Glamorgan vs. Glamorganshire

[lvninthepast]

Hi.  I am running into a number of incidents when documents I find indicate either Glamorgan and/or Glamorganshire.  Is there a date that one name took the place of the other?  Or are they allowed to be used interchangeably, with no separate meanings of their own?

Just want to make sure I understand!

Many thanks,
Rhondda

[Caswell]

As far as I know there is no standard date in which Glamorgan became a more widely used name for the county than Glamorganshire.

Basically Glamorgan is just short for Glamorganshire so on pre 1974 docments, if it says Glamorgan or Glamorganshire, or just Glam  it means the same.  In 1974 the county was split into Mid Glamorgan, South Glamorgan and West Glamorgan, then in 1996 there were further county divisions and name changes and now the only part of of the original county of Glamorganshire that still carries the name is the Vale of Glamorgan.

Morgannwg is the Welsh spelling of Glamorgan - you may come across that in some documents.

Caro

[boycefamilytree]

best people to ask would be the Glamorgan County Council itself .
They most probably have the Boundary changes and the area name changes listed with the dates of certain changes.
Although as Caro has stated they all mean the same thing.
The word Shire was taken from many counties due to time saving issues when documents where printed.
As in those days printing was costed and done by the letter so taking the word Shire off the Glamorganshire saved the counties a lot of money in letterheading and paperwork itself.

david boyce

[mwlsyn]

I would have thought that Glamorgan is the original spelling, given that it comes from the Welsh 'Gwlad Morgan' (Morgan's country). Then at some point, the 'shire' will have been added to conform with other counties where the county's name was taken from the main town. It's probably the same with Devon/Devonshire and Meirionnydd/Merionethshire.