| Huntingdon and Peterborough | |
 |
|
| Administration | |
| Status | Administrative county |
| HQ | Huntingdon |
 |
|
| History | |
| Created | 1965 |
| Abolished | 1974 |
| Succeeded by | Cambridgeshire |
| Population | |
|---|---|
| 1971 | 202,622 |
Huntingdon and Peterborough was a short-lived administrative county in East Anglia. It was formed in 1965 by the merger of the administrations of the Soke of Peterborough (nominally in Northamptonshire) and Huntingdonshire, both very small counties, in an attempt to make a more viable administrative unit. To these were attached the Thorney Rural District from the Isle of Ely. As a consequence, the Soke of Peterborough was absorbed by the custos rotulorum and Lord Lieutenant of Huntingdonshire, who became Lord Lieutenant of Huntingdon and Peterborough.[1] The county's population, as recorded at the ten-yearly census, was 202,622 in 1971.[2] The attempt was deemed a failure, so under the Local Government Act 1972 — which replaced the administrative counties and county boroughs of the Local Government Act 1888 with metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties — Huntingdon and Peterborough merged with neighbouring Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely (itself formed in 1965, following the traditional division of the county into the area around Cambridge and the liberty of the Isle of Ely), to form the new enlarged non-metropolitan county (and lieutenancy) of Cambridgeshire. Peterborough and Huntingdon became two of the county's six districts and in 1984, following a resolution of the council, the latter district was renamed Huntingdonshire.[3] Cambridgeshire Constabulary was also formed with its present boundaries, under the Police Act 1964, from the merger of the Cambridge City Police, the previous Cambridgeshire County Constabulary, Isle of Ely Constabulary, Huntingdonshire Constabulary, and the Peterborough Combined Police Force (created in 1947 from the Liberty of Peterborough Constabulary and the City of Peterborough Constabulary). The new force was named the Mid-Anglia Constabulary until 1974, when non-metropolitan Cambridgeshire was created with identical boundaries.
References
- ^ The Huntingdon and Peterborough Order 1964 (SI 1964/367), see Local Government Commission for England (1958 - 1967), Report and Proposals for the East Midlands General Review Area (Report No.3), 31 July 1961 and Report and Proposals for the Lincolnshire and East Anglia General Review Area (Report No.9), 07 May 1965
- ^ A vision of Huntingdon and Peterborough A vision of Britain through time Great Britain Historical GIS Project, University of Portsmouth, Department of Geography (retrieved 08 May 2007)
- ^ The Times London, 27 April 1984
See also
- City of Peterborough
- Soke of Peterborough
- Huntingdonshire
- Lord Lieutenant of Huntingdon and Peterborough
- Cambridgeshire
