Staffordshire

From Freepedia

Staffordshire
Image:EnglandStaffordshire.png
Geography
Status:	Ceremonial & (smaller) Non-metropolitan county
Region:	West Midlands
Area: - Total - Admin. council - Admin. area	Ranked 18th 2,713 km² Ranked 18th 2,620 km²
Admin HQ:	Stafford
ISO 3166-2:	GB-STS
ONS code:	41
NUTS 3:	UKG24
Demographics
Population: - Total (2003 est.) - Density - Admin. council - Admin. pop.	Ranked 14th 1,048,973 386 / km² Ranked 7th 810,982
Ethnicity:	97.0% White 1.7% S.Asian
Politics
Image:Arms-staffs.jpg Staffordshire County Council http://www.staffordshire.gov.uk/
Executive:	Labour
Members of Parliament
Charlotte Atkins, William Cash, Patrick Cormack, Janet Dean, Michael Fabricant, Paul Farrelly, Mark Fisher, Robert Flello, Brian Jenkins, David Kidney, Joan Walley, Tony Wrig
Districts
Image:Staffordshire Ceremonial Numbered.png Tamworth Lichfield Cannock Chase South Staffordshire Stafford Newcastle-under-Lyme Staffordshire Moorlands East Staffordshire Stoke-on-Trent (Unitary)

Staffordshire (abbreviated Staffs) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Stafford. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders. It adjoins the ceremonial counties of Cheshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Warwickshire, West Midlands, Worcestershire and Shropshire.

The major city in Staffordshire is Stoke-on-Trent. Lichfield is also a city but is considerably smaller. Major towns include Burton-upon-Trent, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Tamworth and Stafford itself.

Staffordshire is divided into a number of districts. These are Cannock Chase, East Staffordshire, Lichfield, Newcastle-under-Lyme, South Staffordshire, Stafford, Staffordshire Moorlands and Tamworth. Stoke-on-Trent is administered as a separate unitary authority.

1 History
2 Geography
3 Towns and villages
4 Places of interest
5 Local Groups
6 See also
7 External links

History

Main article History of Staffordshire.

The historic county of Staffordshire included Wolverhampton, Walsall, and West Bromwich, these were removed in 1974 to the new county of West Midlands. The resulting administrative area of Staffordshire has a narrow southwards protrusion that runs west of West Midlands to the border of Worcestershire. Further, Stoke-on-Trent was removed in the 1990s to form a unitary authority, but is still considered part of Staffordshire for ceremonial purposes.

Historically, Staffordshire was divided into the five hundreds of Cuttlestone, Offlow, Pirehill, Seisdon and Totmonslow.

Geography

In the north and in the south the county is hilly, with wild moorlands in the far north and Cannock Chase an area of natural beauty in the south. In the middle regions the surface is low and undulating. Throughout the entire county there are vast and important coal fields. In the southern part there are also rich iron ore deposits. The largest river is the Trent. The soil is chiefly clay and agriculture was not highly developed until the mechanisation of farms.

Towns and villages

See the list of places in Staffordshire and the List of civil parishes in Staffordshire

Places of interest

Local Groups

External links

Staffordshire Past Track - excellent historical archive about the county

Districts of England - West Midlands	Image:England flag large.png
Birmingham \| Bridgnorth \| Bromsgrove \| Cannock Chase \| Coventry \| Dudley \| East Staffordshire \| Herefordshire \| Lichfield \| Malvern Hills \| Newcastle-under-Lyme \| North Shropshire \| North Warwickshire \| Nuneaton and Bedworth \| Oswestry \| Redditch \| Rugby \| Sandwell \| Shrewsbury and Atcham \| Solihull \| South Shropshire \| South Staffordshire \| Stafford \| Staffordshire Moorlands \| Stoke-on-Trent \| Stratford-on-Avon \| Tamworth \| Telford and Wrekin \| Walsall \| Warwick \| Wolverhampton \| Worcester \| Wychavon \| Wyre Forest
Administrative Counties with multiple districts: Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, West Midlands, Worcestershire