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The boundaries of Worcestershire, England have been fluid for over 150 years since the first major changes in 1844. There were many detached parts of Worcestershire in the surrounding counties, and conversely there were islands of other counties within Worcestershire. The 1844'' Counties (Detached Parts) Act'' began the processing of eliminating these, but the process was not completed until 1966, when Dudley was absorbed into Staffordshire. The expansion of Birmingham and the Black Country during and after the Industrial Revolution also altered the county map considerably. Local government commissions were set up to recommend changes to the local government structures, and as early as 1945 recommendations were made to merge Worcestershire with Herefordshire. Eventually in 1974, a form of this recommendation was carried out, most of Worcestershire was combined with Herefordshire to form a new county named Hereford & Worcester, while the northern Black Country towns and villages of Worcestershire, along with adjoining areas of Staffordshire and Warwickshire, formed the new county of West Midlands. Hereford & Worcester was re-divided into the separate counties of Herefordshire and Worcestershire in 1998. Since that time Worcestershire's boundaries have not changed. ==Boundaries before 1844== Worcestershire's boundaries were relatively stable before the Victorian era, although some parishes or Manors changed hands with neighbouring counties, usually as 'gifts' by the monarchy, church or through conquest.〔(HM Government Legislation ) (Local Government Act 1888 ) – Retrieved 29 July 2011〕 In 1844; the administration of Worcestershire was carried out by the Courts of Quarter Sessions, who were responsible for law and order, civil jurisdiction and certain administrative functions in the county. These roles included the licensing of alehouses, police, weights and measures, construction/maintenance of highways and bridges, poor law disputes and setting taxes.〔(Worcestershire County Council ) (Quarter Sessions order books ) – Retrieved 4 September 2014〕 The county was then divided into five hundreds (a county subdivision), four separate boroughs for the larger towns (Bewdley, Kidderminster, Droitwich, and Evesham), and Worcester itself, which was a county corporate. Worcester was autonomous from Worcestershire and the boroughs had a certain degree of autonomy within the hundreds. Worcestershire's remaining hundreds prior to the reforms were Blakenhurst, Doddingtree, Halfshire, Oswaldslow and Pershore.〔Laird, "A Topographical and Historical Description of the County of Worcester" c. 1814〕 ''The main township part of St. John in Bedwardine parish was incorporated into the City of Worcester in 1837.〔(St. John in Bedwardine ) (Parish History ) – Retrieved 29 August 2013〕'' The fractured layout of the hundreds was at best confusing. Most of the hundreds were split into two or even three divisions in differing parts of the county. As the above table and Fig 1 shows, some of these parishes were islands surrounded by other hundreds. Meanwhile, some of Worcestershire's parishes existed in other counties jurisdictions, known as enclaves, exclaves, "outliers" or simply "islands". There were also parishes that stretched over the county boundary as part of their contiguous area; Old Swinford parish included Amblecote from Staffordshire for instance.〔(British History ) (Old Swinford Parish ) – Retrieved 29 August 2013〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Evolution of Worcestershire county boundaries since 1844」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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