Middlesex

Middlesex is one of the 39 of  being the second smallest (after ). When s were introduced in England in 1889 part of Middlesex was used to form the and the remainder formed the  of Middlesex.

By 1965 urban London had further expanded and almost all of the original area was incorporated into. Middlesex is still used informally as an area name and may be included in some postal addresses.

Early history
The name means middle Saxons and refers to the reputed ethnic origin of its inhabitants. Its first recorded use was in AD 704 as Middleseaxan. Geographically, Middlesex included the, which has been self-governing since the. It also included the City of. The highest point is the High Road by at 504 feet (154 metres).

Division into hundreds
Middlesex was recorded in the as being divided into the six  of, , ,  (later Isleworth),  and. Settlement was divided as follows:

Edmonton Hundred - -  -  -  -

Elthorne Hundred - -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -

Gore Hundred - -  -  -  -  -  -

Isleworth Hundred - -  -

Ossulstone Hundred - -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -    -  -  -  -  - e -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -

Spelthorne Hundred - -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -

During the 17th century Ossulstone Hundred was divided into four divisions, which, along with the  largely took over the administrative functions of the hundred. The divisions were named ', ', ' and '.

County town
Middlesex does not have a single established historic county town, with different locations having been used for different county purposes:
 * The for Middlesex were held at the  in the . Until 1889 the  of Middlesex was chosen by the.
 * The sessions house for the was at  from the early eighteenth century. The quarter sessions performed most of the administration of the county until the creation of the Middlesex County Council in 1889.
 * was first described as the county town in 1789, on the basis that it was the location of elections of knights for the shire (or ) from 1701. In 1795 New Brentford was "considered as the county-town; but there is no town-hall or other public building".
 * Middlesex County Council, which took over the administrative duties of the Quarter Sessions in 1889 was based at the, in . This was in the , and thus outside the council's area of jurisdiction.

Earldom
The title was created twice, in 1622 and 1677 but became extinct in 1843.

Market towns
As of 1850 and before the expansion of London;, , , , , and  were s. The south eastern part of the county was served by the daily market at.

Introduction of county councils
The north western suburbs of London steadily covered large parts of Middlesex, especially following the coming of the railways. In 1889, under the, much of the area to the south east became part of the. The remainder of the county came under the control of Middlesex County Council except for the parish of which became part of.

The Act also provided that the part of Middlesex in the administrative county of London should be "severed from [Middlesex], and form a separate county for all non-administrative purposes".

The area under the control of London County Council was divided in 1899 into which were merged in 1965 to form the following present-day boroughs:



Districts
The remainder of the county was initially divided into s and s.

The rural districts were, , ,. Because of increasing urbanisation these had all been abolished by 1934. Urban districts had been created, merged, and many had gained the status of municipal borough by 1965. Ealing, Enfield, Harrow, Hendon, Heston and Isleworth, Tottenham, Wembley, Willesden and Twickenham had all, according to the 1961 census, reached a population of greater than 100,000, which would usually have entitled them to seek status. If granted to all these boroughs, it would have reduced the population of the administrative county of Middlesex by over half, to just shy of a million. The districts in 1965 were:

Arms of Middlesex County Council
were attributed by the medieval to the Kingdoms of the. That assigned to the depicted three "seaxes" or short notched swords on a red background. The seaxe was a weapon carried by warriors, and the term "Saxon" may be derived from the word. These arms became associated with the two counties that approximated to the kingdom: Middlesex and. County authorities, militia and volunteer regiments associated with both counties used the attributed arms. In 1910 it was noted that the county councils of Essex and Middlesex and the of the  were all using the same arms.

The Middlesex County Council decided to apply for a formal grant of arms from the, with the addition of an heraldic "difference" added to the attributed arms. Colonel Otley Parry, a for Middlesex and author of a book on military badges, was asked to devise an addition to the shield. The chosen addition was a "Saxon Crown", derived from the portrait of King on a silver penny of his reign, stated to be the earliest form of crown associated with any English sovereign. The grant of arms was made by dated,.

The of the arms was:

Gules, three seaxes fessewise points to the sinister proper, pomels and hilts and in the centre chief point a Saxon crown or.

The undifferenced arms of the Kingdom were eventually granted to Essex County Council in 1932. Seaxes were also used in the insignia of many of the boroughs and urban districts in the county, while the Saxon crown came to be a common heraldic charge in English civic arms.

On the creation of the in 1965 a Saxon crown was introduced in its coat of arms. Seaxes appear in the arms of several s and of whose area was in Middlesex.

Creation of Greater London
After 1889 the growth of London did not cease and the county became almost entirely urbanised by its suburbs. Many of the boroughs in the area were demanding independence from Middlesex County Council as s, which if granted would have left Middlesex County Council controlling an area with three distinct and unconnected fragments - in the west, the south-east and the north of the county.

Instead, in 1965, nearly all the remainder of Middlesex became part of and formed the new s of:


 * (part only)
 * (part only)
 * (part only)
 * (part only)
 * (part only)
 * (part only)
 * (part only)
 * (part only)
 * (part only)

The remaining areas were which became part of, while  and  became part of.

Recent changes
In 1974 the three that had been transferred to Hertfordshire and Surrey were abolished and became the districts of  (part only) and  respectively.

In 1995 the village of was transferred from Spelthorne to the  borough of.

Legacy
Middlesex is still used in the names of organisations based in the area such as and. In 2003, an  with two signatures, noted  is the anniversary of the  and in recent years has been celebrated as Middlesex Day, commemorating the valiant efforts of the  (the “Die-hards”) in that battle. The idea is to recognise and celebrate the historic county.

The, and the  are all boundaries of the traditional county and historically the banks of  in London were known as the "Middlesex Bank" and "Surrey Bank". Although no longer used in central London, it still occurs in the area around and  where the river bends in such a way as to make north or south unclear.

The urbanisation and declining importance of the county was lamented in the later works of, the and featured in the televised readings Metroland. As part of a 2002 marketing campaign, the plant conservation charity chose the  as the.

A judicial Middlesex existed, consisting of the boroughs of Brent, Ealing, Enfield, Haringey, Harrow, Hillingdon and Hounslow. This was abolished on.

There is still a and at least two teams,  and, compete in the Middlesex County Cup, even though they are now administratively in Surrey, whilst  compete, even though they are now administratively in Hertfordshire and are in the area which was moved from Middlesex to Hertfordshire postal county in 1965.

Former postal county
Middlesex is also defined by the to be a. The postal county was much smaller than the traditional and administrative counties as a large part of Middlesex was part of the. The postal county included the village of, which was for all other purposes in but included in the  of  and therefore the postal county of Middlesex; conversely  was not included in the Middlesex postal county as it was served by post towns based in Surrey. This gave rise to the misconception that was located in Surrey. and are served by the Staines post town and thus were also included in the Middlesex postal county.

The former postal county consisted of two unconnected areas (Enfield and the rest) and comprised the following post towns:

† = postal county was not required

Since the Royal Mail no longer require the use of counties as part of an address it is now possible to include Middlesex as part of any address, including those in the London postal district. The Royal Mail's 'alias file', a supplement to the, contains postally-not-required details such as the former postal and traditional county for every address in the UK.