Lancashire

Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England, bounded to the west by the Irish Sea. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Its county council is based in Preston, the county's administrative capital. Lancaster however is still considered to be the county town. Commonly, Lancashire is referred to by the abbreviation Lancs, originally used by the Royal Mail. People from the county are known as Lancastrians. The county was subject to a significant boundary change in 1974, which removed Liverpool and Manchester with most of their surrounding conurbations to form part of the metropolitan counties of Merseyside and Greater Manchester. The Duchy of Lancaster exercises the right of the Crown in the area known as the County Palatine of Lancaster.

The area under the control of the county council, or shire county, is divided into a number of local government districts. They are Burnley, Chorley, Fylde, Hyndburn, Lancaster, Pendle, Preston, the Ribble Valley, Rossendale, South Ribble, West Lancashire, and Wyre.

Blackpool and Blackburn with Darwen are unitary authorities which form part of the county for various functions such as Lord Lieutenant but do not come under county council control. The Lancashire Constabulary covers the two unitary authorities. The ceremonial county, the area including the unitary authorities, borders Cumbria, North Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, and the metropolitan counties of Greater Manchester, and Merseyside and forms part of the North West England region.