I.

Introduction

Avon (county), former county, south-western England, bordered on the west by the Severn estuary and the Bristol Channel, on the north by Gloucestershire, on the east by Wiltshire, and on the south by Somerset. It was created under the local government reforms of 1974 from an area north of the Mendip Hills, including Bath, previously part of Somerset, and part of south-western Gloucestershire, including the former county borough and city of Bristol. On April 1, 1996, Avon ceased to exist. This was as a result of the report of the Local Government Commission set up under the Local Government Act 1992 to review local administration in the non-metropolitan counties of England, with a view to replacing the two-tier structure of county and district councils set up in 1974 with a single-tier system of all-purpose, unitary authorities. The Commission's proposals with regard to Avon, published in December 1993, recommended that the county be abolished and replaced by four unitary authorities: Bath and North-East Somerset, Bristol, South Gloucestershire, and North Somerset. The recommendations were approved by parliament and implemented on April 1. For ceremonial and related occasions the pre-1974 county boundaries of Somerset and Gloucestershire have been resurrected to replace Avon: Bath and North-East Somerset and North Somerset will be part of Somerset; the other two unitary authorities will be part of Gloucestershire. The land area of Avon was 1,337 sq km (516 sq mi).

The Lower Avon River flows through the area of the former county in a westerly direction to enter the Severn estuary at Avonmouth. The Severn Bridge, a suspension bridge built in the 1960s across the Severn estuary, with a span of 988 m (3,240 ft), forms part of the M4 motorway linking London and south Wales; a second bridge, 5 km (3 mi) downstream, was opened in 1996. The Severn railway tunnel, the longest in the United Kingdom, was built between 1873 and 1886.