Staffordshire

Staffordshire
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Country	England
Borders	Cheshire Derbyshire Leicestershire Shropshire Warwickshire Worcestershire
Population	2,159,392

The coat of arms of Staffordshire County Council

Staffordshire, officially the County of Stafford, is a landlocked county in the north-western Midlands of England. Its population, as of 2024 (Wikishire) is 2.16 million, and the county town is Stafford. Much of the industrial Black Country, which includes Staffordshire's largest settlement, the city of Wolverhampton, lies in Staffordshire. Another major industrial area is that of The Potteries, whose main settlements are Stoke-on-Trent (a city comprising 7 towns) and Newcastle-under-Lyme, famous for its pottery and ceramics manufacture. The remainder of the county is largely rural, and the east, extending into the Pennine foothills, is hilly. Major towns include Leek, Uttoxeter, and Burton upon Trent. The city of Lichfield is notable for its cathedral, the only medieval English cathedral with three spires. The ancient town of Tamworth was a royal residence of the kings of the Anglian kingdom Mercia from the 7th to the 9th century.

The county is bordered to the north by Cheshire, with its eastern border mainly being with Derbyshire, except for a short section that borders Leicestershire. To the south east, the county borders Warwickshire, with the border bisecting the western suburbs of Birmingham and the town of Tamworth, the centre of royal authority in the Anglian kingdom Mercia, and to the south west, Worcestershire, with the western border being with Shropshire.

Its centralised location places it at the northern or southern extremes of the ranges of many species, and is one of the reasons for its rich and diverse flora and fauna, with good examples of most wildlife habitats and even an area of inland saltmarsh. Of particular importance are the lowland heathlands, the Staffordshire moorlands and the limestone valleys. The extensive network of rivers, inland waterways and meres and mosses add a further important dimension.

In the 21st century, almost all of Staffordshire is administered by 5 local authority areas, which make up a part of the West Midlands statistical region.

As with many traditional counties, Staffordshire is divided into hundreds. The five hundreds that make up Staffordshire are Totmonslow in the north-east, Offlow in the south-east, Siesdon in the south-west, Cuttlestone lying immediately south and west of Stafford and Pirehill in the centre and north-west.

The southernmost point in Staffordshire is the hamlet Pound Green (in Upper Arley parish) which lies in the Wyre Forest close to the borders with Shropshire and Worcestershire. The northernmost and highest point in Staffordshire is Cheeks Hill (1,705 ft), in the Pennines south-west of Buxton in Derbyshire.

The best-known symbol of Staffordshire is the Staffordshire knot (or Stafford knot). The first known use of the symbol in Staffordshire is from an Anglian cross from the early 9th century, which still stands in a churchyard in Stoke-on-Trent. The knot is generally agreed to be either i) an ancient Mercian symbol or ii) a symbol adopted from Irish Christianity, before it was brought to Staffordshire by Irish monks in the 7th century. The symbol is very popular and appears in jewellery and clothing worn by those celebrating their Staffordshire heritage. Staffordshire-born singer Robbie Williams has a prominent Staffordshire knot tattoo.

The county probably first came into being as an Anglian shire in the 10th century; it was in 913 that Stafford became a fortified burh and the new capital of Mercia under Queen Æthelflæd. The county is first referenced by name in 1016 in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

Much of the county's geographical area is administered by Staffordshire County Council. However, some of the county proper, and indeed more than half of its population, is under other administrative divisions such as Birmingham City Council (though much of Birmingham itself is in traditional Warwickshire), Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council, Stoke-on-Trent City Council, City of Wolverhampton Council, with a small part of the south west of the county (around the village of Upper Arley) being under Worcestershire County Council.

• Staffordshire County Council - official website of the council