Editing West Midlands (county) (section)

===County creation===
In 1974, the [[Local Government Act 1972]] came into effect, creating the metropolitan county of West Midlands. This area was based on the seven county boroughs and the other non-county boroughs and urban districts around the fringe of the conurbation.

The new area consisted of seven new metropolitan boroughs, with [[Aldridge-Brownhills Urban District|Aldridge-Brownhills]] added to [[Walsall]]; Halesowen and Stourbridge to Dudley and Sutton Coldfield to Birmingham. A new borough of [[Sandwell]] was formed by the merger of West Bromwich and Warley. The actual designation of Warley itself was abolished and the three towns of Smethwick, Oldbury and Rowley Regis reinstated as component parts of Sandwell, although these areas formed the Warley postal district. Solihull took in much of the suburban fringe to the east of Birmingham, including the former villages of [[Chelmsley Wood]] and [[Castle Bromwich]], also [[Birmingham Airport]], and the area of countryside between Solihull and Coventry, whilst Coventry itself received only small changes and Wolverhampton was unaltered. This led to (apart from in the east, with Coventry and the Meriden Gap) quite a tightly defined metropolitan border, excluding such places as [[Burntwood]], [[Bromsgrove]], [[Cannock]], [[Kidderminster]], [[Lichfield]] and [[Wombourne]] which had been considered for inclusion in the West Midlands metropolitan area by the [[Redcliffe-Maud Report]].

The 1974 reform created the [[West Midlands County Council]] that covered the entire area and dealt with strategic issues. A new [[West Midlands Police]] service was formed covering the entire area, with the West Midlands Constabulary and Birmingham City Police abolished, and also taking over responsibility from the county forces.

West Midlands was also established as a new [[ceremonial county]], with the offices of [[Lord Lieutenant of the West Midlands|Lord Lieutenant]] and [[High Sheriff of the West Midlands|High Sheriff]] created. Its constituent components had previously been, for ceremonial purposes, under the equivalent offices of [[Warwickshire]] ([[Birmingham]] [[County borough|CB]], [[Coventry]] CB, [[Solihull]] CB, [[Sutton Coldfield]] [[Municipal borough|MB]] and [[Meriden Rural District|Meriden]] [[Rural district|RD]]), [[Staffordshire]] ([[Wolverhampton]] CB, [[Walsall]] CB, [[West Bromwich]] CB, [[Dudley]] CB and Aldridge-Brownhills [[Urban district (Great Britain and Ireland)|UD]]) and [[Worcestershire]] ([[County Borough of Warley|Warley]] CB, [[Stourbridge]] MB and [[Halesowen]] MB).

{|class="wikitable" style="border:0px;text-align:left;line-height:150%;"
! colspan="2" |[[Local Government Act 1972|post-1974]]
! colspan="4" |[[Local Government Act 1888|pre-1974]]
|-
! Metropolitan county
! Metropolitan borough
! [[County boroughs]]
! [[Municipal borough|Non-county boroughs]]
! [[Urban district (Great Britain and Ireland)|Urban districts]]
! [[Rural district]]s
|-
|rowspan=7|[[File:West Midlands County.png|400px]]<br />{{center|West Midlands is an amalgamation of 14 former local government districts, including eight county boroughs.}}
|[[Birmingham]]
|Birmingham
|[[Sutton Coldfield]]
|–
|–
|-
|[[City of Coventry|Coventry]]
|[[County Borough of Coventry|Coventry]]
|–
|–
|[[Meriden Rural District|Meriden]] ''(part)''<ref name=Whitaker1974>{{cite book |title=Whitaker's Almanack 1974, complete edition |edition=106th |year=1973 |orig-date=1868 |publisher=J. Whitaker & Sons |location=London |isbn=0-85021-067-4 |page=672 }}</ref>
|-
|[[Metropolitan Borough of Dudley|Dudley]]
|[[County Borough of Dudley|Dudley]]
|{{ubl|[[Halesowen]]|[[Stourbridge]]}}
|–
|–
|-
|[[Sandwell]]
|{{ubl|[[County Borough of Warley|Warley]]|[[County Borough of West Bromwich|West Bromwich]]}}
|–
|–
|–
|-
|[[Metropolitan Borough of Solihull|Solihull]]
|[[County Borough of Solihull|Solihull]]
|–
|–
|{{ubl|[[Meriden Rural District|Meriden]] ''(part)''<ref name=Whitaker1974 />|[[Stratford-on-Avon District|Stratford-on-Avon]] ''(part)''<ref name=Whitaker1974 />}}
|-
|[[Metropolitan Borough of Walsall|Walsall]]
|[[County Borough of Walsall|Walsall]]
|–
|[[Aldridge-Brownhills Urban District|Aldridge-Brownhills]]
|
|-
|[[Wolverhampton]]
|Wolverhampton
|–
|–
|–
|-
|}