Most if not all of the walks which I describe in this column obviously relate to Lancashire and West Yorkshire but I occasionally suggest routes in places around Cumbria.

I have had several complaints in recent years that I do not pay sufficient attention to the old boundaries.

They say I do not mention old Lancashire, or the Yorkshire Ridings and it is pointed out that Cumbria is not a real county at all.

I regret the changes of boundaries as much as anyone and I wish that Barnoldswick, Gisburn and Waddington were still in Yorkshire.

I was born in Lancashire but my birthplace is now Cumbria.

The county boundaries were changed in 1974. Since then all the Ordnance Survey maps, road signs and boundary signs have related to these changes and it would confuse walkers if I used the old boundaries. People are now enjoying walking in areas which had the boundaries changed before they were born. Hence I will continue to use the present day borders in my walks.

It is worth describing how boundaries have changed over the centuries. The counties of England are neither all alike in their origin nor in the date of which they came into existence.

Some, for example Norfolk and Suffolk, are divisions of the ancient Kingdom of East Anglia; others such as Kent, Sussex, Essex, Middlesex and Surrey were ancient Kingdoms in their own right. Areas which we now know as Yorkshire plus parts of what is now Cumbria and Lancashire were an ancient kingdom called Deira. In the Domesday Book of 1086 Yorkshire is called Eurvicescire.

The word shire is of Anglo-Saxon origin and derives from the word for a place where officers controlled the area. These officers where the shire-reeves, from which we get the word sheriff. The “head lad” was the Earl or Ealdorman, which we now call an alderman The word county was introduced by the Normans and was an area under the control of a Conte, which when anglicised becomes a count.

The word Riding which all northerners regret the loss of, is Anglo-Saxon in origin but itself adapted from the Norse word “triding”, meaning one third. We lost the “t” and for centuries Yorkshire was divided into three; the North, the East and the West Ridings. The West Riding incorporated much of the area we East Lancastrians now have to call Lancashire.

As I have pointed out, we need to follow the new boundaries or else walkers would soon get lost. We should not, however, forget the old county boundaries, which are very much part of out proud history.

In the next few weeks I am going to follow a few of these old boundaries and include: Waddington — once West Riding and now Lancashire; Kirkby Stephen — once Westmorland and now Cumbria; West Bradford — True border country.