Shire

A shire is an administrative area of Great Britain and Australia. The first shires were created by the Anglo-Saxons in what is now England and south eastern Scotland. Shires were controlled by a royal official known as a "shire reeve" or sheriff. Historically shires were sub-divided into hundreds or wapentakes although other less common sub-divisons existed. In modern English usage shires are sub-divided into districts.

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In Great Britain, the term "shire county" is used to refer to non-metropolitan counties.

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It can also be used in a narrower sense, referring only to traditional counties ending in "shire". These counties are typically (though not always) named after their county town.

Great Britain: :For an explanation of often confusing terms like England, (Great) Britain and United Kingdom see British Isles (terminology)....

Anglo-Saxons: The Anglo-Saxons were originally a collection of differing Germanic tribes from Angeln—a peninsula in the southern part of Schleswig, protruding into the Baltic Sea, and what is now Lower Saxony, in the north-west coast of Germany—who achieved dominance in southern Britain from the mid-5...

England: :For an explanation of often confusing terms like England, (Great) Britain and United Kingdom see British Isles (terminology)....