west of the county, the area including Greenock, Gourock ect well that for some reason is named Inverclyde and not West Renfrewshire!

The old Strathclyde was a corrupt monster of an authority with around 50% of Scotlands population. Glasgow city chambers would just suck up everything from Ayrshire or Lanarkshire, from Campbelltown to Girvan to Lanark, everywhere suffered and paid for Glasgows big events like the Garden Festival or the year of culture. It was a complete corrupt **** show.

I was delighted when Strathclyde was dismantled and Glasgow lost all those wealthy tax payers from East Renfrewshire and East Dunbartonshire, places like Bearsden and Milngavie.

My ex wife is from Kilmacolm which is in Inverclyde but the postal address is Renfrewshire. So confusing.

[lapsedhibee]

My ex wife is from Kilmacolm which is in Inverclyde but the postal address is Renfrewshire. So confusing.

Post Office does not recommend using counties at all in addresses.

https://personal.help.royalmail.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/81/~/how-to-address-your-mail-%28clear-addressing%29

[Smartie]

Was it not around 25 years ago it all changed? So you haven't noticed that your local authority is no longer Lothian and hasn't been for that period of time?!!!

East Renfrewshire is the affluent suburbs to the south of Glasgow, where there is a large Jewish population, a very wealthy area indeed. I live in the middle portion of the ancient county of Renfrewshire, Paisley, Erskine, Linwood ect. This local authority is just Renfrewshire although i think it should be named Mid Renfrewshire.
As for the west of the county, the area including Greenock, Gourock ect well that for some reason is named Inverclyde and not West Renfrewshire!

The old Strathclyde was a corrupt monster of an authority with around 50% of Scotlands population. Glasgow city chambers would just suck up everything from Ayrshire or Lanarkshire, from Campbelltown to Girvan to Lanark, everywhere suffered and paid for Glasgows big events like the Garden Festival or the year of culture. It was a complete corrupt **** show.

I was delighted when Strathclyde was dismantled and Glasgow lost all those wealthy tax payers from East Renfrewshire and East Dunbartonshire, places like Bearsden and Milngavie.

If it was about 25 years ago then I would have lived in either Kinross or Dundee. I was aware that at some point Tayside (as it was when I learnt all the regions) had split into Perth and Kinross, City of Dundee and Angus but I didn't know what had happened further afield. It probably happened when I was in a boozy fug early on at Uni with little interest in such matters.

I moved to Leith in 2004 and quite a lot of what has been discussed here makes sense. My flat was a new build at that time, yet a lot of online address finders that use your postcode come up with Midlothian in my address - which hasn't made any sense until now.

I was mainly staggered that I could look at a map of a country I call home, think I know well, and realise how crap I would have been at naming the various areas - given I was coming from a position where I'd have been unhappy with anything less that 100% in any such test at school (albeit with a smaller number of larger regions).

(Many thanks to Keith M for the link to the map that has allowed me to scratch that particular OCD itch.)

[SHODAN]

These changes happened in 1975 or 76.

For some reason Edinburgh is considered to be in Midlothian when entering my address on eg online orders.

It hasn't been in Midlothian for 45 years !

Stirlingshire sometimes pops up for my address online too.

[LancashireHibby]

Not something unique to Scotland. Down here in Leigh, our postal address is Lancashire but some people didn’t realise we were politically considered part of Greater Manchester rather than Lancashire until the regional coronavirus restrictions were brought in. That is despite us all voting a couple of years ago for a Greater Manchester Mayor.

[Billy Whizz]

So long as you remember that Kincardine isn't in Kincardineshire you can't go far wrong.

And Berwick isn’t in Berwickshire, it’s in Northumberland, and has a Galashiels Postcode

[Moulin Yarns]

And Berwick isn’t in Berwickshire, it’s in Northumberland, and has a Galashiels Postcode

What??!!!!


I thought Berwick was a suburb of Kelty 😁😉

[Keith_M]

And Berwick isn’t in Berwickshire, it’s in Northumberland, and has a Galashiels Postcode


And Heart of Midlothian don't play in Midlothian.

[Moulin Yarns]

And Heart of Midlothian don't play in Midlothian.

Depends on what database you use. 🤔😉

[Renfrew_Hibby]

And Heart of Midlothian don't play in Midlothian.

They don't have a heart either.

[Keith_M]

They don't have a heart either.


:greengrin

[Keith_M]

Here's a question related to both football and the topic of this thread.


Notts County and Nottingham Forest are the two closest league stadiums in England, on either side of the River Trent.

What's unusual about their stadiums?

[lapsedhibee]

Here's a question related to both football and the topic of this thread.


Notts County and Nottingham Forest are the two closest league stadiums in England, on either side of the River Trent.

What's unusual about their stadiums?

Guess that Forest's is in Nottinghamshire (County) and Notts's isn't?

[Keith_M]

Guess that Forest's is in Nottinghamshire (County) and Notts's isn't?


Well done.

Nottingham Forest play in the county of Nottinghamshire, not in Nottingham

Notts (short for Nottinghamshire) County play in Nottingham, not in Nottinghamshire county.



That's a lot of 'nots' ;-)

[greenlex]

Why is it Dunbartonshire and not Dumbartonshire?:confused:

[ballengeich]

Why is it Dunbartonshire and not Dumbartonshire?:confused:
Your question's the wrong way round. Dun is a standard part of Scottish names and means a fort. Somehow the name Dunbarton (Fort of the Britons) of the town has changed from Dun to Dum over time.

[HibbyDave]

Living in the only kingdom I don’t need to worry about trivial things like counties😀

[heretoday]

It’s a lottery what you need to put in as a county/region in drop down lists when it is an Edinburgh address.... Lothian, Midlothian, City of Edinburgh, Edinburgh and “Edinburgh, City of” seem to be the various options.

Drives me mad that.