Three Counties

The Three Counties of England are traditionally the three agrarian counties of Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire.

Including towns and cities such as Worcester, Gloucester, Cheltenham, Hereford, Leominster, Stourbridge and Kidderminster, they extend from the southern boundaries of Birmingham in the north to Bristol in the south. Traditionally rugby union and cricket playing areas, there is a Three Counties Showground situated in the Worcestershire town of Malvern that holds an annual agricultural show, and the area is also referred to in the names of local businesses and in the Three Counties Cider and Perry Association - the popular apple and pear derived alcoholic beverages, some of the finest of which are made in this area.

Other uses

The Three Choirs Festival is a festival of sacred choral music which has been held since 1724. It rotates between the three county towns. It often features music by local composer Edward Elgar.

The expression is sometimes used for other groups of three counties, such as in BBC Three Counties Radio which refers to Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire, or in Rugby Union where it may refer to Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire and Derbyshire.

BBC Three Counties Radio

BBC Three Counties Radio is the BBC Local Radio service for the English counties of Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire (referred to as Beds, Herts and Bucks), broadcasting from studios at Grove Park in Dunstable. The Managing Editor is Laura Moss, who moved from BBC Radio Northampton in April 2012.

History

BBC Radio Bedfordshire (1985–1993)

The station launched as "Radio Bedfordshire" on 24 June 1985, serving the whole of Bedfordshire plus (despite the name) North Bucks and the northern parts of Hertfordshire. Therefore, as well as Luton and Bedford (and the rest of Bedfordshire), Milton Keynes, Hemel Hempstead, Harpenden, Aylesbury, St Albans, Welwyn Garden City, Letchworth, Stevenage and Hitchin were served by the new station. In 1992 the station became known as "BBC Radio Bedfordshire with Herts and Bucks".

BBC Three Counties Radio (1993–present)

The station changed to its present name on 5 April 1993. The new name was intended to reflect the wider reach across the three counties and to give equal service to all. The editorial area was not, at that point, expanded but enhanced studio facilities and staff were devoted to Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire.

Douglas Murray

Douglas Murray may refer to:

County

A county, abbreviated Cnty. (US) or Co. (UK and Ireland), is a geographical region of a country used for administrative or other purposes, in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French conté or cunté denoting a jurisdiction under the sovereignty of a count (earl) or a viscount. The modern French is comté, and its equivalents in other languages are contea, contado, comtat, condado, Grafschaft, graafschap, Gau, etc. (cf. conte, comte, conde, Graf).

When the Normans conquered England, they brought the term with them. The Saxons had already established the districts that became the historic counties of England, calling them shires (many county names derive from the name of the county town with the word "shire" added on: for example, Gloucestershire and Worcestershire). The Vikings introduced the term earl (from Old Norse, jarl) to the British Isles. Thus, "earl" and "earldom" were taken as equivalent to the continental use of "count" and "county". So the later-imported term became a synonym for the native English word scir ([ʃiːr]) or, in Modern English, shire. Since a shire was an administrative division of the kingdom, the term "county" evolved to designate an administrative division of national government in most modern uses.

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is the public service broadcaster of the United Kingdom, headquartered at Broadcasting House in London.

The BBC is the world's oldest national broadcasting organisation and the largest broadcaster in the world by number of employees, with over 20,950 staff in total, of whom 16,672 are in public sector broadcasting; including part-time, flexible as well as fixed contract staff, the total number is 35,402.

The BBC is established under a Royal Charter and operates under its Agreement with the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. Its work is funded principally by an annual television licence fee which is charged to all British households, companies, and organisations using any type of equipment to receive or record live television broadcasts. The fee is set by the British Government, agreed by Parliament, and used to fund the BBC's extensive radio, TV, and online services covering the nations and regions of the UK. From 1 April 2014, it also funds the BBC World Service, launched in 1932, which provides comprehensive TV, radio, and online services in Arabic, and Persian, and broadcasts in 28 languages.