Question about city/county/country structure in the UK?

Question

I'm a bit confused. I do genealogy as a hobby, and there's something I run into a lot. I see places listed both as being in Wales, and in England, even though it's the same town. I don't know if someone who came along before me didn't have it together, or if (somehow) the two are used interchangably at times? That doesn't make sense to me, but political structures are different everywhere.

Also - I get the impression that for cities in England, the basic naming convention is Town/??/County/Country. Is that correct? If so, what's the missing "node" in the name? And are other countries in the U.K. named in the same way.

Maybe some day I'll actually get to SEE the places for myself! Until then, many thanks for your help!

Answer 1

I would guess that if towns are sometimes listed as Wales and sometimes listed as England then it's due to a change in the country's boundaries over time.

Places in the UK follow the structure of town/ city/ village , county, country.

Sometimes the county and the city are similar, for example London is in Greater London and Manchester is in Greater Manchester.

Answer 2

I suppose it may be due to the history of the UK and all of the border wars of old. Berwick in the North of England was once in Scotland and there has been talk of moving the border back to re-include it, not that it will happen!

I think the extra node comes from the fact that a village is associated with a district, so town would not be the first node as you have above. If you live in a metropolitan area, the address will just be Town/County/Country, but a village would have Village/District/County/Country.

Large towns may have the part of the town in the address too, like Notting Hill/London/England.

There are quite a few variations now I think of it!

Hope this helps