Middlesex

Middlesex
Historic county
1965
Flag Coat of arms
Middlesex within Great Britain as of 1888
Area
• 1801/1881	734 km2 (181,320 acres)[1]
• 1911	601.8 km2 (148,701 acres)[2]
• 1961	601.7 km2 (148,691 acres)[2]
• Coordinates	51°30′N 0°25′W / 51.500°N 0.417°W / 51.500; -0.417
Area transferred
• 1889	Metropolitan parishes to County of London
Population
• 1801	818,129[1]
• 1881	2,920,485[1]
• 1911	1,126,465[2]
• 1961	2,234,543[2]
Density
• 1801	11 inhabitants per hectare (4.5/acre)
• 1881	40 inhabitants per hectare (16.1/acre)
• 1911	19 inhabitants per hectare (7.6/acre)
• 1961	37 inhabitants per hectare (15/acre)
History
• Preceded by	Kingdom of Essex
• Origin	Middle Saxons
• Created	Early Middle Ages
Status	Ceremonial county (until 1965) Administrative county (1889–1965)
Chapman code	MDX[note 1]
Government	Middlesex Quarter Sessions (until 1889)[note 2] Within the metropolis: Metropolitan Board of Works (1855–1889) Middlesex County Council (1889–1965)
• HQ	see text
Subdivisions
• Type	Hundreds (ancient) Districts (1835–1965)

Middlesex (/ˈmɪdəlsɛks/; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county, a former post county, and a former administrative county in South East England;^[3] it is now mainly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbouring ceremonial counties. The county's boundaries largely followed three rivers: the Thames in the south, the Lea to the east and the Colne to the west. A line of hills formed the northern boundary with Hertfordshire. The county was the second smallest of the historic counties of England, after Rutland.

The name of the county derives from its origin as a homeland for the Middle Saxon people in the early Middle Ages,^[4] with the county subsequently formed from part of that territory in either the ninth or tenth century. The City of London became a self governing county corporate in the twelfth century; it was able to exert political influence in Middlesex as the sheriffs of London were given jurisdiction there, though the county otherwise remained separate.^[5] To the east of the City, the Tower Division (or Tower Hamlets) had considerable autonomy under its own Lord Lieutenant. To the west, precincts around Westminster and Charing Cross became built up.

Despite London's expansion into rural Middlesex, the Corporation of London resisted attempts to expand the City of London boundaries into the county, posing problems for the administration of local government, public infrastructure, and justice. In the eighteenth and ninteenth centuries the population density was especially high in the southeast of the county, including the East and West Ends of London. In 1855 the densely populated southeast, together with sections of Kent and Surrey, came under the Metropolitan Board of Works for certain infrastructure purposes, while remaining a part of Middlesex.^[6] and the Metropolitan Police also developed in the nineteenth century.

When county councils were introduced in 1889, about twenty per cent of the area of the historic county, along with a third of its population, was incorporated into the new administrative County of London. The remainder formed the administrative county of Middlesex, governed by the Middlesex County Council,^[7] which met regularly at the Middlesex Guildhall in Westminster. Further suburban growth, stimulated by the improvement and expansion of public transport,^[8] as well as the setting up of new industries, led to the creation of Greater London in 1965, an area which included almost all of the historic county of Middlesex, with the rest included in neighbouring ceremonial counties.^[9]

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