| {"id":"england.c-35","content":"Outside the London region, England's highest tier is the 48 ceremonial counties.[102] These are used primarily as a geographical frame of reference. Of these, 38 developed gradually since the Middle Ages; these were reformed to 51 in 1974 and to their current number in 1996.[103] Each has a Lord Lieutenant and High Sheriff; these posts are used to represent the British monarch locally.[102] Some counties, such as Herefordshire, are only divided further into civil parishes. The royal county of Berkshire and the metropolitan counties have different types of status to other ceremonial counties.[104]\n\nThe second tier is made up of combined authorities and the 27 county-tier shire counties. In 1974, all ceremonial counties were two-tier; and with the metropolitan county tier phased out, the 1996 reform separated the ceremonial county and the administrative county tier.\n\nEngland is also divided into local government districts.[105] The district can align to a ceremonial county, or be a district tier within a shire county, be a royal or metropolitan borough, have borough or city status, or be a unitary authority.","order_int":35,"metadata":{"splitter_name":"RecursiveCharacterTextSplitter","length":221,"section_id":"england","section":{}}} |